An Unlikely Pair

One

"How can I forget?" Kagome's voice sounded through the darkness. "You have a thing for Kikyo, a dead girl!"

"You-You've got it wrong, Kagome!" Inuyasha defends.

"No, I don't. I know I have it right!" She stomps off through the forest, away from Inuyasha.

"Wait!"

"Sit boy!" Inuyasha falls face-first. "Don't talk to me!" Kagome runs off, seeming to forget about her bag that she left in the small cabin with Sango, Miroku, and Shippo. She was headed for the Bone Eaters' well.

Kagome stopped in front of it. She had an upset look on her face. She closed her eyes and took a breath. Something rustled the bushes behind her. "Eh?" she said as she turned around. She knew it wasn't Inuyasha.

A small clicking sound came from whoever it was. The wind picked up a little. "Kagura?"

The wind sorceress walked into the moonlit clearing. "You're alone?" she asked, not sounding surprised. She tapped her fan on her chin.

"What do you want?" Kagome asked. She put her hand out over the top of the well. She made sure she had an escape plan, should she choose to use it.

Kagura opened her fan. "It's obvious, is it not?" She turned like she was going to use one of her attacks. "Dance of blades!"

Kagome froze for a split second. She was about to jump into the well when someone ran past and scooped her up. She opened her eyes and saw the well was destroyed. Then a happy little face got in her way.

"Hi, Miss Kagome!" Rin sang.

"Rin?" Kagome asked. Then she knew who rescued her.

Inuyasha's older brother, Sesshomaru.

"Why was Kagura after you?" Rin asked, innocent as she could be.

"She... I don't know." Kagome decided not to tell Rin the truth. She didn't want Rin to worry about her, causing more problems for Sesshomaru. Kagome turned her attention to him. "Thanks for saving me," she told him.

Sesshomaru only looked at her for a second. When he got far enough into the forest, he stopped and set her down. "Isn't it that jewel she was after?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Huh?" Kagome looked up at him, then down at the jewel that hung around her neck. She clasped her hands around it. "H-How would you know that?"

"Demons still pursue it. She is a demon." Of course Sesshomaru wouldn't care to put it bluntly. "You should just get rid of it."

"I can't get rid of it!" Kagome said. "It's my only way of traveling between here and my home."

"You still go back there?"

"Every once in a while. I don't have a lot to go back for, now." She seemed to forget Rin was there.

"Kagome!" Sango called out.

The priestess looked toward the way Sesshomaru had brought her. "Sorry for troubling you," she said before walking back toward the well.

"Did she go back home?" Miroku said when Kagome was in earshot.

"I'm right here."

Miroku jumped but Sango simply turned around, a cute little Kirara on her shoulder. "We thought you went back home," she said.

"No, just needed some time to think."

"What happened to the well?" Sango asked.

"Kagura was here. She attacked me with her 'dance of blades' and destroyed the well."

"You aren't hurt are you?" Miroku asked.

"No, I'm fine. Sesshomaru pulled me out of the way." Kagome brushed an invisible leaf from her kimono.

"Inuyasha's brother? He saved you?" Miroku asked, eyes wide.

"Yes. Is there a problem with that?"

"It's just... unlike him," Sango said. "He hates Inuyasha, but he knows that Inuyasha likes you. So why would he...?"

Kagome pondered this thought for a moment. "Wait, does this mean that..." she trailed off. Sesshomaru doesn't like me in that way, does he? she thought. Now that I think about it, he did have softer eyes when I looked at him...

She followed Sango and Miroku back to the hut they had taken shelter in. Shippo jumped immediately into her arms. "I thought you were leaving," Shippo cried.

Kagome pet his fuzzy head. "I'm not," she assured him, smiling with her eyes closed. "I just needed a walk to myself."

Something told her that someone was near. She didn't let it show. Her eyes suddenly opened. She looked to the door. Why do I sense the sacred jewel? she thought. She looked down to where it would have hung on her neck.

Shippo looked up at her. "What's wrong, Kagome?"

"I dropped the jewel," she said honestly. She set Shippo down and went outside. She glanced around.

"Should we split up to look for it?" Sango asked.

Kagome looked at her. "I'm the only one who can sense it," she said.

"I'm sure we can find it," Sango said. "You can take Kirara and follow your sense, if you want. Me and Miroku will go look by the well in case your sense leads you the wrong way again."

The small twin-tailed cat jumped down from Sango's shoulder. She mewled before transforming into the larger form of herself. Shippo appeared at the door. "What can I do?" he asked.

"We need someone to be on the look out in case anyone comes here," Miroku tells him.

"Okay," Shippo said, sounding a little disappointed. He sat just outside the door.

Kagome went to grab her bow and arrows. She also pulled a lollipop from her bag and handed it to Shippo when she passed him. He cheered up instantly.

"Okay, I'll see you back here later," Kagome said, climbing on Kirara's back. They took off heading in the near opposite direction of Miroku and Sango.

Kagome looked down a few moments later. She sensed the jewel was closer. She then caught sight of Sesshomaru. He held something in his hand.

"Down there," she told Kirara. The cat flew down and landed a ways in front of Sesshomaru in a small clearing. He stopped walking.

Kagome climbed off of Kirara. She saw the chain dangling from Sesshomaru's hand. "You have the jewel?" she asked.

He brought up his hand and looked at it for a moment before tossing it to Kagome. She caught it and looked at it. It was still whole.

What's that? she thought, sensing something was wrong. She looked to the side. Smoke and a yellow bolt of what looked like lightning was barreling through the trees toward them. Sesshomaru didn't move.

Kagome rushed toward him. She pushed him back just before the lightning got to where they were.