Characters and plot belong to their rightful owners.
XIV.
There was gold, there was peach, and there was silver, and Kagome was stuck.
The raven–haired woman found herself stuck in more ways than one, and it bothered her some. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that she had nowhere to go, with only three feet separating them, give or take, or the fact that she was stuck here with him. It could have been anyone else, and she would have been just peachy keen. Absolutely wonderful.
Well, maybe that was going a bit far.
She wouldn't have minded much, to make amends.
And then it was dark, and Kagome was lost.
There was no guide to this, no How To: For Dummies, and especially not in this situation.
She'd never been alone with Sesshoumaru like this before. In fact, she'd never been alone with him, period. Not completely, anyways. There was always someone around: Sango and Miroku by the fire, Inuyasha just around the bend, Shippou and Rin and Ah–Un and Jaken.
But now there was no one, and it frightened her. She knew Sesshoumaru would never hurt her, but just being in his presence unguarded made her nervous, anxious, excited and a whole score of other emotions she couldn't be pressed to name. Her stomach was in her throat.
Slowly, her eyes adjusted to the limited light, just a little stream of the upperworld filtering through a tiny crack in the mountain of rocks and boulders they were buried under.
Little tufts of snow fell through occasionally, chilling the air and blocking what little light they had.
It had happened so suddenly, out of the blue.
Well, that was a lie.
Inuyasha was to blame for this. She had warned the stubborn hanyou that the ground was unstable. After all that snow, sleet and rain build up it would be a miracle if the hollow mountain's crust hadn't been weakened some. But no! He had to go with the lets-ignore-Kagome-and-logic rout! (She'd been told it was more scenic, but that wasn't an excuse! And besides, who the hell was Inuyasha to pay attention to, much less enjoy, scenery?)
"Keh! I know what I'm doin'. The mountain ain't gonna cave!" He'd said.
"I know what I'm doin', wench! Stand back as I flaunt my manly powers! Be awed by my big sword!" Kagome mocked under her breath, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly and missing the amused look Sesshoumaru shot her. "Ugh! Stupid Inuyasha! Just wait until I get out of here...! I'll mess him up so bad that he won't even be able to tell up from down! I'll sit him so bad that his back will break! Arrg!" She half screamed.
They'd both been stuck for almost two hours now, and as the sun had inched towards the horizon, the temperature had dropped dramatically. The fleece jacket Kagome had donned earlier just barely kept her from feeling the chill now.
Rubbing her arms for warmth, Kagome sneezed.
It was just her luck that she'd get buried under a couple hundred pounds of rock and mud and then catch a cold. "It figures...." She murmured quietly.
In the dim of the small cavern, Sesshoumaru moved, wrapping his arm around her slender waist and pulling her flush against him.
"S–Se–Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked hesitantly – unsure.
"It would not benefit either of us if you were to fall ill." He replied stoically, his liquid honey eyes boring into hers.
Perhaps it was the moonlight shining down from above that lit his face so angelically, or perhaps it was the way that Sesshoumaru's eyes seemed to swirl like an iridescent pond, and maybe it was the chilly nip in the air that always seemed to spark some sort of magic, but something made Kagome snuggle closer to the Taiyoukai, raise herself onto her tippy toes, and mould her lips to his.
(Damn, I hate this one! Such a pain in the bloody arse to write. Except for the end. That was my favourite. So... many... errors! I'm dying here! Anyways, on a happier note, I have reached the 6,000 hit mark for Dignity Denied! Whooot! Thanks for reading! Tell your mother, tell your sister, tell the yak on your front lawn! Be dears and review. It makes me haaaapy! – Incomprehensible)