"How would you feel about doing this again some time?" Kagome asked as she leant back on a rock, closing her eyes as she relaxed.

"Very amenable," Sesshoumaru answered from a similar position on the other side of the hot spring, his eyes also closed.

"Good," Kagome said, a smile on her face. "Because I think I'll be good for another round in an hour."

Sesshoumaru's eyes sprung open, then a very self-satisfied grin spread across his face before he closed his eyes once more. "That sounds like an excellent idea."

~A Bad Day, A Better Day~

They stayed at the hot spring, trading sexual favours, massages, and taking turns helping the other get clean again, until Kagome's stomach reminded both of them that there was more to the world than hot water and steamy happenings.

"You swallowed all that, and you're still hungry?" Sesshoumaru asked, a teasing lilt to his voice and an amused quirk at the corner of his mouth.

Kagome laughed. "Delicious as you were," she answered, "I'll have you know that treats like that aren't really filling, however large the portions."

"Even if you did have five helpings?" Sesshoumaru continued to tease, even as he climbed out of the spring and fetched their dry towels from where they'd been left – as opposed to the ones that they'd already gotten wet from resting on for their rub downs.

"With considerable time in between for whatever nutritional value contained within to be fully absorbed," Kagome answered, still chuckling as she waded over to the shore after him.

Sesshoumaru was holding up her towel for her when she reached him, and she smiled as he wrapped it around her. Several hours of sex play will do wonders towards removing barriers between two people. Sesshoumaru had even loosened up enough to call her by name the first time she'd "returned the favour". She hadn't even had to threaten to stop for him to use her name. She hadn't even had to tell him her name, even when she was half-sure he only knew her as 'miko' or 'priestess'.

Towels around her body and Sesshoumaru's hips both, the demon bent to pick up Kagome's school uniform.

"You do know that these clothes of your suggest that your profession is to do that which we have just spent several hours doing, do you not?" Sesshoumaru asked.

Kagome sighed, rolling her eyes as she nodded. "Yeah," she admitted. "But the only clothes I get offered here make me look more like Kikyo, which puts ideas into InuYasha's head."

Sesshoumaru sniffed the fabric. "This Sesshoumaru would be willing to fetch you something more appropriate," he offered. "In the mean time, however," he continued, then picked up his outer kimono and held it out to her. "Your small green covering can be used as an obi with this until I find something more suitable for you," he instructed.

Kagome shook her head with a smile and grabbed up her underwear first, rubbing herself dry quickly then pulling her delicates on before accepting the offered garment.

"I could use this for a tent it's so big on me," she said as she wrapped it around her, then started carefully folding at the seams and around her waist so that it looked like the right fit, even if it really, really wasn't.

Sesshoumaru handed over her skirt, only slightly shredded so that she could use it as an obi, and then Kagome took the red scarf from her shirt and tied it over the skirt so nothing would move. Kagome took hold of the cuffs of the kimono and held out the sleeves so that she could properly look down at herself, then spun around once to check mobility. When she looked up, Sesshoumaru was in his hakama and was just pulling his armour on over the top of his under-kimono – which was just as white but not as decorated or as fine as his outer kimono.

Kagome picked up his yellow and indigo sash for him and pulled it around his waist while he settled his spiked pauldron.

"How did you get dressed so fast?" she asked, even as she pulled herself closer to him with the sash around his waist.

Sesshoumaru smirked back. "Practice," he answered. "You look... truly appreciable in this Sesshoumaru's clothes, Kagome."

Kagome smiled back. "Careful, people might think you're staking claim," she warned.

Sesshoumaru lunged down, capturing Kagome's lips with his. After a moment of searing intensity, he pulled back. "This Sesshoumaru is certainly not about to let anybody else do to you what I have just done," he pointed out.

Kagome laughed weakly. "I don't think anybody can," she quipped back, just a little breathlessly. "Hang on," she said, blinking as she regained her senses. "Nobody?" she questioned. "That implies me never having a husband or children unless they're with you, oh high-and-mighty sex-god."

Sesshoumaru chuckled. "That could be an interpretation," he agreed. "As a priestess, you are not actually permitted children of your own. You must remain virginal until the end of your days after all. This Sesshoumaru is merely pointing out that, when you feel the need for such gratification, you may come to him."

