Some people wondered what made Sesshoumaru such a heartless bastard. Kagome never wondered. All it took was a glance at his missing arm, and with a pang of guilt she remembered exactly why he had become the man who he was.
And while Sesshoumaru was not blessed with happy manners, he was quick with numbers at the blackjack table and had a talent with a rifle to best any gunslinger in this part of the world; and really, that was even better.
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"I will allow you to play with my hair…" he rumbled, his warm breath tickling the sensitive shell of her ear as he leaned down to her, "if I may play with yours."
Kagome smiled sardonically at her yellow-eyed partner, using every ounce of her inner strength to push down the butterflies and the blush that threatened to creep up her chest.
"Maybe we can braid each other's hairs and talk about cute cowboys later, Sess. Right now, we got a bounty to collect."
Sesshomaru arched an eyebrow, his disguised way of smiling. "You are positively infuriating." he murmured.
"If by that you mean "not easy", you got it partner. If you're looking for some nighttime entertainment, I'm sure those gentlemen at the bar would love it if you played with their hair."
Sesshoumaru snorted, not at all offended by her easy banter. They had travelled together long enough where this sort of playful conversation was certainly the norm by now.
"One of these days, Kagome, you will tell me what's really going on in that little head of yours. Or Lord help me, I shall have to force myself in there."
Heaven forbid, Kagome thought, shrinking at the thought of what would happen if Sesshoumaru could really read her mind. He'd have a couple of things to say about why Kagome thought about him shirtless as often as she did, among other more embarrassing things involving his hair and her naked thighs.
"Good luck." she winked at him instead, turning around and heading outside when she could no longer keep her blush at bay. "I'll get the horses ready while you pay our tab. Meet you outside." She marched towards the exit and pushed past the swinging bar doors without waiting for his reply. Once out, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.
The cool breeze of the evening desert did well to clear the young bounty hunter's thoughts. It would do neither of them good if she let her emotions be swayed when they had a job to do.
After all, there was no time to fall in love in the Wild West.
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"Your stubble is starting to show." Kagome whispered, running a careful hand over the man's chiseled jaw. The short hairs, white like the snow-colored locks on his head, pricked against the hyper-sensitive skin of her fingers.
Sesshoumaru didn't move, his eyes bright and heated as they looked at his partner's flushed face.
"Not a lot of barbers in the middle of the desert, unfortunately." he joked dryly instead, trying to ease the tension between them, but finding it increasingly difficult to do so with her hand tracing delicate patterns on his face with such maddening intensity.
"Hm." Kagome replied distractedly, languidly moving her hands from the sides of his face to cup his chin. One adventurous thumb traced the delicate slope between his nose and lips, where the tell-tale shadow of a mustache was beginning to appear.
Instinctively, Sesshoumaru's tongue flicked out to wet his suddenly-dry lips, accidentally catching Kagome's thumb.
Both their breaths hitched.
The night was unbearably quiet and no one dared move, let alone breathe.
Sesshoumaru wasn't sure when, but sometime during Kagome's exploration of his face they had drawn closer, well past the comfortable barrier of friendship and into the dangerous territory of intimacy. It was like a veil had been lifted, and Sesshoumaru were seeing Kagome for the first time, her slender figure beautifully silhoutted by the bonfire keeping them warm.
Sesshoumaru didn't have many personal rules - only two, really - but those he had were enforced with military strictness. And rule number one:
Never desire anybody.
Don't get him wrong; Sesshoumaru was by no means a celibate priest. As a wanted man on the run with his freedom and days counted, he was more than allowed to lust over women, and Heaven knew he had had his fair share of affairs and sexual trysts in every town they stopped by. But carnal desires aside, he had never longed for a woman in that painful way that stripped a man of all reason, that rendered him helpless and weak. Desire led to love, and love was distracting. Out here in the West, a distracted cowboy was a dead one.
Which led him to rule number two:
Never desire Kagome.
It followed the same principles as rule number one, except for the stark difference that Sesshoumaru had never laid his hands on the raven. From the moment the odd duo had began travelling together - a mercenary and a fugitive - he had sworn to himself that this could only be a purely platonic relationship. More like mutually beneficial in the sense that she'd protect his identity and foot the bill for thier travels, and he's protect her physically and enjoy her use of funds. Lately he had permitted teasing to transpire between them; but what's a little bit of flirting between colleagues? Nothing really. One could say that it equated to a more complex way of joking, a form of amusement between almost-friends, and Kagome was only that to him really; someone to entertain him during his long, long journey.
It just so happened that he fancied her more than his usual lovers, and it didn't hurt that she was the prettiest and most quick-witted woman he had ever met. But, really, that was it.
Until that very moment, Sesshoumaru had never allowed himself to think about her in that way - the kind of way that kept him up at night, restless with arousal and longing - much less linger long on any faintly provocative thoughts. He couldn't let his mind focus on the tightness of her corset, how it pushed her modest but round bossom upwards under the tantalizingly thin linen of her top, or the way that her small frame felt so right against his back as they rode through the desert on his horse.
No, Sesshoumaru definitely did not often think of those things.
But the woman before him now was so lovely and strong and soft and right in front of him, and Sesshoumaru need only lean forward -
Abruptly, Kagome got up, startling the cowboy from whatever spell had been cast. Blinking rapidly, he watched her curvacious figure saunter to the opposite side of their campsite - the sway of her hips hypnotic - and lower herself to her sleeping cot. Turning her back to him, she pulled the blanket up to her chin, and stilled.
"Goodnight, Sesshoumaru." She said, her voice suspiciously devoid of any emotion.
Sesshoumaru brushed a weary hand across his temple, pausing over his shut eyes and pressing hard until white spots appeared behind the closed darkness of his lids.
"Goodnight, Kagome." he whispered, voice uncharacteristically rough.
If he pressed hard enough, maybe the phantom image of her pink lips so close to his own would disappear from his mind's eye too.