Author Note:
Happy Valentine's day everybody!!! I thought I would get this out this morning, seeing as I'm going to dinner later tonight. Plus I actually have to shower and shave my legs and all those other things that I like to not do. As far as I'm concerned winter is just an excuse not to shave, I mean you're wearing pants all the time anyway, am I right? Which makes me wonder...Kagome and shaving? I mean, when does she find the time? And she's wearing that bitty skirt so she must be sportin' some hairy man legs all over Japan. Scarin' children and all...
But anyway, happy lurv day, hope you lurv this chapter. Har har har.
Sesshoumaru would not pretend to know what had happened last night, because on all acounts it made no sense whatsoever. He loathed nonsensical things because they could not be made sense of by their very definition and that really ticked him off. It also really ticked him off that his thoughts had apparently ceased to make sense as well.
I have always considered the miko to be slightly insane, perhaps it is contagious. He thought tiredly.
If insanity was the only effect his exposure to Kagome had produced, he would consider himself lucky, but either irritatingly, or thankfully - he couldn't decide which - that was not the case. She had left her mark on him and in the most confusing of ways. The miko had only yesterday confessed her love for his brother to his very face, and mere hours later she had kissed him with such intent that it was if it were the most important task she had ever undertook.
Sesshoumaru felt warm at the very memory, a feeling so complete and blissful that it made him want to stay just exactly where he was for the rest or eternity and relive it until the very world ended.
But what did the kiss that filled his chest so full it made him wonder how he would ever move again, mean? Was the kiss simply an experience Kagome did not want to miss should she die, or was it something more? Did she want to kiss, or did she want to kisshim.
He did not know, which was particularly disturbing - he had never come upon this problem before. Up until now any woman he had ever desired had been his without question, but usually his desires were not so complicated as he found them to be of late. Usually he would make the acquaintance of a beautiful demoness, he would express his desire to bed her, he would bed her, then he would dispose of her.
Yet his desire for Kagome was not simply of the carnal nature. Before he had even found the idea of the miko in his bed a pleasurable one, he had simply desired her company - an unheard of desire for him to hold. He desired her company, he desired her trust, he desired her safety, and only after these desires had been addressed did he desire her body. The only question left unanswered was if Kagome desire him as he had so obviously come to desire her.
He gazed over at the slumbering miko with a tenderness in his eyes that would have shocked anyone who knew him, and that he himself was unaware of. Does she desire me? Uncertainty was all he could muster.
Something shocked him from his internal reverie and in his head Sesshoumaru groaned.
"Lord Sesshoumaru!" A booming voice broke the silence of the once peaceful morning. Sesshoumaru's expression hardened as his gaze shifted to the intruder.
"Lord Ryuugi," Sesshoumaru acknowledged with a slight nod of his head. "I see your scouts were faster than I anticipated."
"Fastest in the whole of Japan!" He chuckled mirthlessly. "I have to say I was surprised when I heard who exactly it was trespassing on my lands. I have not seen a dog so far south since your father sought to conquer these lands! I hope you do not share the same intention, for I believe you come horribly ill prepared." The demon looked pointedly at the lightly snoring miko.
"It is not your land I am after, but your spear," the taiyoukai said imperiously, ignoring Ryuugi's obvious jab at his traveling partner. He heard the miko stirring at his side and her small gasp as she realized what was going on.
"This had better be a dream!" Kagome mumbled in a frantic, high pitched voice as she tripped over her own feet in a hasty attempt to stand up. The two males spared her a sigh before returning their attentions to each other.
The dragon shook his head tiredly for only a moment before a sinister, toothy smile erupted across his deceivingly handsome face. "Ah, so someone has finally come for it? If I had expected anyone to realize this was no ordinary weapon it would have been you, Lord Sesshoumaru. After all, dogs have a nasty habit of sticking they're noses where they don't belong."
"Where are my arrows? My arrows!"
"Do not make the mistake that I wish to waste time mixing words with you, Ryuugi," Sesshoumaru snarled, drawing his sword and stepping in front of Kagome as she scrambled for her weapons. "Now you shall give me the spear, or I shall take it."
"Wait, wait! Can't we just slow this down a second?" Kagome squealed to herself as she nearly fell on her face while trying to shove her shoes on her sock-less feet.
"Very well," Ryuugi hissed, ignoring the panicking miko. "You shall rue the day you stepped foot on this land, my friend. For by the end of it, you shall never be able to leave."
