Disclaimer: Same as always except any characters not in the show are mine, such as Ayuki:P

Chapter 3: The Castle

Ayuki woke with a headache. It wasn't exactly how she had hoped to begin the day, but she was used to it. They came with the territory of having mental abilities. What she wasn't used to however was waking to a demon lord sitting over her. She pulled her body foreward from the tree she was leaning on, holding her head. She glanced over at the demon lord. He seemed to be asleep. She rose to her feet slowly, using the tree trunk to brace herself and walked to the water that was still so nearby. Ridding herself of her clothing she dove in head first. The water was cool and it felt fantastic against her skin, refreshing her and waking her up. She was attempting to keep her splashing sounds to a minimum to avoid rousing the attention of the sleeping demon.

Ayuki continued to bathe until she was satisfied. She glanced down at her fingers and laughed when she saw that they were pruning.

"Guess it really is time to get out." She said to herself allowed. When she turned to walk out of the water she saw an irritated looking Sesshoumaru standing at the waters edge. She shrieked and dodged back under the water.

"UGH! YOU JERK! GO AWAY! AT LEAST UNTIL I GET CLOTHES ON!" She yelled to him.

"What are you doing human?"

"WHAT THE HELL DOES IT LOOK LIKE! I'm naked, in the middle of the water. You piece it together." She said, nearly snarling at him.

Sesshoumaru found himself to be amused by her anger. Normally, such actions as she was taking now would result in a humans death, instead he found it to be entertaining. He watched as she turned red in the face from a mixture of anger and embarrassment. Suddenly his nose caught the scent of mint. He sniffed once and found the scent to be coming from Ayuki. 'Hmm, She smells of mint when she is either angry or embarrassed. I must figure out which.' He thought as he fought back a playful smile.

"Fine. You have 3 minutes. Hurry and dress before I come back and drag you from the water." He said before turning and walking away.

Ayuki breathed a sigh of relief, glad to see that Sesshoumaru had left. She mumbled under her breath about how rude he was. How inconsiderate he was and how much of a jerk he was. She quickly made her way to her clothing, dried herself off with a piece of cloth she carried with her and redressed. She walked back out to where Sesshoumaru was sitting. It almost seemed as though he had never moved. She smirked to herself. 'Asshole.' She thought as she walked to her belongings. Instead of being rude she merely asked him how his arm felt.

"Fine." he answered her.

"Fine? That's it? That's all you can say?" She questioned him.

His response was silence.

"Hmph. This is what I get for a giving a guy his arm back... OH CRAP! Did I just say that out loud!" she said, panic crossing her face. Sesshoumaru merely smirk at her and rose to his feet.

"It seems you are well enough to continue. We are leaving." He said, turning from her and walking away.

Ayuki quickly grabbed her belongings and rushed to his side. He raised an eyebrow at her but kept walking. Sesshoumaru himself could not understand why he was so tolerant of this girl. She held no fear of him. It intrigued him, and caused him to feel a small amount of respect for the human. No other human he had ever met had been this way. Although that was most likely because any other human he had ever come in contact with he was trying to kill or receive their payments to his lands. He looked down at her and she seemed to be focusing on something. She blushed deeply and looked up at Sesshoumaru and smiled before becoming a little too interested in the ground she was walking on.

Ayuki had been using her powers. She had noticed the raised eyebrow from Sesshoumaru and wanted to know what he was thinking about. She didn't want to snoop into his mind so she just opened her mind up to receive his surface thoughts. Much to her surprise he was thinking about her. About how she never feared him. How he respected her. She had felt proud until she noticed that his thoughts had taken a turn towards what she was doing right now. She felt his eyes on her and blushed, drawing her mind back in. She smiled at him and stared at the ground. 'Please don't know what I was doing, Please don't know what I was doing, Please don't know what I was doing...' She thought to herself. To her surprise he merely turned his eyes away from her again.

"How much longer until we reach the castle?" She asked. "Because I don't think I can take much more of the awquard silence."

"This would be alot faster if I did not have to travel with a human." He answered.

