Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

Yuka carefully nudged Kagome, who was slumped over the desk in a boneless manner. There were dark circles under her eyes and she looked on edge.

"What happened to you?" Yuka asked concernedly, resting an anxious hand on her friend's shoulder.

Kagome sighed gustily and peered up at Yuka from under her hair pleadingly. "Promise you won't tell anyone, not even Eri and Ayumi?"

Yuka nodded earnestly and Kagome leaned in conspiratorially. "Last night... I found out I have an arranged marriage," Kagome winced, saying it aloud made it real somehow and the stunned look in Yuka's eyes made her want to run away, but she forced the words out, "To Kanze Sesshoumaru-kun."

"You... you mean..." Yuka couldn't seem to process the information and Kagome watched morosely as she leant heavily on the desk at her side.

"Yeah, I mean the same guy every girl in this school moons after day in day out," Kagome covered her face with her hands and let out a little moue of distress, "And he's a giant pervert!"

Yuka choked. "Kagome... he's agreed to this?"

"More like he's demanding this," Kagome despaired, "For some reason he seems to want... me. I had to escape that massive house just to keep my clothes on..."

"Oh dear," Yuka slumped into the seat next to Kagome.

Running a frazzled hand through rumpled hair, Kagome replied, "Oh dear doesn't even cover it. Grandpa won't even talk to me about it, when I got home he'd locked himself away in his room... I think he's afraid of what I'll do when I get my hands on him..."

"But, Kagome-chan," Yuka twiddled her thumbs and looked down nervously, "there's something you need to know about Sesshoumaru-kun..."

"He's an ass?" Kagome suggested dryly, wincing as she sliced her finger on the corner of her maths notebook.

Waving Kagome's flippant attitude to one side, Yuka stared at her intently, "His father... his father is the—"

A swish of silver hair and an unmistakable eep cut Yuka off in mid sentence and she looked up at Sesshoumaru, eyes wide as he calmly threw Kagome over his shoulder.

"Whilst I must thank you for trying to educate my bride," Sesshoumaru drawled, eyes calculating, "this lesson would be better if it came from me."

With that, he tossed his hair haughtily and pivoted on one foot, striding from the classroom with his usual swagger in place. Kagome, bouncing upon one muscled shoulder, protested most vehemently over this treatment, but her fervent discord fell on wilfully deaf, pointed ears.

Kagome continued to protest, quite loudly and right in his pointy ear, as he carried her through the hallways, thoroughly miffed when no one even tried to help. In fact, most of the girls only wished that they were in her place. And he was blatantly ignoring her.

Well, they can switch with me at any time! Kagome thought ferociously.

Grabbing hold of his long silver hair with one fist, she peered over her shoulder in time to watch him casually kick open the door to the nurse's office. She supposed it must be some weird demon skill to be able to kick open a sliding door like that.

Ignoring the bemused nurse entirely, Sesshoumaru strode into the room and deposited her onto one of the beds so abruptly that she nearly bounced back off and had to grip the edge to prevent herself from falling overboard. Tossing her mussed hair back over one shoulder in an accidentally provocative manner, she glowered balefully up at Sesshoumaru who towered imposingly over her.

"Get out," Sesshoumaru barked, and the nurse nearly fell out of her seat in order to comply hastily to his wishes. Kagome pursed her lips at the teacher's fleeing figure and tried to get up to follow only to be pushed back onto the bed by her shoulder.

"I let you escape yesterday," he whispered into her ear, and she repressed the shiver, "I will not allow you to do so again."

Kagome pushed against his chest and shimmied away from him on the bed, refuting his dominating presence and turning her nose up at him. She refused to be backed up into a corner, and instead of looking up at him like he so obviously wanted, she fiddled with the hem of her skirt, settling it into a more decorous position on her thighs.

"Your hand," he demanded.

"Huh?"

