Disclaimer: I do not owe Inuyasha or any related character. Only in my dreams.

EN: Hi! Thanks for those who favorited/followed the story! :) Quick chapter just to finish this whole travelling thing and get going with the main part of the story in the next chapter! Please, review! Good or bad critics, but I do want your opinion!

Had she foreseen the inuyoukai's reaction to her uprising, Kagome would've rethought it, very willingly, finding it much rather agreeable to walk freely then cross the skies tightly pressed against a driven taiyoukai. Driven by what, she was not sure. Her anger seemed to affect him little to not at all, but her submission toward his physical threats somehow started an agitated behaviour out of him. Had he expected her to fight harder? Should she? She didn't know! She was scared, angry, and upset. She didn't want to leave her friends behind, partially out of fear of what could happen to them - or herself - but also out of the even deeper apprehension regarding the consequences of her departure. Would they worry, or be relieved, as Sesshoumaru so roughly suggested? Would they forget her...? Would they...

No. They wouldn't. They're my friends! They must be dead worried! What does this ice lord know, afterall? He doesn't have any friends! He knows nothing about trust! They will never forget. To Hell with his damned cloud, I wanna walk! she thought, pressing her eyelids as her reiki rose around their mingled bodies, without her acknowledgment.

She was scared. Angry. Scared. Angry. Scared. Angry. She was no weak little girl! It was unfair to let someone - even the almighty western lord - deal with her as such when she had spent her last years dedicating her life fully to training her spiritual powers. Powers that should - and would - aid her against creatures like that. Against him.

Sesshoumaru felt restless, finding it oddly hard to control the deep urge trying to surface from within his beast to bite the neck she unknowingly offered him. It would be an act in demonstration of his final domination over the overly spirited ningen. Scaring her even further would do no good to his purposes, though, and against all his beast's impulses, he declined every opportunity presented by the oblivious girl, still showing her long neck as if serving a tray of food to a hungry homeless man. It involved no sexual desire whatsoever, for his part. It was all about power, and his inu instincts.

Bite.

Hush. Smell her fear. It will do us no good to engrave her. We'll deal with the pest once our task is done.

Then bite?

Then you choose.

With the new found silence, the taiyoukai returned his attention to the small being pressed against his clothes. She was getting warmer, her heart beating faster in a clear sign of exasperation. Even if Sesshoumaru could not actually read minds as some rare youkais could, he was a rather experienced people reader, collecting in these small manner adjusments that the miko had resumed her thinking. He could point out the fear across her breakable lines, sense the bitter smell of it in the air, and knew right then that she intended on putting up an argument of some sort.

The first brush of her reiki against his skin might have passed as his imagination, but the following ones left no room for doubt: an atmosphere of pure spiritual energy slowly but surely surrounded his own bubble of youki, heating up the air between them to unbearable temperatures.

His clothes remained undamaged, but his skin begin frying as her power breached through his own. How...? Stoic as ever, slightly curved, only, Sesshoumaru rose his youki higher, covering her reiki in an envelope of darkness, pressing it against herself to at least prevent it from burning him to ashes. It proved to be a difficult task, and he would never admit so. The ningen had improved immensly since the last encounter they had, and for his underrate of her, he was to blame.

"Refrain your power, miko, before this Sesshoumaru is forced to do it for you." his voice echoed in her mind, waking her from her stupor. Didn't she even know what she did to him?

Apparently no. Her blue eyes widened and blinked, and immediately her reiki was called back within, as if it had never left her tiny frame. It took her a few seconds to assert the situation and come to conclusions about what had indeed happened, and when she did, mortification became her.

"Oh, Sesshoumaru-Sama. I didn't... Oh... Are you hurt? Kami... I didn't... i just..." she started, bitting her bottom lip. She seemed honestly... worried. Worried? Why would she be so?

Of course she would kill him if she could, just as would any other creature, wouldn't she?

Why couldn't he smell deceit?

Bothered at her honesty and the extent of her powers, he growled, ignoring her question and looking above.

"We will arrive at our destiny in an hour. You should rest and refrain from using your reiki, miko. Specially in me."

"I didn't mean to, I was just... angry... and scared. You're not gonna hurt me, are you? You just... I mean... We could walk, right? I don't like flying very much. And you're kinda holding me too tight... I just thought we could... I don't know... walk..."

"It would be a two day walk, miko. Would you take responsabily for the deaths to take place in the meantime?"

"I-I... no... no, of course! You are... Right... Just... It wouldn't hurt for you to like be a little less icy, you know. And stop like hurting my hips. You are a youkai, for god's sake! You might just break my bones if you press it any stronger!"

He relaxed his fingers a little bit and didn't answer. She knew he wouldn't, and didn't inquire anymore.

They just waited in silence, enjoying what little peace they could get before they finally reached their destiny, the Uuld'e Mount.