The Girl Sesshomaru Loved

Chapter XI: Claustrophobia

“Don’t worry, Arena, we will dig you out!” InuYasha shouted.

“Be careful InuYasha, you cannot just randomly grab rocks. You have to make sure not to cause a landslide!” Arena was started to panic, her claustrophobia coming back to her full force. Arena started to take small steps backwards. She was unconsciously retreating from nothing, with no direction whatsoever. She stumbled back in the dark and crashed into something warm and solid.

She drew in a quick breath and started to get away, in any direction, she just had to get away.

“Relax, human, it is just me,” Sesshomaru said somewhat more patiently than his usual voice as he placed his hands around her shoulders. He knew he had to calm her down and she still was wasting air with short panicked breaths.

“I know I need to relax, Sesshomaru, I cannot help it, even though I know I am just wasting the air in here… I just really hate closed spaces.” Arena tried to calm herself in the black darkness. Sesshomaru stood behind her, his hands warm on her shoulders. He knew he should be trying to help Arena from panicking, but he could not ignore the familiar butterfly in his stomach at being so close to her. He moved slightly more towards her, his front pressed lightly to her back. Arena closed her eyes and willed herself to breathe slowly. She unconsciously leaned her head back against his lean chest. Sesshomaru’s presence was comforting to her, but it was still a struggle to not hyperventilate. He, on the other hand, was becoming completely disoriented by the nearness of the woman in front of him. His breaths were quickening at each thought of Arena's small and lithe form. Sesshomaru was just tall enough to rest his chin on her head and the touch of her soft curly hair against his cheek was making his pulse quicken. She smelled delightfully of roses and something else, he could not quite pin it.

‘Is Sesshomaru smelling my hair?’ Arena thought. ‘Wait a second, is Sesshomaru snuggling up against me? This is so weird, and yet, if we were not about to run out of oxygen this would be quite romantic.’

Sesshomaru could think about nothing except the warm woman in front of him. What a pity there was no soft forest bed nearby. He was thinking about holding her hand and her narrow waist and drawing her towards a mossy riverbed when he heard a rumble in the rocks, and a tiny ray of light shone in at them.

His eyes jerked open. What the hell was he doing? He was a demon lord. It did not befit him to get all gushy over a human woman! ‘I am a fool’ he thought to himself, ‘no wait, the woman has ensnared me with some spell. Yes, that is it.’

Arena immediately stepped forward. “Sesshomaru, look, they’ve come through. Let us help them.” She smiled brightly, the demon lord's odd actions were already forgotten. Sesshomaru cursed himself silently over his lack of control. Arena burst out of the small opening that InuYasha and the others had made through the rubble. She took a deep breath of air, smiling brightly. Then, she immediately ran over to hug Kagome and Sango, who were both standing nearby breathing heavily from the effort of moving the rocks.

“InuYasha, I hate to interrupt the rejoicing, however, I am not a scrawny little human. You will make this opening wider to allow me to pass through” Sesshomaru said with a rather bored tone in his voice. He excited the cave amidst a great amount of grumbling from his brother and immediately looked for Arena. She met his eyes and he looked away, shielding his embarassment with a cold glare.

“You pathetic humans, took you long enough. I could not have borne the smell of that beastly human in that cave any longer.” Sesshomaru said as he glared all around.

‘What a bloody git! What is going on with him?’ Arena thought. She had the impression that her ‘beastly smell’ was not only favourable to Sesshomaru, but that it had excited him. However, Arena did not have the time to dwell anymore on the ‘Sesshomaru Mystery’ as the group soon had to find better cover for the rest of the night.

“Well, the lovely Arena’s horrible smells aside, where should we go now?” Miroku asked, thus earning himself a glare from both Arena and Sango. Sango moved protectively to Arena’s side.

“You don’t smell bad” she said.

“Thanks, Sango, at least you don’t think I stink” Arena answered and put an arm around the other woman’s shoulders and gave her a hug. Sango did not miss Sesshomaru’s eyes widen and then narrow at this small action.

