Chapter two

Kagome just arched her eyebrow at the two before she smiled. "Sesshoumaru, I think I left a bag at the well. Could you please go and fetch it for me?"

Sesshoumaru turned towards the path leading to the well to go for the missing bag, when he heard Inuyasha snort in laughter. Running Kagome's request through his head, he figured out what was making Inuyasha laugh so hard. 'Make me fetch will she.' he thought to himself, 'we shall see about that!'

Turning back to the girl in question, he looked at her with a glint in his eyes that she had only seen twice before. And the others had never seen at all. Advancing towards Kagome, he smiled as she started to back away.

"Please Sesshoumaru. I'm sorry. It was just too good to resist. Please don't do this. You really don't want to do this, do you?" She pleaded.

When Sesshoumaru just continued to smile, she acted the only way she could. Running into the forest as fast as she could, knowing that if he wanted to, Sesshoumaru could easily catch her. The others, not knowing what was going on just looked on in surprise and then started to follow, fearing for her safety.

Sesshoumaru quickly caught up with the girl and sweeping her up in his arms he carried her back to where the others had stopped. "You asked for it wench." Using one of Inuyasha's favorite phrases, "know you are going to pay for treating me like a dog."

As the other watched in shocked amazement, Sesshoumaru let the rest of his mask slip as he gave in to the urge to act like the puppy he never let others see. Pinning Kagome beneath him, he started to tickle her without stop. Being careful not to use his claws. He had decided not to stop until she started to beg for mercy. Even then, he was not sure if he would.

His plans for the girl came to a stop when the two pups, attracted by the sound of shrieks of laughter by Goshinboku showed up and decided to join the fun. "Get him!" came two childish voices as Rin and Shippo attacked, knocking Sesshoumaru off Kagome. Both of the pups decided to use this to their advantage and started to tickle the Demon Lord, who Rin knew was also really ticklish.

Kagome laid where she was, panting as she tried to get her breath back. Looking at her friends who were still shocked, she rolled to her knees and growled at them, managing to gain their attention. "Some help you were. Leaving me at his mercy."

Sango, still not believing that the one being they all feared to some extent was rolling on the ground with the pups, having an all out tickle fight, was the same demon that had threatened to kill her and Miroku not even an hour ago, just looked at her friend and shook her head before asking the one thing that she could get out. "Is he possessed?"

"Nope. He's just choosing to forget for the moment that he's the Demon Lord of the Western Lands. He'll be back to normal soon enough."

Keeping a perfectly straight face, Miroku smiled at Kagome. We would have loved to have helped you Kagome-sama but it looked like Sesshoumaru-Sama had things well in hand."

"Besides, we really need to get going. We would have left earlier but we were distracted." Sango added, a pointed look at were the Demon Lord was trying to stop both the children tickling him while trying tickle them at the same time.

Leaning towards Kagome, Sango whispered, "can you by any chance tell which of those three are the biggest puppy?"

"I don't know Sango-chan but I believe that it would be the oldest of them."

Nodding her head in agreement, Sango straddled Kirara. Miroku sitting behind her. "Take care Kagome-Chan. Take good care of those pups. We'll be back in about a month."

Kagome waved at the Monk and Exterminator as the fire cat took off into the air.

Glancing over at Inuyasha, Kagome saw an extremely odd expression on his face. It looked like he was remembering something he was not sure he wanted to.

"Inuyasha, are you okay?"

Blinking back the memories, he turned his attention back to Kagome. "Yeah, this just brought back some vague memories of before my parents where killed."

"Oh. How vague?"

Throwing a huge grin at Kagome, Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders. "you'll see." was all he said before walking over to where his brother had the pups pinned to the ground as he tickled them. In a movement that was almost to quick to follow, Inuyasha had reached down and started to tickle Sesshoumaru behind the knees. Making him jump to try to defend himself. "Kagome," Inuyasha cried out. "If I remember correctly, he's extremely ticklish behind the knees and along his sides!"

Kagome also got a huge grin on her face as she started to stalk the demon lord. "Oh really now. I've been trying to figure out just where he was ticklish. Thank you for telling me." she purred to Inuyasha. "It's pay back time!"

Before she could rejoin the fun, a disturbance from the other side of the village caught the attention of everyone. Sesshoumaru's mask slipped into place and Inuyasha went back to being his usually grumpy self. When both demons started to growl, Kagome started to get worried. 'What can be happening to get both of them growling?' she wondered

"Jaken"

"Yes Sesshoumaru-sama?"

"Take Rin to the old Miko's hut. Keep her inside"

"Of course Sesshoumaru-sama. Rin, lets go. You heard Sesshoumaru-Sama."