"So then do whatever the hell you have to do to make us go faster." She answered.

Sesshoumaru stopped dead in his tracks. He turned to her and grinned, however it was barely noticable. He grabbed her around the waist, throwing her over his shoulder. She yelped in surprise as he lept into the air. Ayuki screamed. She had never been a big fan of heights and this was definately not in her comfort zone. Ayuki had been shocked that he could jump so high which had momentarily distacted her from one thought. They would have to go back down. She was brought back to the reality of that fact by the feel of gravity's pull on them. She shrieked, closed her eyes and buried her head into Sesshoumaru's shoulder, clinging tightly to him.

Just as they were about to hit the ground Sesshoumaru summoned his youkai cloud underneath him and they sailed back into the sky, steadying out.

"What is the matter human? Don't you like my choice of transportation?" He smirked.

She opened her eyes and lifted her head to see that they had steadying out on some sort of cloud. She breathed a sigh of relief and punched Sesshoumaru lightly in the back.

"Don't Do that! You scared the crap out of me!"

..Stare..

"Not literally"

Sesshoumaru fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Humans should learn to say only what they mean."

"I agree with you there." She answered.

The two flew in silence for a while. Ayuki taking in the sights while Sesshoumaru pushed them on towards the castle. The castle came into sight and it took Ayuki's breath away. It was monstrously huge, however it didn't look menacing. From where they were she could see a large garden around the back and may youkai servants tending to them. She stretched her mind out to them and found that there was a small human child about 6 years old with them.

"WOAH! Hold up! There's a kid down there!" She said, nearly startling the taiyoukai.

"Yes."

"You let a human child live with you? Why?"

"I do, and my reasons are my own." He answered her, once again establishing the silence.

"You're not much for conversation are you?" She said, more a statement that a question. His silence answered her question. "Take that as a yes."

"Hold on." he said.

"What? Why?" she said, then screamed at the top of her lungs as Sesshoumaru plummeted towards the earth. She clung tightly to Sesshoumaru's neck and closed her eyes, hoping that Sesshoumaru knew what he was doing.

Sesshoumaru landed just outside of his castle, greeted by his guards. He smirked when Ayuki refused to open her eyes and let go. He grabbed her wrists and pulled them off his neck before setting her gently on the ground. Ayuki squirmed in his grasp but stopped when she felt her feet hit solid ground. She opened one eye to peak around. Once she realized that she was indeed still alive and safe, she opened the other and glared at Sesshoumaru.

"You couldn't have done that at a slower pace?" She asked angrily. The only response she received was a slight grin on Sesshoumaru's face. She was about to slap him on the arm when she heard the voice of the child she had seen earlier.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!"

Ayuki turned to see the small child running towards them at a rather fast speed. She had to side step to let the child pass. as the small girl collided with the demon. Ayuki couldn't help but laugh seeing the big strong demon getting glomped by a small human child. What surprised her most was Sesshoumaru's reaction to the child. He wasn't angry with her at all.

"Rin."

The small child looked up hopefully and said "Hai?"

"This is Ayuki. Say hello and go play."

Rin turned around and finally noticed the human woman standing behind her. She gave her a big toothy grin and said hello. Rin had most definately melted Ayuki's heart. Ayuki bent down on one knee so she could be on Rin's level.

"Hi there." She said gently.

"Hi! I'm Rin!" The little girl said happily.

Ayuki smiled. "I like you kimono, where did u get it?"

"Lord Sesshoumaru gave it to me. Isn't it pretty?" She said, still filled with joy to finally talk to a human woman.

"Yes it is." Ayuki said, glancing up to Sesshoumaru. "Why don't you go play, maybe I'll come play with you later, Ok?"

"Ok!" Rin said, running back to the gardens to play. Ayuki rose to her feet again and watched the small child run off to play. She couldn't help but feel that the girl had gone through alot in her short life but she didn't want to ask her. She wouldn't want to make the small girl cry. Perhaps she would ask Sesshoumaru later. She turned back to said demon and found him smirking at her.

"What?" She asked.

