-:-:-:-:-CHAPTER SIX-:-:-:-:-

Kagome absolutely froze, standing stock-still, breathing shallow. The almighty Sesshoumaru didn't even hear her with his ultrasensitive hearing, and the water vapor surrounding the spring was clouding his nose from her scent.

That's the only reason Sesshoumaru hated baths: he felt vulnerable. Not even in his sleep could someone achieve the task of surprising him.

As he emerged he shook his head to rid his long locks of water.

Kagome robotically stepped back once and lo-and-behold, she managed to tread on just about the most dry, crunchy twig in the whole damn forest. It snapped under her foot and to Kagome it felt like the sound reverberated off of every tree in the suddenly hushed forest. The birds and frogs and bugs seemed to just go silent on her, the one moment when she really could have used some backdrop sounds to muffle her mistake. Not like it would help much anyway. She cringed at the loud noise, knowing she was in trouble now.

Sesshoumaru was half way out of the water, his hips almost breaking the surface of temperate spring water when his head snapped in her direction and his piercing, furious molten eyes locked on her, his face holding the ultra-rare emotion of pure shock.

Kagome was confident she was the only individual, breathing and alive, to have seen such an emotion on his usually impassive features. Breathing and alive as of yet.

oOo

Sesshoumaru wasn't going to run, running from situations is not what a lord did; he slowly lowered his body back into the water. Planted his feet solidly into the soft sands on the bottom of the spring and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at her, his features plainly saying 'Get. The hell. Out of here'.

Kagome backed away slowly "I-I-I'm so sorry!" She breathed, then turned and ran.

Minutes later she arrived at the flower field, chest heaving. She spotted Rin lying on top of a large boulder, protruding from about the center of the field. Ah-Un was asleep next to her.

'So much for watching her.' Kagome thought but then withdrew the notion. Setting such a task of watching an over active little child on a weak, sick demon wasn't very fair.

"Hey! I'm here!" Kagome jogged up to the young child, out of breath and images of the 'incident' roaming into her mind.

"Kagome-chan! Why were you late? Did something happen?" the young girl asked with concern.

"No, Rin. I'm fine." She assured her.

"Alright…" she said, sounding unconvinced, "so…do you want to play tag, then?" excitement laced slowly into her tone, her eyes beginning to shine in anticipation.

"Yeah, sure, Rin," agreed Kagome, still tired from her little run, but more than happy to act as if nothing ever happened.

oOo

Sesshoumaru stayed in the water a little while longer after the miko had run off, thinking about what happened.

That stupid girl! How dare she pry into his business! She almost saw him unclothed. The only people to see him without clothes had been his mother…And Rin, on accident.

On occasion he might walk around his castle shirtless but that would only be when he just took a bath and he didn't want to get his haori wet, but that's it. But…the main thing he was worried about was that he didn't mind too much about what she saw.

He let out a sigh. Why was he thinking of this woman so frequently? A couple days with her and she was in his mind a good deal of the time. What was she? Some type of sorceress? Again he chalked it up to his growing pack and alpha mentality.

Sesshoumaru elegantly hauled himself over the border of the spring, all the way out this time. Crystal, steaming droplets of spring water trickled down his fair, flawless hide, dancing around the ridges of muscle.

He strode over to his clothes on one of the boulders and put them on, deep in thought.

oOo

"Come on Kagome, Catch me!" Rin screamed back at Kagome. She was struggling to keep up with the small girl who was like a bouncy-ball of pure energy.

"Ahh, Rin! Slow down! You're too fast!" Kagome called out to the young girl ahead of her. Rin slowed down considerably, and Kagome caught her.

"Got you!" even though she knew Rin had let her, she said it triumphantly.

Kagome and Rin played until it was late in the afternoon and they spotted Sesshoumaru and Jaken soaring overhead on his Youkai cloud—the great mass of white energy solid enough to stand on.

Kagome noticed before Rin, so when she came to an abrupt halt, the child sprinted directly into the back of her knees.

The thoughts of what occurred a couple hours before arrived back into Kagome's mind. She wondered how Sesshoumaru would feel and act around her now…Kagome knew she felt uneasy about being near him.

"Come, Rin…Miko," he didn't look at her, "We're leaving."

When walking back into the forest to collect the rest of their things from the camp site, they came upon Miroku. He was stumbling through the thick trees looking quite lost. He gave off a very strong impression of a tourist: lost, and with an unnaturally colored backpack attached to his shoulder. All he needed now to complete the look was a wide-rimmed sunhat and a sunburn.

The transportation was limited with Ah-Un still weak. Sesshoumaru assumed the pack demon could carry the monk, Rin and the toad at maximum, but what of Kagome?

He thought it through quickly, to find some other solution than what he knew was inevitable. Rin and Jaken were both of inconsequential weight and only Youkai could safely ride on top of his youkai cloud…meaning he would have to carry either the miko or the houshi. Knowing which one was going to have to happen didn't make it any easier to stomach.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

A/N: Oh boy, I wonder how this will work out ^_^

Thanks for the lovely words, you guys are great!

JA NE!