The Snow Angel by SunsetMiko

The Deflection

Chapter 104 - The Deflection *Endless Story* (Stella's Soundtrack Challenge)

Once everyone had eaten, the group was gathered around the fireplace in the main room, chatting as they often did. Deciding now was as good a time as any; Kagome turned her attention to the taiyoukai beside her.

"I was wondering, Sesshoumaru. How was it that your mom's..." she paused, uncomfortable with the whole idea of a concubine, "special friend told you about the barrier? I mean did he go for a walk with you, and then gloat the moment you walked out of the West or what? You never did say before."

The taiyoukai's eyes widened and he shot a glare at Inuyasha, thinking that the hanyou had spilled the beans. Inuyasha raised his hands in surrender, his face relaying his innocence, and Sesshoumaru turned back to the miko while searching for some kind of acceptable answer. The last thing he wanted to do was lie to her. He was doing enough of that as it was, but she had him backed into a corner. Why was she suddenly so curious anyway?

"Does it matter?" he asked. "You successfully brought down the barrier. The details are of little importance."

Kagome frowned, dissatisfied with his answer, though his floundering had met her expectations. "I was just curious. Is there some reason you don't want to answer me?" The miko had to fight to keep the smile off her face, turning slightly away to bite her bottom lip to hold back her laughter. Shippo seemed to notice as he laughed softly, catching everyone's attention and sparing the taiyoukai, at least for a moment.

"What's so funny, runt?" Inuyasha asked. He couldn't figure out why Kagome was suddenly questioning Sesshoumaru's story. And if Shippo knew, he wanted an explanation.

"Oh, nothing," the kit lied. "I just had a funny thought."

Inuyasha wanted to interrogate the kitsune until he gave up the information, but Kagome interrupted, her next question for the taiyoukai just as bad as the last.

"You know, there's something else that doesn't make sense to me either. You said you'd been trapped outside the West for almost a month and a half, but you came to ask Inuyasha for help less than two weeks ago. Is there some reason you didn't think of the red Tetsusaiga sooner?"

Sesshoumaru was on the verge of panicking. Why was Kagome suddenly asking very pointed questions, the answers to which would reveal his secret? Did she suspect something? Had she merely spent the whole day going over his story, finding holes? It didn't make sense that these questions just suddenly popped into her head.

He had no idea how to answer her last inquiry, and so he went for broke, hoping to distract her from asking him anything else. "There is something I have been wondering as well, Kagome. Where, exactly, are you from? You have the most intriguing, magical things and the way you speak; you often use words or phrases I have never heard before. Why is that?"

Now Kagome finally allowed the smile to show on her face. He thought he could get around her questions by asking his own? Well, she had already decided to tell him the truth of her origins, back before she learned that he was Prince. Now he was going to get his ear chewed off, but that didn't mean she would forget that he still hadn't answered her.