Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha.
In the midst of an uneasy alliance between two obstinate brothers, the two Inu’s packs had merged to form one rag tag group that currently sat watching an amusing spectacle unfold.
Sesshoumaru leant against a tree, one knee bent with an arm thrown across it, the other hand resting on Bakusaiga’s hilt, his golden eyes narrowed as he surveyed this latest development. Rin sat nearby, gangly, long legs kicking back and forth from her position on the log whilst Shippo perched next to her; they had been involved in a happy game of I Spy until the untimely interruption.
Miroku and Sango observed from their position next to Ah-Un, Sango had paused in her polishing of her Hiraikotsu and Miroku had cracked open one eye; interrupted from his meditation.
Jaken sat cross-legged away from the group, pretending to be uninterested at the impending fight between the Miko and the Hanyou, but his ears strained anyway.
“Come on, Inuyasha! I swear I’ll bring you back all the ramen you could ever possibly wish for!” she pleaded, shouldering the monstrosity that was her yellow backpack and turning beseeching blue eyes on her Hanyou friend.
“Kagome!” he groaned plaintively, “you can’t leave me here with him!” he pointed an accusing finger at his elder brother who treated the Hanyou to an icy stare for his troubles.
Her expression softened somewhat, they’d never really gotten along very well. “Well then, why don’t you come with me?”
His ears flattened to his skull and he wrinkled his nose derisively. “But, Kagome, it smells disgusting in your time!”
Dropping her bag to the floor in irritation, she put her hands on her hips and faced Inuyasha. “It’s one or the other Inuyasha! You can’t have it both ways!”
Rin shuffled over curiously to Kagome’s discarded bag, when she had dumped it unceremoniously onto the mossy ground something of a sharp vibrant pick colour had fallen out and the young girl felt compelled to investigate.
Scooping the soft doll into her hands she blinked down at the strange thing. It looked sort of like a dragon except it was the colour of Sakura blossoms and had a human head.
Wrinkling her nose she decided to ask Sesshoumaru-sama about it, he would know what it was. She skipped over to her lord and presented him with her findings.
The demon lord transferred his attention to his ward and plucked her offering from her hands between two clawed fingers. The material was soft like a new born pup’s fur and smelt disturbingly wrong. He had never smelt anything akin to that before.
“Miko,” he interrupted the verbal sparring match and held out the doll, “explain.”
Kagome blinked at the plush- toy Hojo had won for her last time she had been home and her friends had forcibly captured her and frogmarched her to the amusement arcade.
“It’s just a toy!” Inuyasha exclaimed, obviously bothered that his half-brother had managed to snatch Kagome’s attention away from him.
“Inuyasha!” Kagome huffed, gently extricating the toy from between Sesshoumaru’s claws and pocketing it, “he was just asking a question, calm down!”
“Demanding an answer more like,” the Hanyou responded indignantly.
Kagome considered that for a moment and realised he was probably right, but then, it was unlike Sesshoumaru to ask nicely. It was difficult to equivocate the word ‘nice’ to Sesshoumaru.
“It doesn’t matter, Inuyasha, stop it! I’m still going home, but I promise to bring you back some ramen.”
With that the Miko turned and fled, tossing a sneaky ‘sit’ over her shoulder to ensure Inuyasha’s obedience.
The path to the well was a track Kagome had traversed many a time and this time, running through the spring-lit forest with a careless abandon, it felt like flying. She was secretly glad that she’d ruined her school shoes and been forced to buy sneakers to compensate. Not only were her steps more fluid and confident but now she could run with more abandon, safe in the knowledge that tricky footwear wouldn’t thwart her attempts.
The bag jostling her steps as it hit into her bag with soft thumps was ignored as a slight hindrance and, before she knew it, she was stood at the edge of the clearing that surrounded the well.
She’s gotten there faster than any other time before this, but apparently not fast enough, because someone was already waiting for her.
Someone entirely unexpected.
“Sesshoumaru-sama?” Kagome ventured timidly, unsure why there was a Taiyokai stood in front of the well gazing at her with blank golden eyes. The breeze ruffled his hair and is spun out beside him, mingling with the falling Sakura blossoms.
She got no answer from the lord, he remained still, the only thing betraying his statuesque appearance was his fluttering hair and watching eyes; when she moved his eyes followed, tracking her form as she progressed closer to him.
