"Could we please stop? Just for a second, I promise," Kagome wiped some sweat from her brow and shaded her eyes. "I am literally dying. I can't move another step."

"Or rather, you won't," Sesshomaru parted the trees that were blocking their trail and kept moving. She grumbled and moved after him.

The woods they were hiking through whispered as the wind rustled the leaves on the trees. The weather was perfect for enjoyment; balmy, breezy and beautiful. Though the woods were filled with blossoming flowers and fertile sights of an untouched world, Kagome was not enjoying herself. Sweat clung to her shoulders and back where her large backpack and tent rested, and every step she took further enhanced her discomfort.

"You haven't given me a single break since we started! It's not healthy for me—I'm only human!" She took a sip from her water bottle as she dodged another tree branch in her way.

"We've barely been walking for three hours." He moved effortlessly, as if they were walking on water instead of a thousand small rocks and roots.

"And it's a miracle I've made it this far…" She mumbled as her foot just barely avoided some uneven ground.

"You were given one break per hour." His deep voice was intended to silence her disruptive complaints.

"They were five minute breaks—hardly anything!" Kagome wouldn't be silenced that easily.

Silence stretched between them for a few laborious minutes until Kagome stopped and set her bag down on a nearby rock. Sesshomaru stilled ahead of her, and didn't make an attempt to hide his displeasure.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I told you," she sipped her water and took a deep breath, "that bag is too heavy for me. Either you help out with carrying this food, or I'm taking a few extra breaks each hour."

His response was calculated to exhibit none of his anger. "The mikos at Midoriko village won't accept you if This Sesshomaru helped you."

"Sure, sure. But what they don't know won't hurt them!"

He simply looked at her, not bothering to respond to her blatant lack of respect for him. When Kagome could bear his silence no longer, she began to make amends.

"Look, I know they want me to be some 'ideal miko' who is special and stuff, but I just wasn't bred that way. I'm a city girl—I'm new to this woodsy stuff." She had spent all of her summers in the countryside, but the pastured fields and cultured gardens of the Higurashi lands were an entirely different place.

"They want you to be an independent miko—one who can thrive outside of modern technology and care. You must prove yourself." He attempted to be stern with her, but found his resolve failing. Though she may have thought he enjoyed watching her stumble along through the woods, oddly, he didn't. And after another close call with Kagome and a sharp rock, he had concluded that it felt oddly uncomfortable to watch her.

Kagome dejectedly grabbed her bag and began to hike again, trailing behind Sesshomaru. As the next hour stretched on, conversation was few and far between, until Kagome's stomach growled.

"We shall have lunch now," Sesshomaru suspiciously announced a minute later.

Narrowing her eyes in a devilish way, Kagome grinned at him. "Perfect… I was just getting hungry." She placed her bag on a soft spot of land and looked at him over her shoulder, "Surely it's a coincidence that we're stopping now… I mean, it's not like the Great Demon Lord Sesshomaru would be considerate of his companions…"

"True." He placed his small travel bag next to hers and opened a water bottle for himself. "It should also be brought to your attention that you forgot the proper respect title on the end of my name."

His smirk betrayed his joke, and she laughed, feeling light and pretty on the wonderful summer afternoon. After resting for a moment, they retrieved their lunches from the bags and chose a spot by a small creek to eat at.

Taking her shoes off, she dabbled a toe in the water of the stream and watched as little minnows approached. The scenery was beautiful, and Kikyo's memories stirred in her thoughts as she observed the wild life of the woods. In a location not dissimilar to Kikyo's hometown, it was inevitable that Kagome would feel something, but she hadn't expected it to feel so good. The fresh air, the smells and textures only brought pleasant memories to the forefront of her mind.

A half hour later, and promptly on schedule, they were back on the trail, and moving fast. Kagome continued to half stifle her complaints and Sesshomaru barely listened. A few hours before sunset, Sesshomaru found them a quiet meadow to set up camp in. Or rather, for Kagome to set up her camp, and Sesshomaru to find his dinner.

Taking her tent out of it's case, Kagome watched him set off into a run to go hunting. Sesshomaru, who by the law of the miko village Midoriko, also had to be completely independent in order to be received into the village, had only packed a lunch for himself and had decided to hunt for his food for the next few days. She didn't really understand why he wasn't happy with packing normal food to eat, but then again, she didn't really want to. Inuyoukai will act like inuyoukai.

Once her campsite was set up, she made herself a fire and cooked herself a tinfoil dinner. When Sesshomaru returned after his own meal, she was already in her sleeping bag, with her head poking out the end of the tent.

"It's eight," he told her and began to move some branches away from a soft spot across from her tent.

She frowned, "I thought if we were going to be 'independent people', we couldn't use technology. So then, Mr. follow-all-the-rules, how'd you figure out the time?"

He gave her a bland look as he cleared the last branch and replied. "Internal clock."

"Yeah, right. Cough up the cell phone or watch, buddy."

He cocked an eyebrow. "You doubt my ability to tell time without a clock?"

Her matching smirk was an enticing challenge. "Duh."

"Tell me then, Kagome, how do you think This Sesshomaru told time before clocks became portable?"

Her surprised gaze was his victory. She laughed, and conceded. "Okay, okay. I get it. You can do everything."

"Correct."

Her laughter floated to his ears like a melody, and he thought it more beautiful than a piece composed by one of the great masters he'd known long ago. In a small part of his mind, he wondered why he had let this little human, barely a woman, stir such emotions in his heart.

After the humans had become more advanced and took over the youkai land, he had known the rule of the youkai was over, and a new age was beginning. Now, youkai lived alongside humans, and Sesshomaru's grudge had faded over the years, but he'd still never socialized with them. But Kagome, she was different than all the women he'd met over the years; the woman whom he'd bed and then left. With her, the strange feeling that he wanted something more than a simple sex friend came to mind when he thought about her full curves and toned legs.

As if sensing the direction his thoughts were flowing in, Kagome stirred, suddenly aware. "Are you going to sleep there?" She pointed at where he was sitting, close to her tent.

He looked up at her, and watched her fingers twirl a lock of her hair. "Yes."

"So close?"

"I don't see why that's a problem," her eyes met his and then looked away quickly. Her modesty was amusing when it wasn't necessary.

"Well it's not, but it's just kind of..." she shut her mouth and tried to search for the reason why she couldn't bear to think of him sleeping near her. Her eyes widened when she found it.

"We have been sleeping in the same bed for the past two nights." His voice held an entertained lilt to it.

Oh Kami, that's right, that's right! We've been sleeping next to each other, but I've been to darn tired to notice! She strained her memory to think of what had happened the past two nights.

The first night she'd been asleep by the time he returned home, and the second night once they were in the room she'd fallen asleep right away. But each morning... she had been warm and cozy, nuzzled up against something warm and soft.

"However, you have no reason to worry." She refocused her attention of Sesshomaru when he spoke. "I have no intention on taking you in the woods for our first time. It should be a better location the first time; we will talk about the second when it comes."

Kagome felt her heart beat speed up as warmth rushed to more southern regions of her body. Blushing furiously, she retreated into her tent after a mumbled goodnight.

As sleep hazed her mind and she began to relax again, she wondered why she felt more alone in her bed than she wanted to be.

All characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.