Feb 25 2007: Author's Nonsense: Okay sorry for the long delay but I had a great weekend with my honey and ended up getting really distracted by some other real life things - like gaming - mmmm gaming. I love me some D&D. Anyway, I'll get right to this chapter for you. This also would have been out sooner if my power wasn't out - I'm posting this at a friends place. Stupid power company...le sigh

End of Chapter 22:

Kagome scowled after him and then headed out of the previously abused door and back toward the room they were sort of sharing for the moment…her day had been exhausting and it was only half over…she didn't want to think about what else could go wrong. She knocked on her doorframe as she went past and hopped back onto her bed to open the file with what she was suppose to be working on.

Chapter 23: Blessings and Curses

Kagome giggled as she considered the idea of Sesshomaru with a gun in hand and then shook her head - she couldn't really see the overly confident demon ever relying on something like that to do damage with - he could do so much more with his sword.

Which reminded her to ask him whatever had become of the Tetsaiga next time she saw the silver haired demon lord. She sort of wanted to know given that Inuyasha was dead now and all, it would be nice if she could at least see the massive sword one last time for memories sake. She pushed that silly thought aside though and pondered just what Kaiba did think of what she'd told him.

"At least he didn't just say I was insane." Kagome thought with a small smile. "And it's still hard to believe that there are others out there that have been reincarnated as well…and know about it anyway. It makes sense but I was alone in the feeling for so long that I'd never considered that there could be other people that are different like me as well."

She eyed the still closed door and then glanced back down to her work and wrote a little bit for it, trying to keep her mind on it as opposed to the young CEO she was waiting for. She was nearly done though by the time he'd finally entered the bedroom they were sharing and joined her. She smiled brightly at his arrival and scooted over a little so he could sit down with her.

He watched a long moment and then moved to settle himself next to her, eyes glancing toward the work she was doing then over to his own folder he had to finish up before the following day. He was starting to curse all these things he had to do other than have a little time with the girl he was protecting.

"I'm almost done." She announced with a smirk. "If I finish before you that will have to be a record for me."

"Are you sure that's something you should be proud of?" he asked as he moved over to pick up the folder with his homework inside and smirked at the two papers he had to fill out - it would take far less of his time than he was originally anticipating. They didn't have a lot of the evening left but it was better than no time at all. He flipped it open and got to work on his Advanced Calculus problems as Kagome struggled with her chemistry homework.

Kaiba had chosen not to think too deeply on what the girl had told him; if she said that's what happened then he would believe her - she'd never lied to him before and it seemed unreasonable for her to lie about this sort of thing now. He could ask her questions later. He finished a minute or so after Kagome and grinned at the frustrated glance she gave him at how fast he could do his work when she seemed to struggle so much to accomplish hers.

"So why is it you are so good at everything?" She pouted a bit. "It's not very fair."

"As much a curse as a blessing." he assured her as he reached over to push a strand of hair from her face. "This leaves us with some time this evening…care to learn a little more about duel monsters?"

"Going to actually put some time into teaching me more?" she raised a surprised brow at the young CEO.

"Can't have you losing so easily next time." he shrugged at her with a smirk. "Though don't get your hopes up - I'm a strict teacher. Get your deck together and shuffle it while I go and retrieve a couple of mine. I'll have to augment them so I don't just defeat you too fast."

"Nice to know you are so modest…" she deadpanned as he smirked before moving to get his cards. "…jerk."

"I love you too." he tossed it off more as a joking response as he left but it left her blushing more than she'd like to admit…

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School the next day was interesting…a lot of students were vocally curious about what had happened to her. Many were impressed or horrified or both that she'd been shot and survived - not to mention recovered so quickly. She was relieved of having to show off her scar when the teacher ordered everyone to leave her alone about it but Kagome was certainly having a unique day. Bakura still hadn't returned to class which made her return a little better and it seemed that Nicole had been taken out of the school again for the year which made her return much better.

Kaiba wasn't as completely distant as he normally was in public but he was pretty set on his work more than concentrating on his girl and Kagome knew that she needed to do the same. The first half of the day passed without too much incident and she found herself drug off to the table with Yugi and friends at lunch time. They weren't as interested in the shooting but they were wanting to hear about her past and if she'd told Kaiba her past so she could (of course) tell them next.

She denied telling them at that moment but did tell them she was finally learning to play Duel monsters better and that he was actually tutoring her; which left them in more surprise than she had been the night before and made them (at least temporarily) forget about her mysterious history.

