Chapter 12

Author Note:

I know a lot of you want to know when the action is coming, and don't worry, it'll get here soon, but just keep in mind I'm trying to build a plausible relationship between the two. Sesshoumaru isn't exactly mr. touchy-feely, and I like to think that it will take a lot of coaxing from Kagome to bring him out of his shell. So, basically I'm trying to say that I don't think it's rational that they would be traveling for a few days, have one or two conversations, and then fall madly in love with each other. Tis gonna be a bit before they start realizing that they wanna have hot, hot smex all over feudal Japan, but that day will come!

Good things take time, and I try to be as amusing in my banter as much as possible so, be amused and next chapter will have action. I promise!!!

Sesshoumaru had overcome many obstacles during the coarse of his long life. He had incinerated dragons, and leveled mountains, and destroyed entire armies with a single sweep of his sword. Yes, Sesshoumaru was a master by all senses of the word, but this task... it escaped him.

He had no idea how to wake the slumbering miko.

"Miko," he said imperiously, looking down at the sleeping girl with cold eyes.

The miko mumbled something incoherent and rolled onto her other side.

He sighed and bit back a growl. Why did she have to make things so very complex? The past few days she had always awoken on her own, but today he had waited long past dawn and still she slumbered.

"Miko, we must depart," he tried again. "Wake up now or I shall continue without you."

"Nnngh," she grumbled, scrunching her face into an unpleasant grimace and waving her hand at him lazily.

The taiyoukai stepped closer to the girl and did the only thing he could think to do.

"OW!" Kagome yelled, rolling onto her stomach in surprise. She struggled free of her sleeping bag enough to turn over and glared at him. "Did you just kick me?"

"Yes," he shrugged. "You would not get up, I saw no other option."

"Of course there were other options! How would you like it if someone icked you awake?" She said grumpily, rubbing her poor appendix with much more gusto than was strictly necessary.

He merely raised a brow as if to say that he would never sleep so late as to require that he be woken up. Which was probably true, seeing as he was perfect and all. Jerk.

"Ugh, this is so not fair," she sighed to the sky and closed her eyes in frustration. Haven't I been a good person? She asked whoever had decided it would be horrendously funny to make a demon lord her own personal alarm clock. Do I really deserve this?

As if to answer, a bee landed on her nose.

"Awesome," she grumbled and swatted at the pesky insect - it buzzed at her and flew away.

"Miko, we do not have all day," Sesshoumaru said impatiently.

She sat up and huffed reproachfully as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Sorry, next time I'll just leave the bee on my face until it stings me. You know, just to save time."

Sesshoumaru shrugged, his eyes glazing over with boredom, clearly stating that it sounded like a good idea to him. She had the strangest urge to kick him in the shins and run away.

"I don't know why I'm complaining to you, it's not like you care," she mumbled and stood up, stretching her arms above her head to crack her abused back. Sleeping on the cold, hard ground was not all it had cracked up to be...not that it had ever cracked up to much in the first place. "I could be allergic to bees for all you know, and then it would sting me, and I'd go into anaphylactic shock, and you'd just watch as I died a horrible, swollen death." She yawned.

The inuyoukai wasn't quite sure what 'allergies' and 'anaphylactic' was, but it sounded horribly boring, and not worth his time. "Were you in danger of dying, I would have acted accordingly," he said, wondering why there was even the slightest chance that such a small insect could kill her. Were humans truly that weak?

"Yeah, whatever," she rolled her eyes and went over to her bag, pulling out her plastic water bottle and taking a drink. When she was done with that she returned to her bag, hoping to find breakfast.

Sesshoumaru watched with growing impatience as the miko's search turned frantic and she began pulling out item after item from her pack. It might have been funny, were it not so time consuming. "What is the problem?" He sighed.

"There's no more!" She said, her lip pouting out comically as her hand went to her stomach. "All my food is gone! All I have are those stupid beans, and I am NOT having beans for breakfast."

He wasn't sure why she would bring beans with her if she had such an aversion to them, but he didn't particularly care. "Then you will have to go without breakfast," he said simply. "Now come, we have already wasted enough time."

Kagome gave him a sour look and began loading things back into her bag. "Fine, but can I at least change first, or do I have to walk around in my pajamas all day?"

