-1Disclaimer: Nope don't own Inuyasha. He and his friends are Rumiko Takahashi's.

Chapter 11

Last time:

"Sesshomaru," she tried again, in a stronger voice. "Isn't my two hours up now?"

For a moment he continued to stare into space, then suddenly it seemed as though a spell were lifted and he blinked. Without a word he started walking back the way they had come. Something about his stride and the tense snap of his movements warned her to remain quiet, but her mouth didn't heed that warning.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked. Inwardly, she cringed at her own stupidity and thought about how nice it would have been to graduate.

The demon stopped, and in a voice no louder than a whisper said, "I remember."

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Sesshomaru glided briskly ahead of Kagome and took advantage of the space that so conveniently opened before him. She increased her pace in attempt to catch up, only she had to stop every few steps to adjust the cumbersome packages she had accumulated during her two hour shopping spree. Inuyasha better enjoy his damn Ramen because Kagome just knew she'd have the imprint of the sharp corner of the box in her thigh for days.

Okay- mental breakdown, demon lord, or the President of the United States- that jerk could use his one arm to help carry some of this stuff, she thought to herself.

"Sesshomaru, wait," she called after him and put on one last burst of teenage girl speed to pull up even with the demon. "What do you mean you remember?"

"Just what I said, miko," he replied in a curt, but emotionless voice. "Do not tell me this phrase is beyond your ken?"

"Don't tell me you're developing a sense of humor, demon," she shot right back. "There's a lot that someone who's been around as long as you could remember, ya know. Oh, say, you might have remembered that today was wash day, or that you have an important meeting coming up or that you left the toilet seat up..."

He paused long enough to shoot her a withering glare and arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at her. Kagome smiled and said, "Sorry. But you see what I mean?"

Sesshomaru made a slight noise, Kagome would have thought it was a snort on anyone less dignified, and lifted his nose to the air and wrinkled it slightly. She almost thought she saw him turn a bit green for a moment before he finally spoke.

"I remember what transpired after touching that mirror. And that- poison you attempted to trick me into consuming."

"Poison?" Kagome was more than a little confused.

Sesshomaru grimaced and wrinkled his nose, which surprised Kagome and struck her as oddly cute. It reminded her of when she had given him the candy bar as a child.

She let out a laugh and asked, "Oh, do you mean the candy bar?"

He glared at her. "It had a sweet taste at first, but then..."

The demon apparently did not wish to relive this newly discovered and rather unpleasant memory. He shuddered and added softly, "At least you insisted Inuyasha accompany me to the river instead of that human with the vile habit."

"So you remember that, too, huh?" Kagome questioned without trying to hide her amusement.

"I accept that I owed you a life debt as a result of this, do not take that to mean that I am in any way grateful for your actions," he told her coldly as he slowed his pace and dropped back to his customary five foot distance. "You should have allowed the hanyou to slay me."

Kagome struggled to adjust her packages and snorted as she stepped through the exit and onto the crowded sidewalks. She shouldered her way through waves of rushing people until Sesshomaru's invisible five foot tether brought him and his intimidation after her. A smile turned the corners of her mouth and she inhaled deeply before marching off in the direction of the shrine.

The rest of their walk was uneventful to say the least. The demon lord retreated into himself once again, likely to sift through the confusion of his newly awakened memories. Kagome was more than a little curious as to what exactly was going on in his head (she was, after all, intimately involved in those memories), not that she really wanted to hear his life story or an in-depth analysis of his psyche, but would it have killed him to at least throw out a comment every now and then?

Maybe it would have killed him. The thought amused her. The demon lord's fatal weakness: conversation. His epitaph would read, "Talked to death." Either way, his silent presence unnerved her. Occasionally, she worked up the nerve to glance back and possibly say something, but an expressionless face and cold golden eyes firmly ignored her.

In fact, Sesshomaru remained oblivious to everything. He did not so much as flinch when a passing driver laid on his horn. Once Kagome had gotten her heart rate back under control, she shot an incredulous look at Sesshomaru. Had that been Inuyasha, she'd probably be helping some poor guy crawl out of what was left of his car, while said half-demon expressed some heart-felt curses to the sidewalk. Not that she didn't mind the lack of violence, Kagome just found it incredibly disturbing that he could be off in his own world yet still shadow her like a faithful puppy. That image banished her worries and sent her into a fit of not-so-subtle laughter. Maybe it was canine instinct.

xxx

Kagome was still giggling when she arrived at the base of the tall stair that led to her home. A sudden breeze stirred her hair and she turned to look for Sesshomaru only to find he had decided to take the entire stair in one impressive leap. Kagome paused to pant for breath when she finally cleared the last step. The packages sat around her feet while she stretched the soreness from her muscles. A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek which she wiped away.

