Hey! This goes out to brlousee! Happy Birthday! I promised, so here's your update! Aren't you happy!? Shout outs are fun... anyone else got a birthday? :) Hey, sometimes deadlines are good, if for the right reasons... and ONLY if for the right reasons. Birthdays are right reasons....

Disclaimer: Does anyone actually read these?

Chapter 6 - The Challenge

"Kagome, would ye check on Inuyasha?"

The girl looked up from where she sat, dropping the rice ball as though it were some forbidden thing. Nervously she coughed and smoothed her kimono.

"He was the...demon, yes?" she asked. Kaede was about to correct her, and say, 'hanyou,' but she caught herself at the last moment. This wouldn't work otherwise.

"Hai, child. He needs to be taken care of immediately." Kaede sighed dramatically. "I just don't know how long he has until..." she broke off and sighed again. Kagome frowned, suddenly very aware of the situation and eager to help.

"What would you have me do Kaede-baa-chan?" she asked quickly. Kaede frowned thoughtfully. What would she have the girl do? Love was so complicated...

"Go and bring him some hot tea, I'll make it for ye." The old woman hobbled over to the other side of the kitchen and began to make tea. Kagome smiled at the wealth that surrounded her. She'd never been inside an actual kitchen, a room entirely devoted to cooking.

'You're in a castle, baka,' she reminded herself. They had everything one could ever need. It was so....amazing, to have everything at your fingertips. You needed only to ask, and you could have almost anything you desired. It was a very comfortable setting, and she was definitely getting used to it...

"Here ye are, just take this up to his chambers and give it to him." Kaede smiled at the young woman. "And if he needs any healing, we leave him in your charge."

Kagome nodded, took the cup of tea and turned to leave. Then she frowned and turned back around.

"Kaede baa-chan, I don't know where his room is," she said sadly. Kaede chuckled.

"You'll know it when you hear it, now go on. Mustn't leave the master waiting!" And she shooed Kagome away with a spoon to the backside.

Kagome walked over to the door, and a servant bowed and slid it open for her. Kagome smiled and bowed back, slowly becoming used to all of this.

She walked into the hall, marveling at the various decorations on the walls, and the people bustling about. Kagome raised an eyebrow. She'd imagined a castle to have many people inside, but there really weren't too many at all. Looking around again, she was already seeing familiar faces by now.

Thinking back, she estimated there only to be a little more than a hundred people total. The village outside wasn't that large, and it seemed that everyone in it worked at the castle as well.

"Strange," she murmured, and made to go up the grand staircase before her. She smiled. If there was anything she loved the most about this castle, it was the staircase. She'd never seen anything like it before. Then again, she'd never been in a castle.

She sighed. Who was she to judge how marvelous a castle it was? For all she knew, it was a horrible, old ratty castle with horrible people.

Kagome thought back on the man she'd seen previously, this Inuyasha person. If memory served her correctly, he was supposed to have died a few years before, along with his father, the lord of the castle. It was too confusing...

Getting back to business, Kagome shook her head and started up the staircase.

It took forever. But when she got to the top, she found even more tapestries, and more sights to behold. The hallway was littered with doors; there had to be hundreds of rooms here. Why didn't everyone just live in the castle? Surely there had to be room enough for everyone.

She frowned, trying to decide whether to go left or right. She stood still, and after a while slouched, changing positions. This place was too big to go blindly in some direction and hope to get it right. She had to get it right the first time.

Kagome sighed, holding the cup of tea in front of her. It was beginning to get cold. "That can't be good for his health," she whispered to herself, and as that thought left her lips, she heard a great pounding and hubbub to her left.

"That can't be good for his health either," she said, an eyebrow raised. Hurriedly she walked in that direction. It only took a minute or two to finally reach the area where the noise was the loudest. If she could guess correctly, she'd say he was pounding his head against the wall.

She chuckled. He was the lord of the castle, and a demon as well. He wouldn't have the nerve to do something so juvenile as that. She slowly opened the door...