Sesshoumaru thought that the attire she wore to sleep in was a great deal more wholesome than the skimpy yukata she had acquired, but he did not object, he simply walked out of the clearing to give her some privacy. Besides, there were worse sights to behold than her shapely legs, he noted. It certainly beat looking at trees.

Kagome waited until Sesshoumaru was out of sight and pulled on a champagne colored yukata. She wondered absently what the color was called in this day and age, obviously it was not called 'champagne' seeing as that drink would not be invented for some time, but there really wasn't any other word to describe it. Maybe she would ask Sesshoumaru.

An image of him scoffing at her and walking away came to mind and she quickly discarded that idea. On second thought, maybe she would just keep her big fat mouth closed and try not to embarrass herself anymore than she already had. Yes, that seemed like a splendid plan, she should follow it.

And so, Kagome hefted her bag onto her shoulders and followed after the youkai lord, determined to not do something stupid.

***

A few hours later Kagome had determined that 'stupid' and 'hungry' apparently coincided quite spectacularly. There must be some weird, proportional correlation between the two, because it seemed the hungrier she got, the more she seemed inclined to do something stupid... like bash that dumb can of beans against a rock and eat them with her fingers.

God, I really hate beans, she thought miserably as her stomach growled again. Can't this forest have a Ye Old Applebee's, or something? Her stomach gave another unpleasant gurgle as if in agreement.

"Okay, that's it! I need food," Kagome huffed, stopping in her tracks and looking around as though expecting to find an abandoned hamburger with the work s laying on the forest floo r. They had been walking for at least four hours and she would not be able to go on without breakfast and lunch.

Sesshoumaru watched the girl as she searched the landscape around her and wondered what it was exactly that she hoped to find. There was nothing edible here for at least a good 5 miles, perhaps he should tell her that.

"There is no food here."

Kagome ignored him. "No, there has to be something: wild mushrooms, acorns, something."

"There are mushrooms," he said blandly, watching as her face lit up, "but they are poisonous." Her face fell and then promptly turned into a scowl.

"Thanks, that's helpful."

"I already informed you that there was no food here," he struggled not to growl. He expected her to yell, expected her to call him rude and tell him he was a jerk, but he did not expect her to slump in defeat and groan like an injured animal.

"Ugh, what am I supposed to do without food?" She said dejectedly. She knew that she had only skipped two meals, but walking non-stop took a lot of energy! If she didn't get something in her empty stomach soon, she would be gnawing on Sesshoumaru's leather boots by the end of the day, and she didn't think he would appreciate that too much. No, not at all.

Sesshoumaru shifted uncomfortably at the smell of sad, desperation leaking from the girl and took an unsure step towards her. "You will be fine?" She heard him say, though, it sounded more like a question than anything. It was almost like he was trying to comfort her, but didn't really know how.

No, he's probably just trying to make sure I'm not going to pass out and he'd have to carry me, Kagome reasoned. Her explanation was a lot more likely than him actually giving a damn about something other than... well, nothing.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she sighed and pushed her bangs out of her eyes. "But the pathetic human will need food soon or she is going to pass out." She informed him.

Sesshoumaru sighed. "You will wait here," he commanded and then gave her a bland look. "If I return to find you dead, I will be forced to resurrect you and kill you myself." And with that he turned on his heal and jumped into the trees so fast he was nothing but a blur of white and red.

Did he just... Kagome thought dumbly, did he just make a joke? Oh my god... I think he did.

Twenty minutes later Kagome was still mercifully alive and seriously considering braiding another strand of her hair. She had already braided the front half, but the back was particularly hard to do, especially without a mirror. She was aware she probably looked ridiculous, but she couldn't help but feel like the left side of her head needed another damn braid!

It was at that moment that Kagome realized that her and boredom did not mix well. It was also at that moment that something small and red came flying at her head, causing her to shriek and dive to the ground. She heard a thud and opened her squinted eyes to see an apple rolling by her face.

"Miko, it is only fruit," Sesshoumaru said wearily, coming through the trees holding an arm full of said fruit. He dropped the apples by her head and took a step back. "It will be sufficient?" He asked.

She blinked, looked at the fifteen or so apples in front of her, and then looked back up to Sesshoumaru. "Uh, yeah... thanks."

He frowned, a significant step up from his normally blank face, but not exactly anything to celebrate about. "You are not satisfied?"

