Arrival

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha. I just borrow for my own twisted ventures…

They landed in front of a large palace. She gaped at it in awe. She had no doubt in her mind that it had been designed by Sesshomaru, for it was almost as intimidating as the dog-demon himself. She and Shippo followed him through the double door entrance, looking around the interior of the foyer with even more awe than they had felt at merely seeing the elaborate home of the Lord of the Western Lands.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin exclaimed, rushing toward him with Jaken in tow, "You're back! You weren't gone nearly as long as Jaken said you would be. He kept saying," she cleared her throat and mimicked Jaken's voice, "'That girl is just as stubborn as that half demon! He'll be gone for a week trying to convince her…' Oh! It's you!"

Kagome smiled down at her. "Hello. It's been a while since I last saw you," she said, "I knew that you were Sesshomaru's companion. Inu Yasha just wouldn't believe that his brother would travel with a hum-" Kagome stopped speaking suddenly and shook Inu Yasha's image from her mind.

"What's wrong? You got really pale all of a sudden," Rin said, concernedly, "I know what will make you feel better! Let's go pick flowers! There's a whole meadow full of wild flowers not too far from here, but Jaken will never take me. He says flowers are silly. Do you think flowers are silly?"

"No, of course not," Kagome replied.

"Rin, Kagome is here to do a job for me," Sesshomaru interjected, "She doesn't have time to go gallivanting about with you."

Rin's face fell, and Kagome's heart fell with it. "Rin, I'm sure Shippo will go to the meadow with you, won't you?"

"Sure! I- mean… cause she'll need someone to protect her in case of danger," Shippo said, trying his hardest to sound grown up.

"Yay! Let's go, Shippo!" Rin exclaimed, grabbing Shippo and pulling him out the door.

"Jaken," Sesshomaru said, "Go with them."

"Yes, my Lord," Jaken said sadly, grumbling all the way.

"Rin's quite a sweetie," Kagome said, "What exactly does she mean to you?"

"That's really none of your business," he retorted, "But you could say she's like a daughter to me."

Kagome smiled. She knew it wasn't much, but she also knew that Sesshomaru wasn't the kind of guy to tell just anybody something like that. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to live with him. She continued smiling as she was shown to her room. To the left of Kagome's room, was Shippo's, and three doors to the right was Sesshomaru's, and even further to the right, was Rin's room. The rest of the rooms were used as guest rooms and such. Each room, of course, had its own private bathroom and dressing room.

"There are also hot springs off to the side of the house, if you would rather use them," he said.

"Where's the library?" Kagome asked.

"Downstairs, next to the parlor- how did you know?" he asked.

"All big, elegant houses like this have libraries. It's common knowledge," she said, "I'll just drop my stuff in my room and then I'll be in the library."

"Wouldn't you rather relax a bit?" he asked before he could stop himself. Why did he care? The sooner she got the job done, the sooner he would be rid of her.

"Nope. Once I've set my mind to do something, there's no rest until it's accomplished."

She walked briskly out of the room and down to the library. She pulled out every book on healing, regeneration, mutation, and any other topic that seemed even remotely relevant and spread out on the floor. Shippo and Rin brought her dinner and they ate together in the library. Sesshomaru walked into the room at dawn to find her sprawled amongst open books and page upon page of notes. He shook his head, wondering why humans seemed to enjoy exhausting themselves, and walked to her. He picked her up as gently as he could and took her to her room, laying her on the bed. Without thinking, he brushed his lips over her forehead and then stood upright, eyes wide.

'Why did I…? Must be out of habit, with Rin and all. Yes, that's it. It's merely habit, and nothing more,' he thought, leaving the room.

The next day, Kagome woke to a bright light shining in her eyes. She sat up, groaning slightly and rubbing her sore neck. She looked around at her surroundings and wondered how the hell she had gotten to the room. She thought she remembered being carried… warmth… lips… wait- lips? 'Okay, now I'm sure it was all a dream…'

She practically fell out of bed and walked down to the library to continue her work. One her way she ran into Rin and Shippo, who had become nearly inseparable since they met, and ate a small breakfast with them.

"Is this how it always is?" Kagome asked.

"What do you mean?" Rin replied.

"I mean… does Sesshomaru ever eat with you?" she said, "Does he ever show up at all?"

"Yes," Rin said, smiling, "Sometimes Lord Sesshomaru takes me to the meadow. And sometimes, when I'm sick, he brings me food in my room and we eat together- just the two of us. A lot of the time, I'm just pretending to be sick, though."

Kagome grinned. It was just too hard to picture Sesshomaru being kind to anybody! She wondered how Sesshomaru treated Inu Yasha when they were kids…

That night, Kagome fell asleep in the library again. In fact, she seemed to fall asleep in the midst of her research every night. And, every night, Sesshomaru would take her to her room. Until the third week of her stay…

So? What do you think? I know that the chapters have all been on the short side, but I'm going to try to make them longer, I promise! Review review review!