Chapter 2 – Go Rin! You're the BEST!

Kagome ran for what seemed like hours. She was scratched all over, and had bruises on many parts of her body. She stopped near a stream to cool off and wash up a bit.

'Damn that baka Inuyasha, why is he always so infuriating! Great, now I can't go back to Inuyasha for a while or I'll completely lose what's left of my control, and I can't get back to my own time without getting caught' Kagome thought to herself as she calmed down.

She had just decided that the best way to get back was to hurry up and do it while Inuyasha was still wrapped up with kissing Kikyo, that, hopefully, he wouldn't notice, when a tainted Shikon shard was quickly approaching.

Kagome panicked, she didn't have her bow and arrows and she hadn't perfected her miko abilities yet. She couldn't very well call for Inuyasha, now either. A roar came from Kagome's right and she had just enough time to let out a shrill scream before the wind was knocked out of her. She struggled to get up and tried to focus her miko powers into a shape of a bow and arrow like Kaede was teaching her. She had gotten enough control for one shot and that one had hit the mark before the huge bear demon swiped at her with it's paw and knocked her out.

A pair of brown eyes watched Kagome fall before scampering off.

With Sesshomaru

Sesshomaru had headed back towards his camp when he decided that his hanyou half-brother was seriously mental. He had the perfect girl right in front of him who would die for him, yet he chose the undead miko who would drag him to hell the first chance she got.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Sesshomaru's young ward, Rin ran to him and hugged his legs. "Have you been good Rin?" Sesshomaru asked the energetic girl. Rin nodded.

"Yes, Sesshomaru-sama. Rin has been good, but Rin sees Kagome in a field getting hurt," Rin looked up at the demon lord with sad brown eyes that clearly said, if you don't help her, I'll cry. Sesshomaru mentally sighed. He couldn't understand how this little girl could have gotten past all the barriers around his cold heart. This time he sighed for real.

No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't refuse her when she made those puppy-eyes at him.

He followed his ward towards the clump of thick trees where, supposedly, Kagome had been injured. After getting past the trees, Sesshomaru could see the damage done around the river. Trees were ripped out by the roots, blood was everywhere and Kagome fragile body was lying a few feet away, tattered and torn like a piece of rag. He didn't know why, but just looking at her body like that, caused something to hurt inside of him.

The miko barrier put up around Kagome had knocked out the demon that had caused this damage. The demon lord strode over to the demon, and with one lash of his whip, the demon was ashes. The tainted Shikon shard lay in the midst of the battle. Sesshomaru picked it up and started for the unconscious miko. Surprisingly, the barrier did nothing to hold him out, but was like it was never there to him. He shrugged inwardly and picked up the miko and headed back to Rin.

She peered at Kagome's battered body and said, " Is she going to be okay? Rin will be sad if she no gonna be okay." Sesshomaru nodded. Rin smiled widely and went back to torturing Jaken, happy that Kagome was going to be alright.

While keeping an eye on his hyper ward, Sesshomaru had one of his random battles with himself about nothing because, once again, he was bored. Or was it because his youkai thought that he liked the miko who was currently lying next to him, healing.

AU: Hi! The bolded words are his youkai.

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'I wonder why I let Rin convince me to go after Kagome after she saw her fall' Sesshomaru thought to himself.

Well, first of all, you let Rin melt your icy heart a bit, but there is also another reason.

'Hn. And just what do you think that is?'

DUH! You like her!

'And just who are you to be telling this Sesshomaru this nonsense'

I, drum roll please, am…

'Tell this Sesshomaru before I kill you'

Well, you can't kill me, because before you interrupted me, I was going to say that I was YOU.

'You lie, I can't be THAT annoying'

Yes, you can. Anyways, stop avoiding the subject at hand here. You do too like her.

'And just how do you expect me to believe you?'

Just spent some time with her…

Sesshomaru glanced at the miko stirring next to him, and could feel his glare soften involuntarily.

Kagome blinked a bit before sitting up. The last thing she could remember was the bear demon taking a swipe at her and a lot of pain. Then a small blur of orange and black tackled her. Kagome looked down and saw Rin hugging onto her as if she were her lifeline.

"What am I doing here?" Kagome asked Rin as the little girl smiled up at her.

"Rin sees you fall and cry out, so Rin runs back to Sesshomaru-sama and he rescue you from bad demon. Now you all better, so you can play with Rin, right?" Kagome couldn't help but laugh at the innocent request. Then what Rin had said hit home, Sesshomaru?

Sesshomaru smelt the confusion in the miko's scent so he decided to speak up.

"Rin requested that I should go help you after she saw you fall or else she'll cry, and Kami, you don't want to hear her cry," Sesshomaru said that last part quietly in Kagome's ear, so Rin could not hear it.

Kagome laughed quietly, then bowed to the demon lord. " Arigatou," she said happily, but a sad face quickly replaced her look of happiness when she remembered what had caused her to run and encounter that demon. She most defiantly couldn't go back to her time; because Inuyasha was certainly going to catch up to her first and she probably had some of Sesshomaru's scent on her. Sesshomaru could sense the miko's distress and was about to ask her why, when Rin piped up.

"Sesshomaru-sama? Could Kagome nee-chan stay with us? I want her to play and take care of me," Kagome and Sesshomaru looked at Rin with a look of surprise. Sesshomaru could see that her face was once again reading, say yes, or I'll cry. Obviously Kagome could read the message as well. Sesshomaru thought about it for a second. He decided that if Kagome were to stay a while with them, he could find out why she has this effect on him.

"Only if Kagome were to agree, Rin," was his short reply to his ward. Unknowingly to both the stoic demon lord and his ward, they had just offered her a solution to her recent problem. Looking at Rin's hopeful face, she smiled and said, "Yes."

Rin grinned and pulled Kagome to her feet and dragged her to play 'stuff as many flowers as you can down Jaken's throat', leaving Sesshomaru to think about that curious enigma named Kagome.