And stood there, stunned. He really was banging his head against the wall. A confused look crossed her face, and managed to stay there as she gazed at the lord in all his glory. And apparently, he hadn't noticed her intrusion.

But she really wasn't paying attention to his not paying attention. She was staring at his hair. The motion of slamming his cranium against the stone was causing his hair to fly behind him, slapping his back audibly every time he hit the wall. He was doing it with a great force too. Glancing down, she found that he was kicking the wall at the same time.

Out of concern for her patient, she finally tried to make contact with the unknown.

"Umm...urrgh..." was all she managed. But it was enough to catch dog-boy's attention. He whipped his head around, snarling at her with eyes so red she gasped. She froze, her arms raised, and yet she still held the tea-cup.

His eyes swept up her form, and he found the cup of tea in her hand. She could have sworn he rolled his eyes, and then he resumed slamming his head against the wall. She reached her free hand out, moving as though to grasp him and hold him back. But she was afraid to. So she stared at the floor, wondering what on earth to do.

"Get out of here, wench," he growled. She looked up, startled at the amount of gruffness in his voice. What the hell did she do?

"I was sent here by Kaede baa-chan, to give you this tea," she said sternly, staring him down. He narrowed his eyes at her and snarled. She took a deep breath, but remained where she was. He continued to growl at her, and the sound was slowly driving her mad.

Frowning fiercely, she stomped over to where he stood, unafraid of the consequences. His eyes widened a little, and she returned his glare.

"I told you to leave, wench!" He swung his arm out in a lazy pass to hit her, and she dodged it easily. She stood upright again, and stuck her finger in his face.

"You are going to drink this tea and get better, do you hear me?!" And with that, she grabbed one of his hands and forced the cup of tea into it. He looked almost curiously down at it, then looked back up at Kagome. She caught a flicker of amusement, and then it was gone.

Inuyasha grabbed her arm, and all but threw her into the hallway. She turned swiftly around, just in time to see the door slam in her face.

Kagome blinked, a little shocked, then retaliated by pounding with her fist on the door. A growl and a smash could be heard from the other side, but he said nothing. She sighed, and crossed her arms against her chest and leaned against the wall opposite his doors.

And she glared a hole into it.

"Miroku, I swear, one more time and Little Miroku is gonna die," she spat with a malicious smile. He looked up at her innocently, his smile blindingly white and charming. To anyone but Sango.

"My dear Sango, you know that I mean no harm." Sango closed her eyes, and took deep, calming breaths, leaning her head back. She heard a rustle of movement below her, and a tic began in her left eye.

Sango lifted the hand full of frame and leaned toward the wall, then felt that familiar shiver up her spine. Bracing herself, she kicked back with her foot and made satisfying contact.

She waited with bated breath, and finally heard the thud of a pervert hitting the floor. Shaking her head, she resumed putting the painting into it's new position on the wall. She heard a groan from below and smiled, knowing her job was done.

Sango turned on the ladder, looking down at the man sprawled on the stones, rubbing his head. It wasn't that far of a drop, she knew Miroku could handle it. So she wasn't really that worried.

Humming to herself, she climbed down the ladder and happily went to put the ladder into the closet where it had been residing previously. On her way back to Miroku and all of her other duties, she heard a thump and a slam from up above, and some raised voices.

She shook her head. This match-maker stuff wasn't going to work unless both parties were willing to cooperate. Sango sighed. They just had to make this difficult didn't they?

"Miroku!" He scrambled up off the floor and stood rapt to attention. She grinned. "Time to play dirty." Miroku rubbed his hands together, an evil laugh forming on his lips. Sango soon got tired of it and bonked him on the head with a broom.

"Only I can do the evil laugh."

Okay...so maybe that was a tad ridiculous. Thanks for reading it though! Please review, and please read my other fics! Pleeeeease please please...not that I'm one to beg or anything... - Ariana