Title: Damsel in Defense

Author: Miss Selah

Summary: For Forth's Damsel in Distress Challenge. Tired of being defenseless, Kagome turns for assistance to an unlikely ally. Sesshoumaru has never had much tolerance for anything weak, but honor demands that he rekindle his alliance with the miko who aided him in the defeat of Naraku. Will Sesshoumaru be able to teach Kagome the ways of a sword master... or will Kagome be the death of him?

Genre: Action / Adventure / Romance

Prompt: Drop

A/N: I had a reviewer address and issue that I think should be answered to everyone. They said that it was moving a little fast for them. To that, I say: yes. It is. The challenge was ten parts, and as of right now I've turned it into 13 parts just to make the character development a little more believable. So this story isn't going to be terribly long, but hopefully it will be completely in character. Please let me know at the end how believable their interactions were.

Again, thank you to everyone who took the time to review! it means the world!

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Sesshoumaru rushed at Kagome. He dipped and weaved right just as he was about to reach her and brought his hand up and then bringing it down on the top of her head, knocking her lightly with the butt of the Tenseiga's hilt.

"Ow," Kagome dropped her sword and grabbed the top of her head with both hands. "That really hurts!" She complained bitterly. "Go easy!"

"Pick up your sword, foolish woman." Sesshoumaru smirked. "Defy me."

"Easy for you to say," Kagome glared at him as she picked up her sword, never taking her eyes off of him. "You're probably the most dangerous person I've ever fought!"

"I can assure you of that," Sesshoumaru smirked. "Again."

When he came at her again, Kagome saw it coming. From the way he danced on his feet to the motion in his hair, she saw his movements and jumped, sidestepping to the right with just enough that the back of his hand passed a hairs breath from her face.

Quickly, before Sesshoumaru realized that his attack had missed, Kagome used her momentum to follow through with her dodge and turn it in to a spin, dancing all the way behind him until her back was at his back. His hair whipped her in the side of the face as he moved, too, using both hands to flip the sword around and jab, aiming for the place that she had just been. Laughing, Kagome put both of her hands in the air, flipping the sword by the hilt like a baton, matching his moves to change the direction of the blade.

Back to back, she stabbed behind her and he was gone, easily dodging her move. Still, she heard a tear of cloth, but had no time to examine where the sound had originated from.

Sesshoumaru left an opening for another attack intentionally for her, drawing her into the open. Kagome lunged, making a loud battle cry as she did so. But Sesshoumaru used her over excitement to his advantage, tapping her sword with his and knocking her off of her balance. Kagome tripped, screeched, and fell directly on to her face.

"Ow..."

The smile that was on his face now was genuine, and when Kagome stuck her tongue out at him, she would have sworn that she heard the demon lord chuckle.

"Again," he commanded, brandishing his sword. "You will try again."

Kagome stood, nodding. "Again." She agreed.

Sesshoumaru stayed primarily on the defensive, giving Kagome the opportunity to get comfortable with the way her body felt as it went after his. She stopped thinking of strategy, stopped thinking of the repercussions, of life and death, and she just started to move. She just let herself be there, in that moment, with him.

"Better," Sesshoumaru acknowledge. "But without skill. Now..."

Sesshoumaru began his attack, and Kagome nearly froze.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed, blocking the downward swing of the Tenseiga. She was dancing backward while Sesshoumaru enjoyed himself, swinging easily, almost teasingly as he progressed.

Kagome was almost at the limits of her strength. She may have had more reserves if it wasn't for her injury, but even with how easy he was going on her, she was still tiring quickly. It was all that she could do to back away and parry, back away and parry, and still she was dripping with sweat.

"No more!" Kagome screeched and ducked, moving in quickly and shouldering Sesshoumaru in the stomach.

"Oumph!" Sesshoumaru let out an unexpected whoosh of air.

Kagome backed up, startled with herself. "I'm sorry!" She exclaimed. "I should have used my -"

"Well done," Sesshoumaru said, his smile turning feral. "My turn."

Sesshoumaru straightened and shouldered her, catching her on the unawares. He open handed smacked her, not too hard as he tried to not discourage her from moving, but hard enough to have her blinking with the sharpness of his rap.

