In Under Deep

A.N. I have found people actually like this! Yay! It makes me happy to know that someone likes my more imaginative side. This is my first one that isn't a plane human, modern day. I really like it. I will let you all know my inspiration in making this story. I have had some reviewers ask, so here it is. It is a cross between, Deep Blue Sea (were I got my genetically altered sharks), Sea Quest (My telepath idea and how the sharks think with a child like mind, also on how I based Ty, my serpent demon), and last but not least, The Abyss (where I got my base idea and the location of it). I have found some people don't remember Sea Quest. If you can read about it, you will love it. I watched that show until it finally stopped being aired on TV. I miss it some times. Well, here is chapter four. I hope you all enjoy it. Remember to review! The more you review, the more I am inspired to write!

Disclaimer: No, I don't own them. Just my own characters. I have a feeling you will really like Ty and Nicole. I already know a lot of you love Tom and Shi.

Sesshoumaru opened up his eyes. He looked at the dark gray metal ceiling of his small room. He moved his eyes over at his digital calendar/clock and looked at the date. It has been three months. He had been working on this damn project for three months now. Why was he not getting anywhere with it? It wasn't like he hadn't tried. He knew Miroku and Kagome had worked on Shikon Effect for two years before they got the chemical weapon to work. Now it was up to him to work with the Kagome so the US Government could reverse the affect. That is if they ever needed such a godforsaken weapon. The more he found out about the Shikon Effect, the more he hoped they didn't. Couldn't they just have them breed more freak sharks? That would suit him just fine. As long as they stayed away from him.

Sesshoumaru could smell the food coming from the hall. The doors just couldn't keep the smells out of his room. The food wasn't what bothered him. What bothered him was Nicole's smoking. He had grown to respect the dragon. She was definitely one of a kind to him. What ever British tendencies she had was long gone and replaced with a brash American attitude. He also noticed that Ty was quite taken with the dragon. The two were obvious lovers. Only a fool couldn't see that. He was just thankful the two had sex in Ty's room instead of hers. He would have to put his foot down with that. Her menthol cigarettes was enough for him.

He had come to respect Kagome as well. He understood why Inuyasha befriended her. He acted like her big brother. Always protecting her honor when someone decided to make a comment about her that wasn't nice. He could understand why he felt the way he did. She had come to grow on him some too. Sesshoumaru would never let anyone know this, but she was a very bright woman and never tried to invade his privacy. Working with her wasn't as bad as he first thought it would be. She had a nice smell and her telepathy was interesting. She held no discrimination either. Kagome treated everyone the same. The only thing she wanted was the same treatment back. The unfortunate thing was not everyone gave her the same respect. She was feared to much. Sesshoumaru liked the solitude, but Kagome thrived on friendship. She needed the love of everything to live. The way she looked and the way she acted made one think she had plenty of friends. This was not true. He found out how the others on the base treated her. Only a select few were her friends, everyone else feared her.

Sesshoumaru got out of his bed and walked over to his dresser. He bathed last night, so he only needed to dress. His clothing had changed some. He only wore jeans and a T-shirt now. The thought tickled him some. He never wore such things before, but being around this bunch seemed to change that. Everyone was laid back and he seemed to catch the bug' and became the same. He stuck his tale through the hole in the jeans and fastened them. He was about to slip on his top when he heard a knock at his door. He walked over to the door and opened it. Standing in front of him was a very smug dragon. She had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and light gray smoke trailed up from the end of it. She peered up at him from under her long shaggy bangs with a mischievous look on her face. In her left hand was a piece of paper. The other was resting on her hip. She was wearing her signature low-rise jeans and tank top. Nicole suddenly stuck her hand out in front of her that held the piece of paper.

"Here," she said, indicating the paper, "This is to Kagome's birthday party."

Sesshoumaru raised an elegant eyebrow up and eyed the offending the piece of paper. "What makes you think I will go to it?"

Nicole frowned her brows at the tall demon before her and took a big drag of her cigarette. She allowed the smoke to exit through her nose, making her look even more like the dragon breed she was. "Kagome, for some reason, likes you. It would make her day if you showed up. If just for a few minutes at least. You work with the girl. At least humor her for a few minutes."