“Why are you here?” she tried again, figuring if he was in an alliance with them he couldn’t kill her... could he? Maybe he could, now that she was alone? Break her neck and claim a stray Yokai picked her off? He wouldn’t do that, would he?
Sesshoumaru’s soft huff broke her from her rapidly spiralling thoughts of decapitation.
Blinking owlishly at him, she tilted her head in silent question.
“Behind you,” he spoke softly.
Kagome frowned, and, feeling strangely on edge, she turned to see one of Kikyo’s soul stealers circling the trees at the edge of the clearing.
Kagome’s bag dropped from her shoulders as she backed away instinctively, she’d never liked those things nor did she really hold much love for their master.
It dropped so it was level with her, looking at her, through her, but did not breach the shade that the forest provided.
It was almost as if it couldn’t breach into the sunlight, which was preposterous because she’d seen them do so before.
“So then...” she turned her gaze onto her silent companion and nodded. “It’s afraid of you?”
“It acts with the expected caution,” he corrected, “but it grows more resilient.”
Turning her gaze back to the eerie eel thing she blinked, it was slowly but surely slinking into the clearing, determinedly advancing on Kagome but seemingly submitting to the power of Sesshoumaru.
“It wants me, but doesn’t want to anger you,” she acknowledged.
“Foolish,” he stated as it started forward at a pace too fast for human eyes. Kagome shrieked as Sesshoumaru caught her around the waist and jumped to land gracefully on the lip of the well, away from the glowing creature.
From her somewhat undignified position over Sesshoumaru’s shoulder Kagome watched as the reticent eel tried to simultaneously attack her and submit to Sesshoumaru.
It launched itself at them again and, as Kagome flailed, Sesshoumaru was momentarily distracted and his footing on the rickety well’s rim was lost by an obstinate push from the intrepid eel.
Kagome blanched as they tipped backwards, and down, into the well that held a time portal... a time portal that was not expecting Sesshoumaru.
In a flash of light that was decidedly more green that it was blue, Sesshoumaru and Kagome were whisked away from feudal Japan and hurled forcibly into realms yet unknown.
She felt the spinning motion as Sesshoumaru righted himself to land on his feet, like a cat – she could scarcely imagine Sesshoumaru ever landing in an undignified heap.
They touch down barely jostled Kagome, and, when she cracked her closed eyes open, she discovered they were no longer in a well but in some kind of tepid swamp. The noises were strange too, not the normal noises of feudal Japan.
“What in the world?” Kagome whispered as they glanced around, the skies were stormy and overcast and it was cold enough to make Kagome shiver.
Sesshoumaru slowly released Kagome from his shoulder and plopped her down on the marshy surface. She wrinkled her nose at the feel of her feet sinking and looked around.
There was a sudden mighty roar that chilled Kagome to the core and she tensed as the ground began to shake.
“What is it?” she asked, resisting the urge to cling to the Taiyokai’s sleeve in fright.
He didn’t say a word but merely tilted his head upwards to glare at the space above the tree line. Kagome copied the Inu and waited impatiently.
Seconds later a gigantic head was peering down at them from over the tree tops, one look at its tiny little arm-like attachments, razor sharp teeth and scaly hide had Kagome ready to stab herself on Bakusaiga.
“A tyrannosaurus? You broke the well and dragged us back to the age of the dinosaurs? We’re in prehistoric times!”
The screeching seemed to merely entice its attention and with a roar it began to advance on them. Kagome had little doubt that, to this animal, they were merely the olives at the beginning of an epic feast.
“We’re doomed,” Kagome moaned despondently, stepping back cautiously from the colossal beast.
Her footing unstable she nearly fell over, only to be swept off her feet by a talons closing around her shoulder and snatching her from the earth.
“Sesshoumaru!” she squealed.
The Taiyokai dispassionately watched as she Miko was whisked away, before the enraged roar the tyrannosaurus let loose at being ignored dragged his attention back to the matter at hand. He would find the girl later... or what was left of her.
That thought created an unnamed pang somewhere in the cavity of his chest, but he shrugged it off critically. The girl was not important to him.
Perhaps, Kagome mused slightly hysterically, under differing circumstances she would have enjoyed the novel experience of flying. She always enjoyed the experience when she rode on Kirara but this time, with talons digging into her shoulder and a pterodactyl carrying her through the air at a rate of knots.