"Cease holding back, onna." Sesshoumaru demanded. "Fight me. You have it in you."

"Okay," Kagome said, her voice lacking confidence. "You asked for it!" She ran in on Sesshoumaru again.

Sesshoumaru retreated three steps and turned. Kagome followed through with her steps, missing him completely as he pivoted around her.

Sesshoumaru swung a slow heavy handed fist at Kagome and she dodged, falling out of his reach and into a low crouch.

"Use your sword!" Sesshoumaru reminded her and Kagome gripped the hilt harder. He attacked as she did, and Kagome barely had time to dodge, let along think. It was a true testament to either her luck or her experience in battle with her miko skills that she kept her prescense of mind to dodge and attack, not taking a moment to breath in between her motions. She rolled to the right in a desperate dodge. The fight had the pair of them twirling dangerously close to the edge of the cliff and Sesshoumaru saw Kagome's misstep before she did.

"Kagome!"

Sesshoumaru grabbed her by the back of her kimono just as she was about to tumble off of the cliff.

"Hooooooo," Kagome blinked at the gaping abyss below her and fought with vertigo. "Pull me back; pull me back!"

Sesshoumaru yanked her backwards and she turned immediately away from the edge of the cliff and into Sesshoumaru's arms.

Pressing her face into his chest, Kagome shivered, trying not to cry as her adrenaline surged, leaving her feeling breathless and elated. "I... I almost died."

Sesshoumaru snorted. "It's a miracle you've managed to survive this long, onna."

Kagome looked up at him, still clutching the fabric of his haori. "Thank you for saving me."

He only leered at her, stoic. "You are of no use to me dead, onna." Her heart felt as though it was about to beat right out of her chest, but Sesshoumaru wasn't even breathing hard.

There was, though, an unmistakable little glow on his cheeks.

She panted, retaining her hold on the hilt of her blade. She was holding her own against him, but she was no fool - she knew that he was taking it easy on her. Her human body would have never been able to withstand a full, physical confrontation with him - she would have to resort to tricks if she had ever intended to best him in a battle of strengths. Kagome cocked her right hand back and stabbed, hitting him in the empty space between his rib and his arm so that her weapon rested almost comically between them, sliding in to place and holding like a prop in a stage play.

"Bang," Kagome said, making the shape of a gun with her left hand and mock firing. "I've got you."

Sesshoumaru nodded, his eyes gentle on her.

"Well done."

Kagome panted, grinning wildly and trying to catch her breath. Under any other circumstances, Kagome would have been frightened of him - frightened of the quiet, serious intensity that he had in his eyes as he kept his face squarely on hers. After all, to be under such scrutiny of such a powerful man was daunting... but not today.

Not now.

"I did it," Kagome said, sheathing the short sword that he had given to her and opening her arms wide, spinning in a circle. She threw her head back and laughed, still spinning. "I did it!" She spun and spun, around and around, uncaring if he found her behavior childish or uncouth; she spun until she grew dizzy, nauseous. She spun until she collapsed on the grass in a happy pile, clutching her sides to try and hold them together, all the while still laughing with exuberance while the world kept spinning around her.

Slowly, she came back to herself, her laughter becoming a guffaw, and then a chuckle, and finally a bright smile that reached all the way up to her eyes. As she looked up, she saw that Sesshoumaru had not only stood, he had approached her, and was staring disapprovingly down at her as she lay in the grass.

Kagome merely beamed at him. "I did it."

Sesshoumaru's face remained still, but his eyes displayed amusement - whether it was at her antics or at her appearance, she didn't know, but when a firefly buzzed past his head it made his eyes sparkle with... something.

If she didn't know any better, she would have thought that it was affection.

"You act just like Rin," Sesshoumaru finally stated, still remaining still as a statue.

Though he said the words with a note of wamth, Kagome's face still fell, the moment gone. "What happened to Rin, anyway?" Kagome asked. "You were still traveling with her when I went back to my ti - my home," Kagome barely managed to catch herself in time, saving herself at the last second, "but I haven't seen her since I returned."

Sesshoumaru lowered himself into the soft, sweet smelling grass beside Kagome. The two of them sat there - him, pristine and white and pale as the moon's surface itself; her, covered head to toe in sweat and dirt and pleased with herself beyond words.