"Uh-huh..." But she was sure that priestesses in her time had families...

~oOo~

There were two mounds of dirt over where the InuYasha- and Koga-shaped craters had been before Kagome left for her bath. Rin, Shippo and Ah-Un had apparently turned it into a game shortly after Jaken began carrying new dirt over to drop into the wholes – on Lord Sesshoumaru's orders. One of the mounds had InuYasha's sword on top of it as well, so clearly someone had retrieved it from him before the whole was much filled in.

"Kagome, you smell like Sesshoumaru," Shippo said, stepping up to her.

"And you look like a mud-ball," Kagome answered. "I'm wearing Sesshoumaru's kimono, I'm not surprised that I smell like him."

"Kagome?" Sango asked tentatively.

Kagome gave her friend a big smile. "I'm okay now Sango," she said. "Sorry for scaring everybody earlier."

"As long as you're not about to start again," Sango said, smiling back. "Rin and Shippo had some fun while you were gone, burying InuYasha and Koga."

Kagome smiled just a little wickedly. "So let's all go sit down together and have dinner, yeah?" she suggested, and the two mounds of dirt flattened a little.

Sesshoumaru smirked, broadly.

"Milord is smiling!" Jaken cried, terrified. "Please don't hurt me Lord Sesshoumaru, you're always so much harder on me when you're being passive-aggressive!" the toad whimpered even as he prostrated himself before the great demon.

"Stand up Jaken," Sesshoumaru instructed, his smile vanished, his amusement banished by the shrill voice of his vassal.

Once Jaken was standing again, Sesshoumaru drew back his foot and, just like Kagome had done a few times much earlier in the day, kicked the toad away – his toe catching the little cretin just below the ribcage. Being a very powerful (and mildly pissed off) demon, however, the imp went a bit further than when the only quite powerful (but very irate) priestess had done so.

Kagome applauded genuinely, impressed, as she watched the toad sail away. "Very nicely done Sesshoumaru," she complimented.

Sesshoumaru inclined his head in silent thanks, and turned to follow her into Kaede's hut for the evening meal.

~oOo~

"Excuse me, Lord Sesshoumaru," Miroku said quietly. "But I was wondering if I could get some advice."

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow at the monk. "Ask," he said blandly.

"How is it you were able to... do what it appears that you have done... without being screamed at and hit?" Miroku asked.

"Idiot," Shippo quipped, just as he had done many times before, and had no doubt he would do many times again.

"It is because this Sesshoumaru is who he is," Sesshoumaru answered aloofly.

"I doubt somehow that Kagome didn't scream for fear of you killing her," Miroku pointed out, even as he sat back to try and figure out what that answer meant, and if he could find anything helpful in it.

"Oh no," Kagome agreed, perfectly aware of their topic of conversation. They were just on the other side of the fire after all. Kagome grabbed her bag and pulled out all the extra strings of beads she had in there. "If I wanted to, I have enough beads to go around his neck too," she said.

"Kagome?" Sango asked tentatively. "What exactly did happen out there?"

"Sesshoumaru offered to give me that massage I mentioned," Kagome said, a much satisfied tone in her voice as she visibly relaxed at the memory. Naturally, she was completely omitting the other part of his offer for the sake of her friends. "After he gave me probably the best rub-down of my life, I returned the favour to the best of my abilities. I don't think I'll ever get better from anybody else either. I'm ruined. No other massage will ever be satisfying again unless it comes from Sesshoumaru's divine hand."

Yeah, hand. He still only had the one, though his other arm had grown back to mid-forearm, so it wouldn't be long before he was once again restored to his full faculties. Kagome now had even more reason to look forward to that actually, and resolved to learn as much as she could about miko healing as soon as she could.

Sesshoumaru smiled in that pleased way that none of them but Kagome had seen until that moment – and she'd only been privy to the expression for a few hours extra.

"Just a massage?" Miroku prodded, curious and slightly surprised if that was the truth.

"This Sesshoumaru has left the priestess as virginal as he found her," he said with a sniff, only mildly offended at the monk's incredulity. They were, after all, not telling all, so it was ever-so-slightly justified. "However much she may smell of me," he added with a look at Shippo.

