Disclaimer: I do not own this series. That's all you need to know to not sue me, 'kay?

I am dedicating this chapter to my reviewers: Thank you for the nice reviews, everyone. Though I have only a little bit, they are all positive! And they make me feel so happy!:D And they give me more inspiration! Because of that, I'm putting up another chapter so soon, mainly to make up for the coming weekdays. I may not be as quick to update as I have been, due to school, I'm failing in math, and I need to read some pretty long books for English Class...Okay well, thanks again for the great reviews. - Katherine

Now, on with the story!

It was the evening already. About seven p.m., Kagome had took a nap, but when she was awake again, was reading fairytales in her room, The Bamboo Cutter And The Moon Child. That was her favorite tale, it was a little sad, but sometimes she felt like just getting sad to get sad.

Her mother used to read the story to her alot. It wasn't like most princess tales with the princess marrying her knight in shining armour; In this, Kaguya-hime rejected them all, even the emperor. Kagome then wondered how it would be like for Kaguya, leaving her earthly friends and family behind to return to the moon.

It must have been really sad...

She also wondered how Kaguya's earth family and friends felt when she left, and how long it took for them to recover. It was probably hard for them.

Her thoughts on the story made her think of the moon. The moon made her think on the young man she saved this morning. That mark on his forehead; what did it mean exactly? She'd never seen any mark like that on anyone...Maybe it was just some demonic mark like Lord Taisho had, but on the forehead...But then, only youkai had those. Again she wondered: was Sesshomaru a youkai?

'Well, he is a mystery, that's for sure...'

She decided to check on Sesshomaru, maybe he was hungry or something. She walked to the kitchens and asked the cooks to make some soup for Sesshomaru. They obeyed and quickly fixed a small pot of chicken broth. One of the maids were going to take the broth up to Sesshomaru, but Kagome told them that she'd do it instead. Of course, they let her without question, which Kagome was rather grateful for.

Kagome wanted to check up on him herself and give him the food, she thought maybe she'd learn more about him with every minute she spent around him.

So carrying a tray of chicken broth, she slowly and carefully walked up the tall staircase to the guest room where Sesshomaru was staying. She knocked on the door and waited for a response that would say 'come in', but received none.

'Duh! He's mute, how can I forget?'

With a roll of her eyes at her own stupidity, she simply opened the door to the guest room.

She saw Sesshomaru sitting on the futon bed holding something white and green in his hand.

"Ummm...Sesshomaru?" Kagome called.

Sesshomaru looked up curiously as Kagome placed the tray of broth on a small table next to the futon. The whole guest room wasn't as big as her own, of course, but it was still pretty big. The moonlight from the plain white curtains beamed on the floor and the snow piled up on the window ledge. There really wasn't much clothing in this room except plain white bathing robes or sleeping garments. She'd have to fix that soon.

Kagome eyed the object in Sesshomaru's hand for a few seconds, before...

"Where did you get that?" She exclaimed.

He stared blankly at her.

"I mean, it's winter! How did you get a flower in the middle of winter?" Kagome continued as she studied the flower in his hand, she realized it was a pure white carnation. A carnation...the same flower that Rin had drawn for him earlier. Where did it come from?

Sesshomaru handed the flower over to her.

Kagome blinked in surprise and stared at the flower, then back at him, and then back at the flower, before she hesitatingly reached out and took the flower out of his hand. It was fluffy and cheery looking.

"Ummm...thanks...I guess..." She mumbled.

Out of instinct, she raised the carnation to her nose and smelled the fragrance. It was a nice pure scent that smelt like autumn and spring. A light smile fell on her lips and she looked back at Sesshomaru to see that he had a smile on his lips himself. She blushed and looked down shyly, unable to stop smiling for some reason.

"I think I'll go put this flower in water..." Kagome said quietly, turning to leave 'But how did he get this?' What? Did he have some kind of magic or something? That small question only went back to wondering AGAIN what Sesshomaru was, maybe Kikyo was right when she said that Sesshomaru was a demon. Maybe he was a different kind of demon...

About twenty minutes later, she had a small water-filled glass vase in her room, she placed the carnation inside it. She stared at the flower for a few seconds. Great...now she was being reminded of Sesshomaru again, the flower was making her think of him. Now would she be reminded of him every time she looked at the moon or a carnation? With a tiny sigh, she skipped back out of the room.

Rin was probably playing alone with dolls or getting ready for dinner. Souta was probably doing things that Souta would do, and Kikyo was probably meditating.

At this time, Kagome was usually reading, or playing with Rin. Rin had a nanny, but sometimes the little princess liked Kagome being with her instead. Though, at the moment, she just wanted to check back on Sesshomaru again. She could not deny that he really intrigued her, it was like a mystery to find out what he was and where he came from.