Just as Jaken got Rin onto Au-Uns back, a dust cloud formed over the group. Kouga stepped out of the middle of the cloud. Members of his pack following close behind. From her spot atop the two headed dragon. Rin, gave a small shriek of fright, and jumped back down to the ground.

Running behind Kagome, she throw her arms around her waist crying, "Mama, don't let them get me again." Placing her hand on the child's head, she started petting Rin's hair.

"Don't worry sweetie. Kouga won't hurt you. He's a good friend of mine. Your Daddy and uncle are here too. They won't let anything hurt you."

Giving Sesshoumaru a look that said she expected answers later, she continued talking to the girl. "Why don't you go back to kaeda's now. We're going to talk to Kouga and then come and get you. I'm sure if you take Shippo with you, he'll be able to find the treats that are in my bag." Picking the child up and setting her back on the dragon's back, motioning for Shippo to sit behind her.

"Go Jaken. Make sure they do not eat all the candy."

"I don't take orders from a filthy human." Jaken stated.

"Jaken, do what she says. Do not ever let me here you call Kagome a filthy human again!"

"y y yes Sesshoumaru-sama. I'm sorry Sesshoumaru-sama."

"Go Jaken."

Turning back to the members of the wolf tribe, Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru moved closer together as Kouga tried to get to Kagome.

Realizing that he was not getting any closer without a fight, he stopped and glared at Sesshoumaru.

"Why is your pup calling my woman 'mama'?"

"That is no concern of yours." Came the cold reply.

"Keh. Like we're gonna tell you anything, asshole." Inuyasha said at the same time.

"Damn rights it my concern, anything that happens to my woman is my concern. If I don't start getting answers from the two of you, I'll just beat them out."

"Like you could take on both of us at once." sneered Inuyasha.

Sighing in expiration, Kagome pushed aside the two brothers so she could talk to Kouga. Glaring at the brothers as they both tried to push her back behind them.

Switching from glaring at them both to glaring at Sesshoumaru, her whole body tensed as she asked as if afraid of the answer. "Why is my daughter afraid of Kouga?"

Looking down at the small miko in front of him, his mask became even colder. "Miko, you really do not want to know. This Sesshoumaru will deal with the problem."

Ignoring the formal speech, Kagome growled at him. "You forget that I know how you deal with problems. I will not allow you to hurt Kouga!"

Losing some of his composure, Sesshoumaru snapped back at her. "Would you defend your precious wolf if you found out that he killed our daughter?"

Growling low in his throat, Inuyasha drew out Tetsusaiga, preparing to cut the Wolf Prince, and his tribe down. "When?"

"I meet Rin just after Tenseiga saved me from your wind scar. She did everything she could to help me recover, no matter how many times I told her I did not want or need her help. After I was healed, the village she was staying in was attacked by wolves. She was on her way to ask me for protection, when the wolves caught up to her. Thankfully she was just dead and not mauled."

"If I may ask. How is it possible for her to be alive, if as you say my wolves killed her? Kouga asked in confusion.

Kagome jumped in surprise. Paying close attention to what Sesshoumaru was saying, she had totally forgotten that the wolf was there.

"Sesshoumaru's Sword Tenseiga brought her back." She replied. Noticing the still confused look on Kouga's face, Kagome explained further. "Tenseiga and Tetsusaiga are brother swords. Both were forged at the same time from the fangs of their father. Unlike Tetsusaiga, Tenseiga cannot kill. It is the sword of life and as such, can bring those who did not need to die back to life. If I understand correctly, it can also heal those who it's master chooses."

"There was no need to tell him all that wench."

Kagome looked at Inuyasha and smiled. "Would you rather that he hear it from us or from someone who would confuse everything?"

"Keh"

"I thought you would say that."

"If you are done, this Sesshoumaru has unfinished business with that wolf."

"Sesshoumaru, I cannot allow you to go after Kouga. He has changed since then. His tribe no longer hunts humans. They do not kill them unless they had a very good reason."

"You expect me to believe that. Youkai do not change."

"As much as I may hate to admit it. Kagome is right. If Youkai do not change, then why have you over the past four years? If you hadn't, Kagome would be dead right now for slapping you and there would be nothing I could do about it."

Bowing his head in defeat, Sesshoumaru allowed the subject to be dropped but not before warning Kagome. "I will kill him if he scares Rin again."

"Not if I do it first." Sighing she added "I guess I better go about convincing her that he means no harm."

Kouga looked among the three before once again asking his first question. "Why is Sesshoumaru's pup calling my woman 'mama'?"

Both brothers started to growl again and stated at the same time "She is not your woman!"

"Of course she is. That's why I'm here. To take her back to my cave and make her my mate!"

To Kagome's ears, the growls that erupted from behind her where down right murderous. But to the ears of those in the wolf tribe, the words in the inuyoukai language were perfectly clear.