Hindsight

A/N: OH MIGAWD!!! I mean, yaar mateys!!! Is that a sick, sad joke, or did I really get nominated for an award??? Don't you dare lie to me now!!! TELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

On with the story.

Day Two, Act Three: Kagome
Chapter Thirteen: A Las Vegas-Type Girl


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Kagome really was not a betting woman. She wasn’t a wagering wench, nor was she a gamblin’ gal.

She never had been, really. She never would have been, it would have been safe to say.

However, as she looked around her, wide-eyed, she was willing to bet every shard of the Shikon no Tama she had on her, plus every other one she did not, that she would have made a fortune enough to make Bill Gates weep if she had just bet on her becoming a betting person.

Because she bet that this, this here scenario, would not end well.

Kagome, had she the completed Shikon on her right now, would not wish for something as paltry as world peace, or the demise of Naraku, or even for Inuyasha to find real happiness, which she had originally decided her wish to be.

No, Kagome would wish fervently that she had just turned left.

But because of that one mistake in judgment, here she found herself, staring down possible death and dismemberment, in addition to an inordinate amount of pain as well.
Granted, perhaps it was not one of her best ideas to have wandered away from the group. But, really, how dangerous could a brightly lit forest be, especially if the forest was covered in beautiful flowers and fragrant herbs, as well as, in hindsight, psychotically cheerful birds and butterflies?

Was it her fault that she had been distracted by a particularly hard-to-get flower, and had completely lost her way?

Was it her fault that her feet had turned right?

Was it?

Was it??

WAS IT?

No, it most certainly was not!

Kagome, eyeing the slithering snake youkai currently closing in on her, also bet that Inuyasha, or worse, Sesshomaru, would not see it that way when they found her mangled body.
She could just imagine Inuyasha ‘feh’-ing, mumbling some uncomplimentary things, and stating that Kikyo wouldn’t have gotten lost.
And Sesshomaru, all sneer-y and supercilious, would sigh and say,

“Stupid human. She just couldn’t keep aware of her surroundings. I tried to tell her that day at the springs. But would she listen? Noooooooooooo.”

Kagome found it rather ironic that she had survived encounter after encounter with the evilest being to walk creation, and would now be done in by a bunch of wiggling muscles on demonic steroids.
She thrust the sturdy branch in her hands threateningly at the snakes, not at all encouraged when they still advanced on her.
Shoving some of her reiki into the stick, she poked the nearest one, immensely gratified to see it disintegrate, screaming, into a pile of ash at the end of the now-pink twig.
Grinning evilly at the remaining snakes, which had all paused at the dusty end of their comrade, she twirled the glowing stick like a baton.
Thwacking the snake that leapt, hissing, at her head, she smashed her heel into another snake slithering towards her foot, before jabbing it with her makeshift weapon.
Not stopping to watch the snakes disintegrate, she turned her attention to the five remaining youkai.
Hopping lithely over a tail swept at her feet, she managed to stab it, retrieving the stick and jabbing it fiercely in another’s eye.
Scooping up another stick, she held her two weapons firmly, glaring at the last three, which all got smart and leapt at her at once.
She managed to kill the two on the side, but had to drop to the ground to dodge the third, again smacking her now constantly abused derriere. She rolled onto her stomach, coming face-to-face with a dazed snake that had smashed its head into something considerably less cushioning than Kagome’s face.
Shrieking clear to the heavens, Kagome brought both twigs down on the hapless snake, coughing at the resultant dust.

Rising, Kagome looked at the destruction she had wrought, and grinned gleefully.

“Now that’s what I need, man! Oh, yeah! Who needs Inuyasha now, huh? Hahahahaha.” She cackled maniacally, dancing madly through the dust, swirling her still glowing branches about in an impromptu lights show.
“I completely kicked butt! That I did! Yiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssss!”

