Sesshomaru watched warily as Kagome angrily stomped up the stairs to the shrine. She was coming back from a friend's birthday party, and it appeared that something had happened to set off her temper.
'Although that wouldn't be too hard...' Sesshomaru thought to himself dryly as the annoyed girl threw herself down beside him with a huff. Choosing to give her a chance to cool off, the pup turned his eyes to the sky, trying again to see the shapes in the clouds his human friend was always claiming were there.
Beside him, Kagome was tearing at her pig tails in frustration, doing her best to unravel the ribbons and some other substance from them. Once her raven tresses were clear of both, she wadded the soiled ribbons up and did her best to hurl them down the shrine steps. To the child's ire, the ribbons unfurled as they left her tight grip and drifted lazily to rest only two steps down.
Stomping a foot, Kagome clenched her eyes shut as she tried to calm down. Sesshomaru, being the smart young youkai that he was, kept his eyes glued to the clouds. After about 20 minutes, Kagome finally looked at her silent companion with a tired expression. Feeling eyes upon him, Sesshomaru asked curiously, "Why would you go to a party that makes you angry?"
Sapphire eyes filled with annoyance gave him a petulant look as Kagome reached out and pulled his cheek. At his yelp, she let go, muttering, "Divine punishment, baka no Sessho."
As the young youkai lord rubbed his abused cheek, she sighed and leaned back on her elbows, explaining, "The party didn't make me angry. All in all, it was a lot of fun actually. It was my friend Yuka that made me angry."
Sesshomaru waited for her to continue, and when she didn't he asked, "What did she do to make you angry?"
The petite girl blew her bangs in a familiar display of irritation before she answered his question with one of her own. "Do you know what cooties are?"
At the shake of his head, Kagome explained, "It's stupid really. Supposedly you get them from being with boys. If you kiss a boy, or hold their hand or something, you get cooties, and then everyone avoids touching you until you get a cootie shot." At Sesshomaru's confused look, Kagome elaborated further.
"A boy from our class, Hojo, was at the party today. Everyone started saying he had cooties, and it just really made me angry, so I went up to him and gave him a cootie shot." Kagome's face began to flush once more with anger as she related what happened next.
"Then Yuka started singing a stupid song about how Hojo and me were gonna kiss and get married and have kids together... it was just-"
"Because you gave him a shot?" Sesshomaru interrupted her rant, startling Kagome out of her anger.
"Wha-? No, I don't know! I think because I walked right up to him and grabbed his arm instead of hanging back like everyone else." Silence fell between them as Sesshomaru thought over what she had told him. After a few minutes of careful consideration, the small inuyoukai turned to Kagome with a serious expression.
"Could you show me what a cootie shot is?" He offered her his arm, and Kagome rolled her eyes with a sigh.
"I already told you they don't really exist!"
"I'd still like to see this shot you are talking about." At the defiant twist of her lips, Sesshomaru added, "...please, Kagome-chan?"
Mollified by the addition of 'the magic word' Kagome took his arm and started tracing invicible shapes on it with her finger.
"Circle, circle, dot, d-" her sing-song recitation was cut off by Sesshomaru quickly leaning forward and pressing a swift kiss the corner of her mouth. It was a child's kiss, sweet and short. Wide azure eyes blinked at him, startled above cheeks gone a ruddy pink.
"Now you can't marry Hojo. I found you first, and I kissed you first." Kagome's eyes went wider, her entire face flushing at his bold statement. "Yuka will just have to arrange his marriage to someone else."
Suddenly overcome by the ridiculousness of it all, Kagome snorted on her laughter as her anger was washed away on a tide of mirth. Sesshomaru looked mildly perturbed, but simply went back to looking at the sky. He didn't know what was so amusing about him staking a claim to her, and he certainly wasn't happy that some human boy had nearly done it before him.
As he watched the clouds passing overhead and listened to Kagome's giggles, the young lord came to a decision though. In order to keep Kagome for himself, and keep her safe, he would have to take her back with him. The only question was... how?
...in which Sesshomaru has no imagination but plenty of determination.