Gambling with Ice and Fire

Finally realizing something, Kagome panicked. Oh my Kami, what will he do to me when he realizes that I tricked him into acting like this? I'm going to be one dead girl, she thought glumly to herself as she slowly backed away from the desk.

One moment her hand was on the door, trying desperately to move slowly so that hopefully he wouldn't attack her, the next she was watching Sesshoumaru fall to the floor as she was knocked backwards through the now open door, a pink bubble swirling around her. Not taking the time to find out if he was alright, she turned and bolted towards the gates. She didn't know where she would go, she wasn't thinking much beyond getting away and getting rid of those damn pheromones.

Just past the gate, she could see something moving in the distance, a reddish glow in the sky that seemed to be heading towards Sesshoumaru's home. “Sango!” Kagome called out, thankful that her friends had arrived early. Hopefully they could get her away and clean her up before the taiyoukai could catch up to her.

Kagome mentally slapped herself when the red clad figure of Inuyasha stopped in his tracks and sniffed the air around her, his eyes flashing crimson. Miroku caught up, panting heavily as Sango and Shippo leapt off Kirara.

“Kagome!” Shippo cried, running towards her.

“Stop Shippo! Can't you see her barrier?” Miroku caught the kit before he could harm himself.

“Inuyasha?” Kagome questioned, hoping that she could snap him out of his daze. At least, until she caught wind of Sango's perfume. “Ohshit.”

The combined mixture of Sango's human pheromones, the Inu-pheromones Kagome sported, and the miko's own scent had driven the hanyou's demon instincts into overdrive. Kagome's eyes widened as faint purple markings became apparent on his cheeks, even with Tessaiga by his side. Miroku and Sango were standing behind Inuyasha, so they had no idea what was happening, or why Kagome looked so scared.

Inuyasha grinned, baring his fangs for her to see. She could see his muscles bunching underneath his robes, and physically prepared herself for the assault on her barrier. Closing her eyes so she wouldn't have to see her friend colliding with her purifying force, Kagome waited for the blow.

It didn't come.

Carefully opening her eyes to see the monk and taijiya, both in battle stances, watching something behind her. Slowly she turned to see Inuyasha, claws ready for attack, squaring himself against his half brother. “She's mine,” the hanyou growled at Sesshoumaru.

The taiyoukai's lips quirked up slightly. “If she were yours, would she have come on to me the other day?”

Inuyasha growled. Apparently all his senses weren't lost as he weren't merely a raging, killing machine, but Kagome was worried about him being in the state he was currently in. She also knew that if he stood in Sesshoumaru's way, he could very likely die.

Kagome gasped as the barrier around her flickered and dissipated, her only means of defense leaving her. “Just great,” she muttered to herself. “I don't even know how the damn thing got there in the first place, not that I'm complaining.”

“It's about time you dropped your barrier,” a voice called from her shoulder. She lifted her hand automatically to slap away the itching bite on her neck.

“Myoga? What are yo doing here?” she questioned him. He crossed his arms, sitting in the palm of her hand.

“Well, I actually came to talk to Sesshoumaru, but it seems I came right in the middle of yet another battle for dominance, but this one seems different than the usual ones,” he replied, eyeing the two brothers who were circling and growling at eachother, yet to come to blows.

“Battle for dominance?” By this time, the other humans and her kit had come to stand beside her, all staring at Myoga for an explanation.

“Yes. You see, with Inuyoukai, they consider those with them pack. Within the pack, there's dominant roles and submissive roles. Usually, it's mere words, or if it does come to bloodshed, the wounds inflicted are meant to incapacitate, not kill.”

Kagome nodded, remembering the previous battles with Sesshoumaru. He had never actually killed Inuyasha, but he had severely wounded him on a couple occasions.

“Within the packs, one youkai can be dominant, but still be submissive to another. So, if it came to it, the pack's circle of dominance could go full circle. It's really quite fascinating, and sometimes hard to follow.”

Miroku nodded thoughtfully before speaking. “So how is this battle different?”

“I lay my claim to her,” Sesshoumaru's steely voice came between growls. “She will come to me, not a pathetic half-breed.”

Myoga looked at Miroku, raising his eyebrows. Sango's eyes widened and looked into Kagome's. “They're fighting over... you?”

Myoga stood and looked at Kagome closely. “I thought there was something different about you, so now I know. It's your scent.”

Kagome turned a deep shade of red, reaching up to hide her face behind her free hand. Sango's gasped with understanding. “The whole bloody vial,” Kagome moaned under her breath to her friend.

“Oh no, you said one or two drops made Inu... Miroku, we have to get her out of here, NOW!”

Sesshoumaru noticed the closeness of the human male to the woman he had lain claim to, and quickly rushed past Inuyasha to throw the mortal away from the woman. The human woman, kit, and neko were no threat to his claim, so he left them, but he recognized that a male human would be a threat to his claim, just as the hanyou.

Kagome shrieked and slapped Sesshoumaru, rage flowing through her veins that he would assault her comrade. “Why would you do that? Kami Sesshoumaru, he was just talking to me!” her palm aimed at the stripes on his cheek this time, she went to slap him again, but her hand was stopped by his own fierce grip, his claws slightly digging into her skin. “Let me go you beast!”

