Chapter 9 – When Winter Turns Cold

Kagome alternated between glaring at her bruised knuckles and her damaged dress. She refused to acknowledge the rest of the circus that had followed after they'd reached the Tokyo University Hospital. Hime had been wailing at the top of her lungs since she'd gotten there, worried to death about her sister-in-law. InuYasha had a vice-like grip on his wife, or else Kagome was sure Kikyou would've hit the dismiss button on the alarm clock that was Miroku's wife. Sesshomaru, ironically to most, looked like he really wanted to say something about the situation and Touga hadn't stopped pacing the hall since he'd arrived.

Kagome finally opted for Sesshomaru, who caught her deadpan stare. His eyebrow twitched. The situations that he found himself in, with that woman in near vicinity, were maddening. They were all much better off at home or at the police station pressing charges against the three guys that beat Rin up. She'd suffered a mild concussion, which the doctors attributed her demand for carpeted parks to, a few scratches, and a dislocated shoulder.

Hime sniffed, "Touga-sama, what's a concussion?"

Kagome smiled and Sesshomaru had the urge to stop her lips from moving, "Concussion from the latin word concutere, which means to shake violently."

Hime seemed caught between being appalled and being confused as Touga answered, "What Kagome said dear."

Kikyou finally relaxed in InuYasha's arms and opted to look away from the sheer idiocy of the scene. Shippou rounded the corner with two cups in his hands.

"I knew you were getting a little tired," he said without looking up.

Hime seemed triumphant and began to lean over, only to have him shoot her a strange look before skirting around her to Kagome and Sesshomaru.

"So I brought you guys coffee," he finished slowly. "Why is she bent over like that?"

Kagome blinked owlishly, "Well Shippou, when a man and a woman-."

A throat cleared up next to her and she shut up quickly, laughing nervously at the look on Sesshomaru's face. Knowing he wouldn't have dared to make a noise she looked to her left and found the handsome doctor that had tended to the scratches on her hands.

"Dr. Yatsumoto!" she smiled. "Is Rin still refusing to see the family?"

The doctor smiled hesitantly, "No, she's asleep now Ms. Higurashi. She should be fine to go home tomorrow morning, for now we want to keep her overnight to make sure that the concussion isn't severe. For now, I'm going to ask that only one of you remain here overnight. The ICU isn't really meant for visits and large groups of people. The nurses need to be able to move quickly to help our patients."

Kagome nodded along to his words, at least until she felt a pinch on her leg. She jumped slightly at the sudden pain and looked to her right to find Shippou and Sesshomaru glaring at her. She huffed at them and stood up.

"Well, I heard the guy loud and clear. Time to move out guys!"

Kikyou opted to stay with Rin overnight and kissed her husband goodbye. Hime apologized, stating that she would've loved to stay had the position not already been occupied. Kagome caught Shippou pushing up his sleeves and taking off the lid of Sesshomaru's coffee cup. She stifled a laugh and managed to pry his hands away from the cup so that Sesshomaru could take it back.

"Come on, before you find some wires you'd like to tamper with inside of a private facility."

Sango felt beyond uncomfortable on the plane, and she couldn't help but squirm in her seat. She'd opted to have a view and Miroku, a gentleman, let her have the window seat. Now she just felt trapped between a rock and a hard place, also known as the window and Miroku's intense eyes. He'd been studying her since the moment the plane took off and he had lost access to his laptop and work. He'd switched his concentration from one piece of information to another.

He was picking her mannerisms apart, he wanted to know what she craved, desired, what made her tick and then make it his own. Oh Miroku was on a mission, he was going to explore the person that was Sango before his trip was over and she would be devoted to him. He was out to steal Kagome's secretary right from under her, who else knew how he wanted his cappuccino?

The house had slept like the dead and, paired with the falling snow overnight, the peace was welcome among the inhabitants. At least until Kagome woke up in the later afternoon. Rin had been retrieved in the early hours of the morning by her remaining brothers and had been escorted to her room after breakfast with the family. Touga, InuYasha, and Kikyou were the only ones on their way out that morning. Sesshomaru, it seemed, had come down with some sort of fever as he'd waved them away when they mentioned the work day.

Shippou covered his ears and Rin winced as Kagome's shrill scream tore through the Takahashi mansion. Sesshomaru could've sworn that the corner of his frames cracked. Kagome's bare feet slapped the floor until they stopped in front of his study and she yanked the door open. He was quite satisfied to see her hair mussed and out of place, a crazed look in her eyes, and a different shoe in each hand.

"You insufferable man, you've hidden my shoes from me!"

Sesshomaru looked appalled, was she accusing him of stealing?

"Don't give me that look Sesshomaru, you should never touch a woman's shoes!"

Shippou popped his head out of his room and caught Rin's face as she stepped out of hers. Both of them blinked at each other questioningly until they heard the unmistakable noise of paper flying everywhere.

"There! Pick up and reorganize your work prick!"

Kagome sauntered out of Sesshomaru's room with his glasses on the bridge of her nose and headed for the stairs. Rin and Shippou watched from the top of the stairs as she picked up random shoes on the staircase and continued out into the garden.

"She didn't even take her jacket," Shippou scrunched up his nose thinking of the freezing air shooting up his nostrils. "She'll catch a cold at this rate."

Rin giggled and then moaned in pain, "She's more concerned about the frostbite on her shoes right now."

Meanwhile, Sesshomaru glared at the mess the girl had made. She'd made a great show of shoving all the papers on his desk across the floor before ripping his glasses off his face and making off with them. That was the true crime in the entire event. Okay, sure, maybe he'd taken it a bit far when he'd made a trail with her prized shoes around the outside of the house, but she'd started the war. He could only defend himself.

Shippou peeked in, "That's the weirdest thing you've ever done."

"Strange and out of the norm indeed," Rin said with a cursory glance at her older brother as she walked across his door in the hall and finally back into her room.

Something, oh it's better than nothing. – Mishi Kawaii