A/N: I'm really really really sorry that this took so long. I'm starting my first year of college in a week and I'm really nervous, so this story has kind of taken a back seat to everything else. Well this was the last thing I had planed for this story, it's not the end, it just means that everything else that happens is made up on the spot but I still hope it turns out well. And I haven't thanked my readers or reviewers in awhile, I'm sorry for that as well. I really appreciate you guys, when I don't know what to do next I always go back and read your reviews and I know I can let you guys down. You guys keep me encouraged. Thank you so much.

Well here's chapter thirteen :) review and tell me what you think

And just because I haven't said it in a while: I do not own Inuyasha

Chapter Thirteen

Waking up was a slow process. First I took a deep breath and stretched. Then I went back to being still, I just laid there and basked in the feeling of a wonderful morning. Finally after several minutes I convinced myself to open my eyes. I blinked a few times trying to get them to focus. And then I wished I hadn't. I was late for breakfast! I hopped out of bed and quickly threw on my clothes for the day and sprinted down to the dining room.

I threw the doors open, "Sorry! Sorry I'm late!"

Everyone was staring at me. Inuyasha, Shippou, Kagome, Miroku, and Sango were just staring at me wide eyed. Jun just stared looking taken aback. Jaken's yellow eyes were bugging out of his head and his jaw had dropped open in a silent exclamation. Rin looked just as surprised as everyone else but she recovered first and smiled.

"Nicole you look so pretty!"

I was my turn to look surprised, surely Rin couldn't mean that, I had just gotten out of bed and thrown some clothes on. I didn't even do my hair. I smiled at her bashfully, "Thank you Rin, but I don't look any different than I did yesterday."

"No, Rin's right Nicole," Kagome said.

I furrowed my eyebrows, "Huh?"

"Yeah!" Shippou readily agreed.

Still confused, I looked at the others. Some were nodding in agreement and others just continued to stare. Hesitantly I walked over to the mirror that hung on the wall. What I saw made me gasp. I was wrong, I did look different. My hair which had once been brown was now black. My eyes had also been brown but now they were a lavender color. And whereas I had always been slightly plump and pale, now I was quite fit and my skin was even fairer. I mean I had slimed down quite a bit since coming here, but I hadn't been this fit yesterday. Even I had to admit the contrast between the black hair and the pale skin was striking. Suddenly I was pulled out of my thoughts by a tickle on the back of my leg. I reached down to stop whatever it was that tickling me, I turned around to face the others with a look of pure shock on my face.

"A tail… a tail… I have a tail!" I paused, looking at the-my tail and then up to the others and back again. Slowly a smile started to spread across my face, "I have a tail! How cool is that?!"

I giggled and ran over to Rin. I picked her up and spun her around, we both giggled. "I have a tail. I have a tail," I sing-songed. I set her down and we danced and laughed until the doors of the dining room flew open again, we stopped in mid-step.

And apparently so did Lord Sesshomaru. For a moment we just stood there and stared at each other. I don't even think we breathed as lavender met gold. We might have stayed that way forever if someone hadn't cleared their throat. All of a sudden it was like the spell that held us broke and suddenly we could move again. Breath again. Our eyes stayed connected for a moment longer until I blinked and, embarrassed, I looked down at my feet. I heard something that sounded suspiciously like a giggle and something else that sounded suspiciously like a scoff from Inuyasha's side of the table. I couldn't help blushing.

Lord Sesshomaru cleared his throat from the doorway, "Nicole, would you join me in my office please?"

Usually when Lord Sesshomaru requests that you do something it's actually a command, but I couldn't help thinking that this time it sounded like a request. Like he was asking me. Hesitantly I nodded, I still was not able to make myself look at him in the eye so I continued to watch my feet. I just barely caught the sight of him sweeping his arm in a gesture that suggested he wanted me to go first, so I quickly walked past him and out of the dining room. I slowed my pace as I waited for Sesshomaru to catch up with me, it didn't take long and then we spent the short trip to his office in silence.

"Nicole," Sesshomaru started as we sat down. I sat down in the chair opposite of Lord Sesshomaru, a seat that I had started thinking of as mine during all the study sessions we had had. "What do you remember of yesterday?"

I found myself confused once again, that seemed to be the emotion of the day, "Uh… I think I remember everything. Well almost everything. I don't remember going to bed."

"Tell me."