"I am sure I will not be the only one attending. She will have other people there." Sesshoumaru grabbed the paper anyway and looked at the front. It had balloons on the front and it showed when the party would take place. "In the lab?"

"Well, yeah," Nicole had this look as if he were dumb. He hated it when she looked at him like that.

"I will see if I can humor' her for a few minutes." With that, he turned and closed the door in her face.

Nicole looked at the door and allowed a long stream of smoke to blow out on the metal fixture. She knew he could smell it, even in his room. Proud jerk,' she thought. Nicole turned and walked back into her room. She grabbed her smokes and some more flyers. She walked back out of her room and walked down the hall. Every few meters she would post a flyer. Maybe, just maybe this year, Kagome will have some more people attend,' Nicole thought to herself. She knew Kagome deserved this. Even if she did get mad at her for posting the flyers.

Kagome stormed into the Mess Hall with anger fuming off of her body. She was pissed. She grabbed her tray with force and told Richie what she wanted. He wished her a happy birthday and was met with anger. He knew why she was mad to. Kagome hated her birthday. It pissed her off to no end that Nicole and some of her other friends would post flyers about it. It never changes. No one ever came. Only the few would come and that was it. She could see it now. All the people who worked beside her laughing as they pass her flyer. Who wants to go to a freak's birthday party,' she fumed to herself.

She grabbed her coffee and took her try to her table. Inuyasha and the others were there. All talking and cutting up. What surprised her was who sat at the end of the table. Sesshoumaru hadn't come to eat in three days. She always met up with him in the lab. Sesshoumaru treated her with some respect. She wouldn't call it like,' but at least he treated her fairly. Kagome walked to her seat and got comfortable in it. She ate her food in silence as her few friends stopped and looked at her. They had smiles on there faces and, to Kagome, they looked fake and put on.

Sango looked at her from her place by Miroku. She picked up a warped package and put it down in front of her. "Here Kagome," Sango slide the pink package over more so it could be reached easily by Kagome.

Kagome's look softened some when she eyed the small package. She could never really stay mad at her friends. They were only trying to do nice. She was thankful for one thing. Kagome had good friends. She reached forward and put a small smile on her face. She grabbed the small package and brought it back to her. It was about the size of a baseball, she guessed, and it had a small pink bow on it. She looked up at Sango and her smile widened some. Nope, she could never stay mad at them.

"Well, open it all ready." Inuyasha impatiently rushed.

"Okay!" Kagome fussed.

Sesshoumaru looked down at the group of seven. He watched as her aura cooled down while she held the small package in her hands. He wondered when any of them had time to go out and get her anything. Most of the time they all worked. Inuyasha mostly worked with Sango on the outside of the base. The both of them were Techs so they fixed the outer problems, should they arise. Miroku was one of the scientists, Nicole as well. Shippo, having only met once, worked in the loading area. He might of found time to go out. Ty worked as the main computer specialist. He worked most the time as well. Sesshoumaru's attention was diverted back to excited group.

Kagome opened up the paper with carefulness, not wanting to mess the pretty wrapper up. A cardboard box was reviled to her. She pulled the top off of the box and inside was a smaller velvet box. Her eyes lit up with curiosity. She looked around her and all of her friends just encouraged her to open it up. Kagome picked the box out of the first one and opened it. Her eyes brightened when she saw the set of earrings. They were gold sharks with a diamond for the eyes. The shark appeared to be turning in a tight circle, allowing them to appear as an uneven U.' Kagome thought they were beautiful.

"Ooo..guys this is so beautiful!" She said with a watery smile. Tears were coming to her eyes. No one had ever given her jewelry before.

"We all pitched our money together to get them for you. Inuyasha said you would like them, so it was his idea. We just went along." Shippo said as he beamed at her with dark green eyes. His tail swished happily around while he watched his friend admire the earrings.

"They must have coasted you a lot of money to do that. I wish you didn't buy me something so expensive." Kagome fussed as she put them on her ears.

"Well, its about damn time you finally wear some jewelry. Maybe you'll look more like a girl now." Inuyasha said teasingly as he crossed his arms over his chest and put a small smirk on his face.

