Long green grass bowed in waves before the wind. Sunlight glinted on the thick blades, warmed the air. The wooden frame was rough under her hands as Kagome pushed herself to her feet only to drop onto the side of the well again. Her eyes dropped to the ground, then to the dark inside of the well. She shouldn't have come. She should have stayed at home, stayed away from the chance of seeing him.

"Gonna chicken out and go running home again?" He didn't look at her as he dropped out of the sky next to her. Kagome jumped.

"No, what… have you been watching me?"

"You've been gone a long time.

Nearly two weeks, "Not that long." She lied, feeling a little guilty for staying away from them that long. "If it bothered you why didn't you come get me?"

"I was going to the first time you went back through." He remained perched on the side of the well as she stood, "What are you so afraid of anyway?"

"I am not afraid." It wasn't entirely true. She was afraid, but not of anything he would understand. What terrified Kagome was what would happen when she was Sesshomaru again, and it was inevitable that they would come across each other, eventually.

"Liar."

"Sit boy." She knew from the crash that he had been thrown from the well. She would have to reach the village before he recovered.

*

Silence. He'd been looking for so long and finally here it was. No one to bother him, no memories to disturb him, and still Sesshomaru was certain that something was not right. He would not stay in this place long.

"Hello dog." The words were accompanied by several loud hisses.

His calm gaze took in the demons standing in front of him. Several cat demons glaring at him with neon eyes. He did not know how he had not smelled them coming.

"You were wrong to come out of hiding dog. After what you did to our kind you were foolish to think that we would allow you to live."

"Indeed, then come." This was the distraction he required.

*

"What was that for?" Inuyasha demanded appearing suddenly in front of her.

"You called me a liar." Kagome stepped around him, kept walking.

"Because you were lying." He fell into step beside her, throwing Kagome sidelong glares.

"I did not come here to fight with you Inuyasha. If you want me to I'll turn around and go back home right now." Kagome stopped and looked at him, half hoping for an excuse to go home again. He looked away with a soft scoffing sound, "That's what I thought."

"I'm still not giving Sesshomaru his arm back."

"I wouldn't expect you to. It was just a suggestion."

"What was just a suggestion?" Shippo demanded, running into Kagome's arms.

"Nothing." Kagome returned the little fox's hug and started walking again, "Tell me Shippo, has Inuyasha been behaving?"

"No. He keeps picking on me."

"Inuyasha! How many times do I have to tell you to be nice?" She demanded, glad for the distraction. This argument was better than the one he had been pursuing.

*

They were circling him, and he remained perfectly still. As usual they would give him his opening, and Sesshomaru was patient enough to wait.

"We're going to kill you dog. Then we'll find that little girl of yours." They leader moved a few steps closer to him, and Sesshomaru nearly held his breath to avoid the stink of cat. "She won't die quickly if you're worried about that. We'll keep her to play with for a while."

It had never been that difficult to keep his composure, but at these words he was forced to hold back the desire to rip the cat's heart out of its body and feel the final beats. They would not leave this clearing. Words were of no consequence.

One darted toward him and his whip lashed out. The cat dodged him. He would have to find another way to kill them quickly.

"I thought you were supposed to be a difficult opponent dog, so far you're rather disappointing." The cat sneered. There was no reason to respond to his jibes. Sesshomaru had more self-control than that. "No wonder you hid behind your human."

The insults rolled easily off of him, he'd faced worse in the past. He could wait a little longer. The best option would have been his whip, but they had learned to avoid that. It would matter little in the long run. They would die, soon.

His blade swung cleanly through the air, biting into the cat to his right, but he knew it was not dead as it hit the ground. He rounded on the leader, ready to lop off its head. Too late he realized he'd grabbed one of the others. To him they all looked and more importantly smelled the same. The cat's head rolled away as he side stepped the falling body, avoiding blood easily and moved for the next.

"We've lost one! Get out of here."

He stood watching them flee. "Cowards." He murmured, turning away. They had left the badly injured cat behind. He knew it was close to death.

"You will pay dog, your human will die."

"Silence. Your mewing offends my ears."

*

"Why are we leaving now? Shouldn't we wait until morning?" Kagome had barely been in the village for five minutes before Inuyasha had appeared to make them all leave.

"So you can take off back home again? I don't think so Kagome." Inuyasha walked with his arms crossed, not looking at her.

"I am not going to run away for home again." Annoyed she moved ahead to walk with Sango and Miroku.

"I'm glad you're back to normal Kagome. You were really down last time." Shippo bounced on Miroku's shoulder next to her.

"Oh, it was nothing." She didn't want to think about the last time she had been here. It would only depress her.

"Why did Sesshomaru kidnap you anyway Kagome?" Sango asked softly.

"I was bait. He wanted to get Tetsusaiga from Inuyasha." Kagome shrugged.

