Photograph

She thought of it for days and nights, wondering why she even had the urge in the first place, and for a particular youkai itself. 'Maybe Kaa-san is right,' Kagome thought, sighing. 'Maybe I do have feelings for him.' Kagome paced around the campfire, her friends watching her movements suspiciously, but neither questioned as to what the young miko could be pondering about. 'But what if he doesn't have feelings for me?' Kagome thought, staggering to a halt.

Sango stood and grasped her friend's shoulders. "Kagome-chan, do you want to talk about it?"

Knowing she could trust her friend with anything, but also knowing that it may crush her, Kagome was at a loss as to what to tell her. "I don't know, Sango. It's a bit complicated, really."

"Pheh. I bet it's about my brother." Came Inuyasha's indignant grunt from the other side.

Miroku, the peace-keeper, added in silently, "She has been spending quite a bit of time with him, Inuyasha. It is not uncommon for Kagome-san to become attached. And, as it may seem, Sesshoumaru-sama seems to have become attached to her as well."

Furious, Inuyasha pounded his fist on the ground. "Ha!" he chortled. "Like my anti-social, arrogant, self-absorbed brother could become attached to something, let alone a human!" Inuyasha continued to snort about with laughter while he was oblivious to Kagome's drooping shoulders.

"Don't listen to that," Sango soothed, rubbing Kagome's arms comfortingly. "He could be wrong Kagome."

"Probably not," sighed the miko, who shook her head. "Are you not mad at me, Sango?"

The taijiya smiled warmly. "Of course not, Kagome. It's your life, and it has become apparent to all of us, even Inuyasha, that he means you no harm." Sango sent a scathing look toward the cackling hanyou. "And who knows, maybe he might have become attached to you too. And he's wrong; Sesshoumaru-sama has become attached to Rin, remember? And she is human."

Kagome sniffed. "Yeah, thanks Sango. But I don't want to get my hopes up too high. Just in case."

"I understand."

The two hugged, before Kagome felt so tired that she could have fallen asleep standing up. Instead, she opted for another bath, to soothe her troubles and hopefully help her sleep past noon the next morning.

"I'm going to take a bath," Kagome told Sango.

"Be careful. We're right here if you need us."

Kagome nodded and gathered her night clothes, and submersed herself into the dark, chilling forest. They had camped here regularly, so finding the hot spring was no chore, and soon enough she had saved herself the taxing trip by cutting corners and using the trees to guide her to the location. It was fairly huge, even for a hot spring, that left little grass to undress. Quickly, worried that possibly Miroku had slipped past Sango's guard and was watching her, the miko stripped herself of clothing and submerged herself into the lukewarm water.

She breathed a sigh of relief, sank even lower, so that her nose was just above the surface. She trusted her friends and allowed some of her guard to slip away, so that she could relax and hopefully discard her thoughts of a certain taiyoukai of the west.

Ten minutes later and feeling utterly drained of stimulation, Kagome hauled herself from the pool and grabbed her towel. A flash of white startled her, and had her gripping the towel tightly, as she surveyed the area and searched in her brain as to what the flash could have been from. Then it struck her. A flash. From a camera. Heat warming her cheeks, and refraining from screeching lest she alert her friends, Kagome hissed under her breath, "Sesshoumaru! I know that was you! Get out of here this ins--"

But what stepped out of the forest wasn't the demon lord, rather a monkey demon dangling from a tree holding her camera in his four hands. The youki surrounding him signaled that he was no amateur demon, but rather one that would be difficult to exterminate. And, once again, she had forgot her weapons! Scowling, Kagome quickly slipped on her sneakers and readied her purification powers, daring the monkey demon to approach closer.

The demon, however, snapped another photo, and fell out of the tree. Dumbstruck, Kagome hesitantly started backwards, no doubt in her mind the monkey would be quite angry after he had gotten over being blind. Her instincts proved correct when the monkey sprung to his feet, crushed the camera in his hands, and started charging toward her. Hands out on instinct, Kagome screamed before another flash of white light darted before her eyes, followed by a sickening crunch and a thump.

A familiar youki energy tickled her senses, and when she opened her eyes she spotted the illuminated Sesshoumaru dismembering the monkey demon and casting it into the forest.

"Sesshoumaru!" Kagome raced to him, where she nearly embraced him, had she remembered that she was clad only in a towel and required hands to keep it secured.