A particularly nasty piece of her mind prepared to leave her mouth when she noticed an extremely relaxed demon staring leisurely up at the Sacred Tree, but the words lost all momentum when she saw the familiar tree and the welcoming door of her house. She had spent almost two weeks back in the feudal era, though some of that delay had been the fault of little Sesshomaru.

"It's good to be home," she finally announced, her anger with Sesshomaru completely forgotten.

The strong scent of her mother's cooking hit her a moment later, and her stomach growled in recognition. Kagome glanced over at their new tall, fluffy lawn ornament, hesitating only a moment, before she hefted her purchases and called out, "Hey, Sesshomaru, would you like to come in and eat something before we go back?"

He said something in a low voice, but this far away she couldn't make it out. Kagome ran up behind him and said, "Sorry, I couldn't hear you."

"Do not complain to me of you inadequacies, human," he told her icily, but to her surprise she heard what she thought to be a slight complaint from his own stomach and if she looked at his face she could tell his nose was testing the scents on the air.

Briefly, Kagome wondered how long it had been since he had eaten. Surely even great demons got hungry, even the arrogant and stubborn ones.

"We shall return at once, wench, so that I may be rid of you. I'm certain that impatient half-breed is near harming himself without your company though I cannot fathom how you suffer one another," Sesshomaru continued without moving his gaze from its study of the Sacred Tree.

Kagome shrugged and just walked back into her house. She was hungry and there was no way she had any intention of passing up one of her mother's special dinners. If she knew the woman, her mother had probably gone all out by preparing all her favorite dishes and several she hoped would please the palate of their unexpected guest who, at her last glance, was still being a very stately lawn ornament. If he wanted to get back so fast, he could either go by himself or come in and fetch her. Either way, it meant she could eat and greet her family.

Sota wasted no time in making his presence known. He slammed full blast into Kagome and nearly sent her through the wall.

"Kagome's back!" he cried out, though the words were a little muffled since his face was buried in her stomach.

"Sota, get off your sister. You know she just got out of the hospital." Her mother's voice drifted out to them from the kitchen.

The little boy peeled himself away and looked up at her with an overly large grin.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school, Sota?" she accused.

His smile grew until his eyes squeezed shut and he rubbed the back of his head. "Hey, it's not every day that my big sis is really sick. Besides if you can skip school to run around with de- "

"Oh, so you don't really care how I'm doing you just wanted to stare at Sesshomaru," Kagome interrupted.

"No, sis, I was really worried about you!"

"Sure."

"So, where is he?" Sota prodded, then peered around Kagome as though the demon might be hiding behind her.

"Sota, he's outside, and don't even think about going out there. He may be Inuyasha's brother, but he is NOT Inuyasha. I don't think he'll go out of his way to kill you or anything," Sota's eyes doubled in size, "but don't make it easy for him."

Kagome smirked as Sota gulped then ran back into the living room. A few moments later the beeps and sound effects from his video game drifted out. She lifted her purchases yet again and went to see if her mother needed help in the kitchen.

xxx

Sesshomaru wanted to sigh. Well, in all truth, he wanted to shove Inuyasha's wench down that well, humiliate the half-breed for a while, then go and wash every single trace of this human stench from his person. Something about this place lingered. He could already tell the smoky-textured odor had saturated the silk of his clothing and it would probably take years to fully air out his fur.

Damn, that wench and her pack! He really was hungry. Healing took a great amount of energy and even for a demon as strong as himself, after such a devastating wound he would need to replenish those energy stores. If only that wench would hurry. The scent of her mother's cooking drove his senses insane, and his stomach had actually growled while she spoke to him. He doubted she had heard, however. Humans had such poor senses.

Sesshomaru took another deep breath once the miko had gone inside and let it out very slowly. Damn this time of hers as well. The very air was so vile it made even the odor of human food seem less revolting. He tested the scent coming from the large hut, then began walking slowly towards it before he even realized. He could almost feel saliva slicking his fangs as he moved. He smelled meat.

He kept his face stone as he entered the human hut. Similar to his first visit, he heard more voices than there were scents and these were accompanied by a strange sounds that could only be identified as noise. His nose picked up the old male's scent as it grew stronger than that of the meat, and he allowed a frown to break his mask. The human's scent was laced with anger.

