Chapter Three…

It wasn't until three days after the Sesshoumaru incident—as she was calling it—that Kagome discovered her poodle savior's weakness.

Thunder.

Actually make that a copious amount of thunder and lightning.

Standing underneath the awning of a local headman's abode, Kagome clutched the poodle tightly in her arms. She felt each tremor that spread through its tiny body as if it were her own. "It's okay, baby," she cooed to the small dog over and over again. "Kagome's here to protect you."

"Oi!" came a partially muffled cry from behind her.

Kagome turned and faced the currently mummified hanyou. Yes, she'd been a little zealous this time around, but her veins had also been coursing with extra adrenaline and Inuyasha was far too squished still to even attempt to take the bandages off. Once again, Kagome found herself grateful for Inuyasha's youkai heritage. He was perhaps the only one of their group who could be stepped on by a 50 ton dog and still be around to bitch and moan about it. "Yes, Inuyasha?"

"Don't spoil the mutt," he answered gruffly with a shrug. The careless action was followed by a wince as pain arched through his battered body.

"He's not a mutt, Inuyasha. And he has a name. It's Ichigo," Kagome corrected as she continued to caress the red-haired poodle shivering in her arms. She felt for Inuyasha, knowing that he HAD to be suffering, and she really, really wanted to pamper him, but her arms were currently full of poodle. "Also, Ichigo happens to be pure bred."

"And we ALL know what pure breeds are like," Inuyasha retorted, his voice hardening.

Of course Kagome could not fault the hanyou his views considering his past. Sesshoumaru was, in general terms, a 'pure breed' himself and yet had always presented, in her opinion, the worse possible picture when it came to guidance and follow through.

Inuyasha has more nobility in his little toe than that piece of—

At that thought, Kagome could not help but picture again her harried race through the woodlands as she'd screamed her head off for what seemed like Sesshoumaru's own personal pleasure. And despite all she'd gone through she STILL didn't know what in the hell she'd done to offend the dog demon so… "My poodle is not like that," she argued.

"Your poodle? I thought the damn ankle biter belonged to Souta!"

Leaving the hanyou to his whining and in the capable hands of Miroku, Kagome retreated to the room the headman had set aside for Sango and herself. The slayer had finished with her bathing and was waiting. As soon as Kagome walked into the room, Sango's eyes alighted upon the poor shivering mass of fluff in her arms. "Awww," the fearsome slayer cried, holding out her arms in welcome embrace. At her side, Kirara seemed to roll her eyes in patient understanding while she cleaned her paws.

"Would you like to hold him?" Kagome asked, giving the neko youkai a wink as she did.

"The poor baby!" Sango cried out, as the poodle leapt ably from Kagome's arms to her own. And then the demon slayer's speech regressed to an age Kagome was not yet fluent in—or perhaps had once been but was no more.

What was it with poodles and demon slayers?

*PA*

Sesshoumaru stood a discreet distance away—downwind of course—and spied upon his little brother's group and that horrible beast that had entered his world. Never had he met a more insufferable pest than the one that clung to that human woman. He could not even begin to recognize how WRONG the creature was as his natural instinct was to wipe it out of existence…and yet he couldn't. For some unknown reason, fear swept through him at the very sound of its yip and rage covered all logic at the very scent of its odor.

Though he was some distance away, it was almost as if the hanyou were standing next to him when he heard Inuyasha yell, "Aw, fuckin' hell, Kagome! Why do we have to stop NOW?"

"He needs to poop, Inuyasha," the miko replied, her patience seeming to be near an ending point as she set the thing down onto the ground to smell the grasses. "It's natural and something you should know about."

At her reply his brother blushed a bright red and Sesshoumaru found himself agreeing with the miko's sarcastic expression. If he were a less dignified individual, he might have done the same.

The group remained there for some time, resting it appeared. This gave Sesshoumaru the perfect opportunity to study the creature, but nothing seemed forthcoming in such a short time period. Perhaps, if he stayed with his vigilance for slightly longer, he could come to understand what made it such a menacing opponent?

By the end of the day, having been following after his brother and his brother's things for quite some time, Sesshoumaru was about as close to understanding the monstrosity as he had been before and now he was exceedingly more so vexed. Exceedingly!

He just could not understand the rat-like thing's appeal…or why he felt so low in its presence. And how the miko bowed and scraped to its needs! Truly his brother had to be far more remarkable than he seemed—or far less evolved than most normal life forms—as Inuyasha continued to have such a close proximity without showing even an ounce of the fear and anger Sesshoumaru KNEW had to be present there.

He refused to think he was alone in this.

And the very image of the miko rubbing vigorously on the thing's belly as the beast lay prone before her was just as insufferable as the thought of Inuyasha being better at something than he. The smile she wore on her face as she seemed to continually cater to it was even more sickening. If there was anyone the miko bitch should serve, it was he…naturally.

