As per usual I do not own the anime associated with this fanfic. I hope you enjoy the chapter. This chapter goes back and forth between points of view.

Kagome was laying on the couch with her head on Sesshoumaru's lap as they watched a romantic comedy called couples retreat but she was busy thinking rather than paying attention to the movie. I can't believe how well the past several weeks have gone. Sesshoumaru treats me better than I've ever been treated by any other person. Since he had begun courting her he had treated her like a queen. She had received a few expensive gifts, he did anything she wanted, and she now lived in his apartment with him. Although it was also becoming obvious that he was having a harder time fighting his own instincts since he couldn't seem to keep his hands to himself. She loved every second she spent with him and at this point she was sure she returned his feelings. She just wasn't sure she trusted that he truly felt this way for her. She was constantly waiting for him to get bored with her and leave. One of her friends had fallen in love with the most charming boy they had ever met but then once they were married he beat her to the point that she nearly died. She had a hard time believing in the type of connection that Sesshoumaru talked about since she wasn't a demon. At this point she was in love with a demon and she refused to admit it for fear that it was all a sick joke. She jumped a little when Sesshoumaru started to gently scratch her head.

"If you don't tell me what is worrying you I can't fix it." She closed her eyes and started to relax under the gentle touch of his claws.

"Personal issues."

"Like?" Should I tell him? Kagome mentally debated the pros and cons for a moment before she finally decided to speak.

"Like sorting out my feelings about you as a person." She could see he was trying hard not to show emotion but she could also feel his muscles tense.

"And?"

"And, I'm terrified. I'm terrified that you're going to be like every other person I've put my trust in. You'll either get bored, or you'll realize you never actually had feelings for me and you were just confused." He released a sigh and leaned his head back to look up at the ceiling.

"What has that half breed done to you?" Since he didn't actually seem to be asking her, Kagome kept quiet and waited for him to continue talking. "Kagome, I am nothing like Inuyasha. The fact that you are a reincarnation means nothing to me. To allow that fact to lower your self-esteem is ridiculous. I love you, more than you'll ever be capable of comprehending as a human."

"How do I know you mean that though?" At her words he took his attention off the ceiling to look down at her with tenderness in his eyes.

"Have you ever known me to be a liar?"

"No." Kagome tried to look away but he grabbed her chin to make her look him in the eye.

"Have you ever heard that saying about old dogs and new tricks? Why would I change my habits at this point?" Kagome smiled brightly as she realized how true his words were. She had never known him to be anything but brutally honest and that wasn't likely to change. "I take it talking helped," he asked as he smiled down at her.

"It did actually, thank you." The question now is how do I tell him? Maybe I could show him that I'm ready instead, would he get the hint though? Kagome studied his face for a moment before she sat up and grabbed the remote. When the TV was off she pressed the button to reveal the windows and then tossed the remote on the coffee table before she turned to Sesshoumaru timidly.

"Kagome…?" She didn't say anything as she nervously moved closer to him and placed a knee on either side of his lap so she was straddling him with a hand on each of his shoulders. He looked shocked as the edges of his eyes turned red. "What are you…" Kagome cut him off as she kissed him softly knowing that if he got the question out she'd loose the small amount of courage that she had mustered. Sesshoumaru quickly took over the kiss placing a hand on either side of her face. Kagome did her best to match his near desperate passion. As the kiss got deeper and more passionate Sesshoumaru's hands began to wander down her body until they were both resting on her sides under her shirt. As Kagome's body started to heat up she ground her hips against his and moaned softly at the delicious friction she found in the motion. But as soon as the sound left her she found herself flopped over on the couch alone and feeling extremely frustrated. She jumped up from the couch and marched over to the bedroom door to see him laying on the bed panting with a pillow covering the top half of his face. "God woman you have no idea what you do to me. Please, please don't push me right now because I'm so close to loosing control that it's not even funny." His voice was husky and sounded strained when he spoke. Kagome stepped into the room and closed the door behind her before she began making her way closer to the bed. When she was standing so that the moonlight from the window was behind her she stopped.

"What if I wanted you to lose control?" The pillow was off his face faster than her eyes could trace and he looked shocked for a moment before it was replaced with a desperately hopeful expression.

"Excuse me," he asked quietly as he studied her face. Rather than answering Kagome got on the bed and straddled him before beginning to slowly unbutton her nightshirt. Sesshoumaru watched greedily as more and more of her milky skin was revealed to him. When the buttons were all undone she smiled and leaned down to kiss him softly. When she pulled back and noticed that his eyes immediately went to the revealed strip of skin between her breasts she giggled.

