I disclaim any rights to the InuYasha characters.

Interesting how amusing this little wolf prince turned out to be. Sesshomaru chuckled inwardly, while his outer appearance held his normal icy stance. After one whole day and half this night in the wolf's company, the Western Lord had pretty much figured the wolf out.

Kouga did, for example, not take lightly on teasing of his person, or on his affection toward the human for that matter. Whenever the taiyoukai questioned his choice of mate, the younger male's face would turn a furious red, with his dark eyebrows narrowed at him; very much resembling a wrinkled tomato, with an assembly of leftover blast turned black. A very fitting image which amused Sesshomaru to no end.

Right now, as the first sunrays licked the sky, he was smirking at the wolf's bad attempts at tracking InuYasha's last known trace. Kouga jumped to the side where they had sniffed the mutt's foul scent last – which was now not such an easy attempt when the wolf had erased the mutt's presence with his own – before he jumped to the other side and started sniffing after the older trace. Which of course, wasn't there. Kouga growled and jumped over the river for the hundredth time. Jumping back and forth like the little rabbit he was; senseless, agitated and frightened.

"Are you quite done with your acrobatics yet?" Sesshomaru asked lazily, stretching like a cat before rising fluidly.

The other demon growled at him and continued his sniffing, spitting and growling with frustration. "No I'm not!" he yapped, sniffing at a bush before dismissing it. "She's my mate, god dammit! I need to find her! I have already told you that, you son of a…" he muttered and brought his nose down low on the ground.

Sesshomaru raised a delicate eyebrow and smirked. "Then do tell me, wolf; how are you supposed to find the trail if you are disintegrating it with your own smell?"

"Don't tell me. What. To. Do!" Kouga roared, crumbling an innocent-looking tree to 's other eyebrow rose at the antics and he couldn't help but feel sorry. For the tree, that is.

Panting heavily the wolf fell to his knees, staring unseeingly as his first tears of despair started to fall. "Don't tell me, just help me…" he sniffled. His head fell forward and he buried his face in his hands as his sobs grew more haggard and more desperate.

Sesshomaru sighed. How depressing seeing a fellow demon, even though a much weaker demon, fall into crumbles by a simple human girl. No, not depressing, he corrected himself. It was insulting to the whole demon race to see something like this, and not execute the filth. Shaking his head mentally, he shot an icy glare at the still crying wolf demon, who now had curled in on himself and wagged slowly from side to side.

"Wolf, snap out of your artifices. You will not help your 'mate' in that state of mind." Sesshomaru dragged out the word as if he tasted bile on his tongue. 'Mate, my ass,' as the mutt would have said. "It will be more efficient if-"

An electric bolt, deep in his stomach, flared to life. It tickled his insides and ran through his veins, up to his nose. Startled Sesshomaru snapped his head up, scrutinizing the surrounding trees – what was left of them. Not a sound, nor a movement, except for the sniffling wolf and the sound of running water, the surviving bushes and leaves waving slowly in the mild breeze. Even so, he could hear, no, feel something out there. But what was it? What was it that sent electric energy through his body, weaker yet very alike his dragon arm he once had had?

"Kouga~"

InuYasha cursed. He had made quite a lie back there, telling them he was alright. Hell he was. Hearing illusions and believing them to be real? To freaky to be okay, even for him.

Not only that, but his legs wounds had reopened. His friends hadn't mentioned his blood stained legs just yet, but soon they would. They always did after all. Or was that only Kagome? Surely the others used to be concerned for him to? Hmm…

"InuYasha!"

He snapped back to reality as Miroku held him back with his staff, not moving an inch as InuYasha wrestled against the hold.

"What the hell, Miroku?

"Can´t you see that?" the monk asked cautiously, pointing with his clothed hand on something a few steps from where they stood. There, in front of them, lied a human; a very dead, blood-dry human male. His skin looked almost papery and his eyes had turned a ghastly light blue. A deep sniff and InuYasha muttered to the others that the human hadn't been dead for that long – maybe one day or two at most.

"How is that possible?" Shippo quivered and gripped a handful of the petite Kirara in his tiny hands. "F-for what I know, people o-only look like that when th-they have b-been dead a long t-t-time. Don't they?"

Sango knelt in front of the man and scrutinized the body, lifting a crackling limb occasionally. "There's nothing natural with his death, that´s for sure. But", she said and cast a look at the males, "it's nothing demonic about it at all."

"What the hell?" InuYasha exclaimed rubbing his head.

"My words exactly," Miroku said gravely.

"InuYasha – can you try to find some sort of trace or scent or whatever on him that can tell us what attacked him?"