The scenery was certainly different and she probably would have had a perfect view of dinosaurs that a palaeontologist would kill for, if only her hair wasn’t blinding her she’d be able to see a lot more but alas the wind had effortlessly made her half blind. Plus, at that moment in time, she was more worried about her impending doom than a scientific discovery.
Flailing her legs and wriggling for all she was worth she wondered what she was trying to achieve, if she actually managed to get free then she would plummet to her death. Belatedly she stretched her uninjured arm above her head and grasped the talon that was piercing her shoulder so she didn’t fall, she’d figure out how to escape when it let her go...
But wait, if it had her, and hadn’t eaten her yet, didn’t that mean it was carrying her back to the nest to feed her to its offspring?
When the talons retracted from her shoulder, she abruptly found her frazzled thinking to be true as she was unceremoniously dropped into a nest that nestled high on a rocky outcrop.
Clutching her bleeding shoulder, she hauled herself into a sitting position and nearly fell back over at what greeted her.
Three curious pterodactyls stepped forwards cautiously, bobbing their heads in synchronicity and tipping their beaks and cawing softly.
“I get the feeling I’m dinner,” Kagome muttered softly, slowly getting to her feet so as not to frighten them into attacking recklessly.
The most courageous of the pterodactyls shuffled forward, still bobbing its head curiously. And Kagome instinctively backed away as far as she could without falling from the nest before dropping into a defensive crouch.
As the first lashed out at her arm she slapped at it with a palm charged in Miko ki, she wasn’t sure if it would even work on a dinosaur but it was better than nothing.
The poor predator backed off as he was shocked with a current from her hand, so, it worked kind of like a stun gun then? That was good to know, she thought, as she stared down at her hand in contemplation.
Unfortunately for her, in the moment she was distracted the thoroughly annoyed pterodactyl darted forward at her, followed closely by its two siblings; apparently they didn’t like food that bit back.
Throwing herself out of the way at the last moment, Kagome hit the bottom of the nest painfully and rolled watching in exasperation as the plush-toy fell from her pocket.
Apparently the pressure of being bounced had activated the electrical voice box.
“R0ozilla says rawr!” it crowed, momentarily distracting the pterodactyls from their meal.
They investigated the pink plush-toy with a rabid curiosity that gave Kagome a chance to contemplate her options. Slowly standing so as not to attract their attention, Kagome cautiously peered over the edge of the nest and gulped.
She was high enough for her knees to quiver but beneath her was a large expanse of water, a lake of some sort, which seemed her best bet of escape.
She removed her hand from her shoulder, pleased to see that concentrating the power into the damaged limb had repaired it enough that the incisions were now pink scars instead.
With a last regretful glance at the R0ozilla toy she would have to leave behind, Kagome ran and jumped off the edge of the nest, curving her body into a taut arc and plummeting down.
Plunging into the freezing water was no picnic but it was better than being ripped to shreds by hungry pterodactyls.
Breaking the surface of the water, she nearly drowned herself as she came face to face with a brachiosaurus that regarded her with bored eyes as it slurped at the water in the lake. Agog, she stared at it for a while before reaching out a tentative hand. It didn’t seem to mind as she patted its face softly and she revelled in the warmth of its body for a moment before clutching onto it desperately as it calmly retracted its head to the lake edge, dragging her to a place where she could stand.
She grinned gratefully at the creature who went back to ignoring her and hauled herself out onto dry land, plopping onto her back and sighing morosely.
Balking as the brachiosaurus spat the R0ozilla-doll at her, she frowned at the small plush-toy that looked worse for wear and carefully pocketed it. No sense in leaving an anachronism lying around. She quickly glanced at the sky then and checked that the pterodactyls weren’t coming for her.
The thudding of heavy footsteps interrupted her well earned repose and she bolted upright as her brachiosaurus friend turned in the direction of the sound cautiously.
Seconds later the tyrannosaurus broke the tree line and Kagome was caught between wanting to smack her head to see if she was seeing things and wanting to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.
Because this tyrannosaurus was not only deadly and huge and deadly, it was also being steered.
Sesshoumaru stood atop the best, rigid posture regal as always, diligently steering the mighty carnivore with his light whip. He’d crafted it into some kind of collar and it obviously wasn’t harming the beast if the expression of adoration was anything to go by...
No way, she thought in horror, there was no chance this was the ancestor of Jaken, right?