Rin just nodded. "Lord Sesshoumaru always says 'do as you please' when I ask him if I may do something, but he never asks for anything for himself," she said.

"Though clearly he gives Jaken orders when they're needed," Sango commented, recalling the few moments before Sesshoumaru had left after Kagome when Sesshoumaru had threatened the toad with death if InuYasha and Koga were not properly buried by the time he returned. The wolf caused Rin distress after all, and InuYasha was a general nuisance. It was perfectly reasonable to make it so that they would not be able to be a bother for a while.

Sesshoumaru nodded regally in answer.

"So asking Sango to bear my child is not the way to go," Miroku suggested quietly.

"This Sesshoumaru understands that childbirth is exceedingly painful," Sesshoumaru answered, as blandly as only he could.

"It would be advisable to also keep your hands from wandering where they are not wanted Miroku," Kagome added with a hint of a growl.

~oOo~

Sesshoumaru left the next morning and returned in time for the noon meal, carrying with him a new kimono for Kagome, so that he could reclaim his own from her, along with a proper obi and sash so that Kagome wouldn't have to use her already abused green skirt. Of course, this kimono also happened to have his symbol – the sakura blossoms that adorned his own kimono – embroidered in the middle of the back. Her hair would flow over it most of the time, but it was there. As Kagome was a very active person, he provided hakama to her as well, so that she would have greater manoeuvrability when she needed it.

The kimono was a light blue with darker blue flowers patterned all over it, spreading out from his symbol on the back, and the hakama were a plain and pale grey. The obi for the kimono was silver and the sash was dyed with indigo.

Kagome had just returned from changing at the hotspring when Kagura landed near Kaede's hut. The wind witch was the first to see the new, lavish, garment.

"Priestess," Kagura greeted, a smile on her face as she held out a small leather pouch. "I believe these belong to you."

"The beads work?" Kagome answered as she tipped the jewel shards out into her hand, purifying them as they landed there.

"The bastard suffers every time I say the word 'bastard', even if he can't hear me say it" Kagura answered, grinning. "I tested. I can never thank you enough."

Kagome laughed. "My pleasure," she answered, then finally looked down at the jewel shards she held in her hand. "Wow," she said, staring. "That's practically the rest of the jewel!"

Kagura smirked. "You had better guard that well, priestess," she cautioned. "Actually, where is your usual guard-dog? InuYasha would normally have charged me by now."

Kagome pointed to where InuYasha and Koga had been buried. "Watch," she said. "Sit down."

Once again the earth dipped slightly in first one place then the other.

Kagura laughed. "You buried them? Oh, that's precious! I'm going to have to try that with the bastard!" she yelled between laughter, holding her sides as her stomach began to hurt from laughing so hard.

"You pull it off, and between that and all these jewel shards I'll call it even," Kagome answered.

Kagura smiled, wiping tears from her eyes as she nodded, then she hopped onto her feather and flew off again.

When she was out of sight, Kagome brought all of the jewel shards together, willing them to reunite once more. There was only one small sliver missing from the jewel when it had finished binding together again. The light from reuniting the pieces had drawn her friends outside.

"Kohaku," Sango said quietly as she stared at that last chip in the otherwise perfect sphere.

"I don't know how, but you'll get your brother back Sango," Miroku promised, a gentle hand on the slayer's shoulder.

"We should really celebrate!" Shippo said, trying to lighten the mood. "After all, there's just the one piece left, and we know where it is, more or less."

Sango nodded, forcing a smile onto her face.

"I know how I want to celebrate," Kagome said, casting a glance at Sesshoumaru, a sly little smile on her lips.

The great dog demon smirked back. "But you only just dressed," he whispered into her ear. "This Sesshoumaru knew that kimono would suit you."

"Do I look as 'truly appreciable' in this as I did in your kimono?" Kagome asked, teasing just a little.

Sesshoumaru's golden eyes burned with a familiar (to Kagome) heat. "Yes."