"Come. We have much to discuss." He said, face returning to it's usual stoic look. Ayuki sighed and rolled her eyes, following him into the castle.

The second she stepped in the front doors she was blown away. Never in her life had she seen such a large, elaborate place. The floors were beautifully decorated, the walls were covered in paintings of very large demons. Strong looking ones at that. On the wall directly facing the doors there was one, lone painting. Ayuki walked up to it and stopped in front of it. It was a large white dog. Ayuki gently caressed the painting with the tips of her fingers. She was pulled from her attentions to the painting by the sound of Sesshoumaru's voice.

"That was my father."

"He was...huge..."

Sesshoumaru mentally chuckled at her words. He was indeed a very large demon. Very powerful. He had hoped to one day defeat him in battle but his father had been killed protecting Inuyasha's human mother from Takemaru of Setsuna. He growled at the memory and turned his thoughts back to the girl.

"Indeed. Follow me." He said, forcing her to follow.

Ayuki could't believe that his father had been so large. 'I guess this means that Sesshoumaru is an inuyoukai then...' Up until this point she had not been quite sure what kind of demon he was. She was sure he was canine, but she wasn't sure what species. Now she knew. 'Well, that explains why he is so stubborn.' She noticed he was walking away from her and jogged to catch up with him. 'Damn he's fast!'

"Where are we going?" She asked as he led her through the castle and out the back doors into what seemed to be a training field. He locked the doors behind him, making sure that there was no one with him.

"Show me."

Ayuki realized what he was doing now. He had been leading her to a safe place to show him her powers. She looked around for something she could move with her mind. Anything. She found an archers target and drew it towards her, allowing it to hover in the air over her head. Sesshoumaru seemed to be shocked by this and she looked for yet more things to lift. She found the rack full of katana's and a few quivers of arrows and raised them above her head. Sesshoumaru had recovered from his shocked expression. He was indeed impressed, he had never seen such a thing done before.

Ayuki grinned. 'Ok, he understands now. It's time to show off.' She drew a bow to her that had been sitting next to the quivers she was now lifting. She set the target a good distance from her and notched an arrow on the bow in mid air. She fired the arrow and landed it dead centre on the target. She turned back to Sesshoumaru, dropping everything she had lifted gently to the ground.

"Ok, now you've seen that one. Think of something. Anything." Ayuki told him, opening her mind to hear his thoughts.

Sesshoumaru wasn't sure what to think of. He allowed the first thought to pop into his head that he could call up. His mother. Ayuki caught it and smiled.

"Your mother is very beautiful. Now think of something else." She said, searching his mind for another thought. He never called one up. She could tell that he was too stunned by her abilties to think of anything else. "Yes Sesshoumaru, my powers are quite unique, but ur not helping me show you them..."

'I wonder, do her abilities allow her to prejudge my moves were I to attack her?' He asked himself. He grinned and charged her, faking an attack from the front and instead attacking from the side. She dodged easily.

"WHAT THE HELL! SESSHOUMARU!" She yelled at him. "YOU...YOU JERK! WHAT WAS THE POINT IN THAT!"

"I was merely seeing if you could judge my attacks before I made them. It appears you can."

"You coulda just asked me..." she grumbled loud enough for him to hear.

"I could have, but this was more practical. You don't always know the truth until you see it for yourself." He replied. "You may stay here to train if you desire. There is less risk of being discovered here." He said, turning from her and walking away.

'Woah...Did he just invite me to stay with him?...The demon lord of the west inviting a human woman to stay with him?...I must take his offer, as it probably doesn't come around very often...' She thought, staring after the now retreating demon. 'This will indeed be interesting.'

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Eri: Well, that was fun.:D so glad to have another chapter up. I know it's kinda unique of a story but I hope anyone reading is enjoying it. Please review and let me know what you think. I mean I'm still gonna write it even if u dont but i would really appreciate it.

Sesshoumaru: This story is pointless.

Eri: Maybe, but it's keeping me entertained. Besides, you know you want to meet someone who can do what Ayuki does.

Sesshoumaru:...

Eri: Well, thats all for now. Lemme know whatcha think!