"If I had known that controlling you was as simple as popping a few buttons I would have done it sooner." Her comment seemed to change the entire atmosphere as he suddenly glared at her with full red eyes. Sesshoumaru flipped her over so that she was on her knees with his body pinning her so that her shoulders and the side of her face were pressed against the bed submissively. The snarl that came from him chased every ounce of heat from her body as she suddenly went cold with fear.

"Now who has control bitch?" His words and change of attitude caused tears to spring to her eyes. He loosened his hold as soon as the smell of salt hit his nose. "Kagome?" She took the opportunity of his lossened grip to scramble out from under him and run for the door redoing her button as she went. She had to get away from him she needed to breath, to get outside. "Kagome what's…" When he grabbed her wrist she spun around and slapped him as hard as she could. She knew it wouldn't hurt him but the shock was enough to make him let her wrist go. When she got into the elevator and the doors closed she sat in the corner and let herself bawl. I knew it was too good to be true.

Sesshoumaru stood in his hallway shocked out of his mind. Had had been moments away from claiming the woman he had been pining after for years and a simple word choice had ruined the moment and caused her to cry. The smell of salt was burned into his nose as he watched the elevator stop at the parking garage. It probably would have been smart to explain to her that since a bitch is a female dog in heat male dog demons tended to call their mate their bitch in the heat of the moment.

You think?

Fuck off, I'm going to apologize and explain it to her. She just needs a moment to calm down.

Mate is pissed. Won't listen.

She has to listen so shut up and stop bothering me.

When he was sure his beast would offer no more comments the elevator had arrived and he felt a violent stab to his heart as the strong scent of her tears hit his nose. He was kicking himself for making her cry. He pressed the button for the garage entrance and allowed her scent to surround him in the small space. When the elevator arrived he stepped out, prepared to start groveling at her feet to get her to listen, but she wasn't there. What was there was a scent that had him roaring in fury. The first time she had been alone in weeks and the kit had taken her.

Kill him.

Red eyed and angry he tried to follow the scent only to lose it as soon as he reached the sidewalk. There were far too many scents covering the one he was looking for, for him to catch enough to tell where they were. The anger lasted for a while until he began to realize that he really could tell where they had gone. Then the anger was replaced with a frustrated sort of heartbreak that he wasn't sure what to do with. Sesshoumaru pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed speed dial and when he heard the person on the other end begin yelling about knowing what time it was he spoke.

"Shut up mutt, Kagome has been taken."

Kagome was quietly watching Shippo as he stalked back and forth in the shack that he had taken her to. She had stopped crying about half-way there and was now quietly awaiting her fate. She knew she had no chance of talking Shippo down and if he chose to he had the ability to make her do anything he wanted her to do. She was likely to die a painful death and at the moment with her heart broken she wasn't all that afraid of dying. Once again she had put her trust in someone only to have them throw it in her face. Shippo kept going to one of the windows a looking out as if her was waiting for Sesshoumaru to show up. After a long time of this Shippo finally started to relax and turned to her with a smirk.

"It appears your dog couldn't follow the scent. Must be getting old." Kagome closed her eyes as tears started to pour again.

"No, he doesn't care. I made him angry and he called me a bitch." Shippo laughed at her for a while before he finally managed to speak.

"You stupid girl, he's a dog, a bitch is a female dog in heat, that wasn't an insult. No matter though soon enough you'll be my mate and he won't be able to do a damn thing about it." A compliment? Oh great now he tells me. Kagome thought in exasperation as she realized that she had misunderstood the situation. Great then that means I probably hurt his feelings. Well no dying for me, now how am I gunna get myself out of this mess? Kagome looked around and found nothing that would actually help her nearby. She wasn't tied up but she knew she wasn't fast enough to outrun him. While she could use her Miko abilities she didn't want to kill him unless she had no other choice, which left her with the only option of trying to talk her way out of this mess.

"You would force me to mate you? Killing me and in all likelihood torturing yourself." Shippo looked at her and smiled brightly.

"Of course not, I'm going to court you and show you that I am not just some kid you took care of."

"What if you can't convince me?" He shook his head furiously as though she was being ridiculous.

"But I will. I will convince you and we'll be mated and Sesshoumaru won't be around to break your concentration." In Kagome's opinion it felt like she was dealing with a psycho stalker that had taken her hostage. She thought back to all the shows she had seen and they all seemed to have the same advice. Play along until a chance to escape presents itself.

"Ok Shippo." As he ran up to her she quickly slipped Sesshoumaru's ring into her pocket so that he wouldn't take it.