“Hey you two, do you need a room? There are minors present!” Kagome said, giggling. Rin and InuYasha looked at her, both confused.

“Well I think we should head West, that is where the debris seems to be coming from” Arena said to everyone.

“What are you crazy, Arena! Do you want to be squashed like a flea?” InuYasha asked incredulously.

“Wait a minute, InuYasha. She has a good point. If we are going to try and find a way to repair the rift in time then we need to learn more about this phenomenon” Kagome answered wisely.

“I agree with the human. I need to stop this threat to my land” Sesshomaru said.

“Is she smelly too?” Miroku asked, a grave expression on his face.

Kagome, Arena, and Sango burst into giggles as Sesshomaru gave his brother a confused expression. His eyes questioned the sanity of his brother’s travelling companions.

Sesshomaru, InuYasha, Miroku, Rin, and Jaken started walking towards the West. Eventually the women overcame their laughing fits and followed suit.

They eventually came to a thick chasm in the Earth where a raging river once was. Miroku pointed down at the bottom of the dry bed.

“Look everyone, there are caves down there. It would be hard indeed for any falling debris to break through the canyon walls.”

“Good job, Miroku. He has a very good point. Shall we rest there tonight?” Kagome said as Miroku looked very pleased with himself.

“Sounds good!” Arena started to scale down the steep canyon wall.

“Kirara!” Sango cried. Kirara had anticipated her request and was already in her full demon form. Sango and Miroku both jumped effortlessly onto her waiting back. They started flying down the chasm towards the caves. Kagome climbed onto InuYasha’s back, much to the surprise of Sesshomaru.

“So, you are a pack-mule as well as a dirty half-blood, brother?” Sesshomaru’s eyes glinted.

“Why you, bloody…!” InuYasha growled, forgetting his cargo.

“InuYasha stop it, Lord Sesshomaru is teasing you… Right, Lord Sesshomaru?” Kagome brought her fist down heavily onto InuYasha’s head. He simply shook his head and jumped over the cliff to join the already waiting Miroku, Sango and Kirara. Sesshomaru looked down at Rin. She was looking at him with wide brown eyes and her arms stretched up. After a moment of confusion Sesshomaru finally realized that she wanted him to carry her. He picked her up in his arms and she wrapped her legs around his waist for security and off the cliff he jumped.

As they passed by the still scaling Arena she thought to herself, ‘now why didn’t I just wait for a ride. I am so thick!’ She smiled at the thought of herself in Rin’s position. At the shift of her weight her foot slipped and she cursed herself for thinking such foolish thoughts about Sesshomaru. She would have to reserve those daydreams for later, if he stopped being such a git.

“A little help here?” she called down.

A moment later InuYasha jumped up to a ledge near where she was standing. He grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. From her uncomfortable perch atop his shoulder she swore she saw Sesshomaru glare jealousy at his brother. Did he want to carry her like he carried little Rin? However she could deliberate no more about it because at that moment InuYasha’s shoulder blade cut deeply into her stomach and she gasped in pain and her eyes were torn away from the demon lord.

“InuYasha, you idiot, why couldn’t you carry me like you did Kagome or the way Sesshomaru carried Rin?” Arena blushed slightly at these last few words. She looked around quicky, luckily it seemed no one noticed her thoughts.

“Well maybe I could have if you had waited for me to come back instead of trying to climb down the canyon like a bloody fool!” InuYasha glared at her. Arena merely nursed her sore stomach and glared right back. Kagome ushered everyone into the nearest cave entrance. InuYasha and Arena were still glaring at each other when Sesshomaru stopped and pushed Rin behind him.

“InuYasha, you bloody fool, don’t you smell it?” he said to his preoccupied brother.

“Smell wh…Damn that bastard!! I will kill him this time for sure!” he started to sniff the air ferociously.