As she celebrated, kicking gleefully at the piles of ash around her, she thanked all the gods above that she had taken her mother’s advice several months ago and started self-defense classes. Kagome had tired of cowering in a corner, out of arrows, as her group went flying fearlessly into battle. So, enlisting the help of a friend of a friend of a friend, Kagome had spent almost every free moment in her own time learning how not to get killed.

Looking at the ashy ashyness of those that had meant her harm, she grinned widely, spinning in a rapturous
circle.

“I’m not de-ad! I am noh-ot de-ad. I am not deh-ed. I am so not de-ad.” She sang, dancing a rather hysterical conga around the clearing.

She finally calmed down, holding both twigs in one hand as she decided to retrace her steps back to her group, before either Inuyasha or Sesshomaru noticed that she was gone. Mainly because she just knew that they would both get snippy about it.
She suddenly got hit with the presence of a youkai, and ran through an amazing list of profanities in her mind.

Too bloody late.

She had realized, about late last night, early this morning, that Sesshomaru and Inuyasha had very similar auras. Asking Inuyasha about it gained absolutely nothing, as he was still being a sore baby over the whole ‘Sesshomaru-as-a-new-ally’ thing. Sesshomaru had just glanced at her before looking away and snorting softly, which effectively ended that conversation.
She had always thought that one’s aura was representative of one’s personality and soul. She still could not figure out how the diametrically opposite brothers managed to have almost identical auras.
She certainly could not see any resemblances in their behaviors. Inuyasha was loud, impetuous and a bit silly. Sesshomaru was quiet, measured and deadly serious.
Perhaps Inuyasha had some heretofore-unknown reserve of circumspection, and Sesshomaru had a hidden proclivity to impulsivity and spontaneity.

And perhaps she could slurp up the seas with a straw and a spoon of soy sauce.

Huffing out an annoyed breath, she turned to stare at whoever was coming out of the trees.

As Sesshomaru paraded towards her, Kagome wondered if she was relieved or worried.

Well, relieved, because she would not be subjected to Inuyasha’s insulting tirades about how she was useless, how Kikyo would have known better, and are the Shikon shards alright?

Worried, because…well…this was Sesshomaru.

When he stopped directly in front of her, looking down at her with a considering kind of look, Kagome realized belatedly that the glowing pink sticks were still clenched in her fists, pointed at a rather dangerous area of Sesshomaru’s body.
She dropped the sticks, rubbed her hands together, and turned her sheepish gaze to the youkai currently towering over her.

“So…um…Sesshomaru. What…what brings you here?” Not exactly her best contribution to the spoken word, but she was under a bit of stress at the moment…

When Sesshomaru just stared at her, Kagome wondered fleetingly if there was some snake goo stuck to her face or something. She even wiped at her cheeks, wincing as her hand came back smudged with a thin streak of brown gunk.

“What did you just do?” Kagome looked up from what were probably snake entrails, grinning.

“I, my dearest Taiyoukai, just kicked comprehensive butt! Shows those stupid snakes who to attack! They won’t do it again, just you see.” She crowed, turning to look proudly at her handiwork.

“Because they’re dead?” Kagome laughed delightedly at Sesshomaru’s dry observation.

“There is that. And you haven’t answered my question. What are you doing here?”

“You were not with the group when I turned around.” Kagome could see the serious displeasure at such a state of reality, and could understand it. What she definitely could not understand is why a flash of emotion that looked strikingly like worry had darted through his crystalline gaze.
Shaking off the ridiculous thought as absolutely absurd, she managed to contort her face into a contrite expression, hoping that youkai allies did not see it fit to use the business ends of their swords to instill into their recalcitrant allies some semblance of sense.

“Uh…I’m sorry. But I just kind of glanced this way and I saw some rare flowers that I kind of need for something, and I got a little lost and did I mention that I’m so very sorry?”

A flash of amusement passed through his eyes. Well, if not exactly amusement, at least a distant cousin to said emotion. Kagome heaved a relieved sigh.

