Savoring a kiss is similar to understanding the meaning of a book. Unfortunately for Higurashi Kagome, she found this out the hard way. Sesshoumaru x Kagome.

Title: Savor
Author: Special Sunday
Series: Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Romance/Humour/General
Rating: PG-13 (heehee. Mild sexual tension, among others)

" S A V O R "

Chapter three – actions and thoughts

Sesshoumaru found himself irritated after Rin's little game. The distraction was welcomed, but once it had ended and his mind started to stray once more, he started to think about the priestess. Again.

He scowled.

Jaken watched his master scowl. He was not one to intrude when his master was deep in thought. It could ruin the master's incredible plans for the future, for all he knew. Sighing, the toad demon leaned against a tree and watched his master grow more and more frustrated. He hated seeing Lord Sesshoumaru unhappy, it made his poor-little-servant-heart unhappy too.

Bah! It must be because of Rin.

The toad demon sneered unhappily at the little girl running around, seemingly oblivious to the demons' bad moods. Wretched human child, Jaken thought sourly. Always running around like there is nothing wrong! Gods know she's the cause of our sufferings!

So, Jaken glared and glared and glared at Rin with all his might, hoping perhaps that daggers would come out of his eyes and—

"Rin."

Jaken stopped his glaring and glanced at his master. This is it, Jaken thought with unimaginable happiness. He is to punish the wretched child!

Rin approached her lord and glanced up at her master's towering height. Realizing he was far too tall and it would be uncomfortable for the child to talk to him, Sesshoumaru sat down on the ground gracefully.

"Rin," he said again, never taking his eyes off of the girl.

"Yes, my lord?" Rin asked, eager to please.

"Tell me of the human wen—priestess." Sesshoumaru quickly corrected himself, almost forgetting Rin was not old enough to hear such inappropriate words. Damn priestess. Losing my mind and making me correct myself!

"Lady Kagome?"

Sesshoumaru nodded his head in affirmative.

"Hmmm." Rin looked thoughtful.

"Wretched child, think faster!" Jaken said, waving his staff around.

Rin, with a pout, glanced at Jaken and stuck out her tongue. Jaken recoiled.

"Such disrespect! You should be taught a lesson!"

"Lord Sesshoumaru!"

Sesshoumaru resisted the urge to sigh. These two were really grating on his nerves, plus the weather was almost unbearably hot. They just keep fighting and fighting. Grinding his teeth, Sesshoumaru patiently waited for Jaken to stop squawking so he could kick his head and perhaps kill all the brain cells living in it. While Sesshoumaru was contemplating on whether to kill Jaken and revive him with Tenseiga (he was rather suitable for baby-sitting) or kick his head repeatedly, his mind started to approach a more familiar but completely unwelcome thought.

The priestess, Sesshoumaru thought with a mental hiss.

It kept circling his head non-stop, always there to taunt him. Such an evil thought it was, running around his head with an indecently short kimono, which should be only shown in the privacy of his—a person's bedroom (!), and an annoying fiery attitude.

Dammit! The damn thought was making him think like this again.

Mentally shaking his head, he squashed the thought and nodded. He had made a decision.

He kicked Jaken on the head.

"Lord Jaken!" Rin exclaimed with concern, and helped the retainer to his feet after falling face down on the ground.

"Do not touch me, wretched child!" Jaken quickly stood up and brushed the dirt of his clothes and turned to his master. "Lord Sesshoumaru." He bowed.

"Lord Jaken, you are so strong," Rin said adoringly with shining eyes usually reserved for Sesshoumaru.

"Heh," Jaken said with a smirk. "Nothing to it!"

Sesshoumaru, in truth, was getting tired of hearing them fight then make-up afterwards. A walk would do him good, he decided. Standing up, he said to Jaken, "Watch Rin."

"Yes, milord!" Jaken saluted in a very silly way. Rin looked like she would swoon. Once again, Sesshoumaru resisted the urge to sigh. With that, the demon lord turned on his heel and started to walk away. Briefly, he heard Jaken and Rin.

"Lord Sesshoumaru is so strong," Rin said. "Is Lord Jaken like that, too?"

"Of course, Rin!" Jaken straightened and puffed his chest proudly. "All lords are as strong as each other!"

Rin gasped in horror. "You mean to say, there are lords as strong as Lord Sesshoumaru?" The very thought scared the little girl. She always thought her lord was the strongest among all the four lords who ruled the land.

"W-well, yes… I mean, no." Jaken looked for the right words. "I meant that only I match Lord Sesshoumaru's strength. None other!"

Rin "ooooh"ed and nodded. "I agree, Lord Jaken!"

In the woods, Sesshoumaru snorted delicately. Children.

"—if these thoughts continue I might not be held responsible for my actions."

He paused in his tracks. The voice was familiar, Sesshoumaru realized. In fact, it was so familiar he started to think it was…

Well. Damn.

The very thought of the priestess was already annoying, and now she had to show up? What did he ever do to the gods, anyway? Aside from killing humans they created and pillaging villages in the midst of his anger, of course.

Her scent had assaulted him earlier, but he blamed it on his lack of sanity at the current moment. He knew her scent quite well. She smelled cleaner than most humans, somehow free from the smell of the earth. She smelled like… fruits. It was weird to him, as he never knew of a human who bathed in fruits. Also, she smelled like lemons. Even he knew that having even a drop of lemon in your eye would hurt. What more bathing in them?