I trained my gaze on his desk as I thought, "Well Rin and I were hanging out with Inuyasha and his friends. We were headed to the dining room to get some lunch, then we stopped and we… uh… started talking about you," I paused remembering, "and then we were surrounded by guards, well fake guards. Inuyasha tried to save us, but that bastard used Rin as a shield so Inuyasha let himself be restrained to protect her… kind of like you did," I paused again letting that sink in. "And then I remember that man hitting Rin and I-I was filled with so much anger. I wanted to kill him for hurting her. I wanted to protect her. And I think I did. Then I remember you," I hesitantly raised my eyes to glance at him, "you were talking to me. Telling me…telling me… something. At first I didn't understand. And then I remember thinking that I was safe. That Rin was safe. And then nothing."

I finished and we were silent. I wanted to look at him and see if I could tell what he was thinking. Then I realized that I couldn't ever tell what Sesshomaru was thinking, so I kept my head down. After several minutes I couldn't take it anymore and I risked a glance up at him. He was staring at me. I gulped and looked at my lap. We sat in silence once more. After a while I decided to break the silence with a question that had been bothering me. I took a deep breath a steeled my nerves.

"Uh, Lord Sesshomaru?" I asked looking up.

He was still staring at me, "Hmm?"

I was embarrassed to have someone staring at me like that but I forced myself to ask my question, "Well, it's just that… when that man told you to put your swords down, I thought you looked at me… like you were watching for something. Uh… what were you looking for?"

Lord Sesshomaru blinked, like he was surprised by the question. Or surprised he had been caught, "Well I knew you had changed before to protect Rin and Lord Isao's children, I suspected you might do the same. So to answer your question, I was looking at your eyes, they turn red when you're about to turn. Since I saw specks of red I knew you were close to handling it on your own. That's the only reason I put down my swords and let myself be restrained."

I was a bit taken aback by his answer, if I thought about it, it made sense, but to think he trusted me that much that he would leave it all up to me was a little unbelievable. But at the same time it made me extremely happy. Blushing I looked back at my lap, my hair fell forward as I did and it brought another question to mind.

"Lord Sesshomaru?" My voice was quiet but I know he heard it, he didn't answer and I didn't dare look up with my face as red as I knew it was, but I had feeling it was alright for me to continue so I did. "Um, why am I like this?" I asked playing with my hair, relishing its new color.

Lord Sesshomaru was silent for a moment and then he spoke, "We always suspected that your demon would wake up it just seems that it needed the proper motivation."

I twirled my hair in my fingers, "So this is my demon? This is what I would have looked like if my mother stayed here? From the very beginning?"

Again there was a short silence before Lord Sesshomaru answered, "Yes I believe so."

I nodded and continued to run my fingers through my hair, memorized by its new color and softness. After a moment I realized we were once again sitting in silence, then a thought hit me. What if he was being so silent because he was still mad at me? Just because he trusted me to save Rin didn't mean that he had forgiven me for everything from before. Maybe I should apologize? Instead of apologizing though I jumped when there was a sharp knock at the door.

"Lord Sesshomaru I'm sorry to interrupt but there is some business that we need to take care of," Jun's voice came from behind the closed door.

I looked up at Lord Sesshomaru for a moment wondering if I could fit in a quick apology or maybe just ask him if he was still mad. Feeling nervous about doing either I stared in his eyes like I could find the answer to my unspoken question there. But like always Lord Sesshomaru's eyes and face stayed as emotionless as always. I jumped again as a second more insisted knock sounded at the door. Lord Sesshomaru looked slightly annoyed now but otherwise impassive as he continued to stay silent.

Embarrassed I quickly stood up and to my surprise so did Lord Sesshomaru, "Um, I'll just be going now. So you can attend to your business," I bowed slightly and headed towards the door.

I was almost there when Sesshomaru spoke, "Tell Inuyasha he is welcome here."

Shocked I turned to face the dog demon, nothing showed on his face but his eyes seemed to soften. I couldn't hold back my smile, there was no better way Lord Sesshomaru could have told me that he was no longer mad. Maybe even that he was sorry, but that seemed like a lot to hope for so instead I chose to be ecstatic about what Lord Sesshomaru had really said. "I will. Thank you so much," I beamed at him.

He met my eyes and it looked like he even smiled. In all honesty he might not have but I was too happy to double check as I left the room.

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha!" I called as I ran back to the dining room.

He was standing looking prepared for a fight, "What is it!?"