"Demon, be gone!" he heard the old voice screech and a flurry of small scrolls flew towards him.

His frown deepened. Did this old one not realize that his sutras held no power? Now he realized his doubts about the girl's sanity were not unfounded. It apparently ran in the family. Lifting his claws, he destroyed them all and bit back a satisfied smirk at the sound of shredding paper. One last scroll remained stuck to his claw, and before he could rid himself of the nuisance, the miko burst into the room.

"NO, GRANDPA!" she screeched and threw herself at the other human.

"MY SUTRAS!" the old one wailed as he clutched his face and watched the shredded bits of paper drift slowly to the ground.

Sesshomaru stared pointedly at them both and released enough poison from his claw to melt the last scroll pinned to it. He withheld a smirk at the devastated gape on the old human's face and glided silently past them to resume his hunt for the meat. He relished the sounds of the miko reprimanding the old man about his 'useless sutras' while the old human continued to bemoan his loss. From what he could gather, the same had happened to Inuyasha which came very close to putting a grin on his face. The sight of a mound of fresh, bloody meat sitting on a counter in the kitchen actually did.

The room was presently empty, but the other female in the miko's pack had been busy in her preparations. He was not certain exactly what a usual human meal entailed, but to him this one seemed extravagant. Would it really take this much to feed four humans, one of which was extremely young and another infirm? His nose told him that the miko's mother was somewhere upstairs, the miko continued to scold the old one, and the child currently occupied the room emitting the strange sounds.

His smile disappeared as quickly as it had come, and Sesshomaru moved closer to the enticing scent. The demonic urge to devour and quickly regain his energy almost overwhelmed him as his fangs elongated and a redness tinted his vision. With weakening restraint, he slowly reached out and touched the flesh with a finger only to find it protected by some slick, yet invisible barrier. His surprise quelled his instincts to savagely consume this find for which he was quite grateful because it allowed him to regain his composure before the miko's mother returned.

She jumped upon seeing him standing there which gave him a faint surge of satisfaction, but to her credit she composed herself quickly. "Oh, hello, Sesshomaru. Everything is almost ready. I wasn't sure what you would prefer so I tried to make sure we had a wide variety."

She walked over to the basin near the meat and washed her hands before she turned to a large white box, nearly as tall as Sesshomaru himself, and opened it. Sesshomaru had to admit that this new contraption fascinated him. He could smell an assortment of human foods within it and a light shone when the door had opened. Curious as well as drawn by a stronger scent of meat, he silently moved behind the woman so he could see inside.

Why they needed a lantern for food he could not guess, but he wanted to see how they accomplished this. Needless to say, seeing no source for the light baffled him. He decided to investigate further if that girl took too long to take him back.

The human wench finally stood up carrying a platter of raw meat covered in some manner of human seasoning and turned to leave the box when she finally noticed him there. A shriek split his ears and she threw the platter into the air. Instantly, his gaze was drawn to the meat and he caught the platter effortlessly before it could hit the ground.

"Mom?" the miko questioned and her pounding footsteps preceded her uncouth arrival.

The wench stared up at him with fear written openly on her face. Sesshomaru did not change his expression. He kept his gaze on the meat and said, "This is sufficient."

"Oh, well, I- I need to- prepare-"

"This is sufficient. I do not require your preparations, wench," he told the near trembling woman as he allowed her to take back the platter. He ignored the slightly horrified look on her face, turned and met the miko's eye as he added, "And do not attempt to thank me, girl, your gratitude is wasted on me. Just be quick."

He slipped through the door and followed his nose to the room where he would be served then sat with a regal stiffness. He adjusted his swords for comfort and stared at the extremely unappetizing array that lay before him. Was he actually about to sit and eat in the presence of lowly humans? He closed his eyes and sifted through some of his new memories. This was no worse than having proudly displayed that pathetic fish or having human women help him dress.

xxx

Kagome and her mother stood staring after Sesshomaru once he had sauntered gracefully from the kitchen.

"Why that arrogant-" Kagome started.

"I didn't think he'd want to eat this," her mother interrupted in a very confused voice.

Kagome crossed her arms and glared at the last place the demon had passed. "Oh, I wouldn't put it past him to eat it raw. Inuyasha practically does the same, mostly cause he's too impatient for it to finish cooking."

Mrs. Higurashi looked down at the platter in her hand then back up at the empty doorway. "No, not that, it's just that this meat has been spiced with curry. I was about to open another package that was unseasoned. I figured by the way Inuyasha reacted to it, his brother wouldn't like it either."

