Hikaru: I'm so overdo with this chapter that no excuse that I make up will ever make up for it…. Though I was having issues with my laptop that I ended up getting a new one and had to transfer all my files onto the new one… (Continues rant for another 5 minutes)

Next time I take forever on a chapter, slap my head around and tell me to get it done…

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It was Saturday, the last day of the pow wow. It was also when the more interesting contests took place.

Out of all the years she has been going to the Gathering of Nations, Andy has never been so exhausted. Reasons being:

late nights for the past two

being sated from heat from a very sexy inu youkai

But any thing was better than feeling horny every waking moment of the day. She leaned back on the bench to wind up in between Sesshoumaru's legs.

Meanwhile, Sesshoumaru and Rin were distracted by everything around them, from the colorful and shining costumes, to the aroma of the food around them, and the loud beats of the drum.

"Hey Andy…" Rin spoke up, leaning closer to Andy.

"Hm?" Andy replied, breaking from her day dream trance.

"Why are all the costumes so out there?"

"What do you mean?"

"They're just…."

Rin thought for a minute to find the right words in English, as she decided to practice while she was in America.

"Oh… I see where you're getting at. Part of the judging is based on how much they focus on you and the way you move to the beat of the drums. A lot of dancers… like that traditional dancer over there…"

Andy took a moment to pause as she pointed out Arnold. Rin nodded when she spotted him.

"Anyway…. Noticed the shiny spots where all the feathers meet?"

Rin nodded again.

"Those are the backs of CDs…" Andy said with a smirk, after seeing Rin's confused look.

"See…. You want to catch the judges' attention as much as you can, the CDs are used to reflect light and make your costume stand out a bit more because the reflection from the lighting… and thus… earn more points…"

"Ah…. I see…" Rin said, nodding in understanding as she watched the dances more closely now.

Sesshoumaru just shook his head. Rin was always the one to ask questions.

Apparently… the head shake was a bit too much, as he already had a headache from the many different scents around. How does it not affect Andy?

"Aw… is puppy sick?" Andy said cutely, looking up at Sesshoumaru.

"No…."

"Then why does puppy look all grouchy….?"

Rin tried to hold back a laugh.

Andy simply smiled.

"What? Not amused?"

Sesshoumaru tried to ignore her and looked back at the program.

"Let me see that…" Andy said, snatching the program right out of his hand. She quickly scanned it before her eyes went big.

"Oh crap! Running late!" Andy cried out, leaping up, accidentally whacking Sesshoumaru under the chin with her elbow and started to head up the steps.

"Dad… are you ok?" Rin asked, looking behind her, watching Sesshoumaru's eyes spin round and round.

"What a hook…" he mumbled.

Rin took the program from where Andy dropped it and read what was next.

"It says it's the Grand Entry next…." Rin said checking Sesshoumaru's watch to see if the time was right.

"What's that anyway?"

"Just wait and watch…" Sesshoumaru replied, keeping on the look out for the wolf hanyou. Rin shrugged and turned her attention that way as well.

She then turned her attention to the announcer talking, announcing each dancer in each category to head for the main floor in the center of the Pit. Rin's eyes went wide after she took her eyes off for one minute and suddenly looked back to hundreds of dark heads, feathers, streamers, bells, and other things all cramped into that one small area. Each body moved in perfect rhythm to the beat of the drum, either stepping or swaying in beat.

Rin immediately reached for the camera and started to snap pictures.

"Dad! This is so cool!" Rin said, as her index finger never left the camera button.

Sesshoumaru shook his head in amusement to Rin's enthusiasm. Then he reached for the aspirin as another headache started to take its toll.

It wasn't exactly his fault that he had such a keen sense of smell… Some days it was a gift, other days it was a burden. That's just how it was. Too bad for him that out of all the scents around him, none of which were Andy's. He went back to trying to find her in the sea of dancers, but didn't have much luck.

Once he focused in on one with similar colors as Andy's, it turned out to be a different person.

Rin was still taking pictures. There was a moment where she had the camera into focus, something else went and distracted her, making her focus on that. But she was enjoying herself greatly, even getting a few shots of the bald eagle being brought around by the bird handler down on the floor, having it spread its wings high to the crowd at certain points, cleansing the floor for good competition. The same time the eagle would spread its wings, the dancers with feathered fans would also raise their feathers to help bless the floor and powwow.

After a while, the Pit slowly began to clear out, as the floor was needed to continue on with the Miss Indian World pageant, which was not your typical beauty pageant. Andy didn't make it back to their seats until half of the contestants were introduced.