"Then why did he not try to fight him when we came to rescue you." Miroku asked promptly.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Kagome dropped back to walk with Inuyasha again, trying not to look at the ground and be obviously sad. The one subject she didn't want to discuss and there it was, on everyone's lips.

"What's your problem?"
"Hmm?" Kagome looked at him trying to smile.

"Every time someone asks about or mentions Sesshomaru, you get all quiet and start flashing smiles."

"Your imagining things." Was it really that obvious?

*

Their wounds wouldn't take long to heal, but the leader's pride would be a different story. That particular wound would remain open until the dog demon was dead. He had underestimated the dog.

"What do we do now?" The smallest of the cats asked softly.

"Now we kill the girl before the dog gets there. Then we can spring on him and kill him as well. They'll both be dead." The leader answered, watching them all, "We will have to hurry."

*

It was late when Kagome jerked awake from a sound sleep, not sure what had pulled her into reality and away from the dream she could not remember, but knew had been wonderful.

She pushed herself into a sitting position, eyes searching and finding nothing around her out of the ordinary. Deciding that she must have been imagining things Kagome shook her head and dropped back into her sleeping bag, closed her eyes. Sleep eluded her however. Something had to be wrong, but she didn't know what, and there were no signs. Was she imagining things or was something really wrong?

"You're being silly Kagome, just go back to sleep." She whispered to herself, snuggling into her sleeping bag.

Morning came entirely too soon, and she hadn't slept much after waking in the middle of the night. Something she hadn't recognized was plaguing her mind all night, like a whisper she hadn't completely understood, but could not forget. Sango noticed and continually asked her about her behavior.

"It's nothing. I just have a weird feeling that's all." She had given up on shrugging off or ignoring it. She would just have to deal with this nervous knotting in her stomach.

"Do you sense the jewel shards? It has been a while since we last went searching for them." Miroku stopped to ask her the question.

"No, this is something else." She glanced around, looking for almost any way to change the subject, "Where's Inuyasha?"

"Leaving you all behind if you don't move it." He snapped, storming suddenly past them.

"Well someone isn't in a very good mood." Kagome mumbled, following him.

*

It was a ridiculous concern, one on a level far beneath him, but Sesshomaru could not banish the thoughts. He had allowed the cats to escape him, now the girl had been threatened. He should not care, yet…

How would they even find her? Surely his idiot little brother could handle a few mouthy cat demons. He nearly laughed at the idea. If they had caused him trouble how could the half demon be expected to defeat them and protect Kagome? He should not have left her with such meager protection. He would have to kill the cats before they caused any harm. It would be an easy enough hunt for a master such as him.

*

"He left the human with another dog. This will be harder than we had hoped."

"Stop whining." The leader snapped, moving around all of them, thinking quickly, "It won't be hard. This dog is only half demon, and the others are human, they won't be much of a challenge."

"But…"

"The girl killed one of our kind as well. They both must pay. Our mistake was not disposing of the girl first. The dog will continue to cause trouble. He will assume that we are still coming after him. When he finally realizes that we have switched targets it will be too late."

"It can not be wise to anger him. Do you know who he is?"

"It does not matter who he is! He had done the unforgivable and must pay with his life."

"He won't make it easy."

"I'm counting on it."

*

"There are no jewel shards anywhere near us. What are we doing all the way out here?" Rather than dissipating her uneasy feeling had been growing stronger the further they traveled.

"Just stop it Kagome, we aren't going back yet."

"I don't like it out here." The trees here grew closer together, their branches blocking all but traces of daylight.

"There's nothing to be worried about Kagome," Shippo puffed himself up importantly, "I'll protect you."

"That's sweet Shippo." It didn't make her feel any better. Was this just because she had gotten used to being around Sesshomaru, whom hardly anyone would dare to cross? No she'd been away from him too long for that. This was something else. It had to be.

"It unsettles me too." Sango admitted softly.

"There is no need to worry ladies, I will lay down my life to keep you safe." Miroku wrapped an arm around each of them.

"I'm sure." Sango yanked away quickly, but Kagome had frozen in place, her eyes glued to the space between two trees.

She had to be imagining things, but Kagome could have sworn she had seen eyes flashing at her out of the darkness. Realizing that Miroku's hand was beginning to wander down from her shoulder Kagome began to pull away.

"Does this mean you have reconsidered my offer?"

"No Miroku." She wheeled away from him, jogging ahead to catch up to Inuyasha, "Do you smell anything odd?"

"I don't smell anything." He stopped suddenly, glancing around, "at all."

"This can't be good." A sudden cry drew Kagome's attention as she saw Miroku thrown into Sango and both of them crushed to the ground under a large fury form.

"What the hell?" Inuyasha was being rushed by two from each side. Kagome jumped back, moving toward the trees and out of danger.

"Hello human…"