Kagome couldn't help the huge grin that split her face. She reached and took the platter from her mother as she said, "Here, Mom, let me help you with that. If the great demon lord wants this meat, then who are we to deny him?"

Mrs. Higurashi giggled softly into her hand then added, "I'll make sure to have a glass of milk ready. Just in case."

xxx

The soft patter of feet and the scent of the child drew Sesshomaru from his musings. It amused him that this boy believed he could sneak up on him. Remaining perfectly still, Sesshomaru waited until the boy had finally moved within a few feet of him then opened his eyes. He hid his amusement well as the boy predictably jumped into the air then stumbled over his own feet in attempt to back away.

Rather than staying down and cowering in fear, the boy shot him a wide grin and exclaimed, "Wow, you have the same eyes as Inuyasha!"

Sesshomaru sniffed and looked away. "Do not compare me with that half-breed filth."

The boy was not discouraged. "So, you're a full demon! Wow, I bet you've got some neat powers. Like Inuyasha has his 'Sankon Tessou'!" As he spoke the child narrowed his eyes and swatted the air in imitation of that idiot half-demon.

Sesshomaru refused to dignify that with a response. He perked his ears at the soft footfalls of the miko approaching. A few minutes later, the boy heard her, too, and quickly seated himself (to Sesshomaru's horror) right beside the demon. The smell of meat grew stronger as she drew closer and he had to actually work to restrain himself. Despite his hunger, there was something about the miko's smile as she brought the meat that made him a little suspicious. He arched an eyebrow at her, but said nothing.

Soon, the miko's entire pack had gathered around the food and began to eat, though in silence. Tension charged the air and the old man continued to shoot dirty looks at the demon whenever Kagome was not forcing her grandfather down with a glare of her own. Sesshomaru's appetite wavered as he watched the humans devour their meal. He could smell something on his meat, but it smelled no different than what the humans were eating so it obviously contained no poison.

The very notion that a human could poison him made him want to laugh. He resisted, and with renewed confidence, sliced a large portion of the raw meat with his claw and put it in his mouth. Every muscle in his body froze. Had he been wrong? It took every ounce of demon strength to keep from spitting out the meat and clawing at the flame that now threatened to consume his entire mouth. His eyes wanted to water and his nose stung, but he firmly reined in those signs of weakness in attempt to maintain any shred of dignity he still had after encountering this miko and his half-brother.

With an agonizing slowness, Sesshomaru managed to chew and swallow that piece as his mouth continued to burn. He studied the humans with loathing and noted that none of them seemed to have any problems though he could smell the same stench in the swill they ate as had been on his own food. Both the miko and her mother looked at him from the corner of their eyes as though they were expecting some kind of reaction from him.

The miko paused and whispered in a voice meant for his ears alone, "My mother tried to tell you. Just drink from that glass there and it will help with the burn."

Sesshomaru ground his teeth and wanted to tell the girl exactly what he thought of her advice, unfortunately his mouth had lost all faculty for speech and it was all he could do to glare coldly at her. Cautiously, he lifted the glass filled with the white liquid under his nose so he could subtly sniff it. No poison he could smell, but with the way his mouth felt he didn't think he could hold out much longer. He pressed the cold glass to his lips, savoring the brief relief, before he tipped it and allowed the cool liquid to quench the flames in his mouth. Though the coolness did not last, the fire had dulled to a sting by the time he had drained his glass.

A new level of dislike Sesshomaru had not known he had for the miko stirred in him. She had purposely done this to him. Said miko reached for her own glass and purposely knocked it onto his meat. The liquid inside pooled on the plate and began to inch dangerously close to his person.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Clumsy me. Let me clean that and I'll bring you a fresh serving," the miko cried out and quickly sopped up the liquid with a cloth. As she leaned into him, she whispered again, "This was all your fault. And before you even think it, you know that even if I had warned you, you're too stubborn to think that a human could handle something that you could not. So just hold on a little longer and I'll bring you some fresh stuff to help get that taste out of your mouth."

The girl returned a moment later with a fresh plate of meat, none of which had a hint of that seasoning on it. Still he didn't take a complete bite until he had trimmed a little off the edge to test it. Some stinging still remained from that first mouthful, but other than that this was a very excellent cut. By the time the meal ended, his anger with the miko had simmered down to a high annoyance.

xxx

Sesshomaru sat a short time later on the floor in the corner of the room where the strange box was emitting the most aggravating sounds Sesshomaru had yet to hear. Once again, and probably not for the last time during this strange experience, Sesshomaru was unsure why he was still here in this time or how these annoying humans were still breathing. Currently, the runt was lying on his belly holding a small device that was tied by a black cord to a device beneath the box.