Kagome sat up and giggled. "No, I'm satisfied," she laughed. "It's just... how much do you think I eat?"

He looked at her, looked at the mound of apples, and shrugged as if to say 'that much'.

She giggled again. "Well, thanks, I appreciate it." She gave him one last smile before grabbing the nearest apple and biting into it. It was possible the best apple she had ever eaten, though, there may or may not have been a worm in it. Kagome liked to think that it was just a suspicious looking seed. She really hoped it was a seed.

Sesshoumaru watched with a detached interest as the miko consumed four pieces of fruit in rapid succession, eating around the core and then tossing it away. How strange, most people of this era simply ate the whole thing. Then again, on the list of 'strange things the miko does' this was certainly not at the top.

"Okay, THAT was a worm," she groaned, bringing Sesshoumaru out of his pointless musings. "I really miss pesticides."

The youkai lord raised a brow, "What is 'pesticides'?"

Kagome gave him a weird look. "Did... did you actually ask me a question?"

He simply glared at her.

"Oh," she muttered as if shocked. "Have you finally lost it?"

He scoffed. "I would consider the state of my hair style before making such accusations were I you, miko."

Kagome's hand reached up to feel the numerous braids adorning her hair and squeaked in embarrassment. "Hey, I was bored!"

"Indeed."

She hastily started running her fingers through her hair. "Now, do you want to know about pesticides or not?"

***

"See, and then you can jump over my piece like this," Kagome instructed, taking the little pebble and jumping it diagonally across the leaf. "And that means you get to take my piece off the board."

Sesshoumaru stared at the girl looking up at him expectantly. He glanced back down at the game she had been trying to explain to him, but he could not make heads nor tails of her crude gesturing and excited babble. "This is folly," he concluded.

"No, this is checkers," she corrected, rolling her eyes. She had finished explaining pesticides - and subsequently twentieth century agriculture - awhile ago and somehow their conversation had turned to board games. She wasn't entirely sure how they had switched from farmers to checkers, but she had decided that they were going to play this game come hell or high water. She had even drawn a game board in the dirt and gotten pebbles for his pieces and leaves for hers.

She was just about to try explaining it to him again when a gust of wind blew through their clearing and scattered all of her leaf pieces. They flew up and out of sight, just like her dwindling sanity.

"Fine, I guess we're done playing, it was a stupid idea anyway," she sighed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes moodily.

Sesshoumaru watched her expression fall and he shifted uncomfortably.

He mentally scowled at the unpleasant feeling this roused in his gut, willing it to go away. He did not like... feeling. It was not something he did often and not something he particularly enjoyed. As a youkai he was well versed in suppressing even the most dire of instincts, such as hunger and drowsiness, and he had been taught to ignore pain. Emotions were all but shunned in demon society, but being around Kagome made him feel many things he had always fought to repress.

"We will be arriving at a manor by nightfall tomorrow, perhaps we can play this 'checkers' there," he suggested before he could stop himself. He did not like when she got like this, the sadness he could smell on her surrounded him in an unpleasant fashion.

"Really?" Kagome said hopefully, her whole body seemed to immediately perk at his words. "You mean, you'd still play with me?"

Sesshoumaru only nodded his head curtly, but it was enough to bring a ridiculous smile to her face. "Okay!" She said brightly.

Soon after she packed up her things and they continued their southward journey. She was used to walking, she even liked walking, and walking with Sesshoumaru had become admittedly more enjoyable than she thought possible. They would bicker and argue, yes, but eventually he would simply fall silent and she could delude herself into thinking that she had come out victorious.

She liked delusion, it was a lot more satisfying than the reality that most times he preferred silence over her voice. And for once, Kagome found that she didn't mind the silence so much; the quiet that would stretch between them was strangely calming. She had never spent much time being silent, and she still wasn't very good at it, but she had come to appreciate simply walking beside someone without feeling the need to fill every moment with words. With him the silence wasn't awkward, it was almost nice.

But, being who she was, she could only enjoy the quiet for just so long.

"What's your favorite color?" She asked, shifting her heavy pack to a more comfortable position. Now that it had the additional weight of ten or so apples, it wasn't exactly light.

Sesshoumaru almost stumbled he was so startled. "What?"

"You're favorite color, what is it?" She shrugged.