Kagome reached up and tugged lightly on Inuyasha's ear, earning some giggles from her fellow friends and a growl from Inuyasha. With Kagome's earlier anger forgotten, she thought that maybe this day wouldn't be so bad after all. She looked down at the end of the table to see Sesshoumaru looking at her earrings. She put on a bright smile when he directed his attention to her. Sesshoumaru didn't smile back, but inclined his head some as a greeting before going back to eating his food. He was a very attractive male and Kagome had grown to like him. What small conversations they had was mainly about work. They would both work on equations as they tried new things to offset the chemical poison. Any other type of conversation with the demon was almost impossible to start. Inuyasha said that he was just a quiet man. Wanting his solitude. Kagome was solitude most of the time. She hated it. How could he like being lonely? At least she had her friends. They were all she had and she wouldn't give them up for the world.

They all chatted some more before finally finishing their food and going to their rightful places on the base. Sesshoumaru was the last one left at the table.

Kagome was working on a chemical while standing beside Nicole. The dragon was swaying her hips and bobbing her wings again while listening to her CD. Sesshoumaru stood on the other side of the lab table while working on some more equations that might work on disabling the nasty Shikon Effect.

"Shit," Nicole softly swore. She was not having a good day. Every base that Kagome would give to her would have an opposite effect to what she was trying to achieve. She dumped the mess down in a special sink and went back to what she was doing. Maybe she could get a different result if she added a smaller amount?

Sesshoumaru watched the peeved dragon and allowed himself to roll his eyes. He wondered if Nicole could say anything more intelligent besides shit' when she messed up. He looked back at his work at hand and started to erase some of what he wrote down, knowing that this one formula wouldn't work. It is a long and painfully tedious process, but he would one day crack it. Or he hopped he would. It was just so hard to keep his cool when you work day in and day out on something that refused to cooperate with you. Sesshoumaru had a lot of patience, but when it came to this anti-agent, his patience was running thin.

Kagome looked at base in front of her. The same base she has been working on, but now she would add something different to it. Maybe a different acid or another base. They had been working this day for about a good five hours. She skipped lunch and was now regretting it. All this work and no food was getting the best of her. She started to sport bags under her eyes from all of the eyestrain and she could feel fatigue coming on. What a way to spend her birthday. All stressed out on some stupid anti-agent that could counter affect a chemical. A chemical that she helped create. That never slept well with her, but she did work for the US Government and that was what she got paid the big bucks for.

Kagome shifted her head some and felt the small sharks on her ears hit the side of her jaw. It got a smile on her face. She loved the earrings. She wouldn't part from them in all the world. After she left the Mess Hall that morning, she put them on her ears right away. They definitely put her in a better mood. Kagome looked over at the mind numbing equations that Sesshoumaru worked on. If she wasn't good in math, Kagome would have been lost at all the numbers. Sesshoumaru definitely knew what he was doing in that department.

"Have you come across anything better, Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked as she continued to measure the liquids in her hands.

"Not of this time." He simply replied. Sesshoumaru had no intention to continue this conversation. He had too much work to do before her party started. This made him angry because normally he would work in the lab until at least two in the morning.

"Well, I am going to grab something quick to eat. I need a break from all of this. My eyes feel like they are going to melt inside of my head." Kagome stated while putting her vials down in their proper place.

"You humans take to many breaks. It is bad enough that you feel it necessary to close the lab down and make it into an entertainment area." He said without breaking his concentration.

Kagome narrowed her dark blue eyes at him. The nerve!' she thought. "Well, if you feel that way, maybe I will just call this off. It is bad enough we go without any entertainment here on this God forsaken base," she grounded out between clenched teeth.

With that said, Kagome left the room and made her way down the corridor. Her anger and hurt radiated off of her in thick waves. It almost made Sesshoumaru wince. Never before had he ever felt shame on what he said or did. But for some reason, he felt like he over stepped it with the empath. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard an infuriated snarl directed at him. Looking up with a raised brow at who would challenge him, he came across swiftly swirling green/gray eyes.