The child appeared very taken with it as he twitched and moved in response to what was happening to the images on the box. After an insufferable stretch of that strange activity, the boy seemed to wake from a daze and realize he was there.

"Wanna play? You can even play against me if you want, I'll go easy on you since it's your first time," the boy asked suddenly, extending the small object he held towards the demon.

Did that boy honestly think he would answer? Sesshomaru blinked and turned his gaze to the wall.

"Come on, it'll be fun. Inuyasha plays with me, and he's even beaten me before," the boy urged.

"Now, Sota, that's not fair to ask," the miko scolded as she came into the room. "He doesn't know how to play and Inuyasha has had lots of experience. You can't expect Sesshomaru to be as good as Inuyasha."

Sesshomaru nearly rolled his eyes. Pathetic humans. "Do you honestly think you can bait me into engaging in that ridiculous 'game' with your brother? You cannot expect me to behave as my brother, nor should you think me to be as dim-witted as he. Now, quickly, ready yourself to return to our proper era. The stench of your kind tries my patience."

"Yeah, Kagome, girls stink so get out!" the boy called out and launched a pillow at her.

"Eep!" the miko squealed and ran laughing from the room with exuberance comparable to Rin's.

Rin. It seemed weeks since he had heard her laugh or seen her toothy smile. Of course he did not miss the tiny human, but he did notice her absence. As he thought on the little girl, a strange sensation tightened his chest and clutched his heart, a feeling much like the inexplicable urge to be near that miko, only the miko annoyed him to no end whereas Rin amused him.

His thoughts strayed to the conversation he and the miko had shared before he had revived the healer. Could the miko have been right? Sesshomaru now had memories to accompany the phantom scents and feelings that continued to haunt him and he pondered the images from his time as a child in the miko's care. She had indeed been loving toward him, something she was correct in saying she had not shown him before. Had it been her behavior towards him, her care rather than the girl herself, that had drawn him? If so, that would explain his current emotions. Rin, too, cared for him. Perhaps he did miss her.

These thoughts were too much for him to handle at once. He did not enjoy these strange sentiments nor did he want to consider them. He allowed the annoying shouts of the child to break him from them.

"Die, come on, just die already!" he shouted at the box as he waved the object in his hand causing the cord to writhe like a snake.

This continued for a moment longer until Sesshomaru's nonexistent patience remembered that it didn't exist and thus he was suffering for no reason. Just as the little boy screamed die again, he called his whip forth and sent it through the hated figure in the image. Sparks flew, and the box gave a few last pops before it fell into silence.

The child just sat there staring at the box while the miko and her mother rushed into the room. All eyes went from the ruined box directly to the immensely relieved demon.

"He is dead. And do not bother to thank me," Sesshomaru told them.

Anger radiated from the miko in unsettling waves. She gripped a thick bolt of cloth in her hands until her knuckles turned white. He could hear her teeth grinding as she hissed, "Thank you? For destroying a very expensive television set, not to mention our only one! SIT BOY!"

Sesshomaru blinked, convinced she had finally lost what little sanity he had credited her with. Her eyes blazed and fixed upon him as though waiting for something. The others in the room wavered between looking at him or the girl.

"I am sitting," he told her, pleased that this seemed to further enrage her. Did she honestly expect him to submit like his brother?

The miko stomped her foot in a very childish manner, then marched over. She threw the cloth at him then snapped, "I thought you might like to bathe before we go back seeing as how my 'stench' is probably all over you too by now."

Sesshomaru eyed the towel with disgust then regained his feet and towered over her in an instant. How dare she speak to him in such a manner! It took every ounce of his restraint to simply stare passively down at her instead of ripping off her head as she deserved. However far from being frightened, she appeared to be contemplating a similar fate for himself.

Several times she opened her mouth then closed it without speaking until she finally whirled and stomped out of the room.

"The bathroom is this way," she called over her shoulder.

For reasons that would forever be a mystery to him, Sesshomaru followed.

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A/N- Hi guys, I hope you've enjoyed the silliness. It will continue to next chapter when our beloved demon encounters the modern shower. I've tried to stay in character as much as humanly possible, but I am human and really wanted to have some fun with Sesshomaru before sending him back. So like or not, feel free to let me know. And thank you to all who review and encourage me! Special thanks to Winterzforgotten for her help in getting this chp. done!