There wasn't anything holding her back, she was a princess. She could go if she so wanted to, and no one could say anything about it! :D! No one but her father, and her father wasn't here and no one was watching her. The servants were probably fussing over Kikyo, who was the oldest and 'most beautiful daughter' and yadda yadda, blah blah blah.

Kagome found herself again running through the hallway and back to the guest room, dodging past servants quickly. She never really listened to the 'no running' rules she had learned when she was six. Princesses were supposed to walk slowly and gracefully...Kagome was once again ignoring that rule. You got there so much faster when you ran, which is why Kagome never wore really big layered kimonos, only simpler fancy ones, Rin did the same. Kikyo usually wore the traditional princess ones since she was more calm and walk everywhere gracefully. Kagome sometimes felt slightly envious, but ignored that feeling usually.

Kikyo was the one who got most of the attention anyway, from both their father, mother, and servants. That's how it was.

Besides, if she was like Kikyo, she would have just left Sesshomau to die there. That thought made all feelings of envy disappear for the moment.

Finally, she again reached the door to Sesshomaru's room. She opened it and stepped inside. Sesshomaru was sitting on the futon bed, his eyes were closed and Kagome figured he was sleeping. Now what was she going to do? She didn't feel like doing any of her usual things...

A pair of hands suddenly covered her vision, making her gasp.

"What?"

"Guess" A familiar voice said.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome guessed, a bright smile coming on her lips. What great timing her friend had, right when she was feeling bored.

"Kagome" Inuyasha greeted, taking his hands off her eyes.

Kagome spun around to face him, blushing brightly and not trying to hide it. She was hoping for him to take whatever hint possible that she had romantic feelings for him, maybe he could return them? She could only hope. Lord Taisho had wanted them to marry, but Inuyasha never expressed his opinion on the matter in words, other than it would be a good alliance.

She first looked at his adorable ears. He had those because his mother Izayoi was a human, and his father Taisho was a demon, making him hanyou or half-demon.

"Where did you come from?" Kagome asked softly.

"The window" Inuyasha replied, motioning to the open window "I caught your scent coming from this room, and someone else's too. I wonder why you're here-Oh" he looked at Sesshomaru "Who the hell is this guy supposed to be...?"

"Oh, just someone I found wounded in the forest this morning" Kagome replied quickly, a blush still on her cheeks "He's mute though."

"Ah, so he's dumb. Is he deaf too?"

"No, just mute" Kagome answered, shaking her head slightly "So how are you doing?"

"Just fine." Inuyasha replied shortly.

"Oh...I see..." Kagome mumbled, unable to keep a tiny bit of disappointed out of her voice.

She rarely heard him say 'and how are you doing?', but it didn't matter since she wouldn't know what to say. Did Inuyasha even know how nervous he could make her? Probably not, she had guessed. She sort of hoped not, but also hoped so. Kagome was a little shy about her feelings, but she wanted him to know how she felt.

"Oh, don't be so disappointed" Inuyasha said, he suddenly cupped her cheek.

Kagome gasped softly 'He noticed?' her blush began to grow slightly 'What's he doing?'.

She also noticed him slowly coming forward.

'Is he going to kiss me...?' Kagome wondered, her eyes beginning to widen 'He is! I can't believe it! It's about time, I...' she let her thoughts end there as she tried to imagine how a first kiss would feel, and from Inuyasha...She allowed her eyes to close.

"OW!" Inuyasha suddenly exclaimed and Kagome blinked her eyes open.

"Huh?" She mumbled, curious as to what had disturbed them.

A small silver spoon clattered to the ground. Inuyasha was rubbing a bump on his head.

'A spoon...' Kagome thought. The only spoon that could have been in this room would be the one that she gave to Sesshomaru for the broth. So that meant...

Her eyes slowly drifted over her shoulder to the man in question.

As she stared at Sesshomaru, (Who had his eyes closed and was 'sleeping') she noticed how the corners of his lips turned upward slightly in a tiny smile.

Inuyasha suddenly noticed it too and his face reddened with some anger, and he started growling.

"That bastard..."

Sesshomaru decided to choose this time to open his eyes. He actually looked quite innocent, but a feigned type of innocent. Despite the fact that Kagome was slightly annoyed with Sesshomaru since he disturbed what could have been her first kiss, she couldn't help but giggle as she placed her fingers over her lips, he looked cute when he looked innocent.

Though, Inuyasha seemed to be even more annoyed with this and did not find this at all humorous, he looked as if he was about to attack Sesshomaru.

