Disclaimer: I don't own anything I swear it! And I never said I did. Honest!
Authors Note: And this is the next peice for Winds of Change. I hope everyone enjoys it and please feel free to read and review. On another note, I feel the need to change the summary, but don't know quite what to put. If anyone has ideas for a summary based on what you know, let me in on it please! Thanks and enjoy!
Kagome fidgeted with the straps of her monstrous yellow bag and fought the urge to sigh. She had woken up this morning n her sleeping bag and she knew for a fact that she hadn't put herself there. So who had? Inuyasha was a possibility, but if he had carried her back, he surely would have yelled at her this morning for 'being stupid enough to fall asleep under a tree'. She was positive that Miroku hadn't because if he had, he would have made some perverted comment while leering at her. It couldn't have been Sango because she had been asleep before Kagome had left the hut the night before (and while the older girl was strong, she doubted she was strong enough to carry her that far). Kirara had been curled up with her mistress. Shippo was too little. That only left Sesshoumaru, but why would he care if she was eaten by a stray demon or caught a cold from sleeping out in the elements?
Giving in to the persistent urge, she sighed, knowing there was no other hope for it. Sesshoumaru didn't seem the type to care, but it had to have been him. What she really couldn't figure out was why it mattered so much to her if it had been him or not. Why did the thought of it being him cause hope to bubble up in her chest?
She nibbled on her bottom lip (somehow this always helped her to think) and her hands unconsciously continued to fiddle with the straps to her bag. After a couple of hours of deliberating on the subject, she came to the conclusion that she was glad it was him (or at least hoped that it had been) because that meant Sesshoumaru was beginning to accept her and see her as more than just a low-life human.
Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed as he studied the oddly dressed human girl walking ahead of him. She seemed preoccupied (more so than usual) and even though he was behind her, he could see that her hands had not stopped playing with the straps to the mysterious yellow contraption that she always insisted on having with her, excluding when the fox kit had jumped into her arms wishing to be carried. Then they had stroked the kits head in an unconscious soothing gesture until the kit had decided he would rather walk beside the fire cat. When he had jumped out of her hold she had immediately gone back to fiddling with the straps.
She seemed to resolve whatever issue was troubling her minutes before it was suggested by the demon slayer that they stop for lunch. This seemed to shake off the last vestiges of the girl's thoughts and she whole heartedly agreed once again holding the kitsune, this time even chattering animatedly about whatever nonsense the kit thought worthy of conversation.
He snorted to himself. What did it matter to him if the girl was troubled? She was but a human. But when the curiosity (for it could not be called concern) of what could bother the usually annoyingly cheerful girl enough to keep her silent for such an extended period of time did not leave him, he decided he would assuage his curiosity whenever the opportunity to question her alone arose.
The opportunity came sooner than he expected.
After many more grueling hours of walking, the group of shard hunters had found a place to rest for the night at a prosperous village (the monk had proclaimed to see a evil cloud hanging over the village-particularly over the village head's house-and had declared it his duty to rid the villagers of the dastardly fate that awaited them if the ominous cloud was not disposed of). Sesshoumaru wondered how the God's had deemed it fit to give the lying and lecherous man holy powers. He was the most unholy being he had ever come across. He supposed they had a sense of irony.
Kagome waited restlessly for her companions to finish the meal the head of house had seen fit to give them as part of their payment for destroying the 'evil spirits' hovering over his house (the other part being giving them a place to stay and a moderate amount of coins that Miroku had been quick to stuff into his robes), so that she could get some time alone to watch the sunset and think. But, lady luck was not with her, and she was unable to get away until long after the sun had gone down. She reconciled herself with the knowledge that she could still find a nice spot to sit and watch the stars. When she tried to leave the hut she was pleasantly surprised to find that Inuyasha didn't insist on going with her, and was happy that she only had to argue quietly with him for a few minutes before he acquiesced to letting her on her own with only the promise that she would be careful and not stay gone too long.