He dismissed his current thoughts and approached the area she was in. He had come out from behind her, and he knew that it was most definitely she as it was obvious from her clothing. Her feet apparel were placed at her side and neatly arranged. Sesshoumaru noticed her feet were in the water. He couldn't blame her. It was hot.

He started to approach her, and then the scent of her arousal hit him. He paused, but told himself that such a trivial matter would not disturb him. She was in heat, so what? He had been in the company of women in heat and they never tempted him.

Composing himself, he asked in a very bored tone, "What kind of actions do you have in mind?"

She stiffened.

Kagome closed her eyes tight. No way. Noooo waaaay. She was imagining things, is all. The heat and her thoughts were just getting to her. There was no way some seductive, incredibly handsome, pretty-haired demon was behind her. Nuh-uh.

Slowly, and reassuring herself repeatedly that there was nobody there, she turned around.

Nngh.

The heat must've gotten to him as well because his hair looked a little damp and he looked exhausted and disheveled and…

Unnnngh! VERY BAD, KAGOME, VERY BAD.

Alarm bells were ringing in her head, but she couldn't remove her eyes from him. He just looked incredibly…

To Sesshoumaru's surprise, his body stiffened—among others—when he saw the look she was giving him. Then she closed her eyes tightly, as if waiting for him, and then she opened then again and … glared at him.

What!

Gods did she hate this man! She saw the look of surprise in his eyes. What the hell did he think? That I was going to moan or something! She caught Sesshoumaru's own glare.

"Why do you keep following me around, huh?" Kagome asked, removing her feet from the water and standing up to scowl at him. Momentarily, the loss of the water saddened her, but she blamed it on him and felt her anger rise even more. Just him standing there already annoyed her! She took three steps forward and straightened her back.

Sesshoumaru scoffed. "Do not flatter yourself."

Kagome fumed. "I should have every right to, especially since you so ardently enjoyed kissing me!"

Oops, was Kagome's thought when she saw the demon lord and narrow his eyes dangerously and approached her with slow steps. Kagome gulped. Even if he did looked disheveled, he still looked as deadly as ever. She had no idea what was going on in his head, but it was probably along the lines of stuff related to her death.

What is that? Sesshoumaru thought distractedly, looking at the yellow pack that was beside her shoes. He noticed that she usually lugged it around. He never gave it much notice, as his attention was usually intent on killing Inuyasha.

Kagome closed her eyes then jutted her chin out. Be proud, Kagome, be proud! You're not gonna fall down that easily.

Sesshoumaru noticed that the priestess' had closed her eyes and straightened herself. It confused him. What does she think I'll do? Kill her? The thought amused him, but he had more important things to think about, even if she was tempting. He looked at the yellow pack curiously.

He kicked it.

Kagome felt Sesshoumaru pass her, so she opened her eyes. Huh? Not here? Turning around, she saw him kicking her backpack.

Out of protective instinct over her stuff, she pounced.

Sesshoumaru felt something attach onto his back. It reminded him of Rin attaching herself on his leg, except this one had some very impressive… attributes.

"Sesshoumaru, stop kicking my bag!"

"It is a bag?"

"Yes, now stop!"

But Sesshoumaru didn't stop. His mind somehow thought that if he continued to kick, the girl would continue to press.

But she had let go off of him and moved past him to grab her bag. Curiosity taking over, Sesshoumaru grabbed the bag and jumped onto a nearby tree. Sesshoumaru knew that jumping onto a tree was silly, but it was his first thought, even if it probably made him look like an educated Inuyasha.

"Wha—Sesshoumaru!" Kagome ran to his tree and looked up at him with a glare. Her hands were on his hips as she continued to shout obscenities at him.

"Silence, woman!" He looked at the bag curiously. "How do you open this?"

"Like I'll tell you," Kagome shouted below.

"Tell me, or I shall slice it open."

"Okay, okay," Kagome said quickly. "Come down here and I'll show you."

Knowing full well she wouldn't be able to snatch the bag from him, Sesshoumaru jumped down, sat on the ground with such elegance that made Kagome fume, and leaned against the very tree he was recently on. "Show me."

Kagome felt a sense of déjà vu when she herself sat down and leaned his way. It reminded her of the first meeting. "Uh, you see that rectangular shape there? The one circling the bag half way?" Sesshoumaru nodded and twiddled it with his thumb and forefinger.

Kagome gulped.

"Just… just pull it up." He did, and to her surprise, he didn't look the least startled when the bag started to open. Sesshoumaru peered inside.

"Hmm," was all he said.

Full aware of the fact that her clothes, even her underwear, were located in there, she made a grab for it. This time, Sesshoumaru didn't move it away so she was able to successfully have her hands on it. She tried to pull it from his grasp.

It didn't budge.

She heard Sesshoumaru sigh. Realizing she wouldn't get anything out of this, she herself sighed. She let go of the bag and sulked beside him. Sesshoumaru continued to rummage through her pack.

He saw that she had a number of books inside. He pulled one out.

"No!" The priestess was blushing and trying to steal the book from his arms. "That's… give that to me!"

Now curious more than ever, he flipped the pages of the book with one hand and read a passage. Realization dawned on him He glanced at the miko and gave her a smirk.

"I was not aware reading such… explicit novels are part of your priestess' training," he teased.

Kagome sputtered and blushed.

Author's Blah-Blah:

Sorry it ended quickly again. I'm a little dissatisfied with this chapter, so I'll probably revise it again later. D:

I realize Sesshoumaru's a little OOC here, but what can I do? It's three AM, baby! –twirls-

So. Please review!