"Give me your hand," he repeated. Before she could even say another word he'd taken her hand, blue eyes widened and she sat, agog, as he put her finger in his mouth. She'd forgotten about the paper cut due to being kidnapped, but he'd obviously noticed. The tingly sensation made her squirm a little and she guessed that the healing properties of his saliva were being put to work. Demons really were amazing. But, she reflected as she serrupticiously peered up at his intent expression, he doesn't need to be that serious over such a small thing... wait, there's no way...

"Did you come so quickly because of that?" she asked tentatively, incredulously.

He let her remove her finger from his mouth and looked at her through half-lidded eyes. "Mmhmm," he nodded and shrugged.

"You..." she blinked at him, "You're unexpectedly cute, you know."

Sesshoumaru shot her a haughty look and she giggled.

"I'm not going to marry you," she informed him primly as she tugged in a reprimanding fashion on a silver forelock, "but we should be friends. You might be perverted and irritating but... I like you."

A smirk quirked at the corners of his mouth as she held out her hand for a western handshake to seal the deal, so to speak. He leant forward, prowling until she was leant back on the bed with him hovering over her predatorily.

"Um..." she managed, her voice a little strangled as she craned herself away from him.

"I will not accept that, Kagome," he murmured, "I will accept nothing less than all of you. Body and soul and heart."

Kagome looked at him like he was crazy and their foreheads bumped gently as he leaned in tantalisingly close. "Why are you so damn sure you're going to get your own way?" she hissed, though some of her venom was stolen by his proximity.

"I am the son of the Lord of the West, one of the old lords of the lands, of course we do not hold the same sway that we had become accustomed to... but I believe you'll find my family's reach to be... extensive."

"Listen here, buster, you may be a lord and used to people bowing down to you—"

"Occupational hazard," he muttered.

She continued as if he hadn't interrupted. "But I'm not going to give in on getting married because you've decided to name-drop," she harrumphed, folding her arms stubbornly and turning her nose up at the dogged Inu.

A fang peeked over his bottom lip as he smirked sinisterly. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

0-0-0

Thinking that class would be an escape had been foolish, her thoughts of a certain stubborn Inu persisted. Earlier, she'd been touched by his overreaction to her paper cut and even now she found herself glancing at the band aid he'd insisted on putting on it, even after he'd already sealed the wound.

So maybe he isn't just a pervert, she mused, but he's certainly not a saint either.

As the students milled out of the school building at the end of the day, Kagome didn't notice the gathering crowd until she was shoved by an overly enthusiastic passerby. Standing on tiptoes, she peered over the massing crowd and balked.

The shiny limousine was a bit much. And she knew exactly why it was there.

"There you are," an all too familiar voice whispered in her ear and she darted a glance at him.

"Ostentatious," she accused flatly, "What's with the limousine, I thought you normally walked or something, at least, I've never seen that before."

"Ah, it just makes it easier for your prince to whisk you away to his shiro," Sesshoumaru drawled, holding her shoulder firmly and marching her forwards.

Kagome shrugged out from under his grip. "Don't embellish it. You are a pervert and that," she gestured disdainfully at the limousine, "makes it easier for you to kidnap me."

"It's not kidnapping when were engaged," he proclaimed. Kagome winced at the looks that little proclamation received.

Kagome stopped him short and slapped both her hands over his mouth. "Don't you dare say that!"

Sesshoumaru's eyelids lowered to half-mast and she squeaked as his tongue flicked out to taste her skin. Jerking away as if she'd been electrocuted, she glared at him reproachfully.

"Come on," he commanded, grabbing her wrist in a tight grip and towing her behind him to the waiting car.

"I'll purify you!" she threatened, cheeks burning as she realised that the attention the limousine had received was now directed at them instead.

"The sooner we get in the car, the sooner you'll be away from all this public spectacle."

"I hate you."

Golden eyes darkened in amusement. "The lady doth protest too much..."

And that was how Kagome ended up being kidnapped by the future Lord of the West, again.

A/N: This oneshot was written for dokuga_contest for their 'Occupational Hazard' prompt and was originally posted on January 13th 2011. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.