I laughed giddily and ran over to him and his friends, "You'll never believe it! It's great!"

He and his friends looked understandably confused, Shippou and Rin looked up from where they were sitting, "What happened?" Shippou asked.

I picked him up and spun him around, "It's fantastic."

Kagome looked at me, "What is?"

"Yeah just tell us already," Inuyasha said impatiently.

I giggled and set Shippou down, "Okay are you ready?" They all nodded, "I mean like really really ready?"

"Just spit it out already!" Inuyasha yelled.

I smiled, nothing could bring down my mood right now, "Okay, sorry. Sorry," I took a breath to calm myself down. "Well I was talking to Lord Sesshomaru just now and he said- he said you are welcome here."

At first everyone just stared at me, especially Inuyasha who was looking at me like I had lost my mind. Then he took on a defensive posture, "Why would he say that?"

I cocked my head to the side, "What do you mean why did he say that? Because you are his brother."

Inuyasha scoffed, "Yeah like that's ever mattered to him before." I didn't know what to say to that. For a while we all stood with the silence blaring in our ears. Finally Inuyasha let down his defensive posture and gave a half smile, "Whatever, let's forget about that bastard for now and let's check out what new powers you have now that you're all demoned up."

I grinned at him, "You're on!"

By the time we were done sparring the dojo was trashed again, but this sparring match was my favorite so far. This time I didn't have to concentrate on dodging as much because I could move just as fast as Inuyasha could for once. This time I could attack. I did have to apologize a bit to Inuyasha at the end because in discovering my new strength I hurt him a little more than I intended to. It wasn't anything too bad, but I had left a lot more bruises on him than I had the last time. But after it was over we were both sweaty and tired.

"I think I'm going to go take a bath," I told the gang.

Inuyasha nodded, "Yeah me too," he shrugged, "since, you know, there's one here."

I smiled as I headed towards the door. Inuyasha always tried to sound like he didn't care about anything, but he couldn't quite pull it off. He tried to play this whole finally being accepted thing off like it was no big deal, and at first I believed him, but after hours of sparring I could tell his mind was elsewhere. "Okay Inuyasha." And with that I exited out of the dojo and went to my room.

Upon entering my room I quickly undressed, getting rid of the clothes that were sticking to me unpleasantly due to the sweat that had accumulated on my skin and soaked into the fabric. Feeling shy, even though I was alone in my room, I wrapped myself in a towel before I entered the bath. Since I had discovered the bath it had become one of my favorite places in the palace, it was huge and it was all mine. Although I had noticed another door on the opposite side of the bath and had been curious where it led to, I had never seen it open. Until today.

As soon as I stepped into the bath I realized something was off. It took a moment to realize what it was, but when I did I stopped in mid-step. Lord Sesshomaru was there. He was in the process of coming out of the door. His door. I had imagined many times what could possibly on the other side of that door, and never once had I imagined that it was Lord Sesshomaru's room. I got a shock when I realized that his room must be located right next to mine. I got another shock when my eyes unconsciously traveled down his body. Pale. Lean. Naked. I quickly looked down at the tile that lined the floor, but I couldn't help peeking back up. I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized that he too was in a towel, he must have realized that I was there because the sound of his footsteps stopped. I kept my eyes trained on my feet, only moving them to look at my tail as it took it upon itself to wrap itself around my leg.

We stood there in silence, but I could feel his eyes on me now. I blushed, and not just at my cheeks, nope, I felt my whole body flush. I could feel the blush on my cheeks, the tips of my ears, my neck, and I could see my chest turning red. I felt utterly mortified. I couldn't help thank the heavens that I had put a towel on. After several minutes I hesitantly glanced up at Sesshomaru's face. He was staring at me not looking bothered at all by the situation. I felt myself blush deeper and focused by eyes back on the ground, feeling embarrassed I shifted my wait from foot to foot.

"Nicole." I nodded showing that I had heard him but I didn't look up. He was silent for a moment and then he repeated, "Nicole."