“Lord Sesshomaru, what is wrong with InuYasha?” Sango asked.

“There is a wolf demon in this cave” he answered. Kagome suddenly jumped up.

“Oh no, that means Kouga is here, and we have no itime for their silly fights!” She ran after InuYasha to try and calm him down.

“Who is Kouga?” Arena asked.

“Kouga is a wolf demon who thinks that he is in love with Kagome, naturally he and InuYasha fight quite a lot” Miroku answered. Arena shook her head.

“So much fighting….” Sesshomaru folded his arms and looked curiously at her.

“Well perhaps we should find a good place to discuss our strategy, humans?”

“Of course, you are right Sesshomaru” Arena replied, motioning for the others to follow her, “you bloody, arrogant git” she muttered. She was still seething from the 'smelly' comment he had made, and was obviously unaware of the dog demon's acute sense of hearing. Before Sesshomaru could tell her off they heard a snarl followed by high pitched yelps from deep inside the cave network. Arena looked at her friends and they all took off running to find out who was hurt. They came upon InuYasha nursing his a battered body, and a gasping Kouga lying on the ground.

“InuYasha, you fool, how could you injure Kouga at a time like this. We need all the allies we can find!” Kagome was scolding him. Obviously she had just invoked the power of the rosary beads.

Arena walked slowly over to where Kouga lay. He looked so pitiful. He reminded her of a grey wolf she had come across while hiking in the North American wilderness and the memory brought tears to her eyes. She was so overcome by her sadness at the unnecessary violence that she didn’t even register that she had was finally remembering something from her life before she came to feudal Japan. She started to kneel down beside her when InuYasha shouted to her:

“Don’t even think about it, Arena, that idiot is a good for nothing scamp! Save your strength for healing us! And besides, if you heal him then you will be asleep for hours! And as much as I hate to admit it, we kind of need you.” InuYasha’s voice trailed away. Arena looked at him briefly, and then with pursed lips she turned back to the hurt wolf demon in front of her. She put her hands immediately to his slashed chest and whispered her command. There was a familiar flash of light. InuYasha and Miroku both groaned. They knew Arena shouldn’t have spent her energy on healing the wolf demon. Her body having been emptied of its life force, Arena’s eyes rolled back and she fell to the rocky floor.

“Oh poor Arena, someone should’ve been there to catch her!” Sango looked at Sesshomaru when she said this, a slight glint in her eyes. Kagome smiled knowingly and Miroku looked curiously at the two women. Was there something he was missing? They walked over to the sleeping healer as Kouga jumped up and started to go at InuYasha again.

“Don’t be such a bloke, Kouga. Arena just healed you and you are going to go get yourself all cut up again. Besides, we need to work together.” Kagome grabbed Kouga back from his attack. He looked at her.

“What? Who healed me? I was fine. I was just getting ready for round two!”

“No you weren’t, Kouga. See for yourself.” She gestured at the pool of blood on the rocky floor. The scent was unmistakably his own. His eyes went over to the sleeping woman beside them.

“You mean this girl has healing powers? Cool!” no one missed the lustful glimmer that shadowed his eyes as he said this. Everyone was enraged, Sesshomaru and InuYasha most of all. However, dire need for a fire overcame the desire to punish the wolf demon and everyone set to work trying to warm the cave and create suitable sleeping quarters. Sesshomaru was about to demand that humans should sleep on the left and demons on the right, but then he realized he would be sharing a sleeping space with only Kirara, Jaken, and Kouga. The thought of sleeping near Kouga disgusted him. He did not really know the wolf demon, but he already detested him. He could not figure out where the hatred came from, but it was there. Finally after much debate it was decided that the girls would sleep near the fire, and the men would just find their own respectable distance. Meanwhile, Arena slept on blissfully ignorant of what was going on around her.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks for this chapter goes to the great Dionysus. Where would civilization be without your blessed teachings! Please R&R. I would really like to know if I am headed in the right direction.