She smiled brightly to no one but herself when she found the perfect spot. A sakura tree at the edge of the village where there were no thatched roofs to impede upon her view of the stars. She ambled over and flopped gracelessly to the ground. After all, who cared about grace when no one was watching?
It is probably because she was under the assumption no one else was around that she did what she did when Sesshoumaru appeared seemingly out of no where beside her.
Sesshoumaru, for his part, saw the hand coming at his face, and thought that the girl would realize who he was and stop herself before she assaulted him. That's what they both got for assuming things, as everyone knows what they say about the word assume. Which is what lead to a shocked Sesshoumaru with a slightly sore nose (for one so small she had a really good right hook) and a scared and embarrassed Kagome with slightly sore knuckles.
Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed and Kagome was sure that it was dangerous and didn't bode well for her future health. And she thought (though she would never be sure) that they might have flashed red for a moment before returning to their normal amber color.
"Eep!" She felt all of the blood drain from her face and scrambled backwards as fast as she could, until a hand grabbed her ankle and began to pull her forwards. A hand, Kagome noted in very real fear, that had very sharp claws attached at the ends of every finger. "I'm sorry! It was an accident! I didn't mean to I swear! You just scared me and I reacted without thinking-"
"Be silent."
And so she was.
Or she was until the silence got to her and she decided she would rather face Sesshoumaru's wrath rather than listen to the (in her opinion) awful silence. "I really am sorry. Did I hurt you?"
Sesshoumaru turned a disdainful gaze on her. It fairly screamed the words 'As if a human such as you could hurt me' and she quickly amended her statement. "I mean not that it would hurt you, but it's better manners that I ask right?"
When all he did was continue to glare at her she decided to answer her own question. "Right. Now is there something you wanted?"
He was silent for a moment, seeming to debate on what to tell her, and then said, "What was troubling you today?"
This brought her up short and she floundered for a moment before gathering her wits and answering. Of course it probably wasn't the wisest answer, seeing as how she had just sucker punched the guy. The guy that was renowned for disliking humans. "I fail to see how it is any of your business."
Sesshoumaru growled low in his throat and his hand tightened minutely on her ankle. The reminder of his very pointy claws prompted the girl to change her answer to something a bit more polite. "I m-mean, uh, why trouble yourself over the thoughts of a human like myself?"
She was mentally congratulating herself on getting out such a sticky, and possibly bloody, situation when he said, "I am curious as to what can occupy your small mind so that you do not speak incessantly for such long periods of time." He watched in hidden amusement as the tips of her ears turned red from embarrassment.
She felt her ears burn in embarrassment. She really didn't want to tell him she had more or less been thinking about him for the better half of the morning. Aside from the sheer mortification of telling someone they had occupied your thoughts, she didn't feel the world would appreciate her enlarging is already enormous ego.
"With all due respect, my thoughts are my own and I don't wish to share them with you."
"So you would feel better discussing them with someone else?" A smirk flickered across his face like candlelight when he saw the blush spread to her cheeks.
She cleared her throat. "I would rather my thoughts remain my own. Whether I wish to share them with someone one day is my business, and sadly, that day is not today."
"So you were thinking of the whelp." He resisted the urge to frown. He had thought she was done mooning over the mongrel. He didn't bother to think on why he would care.
The blush spread farther until it had encompassed her neck and disappeared beneath the collar of her odd dress. He found himself idly wondering exactly how far it went and was glad that the thought was interrupted when she spoke again.
"I was not! And if I had been it still fail to see how it would be any of your business." She crossed her arms over her chest. "And I suggest you take your hand off me before you find yourself without it."
Sesshoumaru watched as with each word her face turned a darker shade of red, though he reasoned it was from anger now and not embarrassment, thought off handedly that she actually looked pretty, for a human. He slowly released her ankle and then he did something that neither expected but surprised both. He laughed.