"You are actually getting lessons from him?" Anzu was the first to sound really surprised. "I mean…he didn't really even play with Mokuba a whole lot…that's something Kagome."

"He plays with his brother doesn't he?" Kagome asked a little nervously, wondering if she should have told them about the feudal era instead. She fiddled with the rice in her boxed lunch as they all stared at her.

"Yes." Yugi confirmed. "But Mokuba isn't nearly as good as Kaiba is…Kaiba stopped working with him some time ago and I think he doesn't play with him so that they don't get to competitive about it."

"That and he doesn't ever teach anyone." Joey piped in. "I've never once heard of that heartless guy helping anyone out with the game…does he like yell at you all the time or mock you constantly or…"

Joey paused when Kagome started to give him a cold look and Anzu stomped on his foot.

"Be nice Joey." she ordered after nearly breaking his toe. "Kaiba is Kagome's boyfriend."

"That's also a little to weird to comprehend." Tristan pointed out. "I never figured Kaiba would have a girl…more or less someone as nice as you Kagome. It's one of those things that you never figured you'd see - sort of like Bigfoot."

"Bigfoot?" Anzu asked skeptically. "You are both hopeless."

Kagome chuckled at the antics of the group and finished picking at her lunch before the warning bell rang and they had to head back to classes. Life was finally getting to be back to as normal as her days ever tended to be and that was enough to make her rather content. Sure there were still people after her but all in all she'd had a pretty normal day and that was so rare for the young girl that she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

She convinced Kaiba to take her back by her home today so she could see her mom and brother for a while and invited him and Mokuba to come along - she knew that mom would be happy to cook for everyone and she missed her family. They were waiting for dinner; mom was cooking and Mokuba and Souta were in Souta's room messing around on his computer. Kagome was sitting in her room with Kaiba after having shown him around the rest of the shrine and being a little more bashful again despite the fact that they were suppose to be 'officially' together.

"I know it's not as big as your place but it's home." she said a bit nervously.

"It doesn't have to be large to have a lot of character." He replied with a small shrug, looking out her window toward the colors reaching across the sky thanks to the sunset outside. "I can see you growing up here…it seems to fit you."

Kagome smiled at him and walked up behind him to look out the window as well…leaning lightly against him and sighing a bit contentedly. "Thanks. I'm glad you aren't uncomfortable here…and that you like mom's cooking."

"If someone didn't like your mother's cooking they would have very poor taste." Kaiba had a way of pushing compliments into partial insults so they didn't seem as serious. Perhaps it was just the way he was, Kagome found it a little funny anymore.

"Thanks for taking care of me and all…I know you wanted me to avoid home a little longer but it's hard to not see my family." She started to head back into the room but he stopped her, catching her eyes and shaking his head.

"I'm not going to blame you for wanting to see your family - I'd probably go a little mad if I didn't have Mokuba around to bug me." He said and leaned closer to her, hovering near her as if he wasn't sure if he should kiss her or not.

She went quiet and stared back at him as she felt her cheeks flush a little at his proximity, hesitating herself as to if she should close the distance and kiss him as well.

Finally he closed the space and pressed her to him as opposed to waiting for her to give in, though it didn't take long before she sort of melted into him in return, raising hands to run them through his hair and hold him closer as they embraced. She moaned a little against his lips and they both pressed close enough that they were easily getting much warmer (though that wasn't all a part of just being near one another).

She started to tug at his jacket when she heard her door open and the two pulled away from one another as if they had touched a stove. Kaiba covered by looking back out the window and straightening his white leather jacket. Kagome blinked a few times and her face turned a deeper crimson even than usual as Souta started making kissing sounds at her.

"oooh." the younger brother teased. "Wow, maybe I should leave you two all alone…hey mom…get a load of this!"

He got a pillow to the back of his head for the last comment, Kagome suddenly leaning over him with wrath glowing in her eyes.

"Shut up Souta." she hissed at him. "You say one word…a single syllable and you will regret it!"
The boy lost a lot of his bravado at his sister's anger and held up his hands defensively. "Hey don't get mad at me just cause you can't remember to lock your door before taking off your boyfriend's clothes."

She growled then and started toward him when he finally wilted and ducked away. "Okay okay…I won't say anything to her…sheesh sis calm down…dinner's ready though so pull away from each other's lips long enough to come downstairs."

He ran off after the final pestering and away from any further danger of his sister attacking him, leaving her fuming and embarrassed as opposed to just one of the two.