***
"Okay, I'm seriously starting to doubt that this is a dream," Kagome whined as she was forced for the hundredth time that morning to dive out of the way of a rather large fireball. Diving may look dramatic and effortless in movies, but in reality it was tiring and terrifying. Not to mention the landings had left her with several cuts and bruises...and possibly a limp.
Scrambling to her feet as fast as she could - all grace aside - Kagome found herself just barely flinging her tired body to the side in time to avoid another ball of fire.
"Since when do spears shoot fire balls the size of Clydesdales!" Kagome screamed until her throat was hoarse. Hissy fit over, she managed to pathetically crawl behind a rather large rock. Slumping against the cold granite behind her, Kagome sighed so loud she was pretty sure she might have broken a rib...or it might have already been broken.
Whatever.
"What am I doing?" She asked herself. "I can't do this, what made me think I could do this?"
Peeking from behind her hiding place it wasn't hard to spot the battle being waged...the battle she wasn't apart of. She could barely see Sesshoumaru behind the torrent of fire erupting from the Southern Lord's spear as he wielded it as easily as though it were a stick, yet as menacingly as if it were death's scythe itself.
As far as she could figure she assumed that the spear acted as an extension of it's owner's power. Spears obviously couldn't produce fire by themselves, but dragons most certainly could. Ryuugi was simply using the godly weapon to channel, and probably enhance, his own power. Focusing her attention back to Sesshoumaru she made the horrible realization that he wasn't faring as well as could be hoped.
He wasn't doing badly per say, but he wasn't managing to do anything other than defend himself.
He can't win by himself, she thought. I need to help, he called me his ally, but all I've been doing is running around like a bug trying to avoid being squished...not that I want to be squished, but I need to do something.
Decision made, Kagome pulled an arrow from her quiver and armed her bow. Inching towards the very edge of the rock she hid behind, she watched and waited to make her move. She observed the battle before her, scrutinizing every move Sesshoumaru and Ryuugi made. They moved like dancers with deadly agendas; one would advance, the other would retreat, one would attack, the other would defend. It was a rhythmic process, repeating over and over in a never ending waltz.
Kagome was about to interrupt it.
She waited until it was Ryuugi's turn to attack, his fiery assault obscuring the battle field as Sesshoumaru gracefully jumped out of the way, and then...she charged. Running as fast as her feet could carry her she sprinted towards the inferno. By the time Sesshoumaru had realized what she was doing it was too late to stop her; she had already disappeared into the flames.
Ignoring the intense heat around her, Kagome continued on, the flames were receding - as she knew they would. The southern lord could only sustain his attack for so long, and even as Kagome ran, the flames were always just a few steps ahead of her. Sensing that she was close to the enemy lord, she fired her arrow. She watched with determined eyes as it's intense spiritual power dousing what was left of Ryuugi's fire, the shining pink energy cutting a hole right through his shoulder.
Howling in surprise, anger, and pain the Southern Lord watched with reddening eyes as his arm disintegrated and fell to the ground, the spear he had been holding dropped by his feet. He made no move to pick it back up, his anger had clouded his mind.
"Shit," Kagome swore, her eyes going wide.
The ground began to shake and the wind began to blow at an unnatural speed as it rushed to engulf the enraged Lord.
"Kagome!" An urgent yell sounded from the distance before her waist she was encircled by a firm arm. Before she could register what was happening she was jerked from the ground and being lifted into the sky.
"Sesshoumaru, the spear!" She urged, pointing towards the ground as she futilely tried to pry herself loose from his iron-like grip.
"Miko, you will let me handle this!" He growled. "You have done your part, but in the process have also managed to invoke a dragon!"
"Well, you weren't making much progress, I thought I should step in," she grumbled.
"Yes, thank you," he replied sarcastically.
Kagome was jerked again as Sesshoumaru hastily touched down. His arm lingered around her for only a moment before he let her free and took a step back.
"I will deal with the dragon, your assistance will not be required," he said harshly and launched himself back to the fight.
"JERK!" Kagome shouted after him; half indignant, half amused. She knew that he was just worried that she might become dragon food if she stuck around, but she couldn't stay away from the fight - the spear was just laying on the ground!
Tightening her grip on her bow, Kagome ran to enter the fray once more.
Chapter Notes:
February the fourteenth
A day of love and goo
SInce you don't know where I live to send flowers
I hope you review
I'm actually just assuming you don't know where I live, seeing as that would be incredibly creepy.