~oOo~

Kagome hopped down the well, a smile on her face. Just a couple of days ago, Kagura had dropped off Kohaku (and brought the news that she'd finally, properly buried Naraku), and between Kagome taking the jewel out of the boy's back and Sesshoumaru using Tensaiga on him, Sango had her little brother back at last – with no danger of Naraku possessing the boy again. They just had to worry about feeding him up to proper weight.

The jewel was whole, the quest was over, and Miroku was just going to have to wait for Naraku to die of suffocation before his wind tunnel closed up. It really wouldn't take all that long.

There had been some suggestion that the well might seal up after her, now that the jewel was complete, but there was really no way of knowing. Just in case it did though, Kagome had said her goodbyes to everybody.

Shippo had cried and promised to try and find her if he lived long enough. Rin had just cried.

Sesshoumaru had simply pointed out that, if she could not come back, she would likely never be getting a 'rub-down' from him again. A very serious threat since his other hand had finally grown back.

Kagome insisted that, therefore, they had to make the last one really count.

~oOo~

Kagome had just gotten back from a day of school, and had been just about running through the crowds, trying to get away from her 'friends'. She was seriously re-considering that label for them as she crested the steps and finally entered the courtyard of her family's shrine.

Sesshoumaru was waiting for her, dressed only in his white kimono and hakama, no armour or swords anywhere to be seen.

"Did you come through the well or were you already here?" Kagome asked, wrapping her arms around his waist when she reached him.

"This Sesshoumaru wonders if he should tell you," he answered with a smirk.

"There's an easy way for me to find out," Kagome pointed out. She'd only been back in her own time for almost a week. The plan was for her to try going down the well on Saturday when she wouldn't have any classes. Seeing him before then was, therefore, both a surprise and slightly concerning.

"This Sesshoumaru followed you," Sesshoumaru admitted. "He left his armour and the two swords of his father in the well house. This Sesshoumaru believes that the well has remained, and will remain, open."

Kagome smiled. "That's great," she said happily, snuggling into his chest. She was so still going through on Saturday though. She wanted her own private hot spring. She loved the modern conveniences she had access to here, but there was just something special about a hot spring.

"Kagome!" three voices called out from the top of the shrine steps.

Kagome groaned unhappily into Sesshoumaru's chest before forcibly pulling herself away. "Eri, Yuka, Ayumi," she greeted, doing her very best impression of Sesshoumaru at his iciest.

"Is this the two-timing boyfriend we've heard about?" Eri asked, looking Sesshoumaru up and down speculatively.

"I was never dating InuYasha, I never will date InuYasha, and until hell freezes over and I do, then he is not my boyfriend, and he can't two-time on me," Kagome growled in answer. "When will you get it?"

Sesshoumaru wrapped his arms around Kagome's waist and pulled her back against his chest, helping her to calm down, even if just a little bit. Enough for her to regain her icy composure anyway.

"So is he or not, Kagome?" Yuka asked. "You didn't answer the question."

"Irritating friends, meet Sesshoumaru," Kagome said, her voice completely flat. "Sesshoumaru, meet the irritating friends."

"So, not the two-timing boyfriend?" Ayumi clarified.

"So are you two-timing on him instead?" Eri asked.

Kagome gently pulled Sesshoumaru's arms from around her middle and walked up to her friends. She proceeded to slap each one of them, forcefully. "Now you are all going to listen to me," Kagome told them, her voice low and deadly calm. Screw icy composure, she was going to give these three a thorough roasting. "The person who you three have been calling my 'two-timing boyfriend' was never my boyfriend. He was a boy, yes. He was a friend, yes. He had commitment issues, yes. But he was never my boyfriend. Do you understand this?" she asked in a hiss, brown eyes glinting.

The three girls all nodded, terrified for reasons that they did not understand.

"The person who you have been calling my 'two-timing boyfriend' also had a name. His name was InuYasha. So, when talking about him, call him that. I don't want to hear any further dumb labels used to indicate him or categorise him when you have never met him. I don't want to hear about Koga who shouted his love to me from a mountain top. I have put him down very firmly. I don't want to hear about Miroku who asked me to bear his children. He's a recovering lecher who is in love with a mutual friend. I never want to hear about Hojo, ever again, under any circumstances. I told him so myself shortly after the last time I walked out on all of you at WacDonalds. Do you understand this?"