"Sesshoumaru," came a dark growling voice, "you have really pushed it this time."

Sesshoumaru sized up the dragon. She was pissed' to simply put it. Her aura had a red shine to the normally calm green. Nicole's wings were arched and away from her body so if she wanted to move at a faster pace, she could. Her claws had elongated and were now cutting into the metal lab table. Her fangs even grew in length. If he were a lesser demon, he would have been afraid of the small dragon before him.

"I will not have you ruin her day. Kagome works far too hard for you to go and screw it up for her. She needs a break just like us demons need an occasional rest." Nicole snarled out.

"I will not take back what I have said, Dragon. She needs to learn to build a harder shell around herself if she expects to make it in life. All of her self loathing will do nothing but further hurt her."

"Well, someone like you will do nothing to improve it, asshole!" With that said, Nicole turned on her heel and stomped out of the lab, determined to find Kagome.

Sesshoumaru put his pencil down and watched her retreating form. Nicole was right of course. Which hurt his pride and made him even more angry. Sometimes he could almost see himself as his brother when it came to talking to other people. Inuyasha had a habit of cutting people down with unthought of words. But this he would not back down from. He needed the time to work on this. Not to go and party. Maybe he should have used less hateful words? Sesshoumaru tried to convince himself that what he said was right, but a small voice in the back of his head said otherwise. Allowing a soft sigh to pass his lips, he erased the cumbersome thought and went back to his work. May as well get some work done.

Nicole lifted her nose in the air to be met with salt and Kagome's lovely scent. She was seething at what Sesshoumaru said. He just gave demons bad names at times. Nicole had always liked humans. She just had to fight them most of the time when she was younger. She had very few human friends back in the Midlevel area. Always some stupid king sending knights to kill her and she would have to do drastic things to get them to back off. Yes, that did include killing by ingestion. Yes, they did taste bad. A nice cow fancied her more, but she did what she had to do. Nicole may be small in her humanoid form, but in her dragon form, she was quite formable. Although still small for a dragon, she easily brought fear in her opponents.

Nicole stopped in front of Kagome's room. The trail of tears ended here. She knocked on the door and heard a soft enter.' Nicole walked in and found her in front of the large glass window with Shi and Tom on the other side. The two sharks looked to be comforting their friend, but with the expressionless faces of the great whites, you could never tell. She watched as the two fish swam away and left them alone.

Nicole watched as Kagome sat down on the edge of her bed and looked down at the floor. "You know, it is hard to look at those two and wonder if they will ever eat you. I know that sharks don't pray on humans normally, but one would have to think. Would they ever just at least wonder if you would make a nummy shark treat?"

Kagome didn't respond to Nicole's badly put dry humor. She just shrugged her shoulders in a non-caring way and continued to look at the floor. Well, that didn't work.' Nicole thought of something else to at least get a smile out of her good friend.

"Look, just because he is on his demonic period doesn't make him right." Nicole said with a wave of her hand. She smiled in triumph when Kagome smirked.

"There is that smile I like so much. Don't let him get to you, Kagome. He doesn't shit gold. I am sure if he could come up with a laxative that does he would make millions, but in the meantime, Sesshoumaru is really no better then anyone else." Nicole explained with a reassuring smile.

"He is right, you know," came Kagome's small voice, "I really have no right in closing down the lab to make it into a party room."

"Well, I say you do," Nicole hotly said, "and we are going to do it. So get your mopey ass up and lets get something to eat. I know I'm starving."

"You are always hungry." Kagome playfully shot at her friend.

"Well, I have to keep up my strength you know." Nicole shot back.

"Yes, I am sure Ty is a monster in bed."

Nicole didn't miss Kagome's sly grin. She put on a mischievous smile of her own. "Yes, he is. It is just so hard to sexually please a serpent. He just cant seem to get enough! Men are nothing but hormones, I tell ya."

Kagome laughed at this. She got up when Nicole motioned for her to follow and they both headed down to the Mess Hall. Kagome just let herself enjoy being with one of her best friends and let her break do her some good. She would not let Sesshoumaru ruin her day. She didn't need the grump around anyway. Even if he had started being a little bit nicer to her. He must have just been in a good mood.