The fact that Sesshoumaru stepped on its head and dropped to the ground made her consider the absurd thought.
“Nice pet, you realise he’s pretty high maintenance, right?” she asked frowning up at the tyrannosaurus that glared at her and bared its teeth.
Noticing her preoccupation, the Taiyokai turned to growl at the tyrannosaurus and with something that sounded suspiciously like a whimper the great predator departed.
“I guess it senses that you’re above it on the food chain,” she mused lightly, running a hand through her sodden hair.
“Your arm,” he nodded at her shoulder and she glanced down at it and smiled.
“Yeah, it’s healed,” she said rubbing it slightly.
Sesshoumaru turned a placid expression towards the skies for a moment before walking so he was stood precariously close to the young Miko. Gold eyes clashed with blue and she frowned as mokomoko-sama wrapped itself loosely around her waist.
“Hold on,” he commanded in a smooth voice as his youki cloud formed beneath their feet and hefted them into the skies.
She clutched mokomoko-sama carefully, under the impression that Sesshoumaru didn’t really want to touch her that much, but as she looked down at the ground vertigo took over and she teetered backwards.
Strong arms closed around her back and she collapsed onto Sesshoumaru’s hard chest, mercifully avoiding the chest spikes.
Nothing was said but Kagome mercifully found a little comfort in the stoic Taiyokai’s embrace. Was this feeling of contentment and security what Rin felt around Sesshoumaru?
He touched down in a cave seconds before the heavens opened and subsequently closed them in the cave with a sheet of blinding rain that stole the views of the valley below them.
Shivering slightly as lightening flashed across the sky, Kagome extricated herself from Sesshoumaru’s pelt and wrapped her arms around herself.
The Taiyokai watched the Miko warily, travelling with Rin for as long as he had he was well aware of the delicate nature of the human body; the Miko was wearing sodden clothes that would not have provided much cover in any case let alone now.
“Remove your clothes,” he commanded callously.
Kagome immediately blushed to the roots of her hair, sure she thought the demon lord was pretty, everyone with eyes knew he was pretty and sexy and perfect and oh so delicious... but she was no way going to strip for him.
“Hentai!” she screeched, crossing her arms in front of her chest and backing off into a dark corner of the cave.
A slender eyebrow quirked at the Miko’s exclamation, though she was appealing to the eye – not that he’d admit it – he had not meant that, in fact, he thought he’d been obvious.
Suddenly something pink and sodden smacked him in the forehead and he watched the toy slid down his face as one eyebrow twitched and his clawed hands curled into fists.
The growl was the straw that broke the Inu’s back. He wasn’t even aware that a human could growl, but this growl, this growl was full of challenge and anger and.... it intrigued him.
Faster than Kagome could blink she was pinned to the wall, legs spread apart and held by mokomoko-sama and her wrists pinned above her head by one clawed hand.
She gulped and stared up at him as he thunked his forehead down onto hers.
“If you do not take of your clothes then I will do it for you, I will not permit you to become ill,” he stepped away and stared at her from his new position leaning against the opposite wall.
She really needed to stop jumping to conclusions, she berated herself, before turning to glare at him once more.
“Turn around!” she commanded hotly, pointing an angry finger at the demon lord.
For a long time he didn’t move, it didn’t even look like he was breathing, his golden eyes stayed locked stubbornly on her form as he perused her leisurely, making her squirm in embarrassment.
When he deigned to finally turn around Kagome quickly discarded her clothes and stood there hopping from foot to foot in her bra and pants.
She tensed as he chuckled. “I said remove your clothes, not pick and choose.”
Belligerently she wrenched her bra and pants off and then, in a fit of pique, threw them at the nonchalant demon lord. She balked when they hit.
The bra dangled off one pointed ear whilst the pants secured a spot on his right shoulder.
“A gift, Miko? How kind.” She watched indignantly as he snagged her underwear and placed them inside his haori before turning round to face her.
“Ah! Hentai!” she shrieked, desperately covering herself with her hands.
He would have rolled his eyes, but he resisted and instead stalked towards her until he had a clawed hand resting upon her head.
“Don’t fight it,” he whispered softly, and, before she could question him, he sent out a pulse of youki that dried her skin and her hair instantly.
Sesshoumaru was pleased that her Miko powers had not reacted but Kagome was baffled; she had not prepared herself, they should have risen in her defence...