"Are you all right?" he asked, eyes looking at her, and then quickly taking in her attire, or lack thereof.

Flushing, Kagome clutched the towel to her chest while wrapping her arms around herself. "Yes, yes, I'm fine, thank you." After several calming breaths, she cursed. "God damn monkey broke my camera..."

"The monkey stole your camera?"

Had she been any less furious, she would have laughed at the way he repeated her words. It almost sounded like 'the dog ate my homework.'

"Yes, he stole it." Kagome stomped to where she thought he dropped it. She stooped down, conscious of the way the towel rode up her rear, and picked up the remnants of the perfectly good camera. To her relief, however, the memory card hadn't been crushed and was still useful. But, she took a moment of silence to commemorate her camera's death.

As she walked back to him, camera in hands, while she sulked.

"He broke it?" he said, more of a statement than a question.

Kagome nodded her head sadly. "Yeah, but the memory card is still there, so I haven't lost my pictures."

"But you are unable to take anymore."

"For a while, yes, but I'll have to buy a new one soon."

"As long as you still have the photographs I see nothing wrong."

Kagome sighed, knowing he clearly didn't get the idea that spending so much money on an item was important. Of course, knowing him, he came from royalty, hence his full regalia and open display of authority, so money was probably not much of a concern for him.

"That's not exactly it," she mumured at last, looking to the ground, hands clutching the tiny memory card.

Sesshoumaru's eyebrow quirked up. "Than what is it?"

The miko rubbed her tired eyes, forgot she was wearing a towel, and instantly clutched the article of clothing to her bosom. "Well," she began, "I have to go and save up money so I can buy a new camera. I've had that one for a year. Kaa-san gave it to me as an eighteenth birthday present."

"I have money." Was what he said.

'Is he actually offering money?' she questioned internally. 'Little good his money will do in my time, though.' "Thanks, but no thanks. We don't have the same currency there as we do here, the money would be worthless."

"I shall give you another camera then."

Kagome was practically receiving whiplash. "Y-you'll what?"

The taiyoukai gave her a look that questioned her IQ. "I shall give you a new camera."

"B-but you can't!" Kagome flew her arms up. "They don't make them here, trust me."

Sesshoumaru seemed displeased with this, his only indication was the way he absently grinded his jaws together.

"Hey," she stepped closer to him, looking into his eyes, "don't worry about it. I'll get another one. If I'm lucky I might get a loan from my boss. If he loves my pictures so much I'm sure a bit of money couldn't hurt."

As the taiyoukai agreed to this, Kagome heard a ruckus in the forest, and just as she thought a hoard of monkey demons were on their way, Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, Shippou, and Kirara came bounding out of the forest.

Kagome gave them a bit of a flat stare. "A bit late, guys."

Inuyasha approached his brother with a frown on his face. "What did you do to Kagome!?"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome gripped his forearm. "He didn't do anything, he's the one that saved me!"

Inuyasha growled at this. "What do you think you're doing saving Kagome! We can do that ourselves?"

Sesshoumaru remained perfectly stoic. "Obviously not, considering you bunch are a few minutes late. Had I not have intervened you wouldn't have your Kagome as of now."

The group lapsed into guilty silence, as they thought about his words, and how they were painstakingly true.

"Yeah," Inuyasha snorted at last, "well next time we'll get there faster than you!"

"Inuyasha."

The aforementioned hanyou stiffened at the warning in the miko's voice.

"Don't sit me, please!" he squawked, retreating from his brother. "I won't fight with him, honest!"

Kagome huffed while gathering her close and approaching the taiyoukai. She bowed formerly. "Thank you for saving me."

Sesshoumaru didn't say anything; reached into his hoari to pull out his own camera. Before Kagome knew what he was doing, he flashed a picture of her towel-clad form and took off into the forest, leaving her bristling. Kagome turned to see her snickering friends, save Inuyasha, who held contemptment on his face.

"What are you guys laughing at?" Kagome said, trying to look sinister but failing when she started to snort with them.

Sango pointed at her friend, hand over her mouth and eyes squeezed shut. "You're only in a towel, and now he has the picture to prove it."

As if just realizing that he did take her photo, Kagome turned toward the direction he had bounded in and shouted, "Sesshoumaru! You better keep that to yourself!"

One-hundred feet away from where they all stood, masking his youki, the taiyoukai smirked and stalked off, camera in hand.