Sesshoumaru smiled again, thinking that he has proved his dominance and hence, his worth to be her mate. Kagome though otherwise as she reached her free hand to his chest and let go a blast of energy, just as she had done to Mistress Centipede long ago. His form was thrown back, but he landed on his feet. He turned in time to counter an attack from the enraged hanyou who still hadn't had satisfaction of the fight.

Kagome groaned, knowing full well that this was all her fault. If she hadn't tried to tempt Sesshoumaru with the chemicals, the whole mess would never have happened. Myoga jumped up and down on her shoulder, trying to draw her attention away from the battling brothers in front of her. “Mud!” he yelled into her ear. “Mud will cover the scent that's driving them into a frenzy!”

Kagome stared at him a moment before looking around. The hard dirt road offered little in the way of mud as it hadn't rained in nearly two weeks. Beyond the demons, within the gates was a pond in the center of the courtyard, but she knew that that, too, wouldn't be a help as now she was outside the barrier, and would not be able to get back inside without Sesshoumaru or one of the pass rings.

Kagome looked back to the still recovering Miroku as Sango tried to help him stand. The village wasn't very far away, but she didn't want to draw the battle into the midst of the humans who were starting to drift to sleep below. “Did either of you see a spring on the way here?” she asked them. Kirara perked up, knowing exactly what Kagome was thinking. She rubbed up against Kagome and tilted her head towards her back, her way of telling the miko to climb on.

Kagome glanced back to make sure that the demons wouldn't notice her absence right away, and quickly took off into the skies. Looking around once they were in the air, Kagome noticed a stream running down the hillside and past the village through the trees. Losing altitude as they neared the stream, Kagome steeled herself for the cold shock as she jumped off Kirara's back and into the cold water.

She came up sputtering, swimming towards the shoreline. She hated to do that to the fine silk of her kimono, but she didn't know another way to rid herself of the smell, so as she reached shallow water, Kagome reached under the glossy surface and pulled out a large glob of the slick substance.

She shrieked as her body was lifted from the water from behind as a glowing orb overcame her. She squinted her eyes against the glare, knowing that it was Sesshoumaru who had taken her. Grinning at the ball of muck in her hand, Kagome flung the mud over her shoulder, right into her captor's face.

Speeding through the trees in the grasp of a demon lord was exhilarating to say the least, but it soon proved that blinding him could have been a near fatal error. Breakneck speeds were called just that for a reason. Kagome, realizing that his vision was the only thing preventing them from crashing into one of the large trees they were rapidly dodging between, clung fiercely to his shoulder. With one hand, she managed to wipe a liberal amount of mud in the area that she had spilled the pheromone as she hoped that it would be enough to mask the scent.

Sesshoumaru, instead of risking her injury by blindly swerving through trees, turned his demonic orb straight up into the sky and shot up above the treetops. Assured that she was holding on tight enough so that she wouldn't fall, he released her momentarily to wipe the mud off his face.

“If you value your life, never assault my person again,” he growled at her. When she finally looked to see where they were going, she noticed that they were heading back to his home. Noticing her inquisitive looks, he merely said, “I assure you, I'm not going to harm you.”

“No, you're just going to rape me,” she muttered under her breath, but being that her mouth was so close to his ear, he heard her quite clearly.

“I would never be so dishonorable as to take a woman against her will. You are foolish to accuse me of such.” Kagome rolled her eyes, not entirely believing him. He looked down at her, then slowly worked his way through the tree branches to the ground. “Explain yourself.”

“Huh?” Kagome gaped. Under the surface, she was panicking, telling herself that here it was, he last day on earth, she was going to be beheaded by her half-demon friends demon brother whom she had unintentionally overdosed with dog pheromones. Then, as all this reached her, she cracked up laughing.

“Explain yourself, and no not make me ask you again,” he growled down at her.

Kagome, nearly delirious, starting ranting. “Oh, nothing really, it's just that I'm going to be killed by my half-demon friends demon brother because I accidentally dumped an entire bottle of pheromones on myself and made both of them go into a lusty rage! I'm not even born yet, and I'm gonna die!” she laughed. She really didn't know what was so funny, but she suspected that her delirium was caused by the knowledge of her impending doom.

Sesshoumaru quirked an eyebrow at her. “Fair-ah-moan?”

Kagome laughed harder. It just struck her as odd that nearly everyone she had encountered in the Feudal era seemed to have trouble with words they had never encountered. “It's this chemical stuff that everything gives off, you know, makes the member of the opposite sex attracted to them.”

Sesshoumaru stared at her. “I see.” He turned to leave, but Kagome stopped him.

“That's it? 'I see'? You're not going to threaten to kill me, or just melt me with your acid?”

He ignored her, continuing his walk back towards his estate. Kagome gaped after him for a moment, then set out to follow him back to where her friends were. She was busy staring at her feet, trying not to trip over anything, so she hadn't noticed that he had stopped walking, and she bumped into his muscular frame.