"It's all right." Kaiba spoke first. "He said he'd leave it alone…I think he's rather too frightened to tempt that temper of yours outside of this company."

"You don't know my brother very well." Kagome sighed some as he came up behind her. "I'll never get to hear the end of it."

"Could be worse." Kaiba compromised. "at least it wasn't your mother…but he's right you know…you need to learn to lock your door."

"but you started it." she protested with her jaw dropped some at his cool announcement, pouting as she followed him out of the room and down toward dinner…

End Chapter

A little shorter than usual I'm sorry. I also switched how I'm doing scene changes cause I like using the dotted line better than just writing out that it's switched. Hope you keep enjoying my little story here.

-Aura

To my reviewers:

DeathNoteMaker - Lol - I've never been a big fan of Marik or Bakura good or bad on the sexy front…if the fiction doesn't make it obvious I'm a Kaiba fan myself. Marik and Bakura are still cool characters, just don't float my boat in that way heh.

Oribe Junpei - Yes it came to me early on that the two were priest/priestess when I was early on in the fiction - as well as both were reincarnations of those ;). I thought it was rather cute actually and it is expressed in chapter 22.

So far switching the fiction hasn't actually seemed to get me anymore readers though. I will give it a little while longer and probably just move it back to the yugioh section - it feels weird having it in the Inuyasha one when it's more about yugioh.

Kouga is one part of the growing complications - he's not the one that was asking for her…but I guess you know that by now lol.

Chapter 22 response: Giggle I enjoyed writing the whole part with Kaiba getting mad and thanks for the encouraging words as far as the IC and OOC thing goes. It's a lot of fun to work on this fiction and your reviews are always so amazing! Thank you thank you thank you for all the wonderful feedback. I do want to torture Kaiba some more in the future - him getting jealous is a blast to think about.

Larkagurl12 - It's somebody…that's well…been detailed by this chapter lol so you already found out. Hope you keep enjoying the fiction.

Chapter 22 response: I like the different spelling for Kikiyo - I just think it's prettier - and I really did think Kouga had green eyes and yeah I was off on the hair - I will have to look back at the show. I'm not calling you a liar but I'm saying that I just wanna know for myself heh. I like him better with green eyes though so I'll probably keep them that color - too much blue flying around already.

Kage otome - It was fun but Kaiba's reaction was pretty nice for him…which given how distraught she seemed shows that he does actually really care about her. Something I thought made the scene kind of bittersweet.

Chapter 22 response: of course Kouga won't just give up on it. Bakura will be back at some point but he has to heal from the shot wounds first ;). That wasn't too long ago so it makes sense. Kaiba isn't certain what to believe just yet but he may or may not eventually believe it. He will sometime possibly admit his possible love for her - giggle I can't say for sure what will happen of course - and I had a blast with my guy! Thanks.

S.T. Nickolian - Lol - less Sesshomaru - that's funny.

Kagome Lady of Darkness - Thanks, hope you keep reading.

TsukiNamida13 - There is a lot left for me to mess with but any of those are possibilities yes.

Cowgirlkitten2000 - I had loads of fun thanks.

Sorry Charlie - As far as moving on as nothing happened - Kagome is sort of trying not to be sad anymore and Kaiba just honestly doesn't know what to think so is being quiet about it for the time being. Though I won't throw in a Kagome reincarnation from ancient Egypt because of the past there you are welcome to do something like that in a fiction of your own hint hint nudge nudge Hope you continue to enjoy it.

KuroxTenshi - Continued.

Sesshomarukagomeforever23 - Continued.

Chibes - Yeah, though they might hear it sometime soon just cause it's good for Kagome to be able to tell other people.

Lady Akina - Marik may or may not make a reappearance. Kagome is slowly learning how to play the game.

Outlawshii - thanks.

Tashio - Kaiba is 17 close to 18 and Kagome is 16 close to 17 in this fiction the way I pictured it. And I liked using the dark Marik but maybe I'll have to fiddle with that sometime whenever I rewrite it - hopefully someday I will fix it up a bit.

Fanny - as you wish.

Blank reviewer - All updated and the like and yes an actual name as opposed to blank might be nice.

Viper - huh?

Yonoka Takai - heh Kouga is awesome

BlackCatElemental13 - Lol, a good luck spell? Hmm careful when you play around with karma - it might bite back sort of mean like.

Butch Potter - Thanks for the wonderful words, hope you keep on reading.

LadyKagometheinuyoukimiko - long name and working on it ;)