After they were done with their late lunch, both females walked back to the lab fully refreshed and ready to work some more. When they walked into the lab, Kagome made sure to ignore Sesshoumaru unless it pertained to work. Sesshoumaru noticed this and found himself missing her smiles. Soon it was time for them to leave so Nicole, Ty, and Sango could clear the lab out and start the festivities. They made Kagome leave and go freshen up.

Sango walked up to Sesshoumaru after Kagome left and asked him if he was going to stay and help. When Sesshoumaru said no, Sango heard Nicole snort. She gave the dragon a questioning look, but Nicole turned her back by then and busied herself with putting up party favors. When Sango turned back around, Sesshoumaru had already left. She just shrugged her shoulders and joined the other two friends in decorating the lab.

Kagome washed her hair and hummed a soft tune. She loved to bathe. Right next to swimming. She took a big whiff of the lavender shampoo she loved to use. It had such a nice scent to it. She then rinsed her hair and started on her body. When she was satisfied with her cleanliness, Kagome rinsed herself off and turned off the shower head. She walked over to her towel and dried herself off. Wrapping the towel securely around herself, she walked out of women's wash area and went to the main room. She picked up her dirty clothes and got ready to leave. Right as she walked out, Sesshoumaru walked in with a fresh bundle of clothing in his hands.

"Oh!" Kagome was totally caught off guard and almost walked right into the tall demon.

Sesshoumaru looked down at her and noticed her lack of clothing. The towel barely covered her upper body and from his view point, he got a nice shot of cleavage. He quickly adverted his eyes and looked over her head. For a human, she has quite a nice body,' came a thought from the back of his head. Sesshoumaru stepped to the side to bypass her, but was stopped by a small delicate hand upon his arm.

"I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru. I wasn't paying attention." Came the small voice.

"It is okay." Sesshoumaru didn't know why he was even speaking to the small woman, but nonetheless he was.

Kagome blushed with embarrassment when she realized her lack of clothing. She quickly gathered her wits and started to walk to the door.

"I am sorry."

Kagome stopped at hearing this. At first she thought she was hearing things, but when she turned her head around to look at him, she knew otherwise. The tall pale demon was looking at her with the normal unreadable face, but his eyes held a softer look to them. Kagome realized at this moment, she got something that not many heard from Sesshoumaru. She got an apology.

Kagome smiled a soft, but sad smile at him. "It's all right." She turned back around and walked out of the shower room and headed back to her room.

Sesshoumaru watched her go with guilt still hanging on him. He didn't understand why he felt so guilty when it came to the empath, but he did nonetheless. He walked to the men's side and started getting ready for his bath; taking a deep breath of her lovely scent as he walked by the women's side.

Kagome got to her room and put on a nice dark blue tunic and a dark pair of jeans that rested low on her hips. She loved this shirt. It fitted nicely to her body but still flowed loosely. She pulled her hair up in a high ponytail and put on just a little mascara and lip gloss. She never really liked wearing a lot of makeup. Once she was satisfied with her looks, Kagome walked out the door to head to her birthday party. She came to the realization that if she were to enjoy her party, she would have to let all of her negativity go. She was in a bad mood when she woke up and she wouldn't let that stop her from having a good time tonight.

Sesshoumaru sat in his room with a pair of swimming trunks on, his long tail wrapped securely around his muscular, bare shoulder. He couldn't believe he was going to do this, but he was tired of feeling bad. Never before had he felt like this. Especially over a human. He stood up and walked out of his room. Satisfied that no one was around, he walked down the corridor and proceeded down to the loading area. When he entered the room, Sesshoumaru looked over to the far wall and saw what he was looking for. He grabbed one of the scuba tanks and made sure the mouth piece was in place. He slipped it onto his back and grabbed one of the goggles hanging by the tanks. He spit in it and rubbed the saliva around then walked over to the large round opening in the middle of the room.

Sesshoumaru sat down and let his legs dangle in the water while he splashed some of the water in the goggles. He put the goggles on his head and got the mouth piece in its proper place. Once he was satisfied with everything, Sesshoumaru jumped off the ledge.