Again, they nodded.

Behind Kagome, Sesshoumaru was enjoying the sight of her anger. There was no Jaken-kicking or further planting of his little brother (or of the wolf) into the ground, but it was still a glorious sight to behold.

"This is Sesshoumaru, who you will respect or else. I am not two-timing on anybody with him, he is not two-timing on anybody with me. His adopted daughter, as far as I know, thoroughly approves of whatever relationship we may or may not have -"

"She does," Sesshoumaru cut in, wrapping his arms around Kagome again. "Apparently you make an excellent mother Kagome. Rin would very much like for it to be official. That is why This Sesshoumaru is here with you today."

"What?" the three girls yelped.

Kagome's head whipped up to stare into Sesshoumaru's face, shocked.

"Sesshoumaru, you don't like people," Kagome said slowly, carefully. Particularly careful to not say 'humans'. "I still sometimes wonder how you and Rin found each other. You are not asking me to marry you just to be Rin's mother, are you?" Again, substituting out 'mate' for 'marry'. "And then there's all the people who wouldn't approve, if that's what you really are asking."

Sesshoumaru smiled and kissed her cheek. Since Kagome's first 'bad day' that had introduced him to her very amusing, vaguely arousing, and highly explosive temper, they had enjoyed a solid week of proper 'getting to know you' – conversations as well as physical explorations – and then a more broken up month following before Kagura had buried Naraku, found Kohaku, and brought the child to the village.

Time which Kagome had spent very diligently avoiding her friends in this era. This was the first time they'd all followed her as far as the shrine.

"Jaken can scream as loud as he likes, and the only reason my mother really disapproved of Father taking up with InuYasha's mother was because, technically, Father was still hers at the time." The 'not because she was human' was left unsaid. "Mother will like you, and she will be happy that I'm finally settling down."

"You are asking," Kagome said, wide-eyed and awed.

Sesshoumaru shrugged, still smiling. Or perhaps smirking would be more correct.

"I..." Kagome began.

Sesshoumaru cut her off with a quick peck on the lips. "Do not have to answer now," Sesshoumaru said firmly. "You have a lot of thinking to do, and this Sesshoumaru should probably discuss the matter with your family as well."

Both of them had been happy to ignore Eri, Yuka and Ayumi until that point, but they finally picked their collective jaws off the floor at long last.

"EH?" they screeched, making Kagome wince as well as Sesshoumaru.

Ayumi took a tentative step forward. "Kagome, what about your education? Are you just going to drop out of high school to get married?" she asked tentatively, almost tactfully.

"And to a guy with a kid?" Yuka demanded. No tact at all. None.

"Who we don't even know anything about?" Eri added. Like it was their business to dictate who Kagome was involved with or not.

"Sesshoumaru," Kagome said, smiling pleasantly as she stepped out of his hold and turned around properly. "Will you go and wait by the porch?"

Only the glint of righteous anger bubbling over into full blown fury in Kagome's brown eyes, and the beginning of the prickling sensation of her holy powers manifesting in the air had Sesshoumaru backing off with just a nod. He wanted to see this – which he could from the porch she had gestured to – he didn't want to feel it though, and she looked even madder than she had been when she'd put InuYasha and Koga into their holes.

Turning back to her friends, Kagome's hair started to whip up in a wind only she felt. Her powers sparked visibly in the air around her. Her aura condensed into something heavy. Her eyes glowed with power and anger.

"All three of you can just butt out of my life from here on out. I never want to have anything to do with you ever again. You have no right to dictate to me what I should and shouldn't do and I've put up with letting you sound off about my life for far too long! OUT!" she yelled, pointing to the stairs behind them, her power spearing out from the extended finger and blowing the girls to the ground.

When they were able to get up again, they scurried for the stairs and ran down and away.

Kagome breathed deeply, in through her nose, out through her mouth.

"This Sesshoumaru will make you feel better later," Sesshoumaru promised, approaching her now that her powers weren't electrifying the air. "Come, let us talk with your family. There's still the matter of you having to remain virginal to consider after all, and matings generally involve, well, mating. This Sesshoumaru the result of his parents mating night."

Kagome smiled.

~The End~