Then something occurred to her...
“Hey!” she barked, “If you can do that why couldn’t you have dried my clothes too?”
He scooped the offending garments from the floor and she watched in horror as he melted her school uniform with his Dokkasu.
“Indecent,” he offered.
“I think I’m more indecent now than I was before,” she answered sharply.
Sesshoumaru regarded her for a moment, causing her to blush so hard it travelled across her breasts; he was looking at her like he could see through her hands.
Slowly, deliberately, sensuously, he untied his armour and then his haori and opened it.
She stopped breathing.
And then he threw it at her head.
“Wear it,” he commanded, watching in amusement as she struggled to get into it.
“You know,” she huffed, flicking her hair from her eyes, “You’re an ass!”
A rumble of thunder cut across the forest and Kagome gasped as she found herself being boa-constricted by mokomoko-sama.
“Respect me, or die,” there was no threat in his neutral tone, just a deadly promise that made her grimace.
She was dragged to her knees by mokomoko-sama and forced to the ground in the foetal position.
“Sesshoumaru, how are we going to get back?” she asked softly.
Mokomoko shifted so that it covered her more thoroughly.
“We will get back,” he sounded resolute but Kagome was still unsure. Maybe, just this once she’d place the same faith in Sesshoumaru that Rin always seemed to and draw a little comfort from it.
“Now, sleep,” he commanded imperiously.
“Easier said than done,” came her muffled response from within the cocoon of mokomoko-sama.
Hours later, Sesshoumaru kept his silent vigil over the girl, protecting her as he had Rin... except Rin was never this troublesome nor disobedient... nor this pleasing on the eyes...
A cool gust of wind blew through the cave and Sesshoumaru watched in annoyance as the girl shivered, even under all that fur.
Huffing slightly, he scooped her up from the forest floor and placed her in his lap. A lock of hair fell across her face and, resigning himself to the curiosity of what it would feel like, Sesshoumaru swept it away.
Kagome woke early the next morning and nearly died of shock, how exactly had she ended up in Sesshoumaru’s lap?
Thankfully he was still asleep so she was able to slip from his warm lap without too much trouble.
Oh well, she’d deliberate later, right now the bushes were calling to her.
She didn’t venture very far from the mouth of the cave, not wanting to get lost, but she made sure it was far enough away that she would have some warning before Sesshoumaru stumbled across her.
She had taken R0ozilla with her, it was a comfort thing, and the plush-toy currently sat atop her shoulder.
She blinked as she heard thunder again; surely it had stopped after last night?
And then she came face to face with the tyrannosaurus that Sesshoumaru had tamed.... and it was looking at her as if she was his...
Rival?
No way.
“Sesshoumaru!”
It was times like this that Sesshoumaru was glad he was brilliant at tracking, it seemed Kagome had been kidnapped again by one of the vile creatures that roamed this place and she was apparently being taken back to the place where they had first appeared.
What he found there was equal parts bamboozling as it was riotous.
Kagome and the beast he had tamed were glaring at each other.
It seemed that this reptile liked him and saw Kagome as competition. He wondered blithely if Kagome knew how close to death she actually was.
Obviously not, as, in the next moment, she threw the pink toy at the tyrannosaurus in indignation.
Cursing every god he could think of Sesshoumaru snatched Kagome from the path of the beast, launched himself through the air in time for her to catch that insufferable toy and landed gracefully.
He turned to face the beast, which looked kind of abashed.
But, before he could growl in reprimand, they were engulfed in the same green light as before and dragged forwards in time.
They crashed into the bottom of the bone eaters well in a muffled heap of tangled limbs and disorientated beings.
Eventually they extricated themselves and Sesshoumaru lifted them from the well.
Once they were safely on feudal era soil again, Kagome collapsed with laughter.
“I can’t believe!” she gasped, “that you managed to get a tyrannosaurus to fall for you!”
Growling his displeasure, Sesshoumaru plucked her from the ground and shook her once to stop her hysterical laughter.
“I am very desirable Miko, you should know that.” He smirked in triumph at the blush that his words encouraged and dropped her onto her bottom again.
She glared up at him. “I’m not the one who stole underwear!”
“You gave them to me.”
“Did not!”
A/N: This is for r0o’s birthday! Because r0o is awesome and so yeah, I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading and review!