More Than An Alliance by Dorkfishe97

Thorns

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, but as far as I'm concerned, this story is mine, and I would like to keep in that way.

"Ow! Watch the claws! My skin isn't as strong as yours is!" Kagome yelled as InuYasha examined the skin of Kagome's back. He brushed the tip of his claw over a particularly sore spot and Kagome stiffened.

"If you hadn't taken off running, then we wouldn't be doing this! It's your own stupid fault!" InuYasha yelled at her.

"If I hadn't gone after that jewel shard, you would have killed me! " Kagome shouted indignantly.

Kagome had been coming back from a trip to the future, and just as she had been coming out of the well, she sensed a jewel shard. She had taken off after the source and found it to be a scared little demon. The demon had run away from her, so she had chased it through the woods. Eventually the thing had gotten so scared that it had just dropped the jewel fragment.

Kagome had gotten the shard without a fight and had made it back to camp before anyone even expected her to be back. The only problem was that she was now covered in thorns from the chase.

She had been quite a sight to see as she limped into camp, hair matted and various leafs and twigs sticking out of the tangled mass. There were tears and rips on her clothes where she had gotten snagged, and there were little pricks of blood from the thorns. Of course InuYasha had freaked out on her as soon as she had finished her story, but then he gruffly told her to sit down so that he could gently get the thorns out of her skin.

Sesshomaru sat and watched the entire exchange. InuYasha was an idiot, and what Sesshomaru had seen today only confirmed it. It was clear that InuYasha had feeling for the young miko, and he tried to cover it up with insults and harsh temperament. In Sesshomaru's opinion, InuYasha should just tell the miko how he really felt. There would be a lot less fights, and that meant that there would be fewer headaches for him.

"Ow, that hurts!" the miko whined as InuYasha pulled out yet another thorn and added it to the growing pile next to her.

"You really need to be more careful, Kagome," InuYasha said softly to her. InuYasha said it so softly that the miko barely heard it, but being a demon, Sesshomaru was able to hear it as if it had been said loudly.

"I'll try," she whispered back as she reached behind her to squeeze his hand. They both continued on as if nothing happened, and by that, InuYasha continued to complain loudly.

Sesshomaru was amazed. If he hadn't been paying attention, then he never would have seen the exchange. Seeing how they both acted normal about the whole ordeal, Sesshomaru knew that these little exchanges were more common than he originally thought. That thought alone left an annoying thorn like feeling piercing his heart.

Prompt: Thorn from Sunset Miko's Once a Week Challenge

Word Count: 491

Original Posting Date: June 5, 2013