How would it feel to have this one's belly rubbed?

No! He did not want a human to serve him in any way (especially in THAT sense) other than as cannon fodder—for that was all humans were worth in his eyes. Save Rin, of course, Sesshoumaru quickly corrected. Damn. Sometimes it was SO hard to keep prejudices alive when he carried one around with him. But Rin is different, he reminded himself.

They were finally settling in for the evening and Sesshoumaru chose the best vantage point from which to continue his investigation. Even though he had been around them for a goodly amount of time he had learned little because his own feelings and thoughts had kept intruding and sending him off on random internal babbling sessions. He had even been distracted from watching his brother battle a lowly, shard-crazed oni because his fascination had been centered solely on the whimpering rat in the miko's arms.

Was it only HE that the thing fought against? And why, in the seven layers of Hell, had the beast seen it a fitting action to ROLL in the oni's remains? Disgusting.

"It stinks!" Sesshoumaru heard his brother say, mirroring his own thoughts on how the thing more than likely smelled after having rotated so energetically in the bug youkai's entrails earlier.

The miko replied with an impressive growl as she stomped around their campsite gathering various items into her arms. "You don't have to keep saying it, Inuyasha!" she spat back with a huff in his brother's direction. "I'm going to bathe him, alright!"

The hanyou stood defiantly, crossing his arms across his chest and raising his chin. "It ain't coming back here until I don't have to smell bug no more!"

"Inu….yasha," the miko replied, dragging out his brother's name in a most threatening manner. "You might want to think about taking a bath yourself. You don't smell like roses, either!"

Then the miko proceeded to scoop the pest up into her free arm, struggling to hold onto it without letting it touch her person, and stomped off into the woods. Sesshoumaru knew from a quick sniff that there was a hot spring in the direction she went and he watched as both the slayer and kitsune followed after her. "Bath time!" the kitsune sung as he bounced along, sticking his tongue out in Inuyasha's direction before disappearing.

The monk made to follow too, but was stopped by Inuyasha's hand on his shoulder. "Don't even think about it," his brother growled in warning.

Strange, Sesshoumaru thought. Perhaps something happened to the pest when it was wet that affected males? No, the kitsune had accompanied the females to the hot springs. Maybe the males had to be of rutting age…

Whatever it was, Sesshoumaru decided that it was worth investigating and moved his position to do so.

*PA*

Kagome couldn't find any proof, but she could have SWORN she was being watched. And this wasn't just a being-watching-in-Kanna's-mirror-feeling either. No, someone was out there and he/she/it had his/her/its eyes on them.

So it was, of course, with caution that she approached the hot springs (after her anger towards Inuyasha had settled some) and changed into her swimming suit. Kirara and Shipou both stood watch—mainly looking out for Miroku but aware that there were other more dangerous villains about. Once she had changed, Kagome comforted her stinky dog from a distance while Sango put on the bathing suit Kagome had brought for her.

When the slayer emerged from the foliage, Kagome turned and looked at her. "Are you ready for this, Sango?"

"It is just a dog, Kagome. I am sure the two of us can manage him."

"Pfft," was her reply as she turned back to face the poodle. "You haven't seen anything yet."

As if he realized what was going on, that the delicious odors he'd so recently acquired were going to be forcefully expelled from his body, Ichigo took a wary step back from the humans he'd come to enjoy the presence of so much.

"Once we catch him," Kagome instructed. "I'll let you know what can and cannot be done to him. Poodles are very…delicate…breeds when it comes to bathing them and there isn't a vet here for…well centuries."

Sango watched as Kagome positioned herself, angling for a good grab, and motioned with her head for her to do the same. "You come from the right. I'll come from the left."

Though she did not believe the situation called for such dire actions, Sango took the position indicated nonetheless. She refused to believe it would be so hard to catch the smelly dog and she couldn't wait to bathe him! It was almost as if she had a baby in her midst, the love and care Kagome's futuristic pet required appealing to a maternal side she hadn't even been aware she had.

Together she and Kagome approached the now fully alert poodle. "We'll go in on the count of three," Kagome continued. "One, two, three!"

Sango darted forward and grabbed at where the poodle was standing. She could have sworn she felt fur, but when she looked her hands were empty. Then Kagome stumbled into her and they both went down. "Damn," she heard Kagome curse.

Popping back up to her feet, Sango looked for where the poodle had run to. He was standing about ten feet away, his poof ball tail wagging with delight because of his escape, and Sango narrowed her eyes. Then he barked at her, the excited yipping sounding like a challenge, and Sango accepted the dare.

No dog would get the best of her.

to be continued...

a/n: Before you ask, yes the poodle is named after Ichigo from Bleach (which I also own nothing of nor profit from, to add to my disclaimers). I asked a friend of mine for help in naming the dog and she pointed out that Souta would probably be a fan of such a manga and the poodle is a red-head. It was fitting!