"Wait Inuyasha!" Kagome called, trying to stop a fight "This is Sesshomaru's room for now, don't you think it was kind of rude to ummm...do what we almost did right in front of him? Maybe he was offended!"

'Maybe that's why he threw the spoon at Inuyasha's head'

Now she felt slightly ashamed, some people probably didn't like couples kissing in front of them when they were in their room. That was really rude actually.

"Sesshomaru, huh? That's the bastard's name? Keh, I don't give a damn if this is his room! I'll kill him!"

Kagome widened her eyes. Inuyasha really seemed furious, but he couldn't be serious, could he?

She gasped when Inuyasha actually lunged at Sesshomaru, swiping his claws. But Sesshomaru was out of the bed in a flash and already moving to the other side of room. Even wounded, Sesshomaru was quick, and he simply dodged Inuyasha's every attack. Of course, now the bed sheets were torn and so were the pillows, so feathers were flying up.

'How can he keep dodging my attacks?' Inuyasha thought with frustration, using another Iron-Reaver-Soul-Stealer attack, Sesshomaru again dodged it with a smirk 'He looks as if this is only a game!'

That thought filled Inuyasha with more anger and he tried fighting harder.

Kagome watched, horrified, as some of the curtains were ripped down and the dresser toppled over. She had to find some way to stop this fight. But how? It was so difficult for Inuyasha to stop fighting when he had already started. An idea popped into her head all of a sudden.

'Why didn't I think of this before?' She smiled, then frowned 'Because I don't know how it works exactly, but there's no other way so it's worth a shot'

Quickly, she reached into her kimono and pulled out a beaded necklace. She had stolen this from Kikyo a year ago, but Kikyo had like two others so it was no big deal, Kikyo probably didn't even remember this one. The beads were filled with some sort of holy magic that Kikyo's mentor, Kaede, had filled inside.

Kagome lifted the necklace up faced it towards the boys 'Please...go to Inuyasha' she did feel guilty doing this, but she couldn't let Inuyasha kill Sesshomaru. She wasn't sure if it would work since she had never had exact directions on how to use it, only that it needed an activating word.

The beads seemed to obey her thoughts and they flew like sparks and hooked around Inuyasha's neck.

Inuyasha blinked in surprise at the necklace that suddenly appeared around his neck, but continued attacking Sesshomaru.

'Time for the activating word. Which word should I choose...?' she finally made her decision 'I'm sorry, Inuyasha, please forgive me' she took a deep breath, and..."SIT BOY!" she yelled.

The hanyou crashed into the floor and Kagome held her breath, hoping that the floor wouldn't break.

'What do you know? It actually worked...' Kagome thought.

After a few seconds, he looked up with anger "WHAT THE HELL, KAGOME?"

"I'm really sorry, Inuyasha" Kagome apologized quickly "But I don't think a good hostess lets her guests kill each other, I had to stop you in some way!"

Inuyasha got to his feet and glared at her "I get it..." he muttered, his cute ears flattening against his head "You don't need me here, you've got your mute boy!" he turned to leave.

"No, wait, Inuyasha! It's not like that!" Kagome cried "Why don't you stay for dinner?" it was rather random, but she wanted Inuyasha to stay here, for at least a little longer.

"Whatever" Inuyasha grumbled. He really wanted to stay and was tempted to shout 'Of course!', but wasn't about to let her know that while he was still 'angry' at her. He left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Once he was gone, Kagome sighed in frustration and plopped down on the floor, she started to rub her temples "Sesshomaru...WHYYY?" she whined. She so wanted Inuyasha to kiss her and they were so close!

She didn't receive a response...as expected. Sesshomaru seemed rather expressionless, but when Kagome had just spoken, he looked a little guilty.

Kagome sighed again and begun to stand back on her feet. Inuyasha was probably just annoyed, he didn't actually think she was infatuated with Sesshomaru. Similar stories happened with Koga and Hojo, when Kagome healed Koga after a bird demon known as the bird of paradise attacked him, and when Kagome accepted a gift from Hojo and gave the southern prince a pretty smile. He got over it like a day, but then Koga and Hojo ended up becoming his love rivals. Though she had to admit, Inuyasha's jealousy was very flattering.

But, oh how she really wanted that kiss!

"This room is a disaster" Kagome pointed out the obvious. The bed was...torn in half...The dresser was on the floor, the curtains were in pieces on the floor...and there were feathers all over the floor from the pillows. All because of a spoon...

Kagome picked up a couple of feathers of the floor and dropped them, then picked them up and dropped them again. She repeated this action a few times while Sesshomaru simply watched her in silence.

Finally, the princess had stopped playing with the feathers and stood up.