He felt the coldness engulf him but that didn't bother him. The pressure was what bothered him. Humans would die at this depth, but Sesshoumaru was a full demon. His body could handle it. Although it did bother his ears more than normal. He started to make long strokes in the water. His movement looked as graceful as any creature would look if they belonged in the ocean. This was Sesshoumaru's love, his world. He loved the ocean. That was what made him want to become a marine biologist in the first place.

Sesshoumaru worked his way down to the ocean floor and started to look around in the sand. When he would walk across the catwalk, he would see all sorts of beautiful things in the lighted areas. What he was looking for was the beautiful shells that lined the ocean floor. The shells down here were huge. He knew Kagome loved shells from walking by her door one day when it was open. She had some lined on her dresser. The size of the ones here were larger than the ones in her room.

Sesshoumaru swam for a few minutes until he came upon some large ones. They were empty, void of any life, so Sesshoumaru picked up about four of them and inspected them for any imperfections. Once he was satisfied of the quality, he started to head back. He had all four in one arm so he could swim with his other.

He was a few yards away from the main opening when he felt a tug on his long hair. With his brows frowned he turned around as much as he could to see what his hair got caught on. Sesshoumaru really wished he didn't. What greeted his eyes nearly gave him a heart attack. Floating just a few feet from him was a very large great white shark. His eyes widened at the large mouth full of sharp teeth.

Sesshoumaru quickly reached up and pulled his hair out of the large fishes mouth. He swam backwards with a rush of adrenaline helping him move quicker. He was sure if the shark could smirk it would. The large fish moved up beside him and looked at him with his lifeless black eyes. Sesshoumaru decided to not hang around anymore and twisted his body back around to continue his pursuit to the loading area. At a much faster pace than before.

Once Sesshoumaru got to the surface, he tossed the shells up on the metal floor and then quickly hoisted himself up over the edge. He turned around and brought up his legs with him when he noticed the large fish followed him. He ripped the equipment off and glared at the shark. Sesshoumaru then reached for some of his hair and inspected it. If that damn fish so much as hurt my hair,' he thought angrily. His thoughts was interrupted when he heard a low masculine laugh. Sesshoumaru turned to see Will standing not to far from him, picking up Sesshoumaru's shells that were sprawled all over the floor.

"It's all right, mate," Will said between laughs, "Tom wont eat ya."

Sesshoumaru stood up and glared at the Australian man. Will walked up to the tall demon and handed his shells back to him. Sesshoumaru made sure to take the shells with little contact of Will. He was embarrassed and angry. First the sharks, now Will had to see him actually shaken up. Sesshoumaru wouldn't admit he was scared of the sharks. He was just shaken up.

"Thank you," was all the came out of Sesshoumaru's mouth and he walked to the corridor and back to his room.

Will just smiled and shook his head. Sesshoumaru's reaction to the sharks was almost as good as Inuyasha's. The young half-demon nearly shit himself when he first experience Tom's fetish for silver hair. Inuyasha jumped out of that water so fast. He was using very colorful language as well. It made him wish he had a video camera that day. Maybe I should keep in the loading area..'

Kagome hugged her friends good-bye for the night. It was late and she needed to get some sleep. Although only a few came to the party, it was really fun. They danced and had drinks. Kagome was feeling quite good in fact. It only took one drink to loosen her up and after that, it only took two more to get her feeling like she could concur the world. Alcohol never sat well with her. Miroku liked to call her a cheap-date,' claiming it wouldn't take much to get her drunk. He was right.

Kagome made it back to the hall that housed her room with a goofy grin on her face. When she approached the door, she noticed a large box with an envelope on the top. She bent down and took hold of the box, then righted herself. She had to go slow because her head started to spin. Once she got the door open (it was no small feat) she walked to her bed and plopped down on it. She opened the envelope and pulled out a small piece of paper. She crossed her legs on the bed and started to read.

Kagome,

I noticed you liked seashells. I hope you like these.

Sesshoumaru

Kagome opened the box and saw four of the most beautiful seashells she had ever seen. She hugged one to her body and a small smile formed on her face. Maybe he isn't so bad after all'