“What'd you do that for?” she groaned, rubbing her rear where she had landed on an exposed root.

“Why would you want to 'attract' this Sesshoumaru?” he asked her, turning to look into her eyes. Kagome sat there, stumbling for a reason, but he interrupted. “Would it have anything to do with your odd behavior the other day?”

Kagome merely nodded, and he didn't pursue. Kagome realized that she hadn't lose the bet, or her life, just yet, so she decided to have a good long talk with Myoga once they were far away from the taiyoukai.

There was no need for him to find out what was going on.


Upon return, Sesshoumaru immediately went to his personal study to think.

Why would she want to 'attract' me? he thought to himself. He pondered her actions for awhile, but could not decide on an answer that suited him. He clearly remembered her past actions that had surprised everyone present. He kept going back to that day, thinking that it should hold some clue.

After several hours of thinking, the only answer he could come up with was one that almost made him laugh. That idiot hanyou has likely been running away to the dead woman, he mused, and that seems to make the miko angry towards him. Perhaps she wanted to get revenge.

Sesshoumaru walked to the window and peered out, noting that the moon was falling behind the mountains, signaling that the sun would start to lighten the night sky soon. His slender lips turned up lightly as he came to a conclusion, one that would make Inuyasha insane, and likely confuse the miko, taijiya, and monk.

Letting the drape fall back into place, Sesshoumaru turned and walked into the great painting on the wall, disappearing to his private residence and began plotting his next actions.


Kirara had come back long before the taiyoukai had first emerged from the forest, worrying Kagome's friends as to her whereabouts and state of health.

Inuyasha had tried to follow after Sesshoumaru, but had been forced to turn back shortly after losing both sight and scent of his half-brother. The walk and the fresh air had helped clear his mind of the pheromones influence, but his demonic blood continued to reign over his actions.

Kagome's first sight of her friends was almost laughable had she not been so worried about Inuyasha. The Tessaiga had fallen from his grasp in the midst of his fight with his brother, and now Sango was trying to replace it at his side while avoiding five deadly claws. One of Shippo's statues had the hanyou's left hand pinned painfully to the ground, and sutras placed on his legs to prevent him from kicking out, but it was still not entirely safe to be around him.

Kagome sighed, walking up to Sango. She carefully embraced her friend, taking the Tessaiga before turning to Inuyasha. “Sit,” she smiled at him. As the dust scattered, Kagome bent over his prone form to tuck the sheath into its usual position.

Inuyasha turned, glaring at her with amber eyes. “What'd ya do that for?” he demanded, struggling against the statue. “Shippo! Remove this thing or I'll kill you!”

Shippo stepped closed, undoing the spell that held the statue to the ground before turning and running behind Kagome. Kagome laughed as Inuyasha tried to stand, but failed. “Miroku you jerk! Take these damn things off!”

They eventually managed to relax enough to try to catch some sleep before morning, but Kagome was having trouble sleeping.

I wonder what his motives are? she wondered. Why didn't he kill me, or even threaten to? Well, other than when I threw mud in his face, but that doesn't count. And why would he wonder why I was trying to attract him? She contemplated it all for awhile longer, but her head started to feel fuzzy with tiredness and her thoughts were starting to jumble in her head.

The last thing she thought before drifting off to sleep wasn't on her objectives, or Sesshoumaru's motives, she was smiling as she remembered his arm around her waist.

***********

Author Notes and Review Responces:

Hey there, I'm sorry but this chapter is going to take a little longer to complete, as I'm going to attempt to actually write it in an external program before uploading.
Well, it'll probably take around the same ammount of time, but you just won't get to read it as it goes along! Sorry... This is just how I decided to try to do it this time. I guess we'll see if it works or not!
Okay, so here goes, I just uploaded some, I'm not sure how long it will be on here, but in my program thing it was 5 pages, so I guess we'll find out if it's ok. All else fails, chapter 6 will be a rather short chapter, and you'll just have to wait for chapter 7 to find out some more fun things :D

Okay, sorry for my ranting, I'm kinda sleepy right now, so yesh.

Kawaii_Kirara: Thank you! I'm glad that it made you laugh, and your family laugh (even though it was a rather bad time for the movie you were watching!) I know chapter 7 isn't the best, but it kind of explains things a little... Bah, we'll have some more funny times coming up pretty quick :) Ah, and well, we won't know what Sesshy does until he does it, 'cause let's face it, I follow Kagome 90% of the time ^^

Selina: That's what I'm counting on! OoooOoo He's gonna be pissed when he finds out, eh?

Kikyo18: Thanks, I think? I'm sorry for the teaser, but I couldn't resist. I don't think that I'll be doing anymore (unless asked for them >< ) anytime soon, so don't worry, from now on, it'll be pure stories.

Everyone Else: Thank you for your reviews! I do read and love them all, but it's alot of hassle to reply to every single one. Generally if someone says something and I feel compelled to reply to, I will... but, well... this page is long enough without a dozen responses to each person who said "awesome!"... ugh, I'll just take my foot OUT of my mouth now and shut up....
But really, I love you all. Keep reading! <3