He looked away from her and scowled. She interrupted his peaceful meditations for this? Why did she wish to know such things? "Colors preference is trivial," he said distastefully after recovering from the shock of being asked such an absurd question.

"Ah, come on," she smiled playfully. "You've got to like some more than others, even if it is trivial."

He gave her a withering glare, but she only stared right back at him. "White."

Kagome frowned. "White isn't really a color."

"It is what I prefer," he shrugged.

"I thought you'd like red best," she mused. "You know, the color of blood and all."

"If I had liked red, I would have said so," he huffed irritably. She asked a question, he gave an answer, he did not see why the miko chose to make things so difficult.

"Okay... you like white," she said. "What else?"

He looked at her again, just staring into her questioning gaze.

"I mean, what else do you like?" She expanded. "All I've really ever really seen you do is fight and kill things, but that can't be the only things you do... right?"

He just kept staring at her. She wanted to smack his forehead and tell him to just answer the damn question.

"Okay, I'll tell you something I like, then," she rolled her eyes. "Let's see, what do I like to do..." She mused out loud, tapping her finger to her lip as she thought. "I know! I like to cook!"

He arched a brow, not quite knowing why she thought he would care.

"It's just therapeutic, you know?" She babbled. "You take a bunch of things that aren't very good by themselves, and mix them together to make something better. It's nice to be able to bring things together like that."

A mental image of someone throwing Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha into a pot and forcing them to get along came to mind and she had to force back a chuckle.

"Plus, if you mess things up, you can just toss it down the disposal and start again. Now, if only life worked the same way, things would be a whole lot easier," she sighed.

"Perhaps," he agreed. He did not know what a 'disposal' was, but her explanation of pesticides was confusing enough to deter him from making any further inquiries as to futuristic things. "But life would not be very interesting if one always achieved their desired outcomes."

"Probably not, but I've had enough 'interesting' to last me several lifetimes." She smiled at him then, a big, toothy sort of smile that no respectable youkai would ever indulge in. And suddenly he realized it was a pity that demon women so rarely did such things; he was sure they would look much prettier if they did.

"Maybe some time I'll cook you something, Sesshoumaru," she told him. "I may not be the best cook, but being from the future certainly does have its advantages when it comes to this."

Like spices and sauces and... flavor, she thought to herself, everything in the past is just so bland!

"I do not eat human food."

She stopped walking, surprising him enough to cause him to halt as well. "What do you eat then?" She asked as though in awe.

He stared at her for a moment longer, his expression betraying nothing. "Meat."

"People eat meat," she pointed out, her brow furrowing.

"Raw meat."

"Pshhh, like that matters," she rolled her eyes and waved her hand dismissively. "In the future people eat raw meat all the time, I'm not too keen on the idea, but my brother likes his steaks extra rare," she stuck her tongue out and made a face at the thought. She knew that rare and raw weren't exactly the same things, but it was close enough and he wouldn't know the difference. "And we eat raw fish too, it's called sushi," she added.

He scoffed. "That is preposterous, ingesting such things would surely make a weak ningen ill."

"Things in the future are a lot cleaner," she told him, "and we don't get sick like we do now."

He looked her over and noted that she did seem rather healthy for such a small, slender girl who lived the life of a nomad. "Hn."

Someday she'd have to ask him what 'Hn' meant, because he sure seemed to say it a lot, and she still had no idea how to translate it. Then again, maybe he didn't even know what it meant himself.

"Well, like I said, I'm not too fond of raw meat, but I like sushi well enough. I could make that," she told him, but it sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Do as you wish" he said flatly, giving her an exasperated glare. Was it just her, or was every look he gave some sort of glare? There was a content glare, a confused glare, a murderous rage glare - glare, glare, glare. Really, would it hurt him so much to change it up a bit? Perhaps he could watch, or gaze upon, or leer.

Kagome snorted, as if he would find anything worth leering at.

She started walking again and he did too, walking beside her, but always slightly ahead.

Chapter Note:

Like I said, action is coming. I promise. There will be fighting and blood and screaming and other...stuff. It'll have you screaming "THIS IS SPARTA!!!" or "HELLZ YEAH!!!" or something like that.

Anywho, please, please, PLEASE review! Reviews are like fuel; they keep me happy and a happy author is a productive author.