"I knew you'd see it my way, we're meant to be together you know?" He grabbed her left hand and blinked at her empty ring finger. "What happened to the ring?"

"I took it off." She had to make sure she didn't lie so that he wouldn't catch the change of scent. Like Sesshoumaru had told her, when it came to demons you couldn't lie but you could always withhold enough information to get by.

Sesshoumaru was going insane with worry. It had been two days and they were still trying to find either Shippo or Kagome's scent. He had to stay busy, had to keep looking, because every time he stopped thoughts of what that fox was doing to his Kagome flooded his head. He knew Kagome would be able to purify the kit if worse came to worse but he also knew she wouldn't unless she absolutely had to. Inuyasha and Koga had joined him on the hunt since they knew both scents well enough to help him search. In the event that Shippo was found they had been told to get Kagome and go back to the house. He had no intention of giving the kit another chance to hurt his mate and preferred that Kagome was not there to witness the death of the fox.

"I got a scent!" Inuyasha's word had him running. When he was close he could also smell the fox's scent but there was no sign of Kagome. Without a word Sesshoumaru was running in the direction of the scent leaving the other two males to follow him. He skidded to a stop in front of a shack as a snarling fox demon blocked his path to Kagome who was standing in the doorway looking relieved and happy to see him. A quick inventory of her appearance told him that she wasn't badly injured but she had several visible scratched on her arms and was sporting a dark black eye. His eyes turned red as he debated how he would get him away from Kagome so that he wouldn't accidently harm her while attacking the Kit.

"How brave of you to stand where I can't attack you." He decided taunting the kit would simply have to do. He knew the fox was to young and stupid to be any sort of real challenge and he hoped he would be stupid enough to go for the first attack. To his satisfaction the kit did not disappoint him as Shippo lunged toward him. He watched long enough to make sure the others had gotten Kagome away safely before he turned and prepared to put down the fox. Live a beloved family pet that had gone rabid.

Kagome found herself screaming at Inuyasha as he carried her away from the fight. She wanted to be sure that Sesshoumaru would be ok. She had missed him terribly and that short glance had only been enough to get her hopes up. When he finally set her on her feet Kagome began hitting him in the chest with her fists as she cried.

"How dare you! What if he gets hurt! What if Sesshoumaru needs me!" She fell against him and cried into his chest as Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her and patted her back comfortingly.

"That asshole can take care of himself, he didn't want you to have to watch what has to be done. He shouldn't be too far behind us he missed you too much to take his time getting here." Kagome remembered the ring in her pocket and quickly stepped away from Inuyasha so she could rip off the one Shippo had forced onto her finger and throw it as hard as she could. Once she had Sesshoumaru's ring back on her finger Koga threw an arm around her shoulders and led her inside. Once she was inside the girls fretted over her black eye ask had her tell them what she had gone through over the last several day. But Sesshoumaru was constantly in her mind as she continuously glanced at the clock in the library.

"Kagome." She jumped at the familiar baritone voice and when she spotted Sesshoumaru standing in the library door she ran to him and threw herself into his arms. She immediately burst into tears as he petted her hair and shushed her gently.

"I missed you so much! I'm so sorry Sesshoumaru I never should have left! If I hadn't misunderstood the meaning of your words none of this would have happened!" He sighed deeply and laid his head on top of her head.

"It's alright. You'll never have to miss me again. I should have explained that custom before it came up in conversation."

"Well this is touching and all but dinner is done if you want it." Kagome suddenly realized exactly how hungry she was as soon and Koga spoke and quickly started pulling Sesshoumaru down the hallway.

"Come on I haven't eaten a real meal in two days." Kagome scarfed down her food quickly and as soon as she was done Sesshoumaru was leading her to the door.

"If you don't mind I'd like to keep you for myself this evening." When they got back to the apartment Kagome thought they were going to watch movies but was shocked when Sesshoumaru led her to the bedroom instead. He had her lay down on her side of the bed before he took up his own place on the bed. They laid there quietly looking at each other for a long time before Sesshoumaru reached out and gently stroked the edge of her black eye. "I'm sorry that I allowed you to come to harm." Kagome laughed through her nose and shook her head.

"It wasn't your fault." Sesshoumaru smiled at her softly for a moment before he leaned forward and kissed her gently.

"I could lay here looking at you for the rest of my life a die a happy man." Kagome smiled at him as she decided to finish what she had started the last time they had been in this bed.

"Mate me Sesshoumaru." He blinked at her in concern for a moment before he spoke.

"Are you sure?"

"Are you?"

"This Sesshoumaru in never unsure."

THE END