"Well, sure." He said, stepping past Sango before placing his head one inch from the corpse, casted a look on the others and then closed his eyes.
He took a deep breath. A deep frown creased his forehead as the scents of wilderness and panic struck his nose. Whatever it had been, it hadn't been merciful on this man.
Another, deeper sniff and he could smell the icky smell of sweat still lingering in the clothes. Running for a while, huh.
A third sniff and his eyes snapped open. He stumbled on his heels and landed flat on his rump, his friends urging him loudly to tell them what happened, but he didn't give a damn. A scent he knew, but hadn't smelled for what seemed like years. But how was that possible? Surely it couldn't…

"Kouga~"

Sesshomaru growled a warning out into the clearing to whoever it was that dared trespass. Sure, the wolf was a disgrace, but nonetheless he was now Sesshomaru's responsibility – he would not let a demon or human get near enough to kill him. He took one step closer to the wolf, which now had stopped his crying and had settled for a haggard breathing. The wound he had received from a thrown knife in his abdomen didn't make his breathing any easier. The stench of spilled demon-blood made Sesshomaru growl an even deeper snarl.

"Oh? And lord Sesshomaru too? How nice!"

It twittered to him. Twitter, oh lord. He gritted his teeth and plucked out Tokijin from its sheet. No one twittered like a little bird to him and lived to tell the tale. He held the ominous sword lazily to his side before letting his infamous icy glare stare straight forward, while his other senses stayed alert for whatever could strike out at him from behind.

"Show yourself, midget," he demanded. He would never show it, but he started to feel a little panicked when he couldn't catch any smell from what this foe was, or more important; where it was. The panic plus the constant shocks of lightning in his stomach equaled to a Sesshomaru not at his best.

"Midget? Now, that isn't very nice of you. I can tell you that I'm far, far, FAR from being a midget, thank you very much!"

An irritated twittering now, but it was still floating around the clearing, still making it hard to know where its user came from. A whistling sound erupted, darting closer to the demons. Sesshomaru barely managed to dodge the second throwing knife as it sizzled past him and imbedded itself in the ground, a few inches from Kouga's foot. The wolf twitched but succeeded from yelping at the weapon.

"Naaaw! Why can't you stand still for?"

Now Sesshomaru was certain this creature was a female. The twittering and the exasperated sound couldn't explain it any other way. He smirked smugly to himself.

"Show yourself, woman," he clarified with his deep baritone.

"Well, that is better, I can give you that. But my name is not woman or anything of the sort! It isn't wench, witch, bitch, girl, babe, lady, sweetheart or woman, if we shall add that to the collection. Men."

He almost laughed. She huffed and if he had seen her face he would have bet that she was pouting. But Sesshomaru never laughed openly; he settled for a lazy smile instead.

"Indeed. Men can be such a disgrace, don't you think?" he said out loud, keeping a careful eye on the surroundings as he motioned to the wolf. "Just look at the wolf; crying like a little cub for something he does not need. The disgrace of have chosen a human mate is simply too much, isn't it?"

He jumped as a rain of arrows and knives shot down at him, directly from his left. He smirked triumphantly as he skidded on the ground and jumped once more from the deadly weapons.

"How dare you?" the female shrieked. "Love is the purest of all; what does it matter if it is between a human and a demon, or a dog and a frog for that matter? I despise you, Lord of the Western Lands, brother of InuYasha!"

That certainly killed his smile, but now he at least knew where she was. He rushed faster than the poor wolf could see, and before he knew it a rustle in the great oak tree and a small shriek of surprise later Sesshomaru stood by his side again. With a wrestling girl.

It certainly was embarrassing to say the least, to get pierced in his stomach by a thrown knife from a little girl. This little girl was clad in blood-red colors and it jingled and clinked from her as she moved. Soon he saw that the clinking noise came from the many knifes she still had in a little belt bag by her side, and from the many links she had braided into her hair.
She was sparsely clothed; a short black and red tainted skirt with a split that traveled up to her thigh, and a likewise small shirt over her bosom. Kouga remembered Kagome in her "bathing clothes", as she had called them when he had asked. She had said it was called a be-kai-ni and it was a common thing to bath in where she came from. He snorted to himself and closed his eyes as the memory brought forth new pain, and with that, more tears.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked Sesshomaru quietly. "Just kill her already."

Silence regarded him. He sighed heavily and opened his eyes tiredly only to stare right at the smiling girls face. Blue orbs glittered at him as they had done before, but this time it was no friendliness that met him.

"K-Kagome?"

She smiled then, not the beautiful smile he remembered and loved, but a smile that was wholeheartedly predatory. She smiled wickedly and tipped her head in what resembled his adorable woman. But nothing was more eerily than watching the person you love the most flashing such a toothy grin, blue eyes enormous as they ogled him.

"Hey, Kouga-kun! Like my new style?" she chirped.

Alright. Hands up everyone who knew that was coming! xD
First, I'm sorry for not uploading in ages (weeks?). It has been much with school lately and then I'm supposed to do an operation for my underbite and for my twisted overbite, so I've been a bit emotional lately. Or maybe that's due to hormones? Er, yeah...
I was about to upload this yesterday though, but something was wrong with the site when I tried to upload! Therefore, one day and a few weeks late, but here it is!
Please do review!