I felt like he wanted me to look at him but I couldn't not with him being… so underdressed. I heard him say my name again, I couldn't just keep ignoring him, I had to do something. "Sorry, I didn't know that you would be here. I didn't even know you used this bath. Or that your room was so close. Sorry." I knew I was rambling but I couldn't stop, "I didn't purposefully come in here to see you naked. I mean I didn't see you naked! You're in a towel. Not that I was looking! Um, I-I just came in here because of Inuyasha. I mean we were sparring! And I was sweaty and I wanted a bath. And-and-and I'll just stop talking now…" I shut my mouth, I couldn't believe how stupid I sounded even to myself. My blush deepened. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

We stood there in silence until I heard Sesshomaru's footsteps again. At first I thought he was coming towards me and that he was going to yell at me for intruding on his bath time. But when he said my name again he sounded farther away. I hesitantly peeked through my bangs, he was in the bath, now all that I could see him from his chest up. I breathed a sigh of relief and finally looked at him properly. And then blushed again when I noticed his towel on the ground.

"Nicole," He said more insistent this time.

I looked over at him, carefully avoiding looking anywhere but at his face. "Yes?"

"Care to join me?"

I could feel my mouth drop open and I sputtered, "Wha-wha-what?!"

I didn't know how Sesshomaru could look so calm when he was asking someone to join him in the bath, "Well, you said that you needed a bath due to fighting with my brother. And I found myself desiring a bath after a long day in my office." He paused for a moment, "This bath is more that big enough for the both of us."

I opened my mouth and then shut it again not able to come up with an appropriate response. Sesshomaru seemed to sense my dilemma and continued to speak.

"We wouldn't have to be near each other of course. For privacy sake. I would stay over here and you could stay over there. Really, it's effective for our time. That way I wouldn't have to wait on you to get done or you wouldn't have to wait for me to get done."

I wanted to say that I didn't mind waiting and run to the safety of my room. But the fact of the matter was that I was gross. And I really wanted a bath. And I couldn't tell Sesshomaru that he had to wait for me, this was his palace… and he was already in. Going against my better judgment I slowly nodded. "Turn around."

Sesshomaru did and I quickly grabbed everything I would need to wash and took it over to the side I would be bathing at. I checked to see if Sesshomaru was still facing away, he was. I scolded myself, of course he was, it's not like he would want to see me undressed or anything. And he's not the kind of person that would sneak a peek at a lady. I hope. I dropped my towel and got into the water double checking I found that I really couldn't see anything of Sesshomaru that was underwater even if I wanted to from this distance. Which meant he couldn't see anything of mine that was underwater, I relaxed a little and sunk up to my neck in the water, "You can turn around now."

He did, casually glanced my way, then started cleaning himself. I turned away from him and did the same. We bathed in silence. After a while I snuck a quick glance him, I was surprised to find him rubbing his shoulder and having a look of pain on his face.

"Is your shoulder hurt?"

He looked at me like he had forgotten I was there, "No."

"Is it sore, I'm sure it's from sitting in your office for too long."

His eyes narrowed, "You think this Sesshomaru weak enough to have something like that bother him. There is nothing wrong with my shoulder."

The word "bullshit" was out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

His eyes narrowed more, "What did you say to this Sesshomaru?"

I didn't know what had made him so mad, I knew that he didn't like to look weak, but going so far as to be angry because someone was worrying about him was stupid. "Sorry," I smiled cheekily, "it's a reflex. It happens every time someone lies."

For a moment he seemed surprised and then glared at me again, "There is nothing wrong with my shoulder."

"Bullshit," I shrugged my shoulders, "oops there it is again." He continued to glare, I sighed and smiled at him. "You know it's okay if your shoulder is sore. It happens to everyone, I'm not sure why you're trying to hide it. It doesn't make you weak or anything… you're still the strongest person I know." I paused, "Maybe I'm wrong but if your shoulder is sore I could always massage it for you. I'm not a professional or anything, but always had to massage my step-mom's shoulders because she said that Dad sucked at it. Like I said maybe I'm wrong but if your shoulder ever does start to hurt my offer stands." I turned around and started washing again. I was a little peeved that Sesshomaru had immediately put his guard up when I asked him when he was in pain. I was just worried about him. But on the other hand I figured that being a lord meant never seeming weak. But I didn't think Sesshomaru was weak, far from it.

Sesshomaru broke the silence, "Very well."

I stayed facing away from his so he couldn't see my smile, "Very well what?"

"I will take you up on your offer for a massage."

Pretending to be nonchalant I asked, "So your shoulder hurts?"

He stayed silent for a moment, I could practically hear him debating with himself, he sounded defeated when he finally said, "Yes."

Once I was sure that I could keep a straight face I turned to face him, "Then I'll go get dressed and I'll meet you in your room. Now turn around."

He did and I got out of the bath and when to my room to get dressed.