Smoke curled about Sesshomaru's tiny form as his clothing continued to smolder in places. Kagome was staring at him, her wide, blue eyes frozen in shock as the last of the explosives finally sizzled to extinction. Charred, silver bangs laid in odd angles, displaced from their normal, orderly location along his brow. His own golden eyes were wide in a face blackened with soot-smudge and ash as he continued to stare at what had once been a box full of brightly colored tubes, sticks and packages.
He and Kagome had found the box in one of the many storage houses on the Shrine's property while looking for scrolls that might explain why the well was refusing to send him back to his own time. The delight they had lit in the young girl's eye had prompted Sesshomaru to carry the box, filled with an assortment of contraptions he didn't quite understand, to behind the house where the swing set was located. Kagome had immediately gone inside to grab some matches, shouting about wanting to show him something called a sparkler.
When she had returned, the raven-haired girl was carrying a box of matches with triumph and excitement in her eyes. Standing across from him, Kagome explained that the packages inside the box were called fireworks, and that they were highly combustible. Sun-tinted eyes had narrowed in confusion at the unfamiliar word, leaving Kagome to clarify that, when exposed directly to a source of heat, like fire, the 'fireworks' would explode. After making sure he understood, Kagome had gone back to digging in the box, searching for a particular type of firework.
The inuyoukai lord-to-be had observed as she had then selected a long, stick-like object wrapped in brightly colored paper. She had then handed him the stick while she attempted to strike a match. Minutes passed in fruitless efforts, as each tiny, wooden rod either snapped in half or refused to catch against the rough surface she was dragging the tip along.
Sesshomaru, tired of waiting and wanting to impress his friend, decided to take matters into his own claws. Focusing his youki like his sire had taught him, the hand not holding the sparkler started to glow a bright green, and a few drops of poison dripped from his claws, hissing angrily as they made contact with the ground. Kagome had looked up in surprise her eyes following the length of his outstretched arm to the ominously glowing hand even as her own hand followed through with the motions she'd been repeating for the past few minutes. This time however, the match caught, bursting to life with an answering hiss to Sesshomaru's poison.
Caught off guard by the sound being so much closer to her body, Kagome jumped with a startled shriek, losing her grip on the lit match. In slow motion, both children watched as the match flew through the air, headed straight for the box of fireworks. Remembering what Kagome had just explained, Sesshomaru quickly reached forward with his free hand and caught the match only inches from the fuse of a particularly large explosive. Before either of the children could breathe a sigh of relief though, Sesshomaru's poison, still slowly weeping from his claws in his distraction, dripped onto several fireworks.
The resulting display had been a cacophony of whistles, bursting lights, loud snaps, pops and smoke of various colors and densities. Kagome had managed to reflexively throw herself to the ground, avoiding the flying fireworks and what would have been some nasty burns for a human. Sesshomaru had frozen in place, bent slightly over the now decimated box, too shocked by the explosion of noise and movement that had resulted. Long moments passed while each stared at the other, Kagome watching to see if her demon friend was okay and Sesshomaru watching to see how big of a fool he had just made himself.
After assessing that her friend was whole and hale, if not a bit rattled, Kagome took a moment to appreciate the situation. Internally, she was thanking every kami she knew that no one was home just then. Finally Kagome spoke, breaking both the silence and the tension of the moment with her stark and blunt honesty.
"That was AWESOME!" The young girl crowed, leaping towards him and swinging him around as adrenaline began to flush through her veins. Breaking out of his stupor at her positive reaction, Sesshomaru laughed along with her, overcome with relief while at the same time wondering if all attempts to impress the strange girl would end with such a bang.
...in which Kagome is impressed... by Sesshomaru's seeming indestructibility against low grade explosives!