"So," Kagome broke the silence, turning in the grass on to her side so that she could face Sesshoumaru. "You are going to tell me about Rin?"

He glowered down at her. "This Sesshoumaru made no such statement."

His demeanor was as harsh as ever and his tone was just as cold as it had always been, but Kagome sensed that he was teasing her and smiled.

"You're teasing me," she said confidently, and when he narrowed his eyes dangerously at her, she just rolled back on to her back and crossed her arms behind her head. "You are; don't try to deny it."

"You speak overmuch," Sesshoumaru accused.

"You like it, though," Kagome said. "Otherwise you would have kicked me, like you do Jaken, or told me to keep quiet, like you do Rin. You know what I think though?"

Sesshoumaru ignored the dull headache that began to throb. "I am certain you will tell me whether I want to hear it or not."

"I think that you are lonely."

They stared up at the moon from the grassy hilltop, her on her back in her warrior's suit, him sitting tall and proud as ever.

"Rin came to me as a child," Sesshoumaru said. "You are not unlike her. She too was a foolish, annoying girl."

Kagome could almost hear the smile in his voice.

"What happened to her?" She asked, preparing for the worst. "Did she..." she couldn't say die. She just couldn't.

"Rin grew up."

Kagome's brows drew together, wondering why Sesshoumaru said it with such finality. Of course she would have grown up, Kagome thought. Rin had been only just a child when Kagome had last seen her, but by now she would have been at least fifteen... She would have been experiencing her first love, her first heartbreak. Her whole life would have been a whole new set of adventures.

"Well," Kagome said, "she's a little girl. Little girls grow up. It's part of life."

"Only for humans," Sesshoumaru said, and it began to make more sense to Kagome.

Sesshoumaru was a demon, and with his demon heart he had loved a human girl. "Sesshoumaru-sama," Kagome asked. "How old are you?" He looked to be only in his mid twenties or so, but Kagome knew that wasn't the case... even Inuyasha, who she knew to be well over two hundred, looked only 16; and he was only half demon.

"I don't remember," Sesshoumaru confessed. "But I was born more than a thousand years ago."

Kagome stared in aw at the demon before her. How many deaths had he seen, she wondered, in his infinitely long lifetime? How many deaths had touched him before he stopped caring?

But he hadn't stopped; not really. It was obvious that he still cared about Rin, and it was tearing him up inside.

Uncomfortable with the path that her mind was taking, Kagome turned the conversation back. "So where is Rin now?" Kagome asked.

"At the shiro," Sesshoumaru said. "It was unseemly for a girl of her age to be wandering barefoot across the country with men."

Kagome raised an eyebrow and laughed. "Hey! What about me?" She asked. "I'm older than Rin and I am wandering around the country with men!"

Sesshoumaru smirked. "Yes," he agreed. "But you are not barefoot."

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A silent assassin, his aura masked and his scent covered by the smell of pine needles, effectively hiding him completely. Sneaking up on the demon lord was no easy task, and if the miko had not distracted Sesshoumaru with their mock sword battle, he may have never been able to manage it. Still, he knew better than to attack – he was just there to gather information. So he watched the pair on the hill until the miko finally got up and stretched, saying she was going to bed. She had passed him, and a few minutes later Sesshoumaru did the same.

Finally alone, the assassin went into the clearing to pick up what he had been waiting for for so long.

The girl's swordplay had been beneficial to him on two sides – not only had she proven a distraction to the demon lord, but she had also given him a gift.

There, in the tall grass, was a cutting of Sesshoumaru's sleeve where her sword had proven true.

Inhaling it, the assassin knew that it would be scent enough for him to track Sesshoumaru, and, when the time was right, perhaps even lead him in to a trap.

The miko was going to be a problem, though, the assassin thought with a frown. Her swordplay was awful, but if she were to use her powers she could decimate their soldiers almost as easily as Sesshoumaru could with his claws, and there was little that they could do with their demon powers to stop her...

Unless...

The assassin's lips curled up as the beginning of a plan began to form, and suddenly, the miko seemed a much easier obstacle to overcome. He leaped off of the cliff into the night, landing silently on the ground far below before racing along the river, hiding his scent with the water as he returned to his master.

Hakosu would be most please with what he had found.

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