"Where were you?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"I changed…" Andy replied.

Sesshoumaru just noticed that she wasn't in her costume anymore. She was now wearing a black button up shirt with a pair of boot cut Levi's with black boots to match. She also wore a single stranded turquoise necklace which was the only hint of color of the entire ensemble. She had her costume carefully arranges on a hanger, hanging off her arms and she moved towards the plastic bin where she usually kept it, along with emergency beads, feathers, anything she might need in case she had an accident and didn't want to pay an expensive prince to repair it at one of the costume stands in the big white tent. After she took care of that, she went back to her spot in between Sesshoumaru's legs.

"I don't think having a beauty pageant's fair…" Rin commented.

"Why not?" Andy asked.

"Because they're all pretty…."

Andy laughed at that.

"Miss Indian World's different Rini…" Andy said. "It's not like talent, swimsuit, or evening gown. It's more of a chance to embrace your tribal traditions to the core, from the traditional costume, to the dances, to basic knowledge of the oral and physical traditions…."

"That sounds a lot better!" Rin said happily.

They sat there in silence for a bit, watching Miss Congeniality and the runner ups receive their awards. Then, Miss Indian World was crowned. As the people cheered and all the contestants did a victory dance around the floor to the song of Miss Indian World, Andy stood up and stretched a bit.

"Let's go into the big tent… I'm hungry…" Andy said, beginning to make her way to the stairs.

"What about the seats?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"That's why you use the blankets. Old Native trick…. No one takes the seats with the blanket spread out…" Andy replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Sesshoumaru shrugged and started to follow Andy.

"Let's go Rin…" Sesshoumaru said.

"But I saw everything yesterday…" Rin said, seemingly glued to her spot.

"Rin…"

"Fine…" Rin said pouting a bit, going after the two.

"You won't be disappointed…" Andy said. "Usually they don't have the same things up the next day…"

---

Andy did not lie.

Whatever Rin saw the day before, was no longer there. It seemed like that the vendors saved the best crafted items for the very last day of the powwow and competed with other vendors of the same items for the best prices. Rin was busy looking at a few hairpins, while Andy forced Sesshoumaru near a stand with many herbs and remedies with scents that was causing him to get another headache.

"What's up with you?" Andy asked, looking up from one of the turquoise bracelets she was examining.

"Too… many…. Scents…" Sesshoumaru replied, leaning against her.

"Oh! I forgot! I guess I'm just use to it…" Andy replied sheepishly. "Do you think you can last a bit longer? I need to pick up some sage for my grandmother. She loves the stuff."

"Fine…"

Andy immediately went to the nest stand where they had cheaper looking bracelets, earrings, small knick knacks, and small baskets of what looked like to be small bundles of weeds to Sesshoumaru. Andy stalled a bit in front of the bigger one, picked one up to sniff, then did the same with a second one, finally paying for that one.

"Maybe you should try to sniff this a bit…" Andy said, holding the small bundle barely under Sesshoumaru's nose.

"I don't want to get high thanks..." he grumbled.

Andy rolled her eyes.

"It's not used for that moron…" Andy said teasingly. "It's an old plant that many tribes in the Southwest used for medical needs like in teas, sweathouses, seeds for eye drops, which I learn was a bit painful, but cleans the eye very well. It's a sacred plant to my people and thus we use it for incense…"

Andy placed emphasis on the last word to make sure it processed in Sesshoumaru.

"We mostly just do it to keep Gram from freaking out about the Ninit and the Waterbabies. My parents and I just think it smells good…"

"The what and the who?"

Sesshoumaru just looked confused.

"Never mind…"

Sesshoumaru sighed, but as he took a breath in, he caught onto a familiar scent, despite all the others that were giving him a headache. Now that he though about it, the scent from the sage was actually making him feel better. At least that's what Andy noticed.

"Ready?" Andy asked with a smile.

"Lilacs and sage…" Sesshoumaru said absent mindedly.

"Well… I got the sage, but they never seem to have lilacs…" Andy said. "Oh well… let's go troops!"

Rin heard Andy's call and followed the two hand in hand. Sesshoumaru didn't mind that Andy misinterpreted his comment on her scent, him finally discovering the second half of her scent.

__

Hikaru: Meh…. Filler I guess…. Next's one's gonna take a while.

Back up to Nevada for… you guess it… meeting Andy's family!

Woot…

Stay tuned and leave a review while you're at it….