"Dinner is going to be done soon" Kagome said "I think you should start getting ready" she then left the room so Sesshomaru could get ready with privacy.

The simple white kimono's in that room were able to fit, but they were slightly too big or too small (No surprise there, it would be a surprise if she had found that all the kimono's fit him perfectly. If that had happened, things would just be getting a little too weird around here) She'd have to go to the market place to buy Sesshomaru clothes for himself. She had a feeling that he was going to stay with them for a while.

The wooden table was polished and shiney as always, and the cushions were a dark red color. The cooks came in and brought the food around the table. Oden, Kare Raisu, Miso Soup, and Sushi.

"Itadakimasu" Kikyo said, and that's when everyone begun serving their food.

Kikyo sat with Souta, Rin, and Kagome on one side of the table, while Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were sitting on the opposite side, but as far away as possible from each other. Kagome smiled faintly, finding a tiny bit of humor in that, strangely.

Inuyasha didn't seem too thrilled that Sesshomaru had joined them, but what else could he expect? He WAS a guest after all. The hanyou kept sending glares at the other man close by, though Sesshomaru didn't even seem to notice, and just ate.

Dinner passed in a rather uncomfortable silence. At least for Kagome. She wanted someone to say something! Rin was happily chattering about not-so-important stuff, but she was cute so Kagome couldn't help but smile as she watched her little sister. Souta asked for food to be passed to him once in a while. Inuyasha was glaring at everything that moved, but his eyes seemed soften when they looked at Kagome. Kikyo was elegantly quiet, like in a way a princess should be. And Sesshomaru...who knew what he was thinking? He'd glance up every once in a while at everyone, but then continued eating in silence, as expected.

After a while when everyone was done, Inuyasha spoke up.

"Gochisousama deshita"

Kagome smiled up at him.

Soon, the cooks came and cleared the dishes away again.

"Well, goodbye Inuyasha" Kagome said softly. Inuyasha was going home now. The western lands were quite far and all, but Inuyasha was really fast, it only took him like four or five hours when he was running top speed. He probably didn't have anything better to do back in his home.

"Goodbye Kagome"

And out of the palace he went, he seemed to have forgotten she had placed those enchanted beads around his neck, considering he seemed kinda happy at the moment.

Kagome sighed after a few minutes. She was half-hoping he'd attempt to kiss her again. But oh well, she was guessing it took some guts to just go and kiss a person. She yawned and walked up the staircase to reach her room.

Of course, her room was sort of passed Sesshomaru's, and since his room was on the way, she decided to just drop by.

As she entered, the room was still a disaster. Nothing seemed cleaned up at all. The bed still sliced in half by Inuyasha's claws, the dresser still on the floor, the goose feathers everywhere. It was not impossible for Sesshomaru to sleep on the floor, but he was a guest. She wasn't about to let a guest sleep on the floor, that was rude.

Sesshomaru was staring at her as he leaned against the wall. He had his eyes closed before she had come in, but now they were fixed on her with slight curiosity.

"Come on, Sesshomaru" Kagome said "We'll have to move you to another room tonight, alright?"

He nodded slightly and walked towards her.

Kagome gave him a bit of a slight smile and led him through the halls to the first guest room they came across.

"Well. There you go. Hopefully, if you and Inuyasha ever get into another fight, it won't destroy this room too. I'll tell a servant to fix up the last room before father comes home tomorrow."

Silently, Sesshomaru sat down in the futon bed.

Kagome smiled at him again and turned to leave she suddenly felt a warm hand grab hers. She looked back in surprise "Huh?"

She looked into his eyes. There was some innocence in them, and he looked almost as if he'd be frightened if she left. At the moment, she was reminded of a child afraid of the dark. But there was a question in those eyes, that was clear even without words: Stay with me.

"Do...do you want me to stay?" Kagome asked, slightly stunned.

"Mm-hm..." was the reply, along with a small nod. He moved to the side of the bed, he was making room for her.

At first, she blushed, but then when she still saw the innocence in those beautiful golden eyes of his, she knew he didn't want anything more than just sleep.

"Okay..." Kagome mumbled, though she was still blushing as she slid under the covers beside him. He seemed frightened, just as he was when she had watched him sleep earlier. Something bad had happened to him. Kagome was determined to find out what, but how was she supposed to when, for some reason, he didn't talk? How was she supposed to get answers?

She soon drifted off into a rather peaceful sleep, her hand holding his.

And that's the end of chapter three!

I wrote this chapter in two hours and I didn't really think it out, but I hope it's good enough, I didn't re-read it for mistakes because I've gotta go because it's late and I have to get to school tomorrow so goodnight everybody!

- Katherine