“I cannot uphold my debt of honour if you persist in placing yourself in danger.” Kagome’s jaw dropped at a rather alarming rate.

Sesshomaru’s tone only needed a wagging finger inches from her nose to complete the sharp image she got of her mother scolding Souta for stealing her freshly-baked cookies.

“Um…I’m really sorry.” She surmised that if she whispered, kept her head down, and did not burst out into hysterical laughter at the mental image she now had of Sesshomaru decked out in her mother’s pink, ruffled apron, she would be perfectly alright.

Of course, as her current companion was a highly trained, ridiculously powerful youkai with senses like a NASA probe looking for water (and why this did not give her pause would be later examined, near the safety of her mother’s kitchen and pounds of chocolate), he noticed that she was trying desperately not to burst into cackles.

Kagome looked up, and she gasped reflexively.

Sesshomaru was now toe-to-toe with her, staring her down, his nose inches from her face.

She sucked in a valiant breath, trying to kickstart her lungs, which had mysteriously ceased operation.
Unfortunately, thanks to the grand idea of situating her lungs under her chest, when she inhaled deeply, the tips of her breasts met his chest.

Which of course necessitated another quickly indrawn breath.
Which inched her breasts further into his chest.
Which necessitated another breath.
Which now had the fronts of her breasts pressed firmly to the hard, hot chest under the cool silk.

Kagome wondered dimly how in all the hells she got herself into these positions, her thoughts dissipating as Sesshomaru leaned closer to her, his lips now mere centimeters away from hers.

“What magic is this, miko?” as he whispered, his warm breath brushed against her lips, and Kagome realized that this was perhaps the most erotic moment of her life.

Seeing as Sesshomaru was simply looking at her, asking her a rather abrupt question, Kagome found that very, very, very sad.

She blinked, registering his question.

“Wh-what magic?” she couldn’t raise her voice louder than a whisper.
Any louder might frighten away this desperately perfect moment.

“This…tingling. I do not like it. You will cease immediately.” Sesshomaru ordered, bringing his hand up to gesture sharply at his heart, currently obscured from view by Kagome’s breasts.

Kagome looked at him, confused.

“I really am not doing anything, Sesshomaru.” She protested softly, her gaze dropping down to his lips, which seemed to be coming closer to her, which was obviously her imagination.

“Perhaps…” he muttered, and Kagome’s knees went a bit wobbly as his breath ghosted over her lips.

The feel of the warm air on her lips caused a riotous dance in her stomach, in her heart, deep inside her.
Her eyes drifted shut instinctively, and she waited, the heat of Sesshomaru’s body reaching out to warm her.
The sensation of his arms ghosting over hers had her shivering; shifting slightly towards him, straining for something she could not name but yet desperately wanted.

She suddenly felt the loss of his presence, and opened her eyes in confusion.

He was halfway across the clearing, clearly leaving, and Kagome gaped at him in utter confusion.

“S-sesshomaru?” she asked softly, her fingers reaching up to press against her lips.

When he stopped, then turned slowly to look at her, Kagome’s heart went just tiniest bit pitter-patter.
He stared at her for a second, then in a flash was back right in front of her.
As his soft, smooth lips closed gently over hers, Kagome cheered madly inside, dimly admitting that she definitely should make more bets.

Who would have ever bet that she was well on her way to being kissed silly by Sesshomaru?


A/N: Muahahahahaha! How does a pirate cackle maniacally? Whatever. I'll channel a mad scientist and cackle a la Frankenstein!
But, seriously, my intrepid, loyal readers!
DID I GET NOMINATED?!?!?!?
See, I...I don't know exactly how IYFG works...
Sacrilegous, I know.
I shall make it up to you next time!

Next Up: Sesshomaru! (Unless no one responds to my desperate plea. Then you get NAAATHEEEENG!)
Naatheeeing, I say!
...pweese?