Sesshoumaru stood frozen in -what was for the first time in his life - abject horror. It was something he never would have willingly expected to happen to him. Nothing could have ever prepared him for such abrupt exposure.

The day had begun on a high note, waking up next to his fiancé, Kagome. After devouring a hearty breakfast she had prepared just for him, he departed for work. Though it wasn't one of his best days, nothing too terrible had occurred in the office. His mug of coffee was still warm when he got to his desk, the new intern no longer gawked at him when she thought he wasn't looking, and his insufferable little brother had even taken a vacation, thereby staying out of his hair. To top it all, things had gone considerably well in the meeting with Kougookami Corp., where another meeting was scheduled to set up negotiations for a merger with his own company. Needless to say, besides a mild headache, Sesshoumaru returned home in quite an amorous mood. On the drive to his full-floor apartment, he had contemplated the things he would do to Kagome when he arrived, and secretly smiled at the thought of finally having her to come home to every afternoon.

When he entered their room and found her tucked beneath the sheets at such an early hour, he found nothing suspicious, but rather thought it incorrigible of her to be ready and waiting for him. Removing his clothes, he had knelt behind her and brushed her hair from her shoulders to level kisses around the strap of her tank top, inquiring about her day. The museum had been busy, she'd said, and then she'd complained about the soreness in her breasts. Thinking it to be part of her pre-coital game, he'd murmured something about taking away her pain and took a firm grasp of each breast in his hands before massaging them. An elbow to the face followed by a hard smack on the arm quickly stopped his progress.

"Stop it, Sesshoumaru! I'm not in the mood! God, all you men are the same. All you want is sex!" Kagome had yelled with unbelievable rage. "Well, if that's how you feel you can go sleep somewhere else! Get out of the goddamn bed!"

Too affronted to respond, he immediately scrambled out of bed and grabbed a pair of sleeping pants before slinking out of the room. Deciding that food couldn't harm him half as bad as his girlfriend could, he headed for the kitchen in order to take his mind off the puzzling and frustrating response of the woman taking over his bed. What he found when he opened the refrigerator was a half-empty carton of milk, a drawer full of uncooked vegetables, an banana yogurt and one slice of Swiss cheese.

'Of Course,' he thought, 'On this of all days, when my girlfriend's being pissy, there can't even be a fucking slice of bread in the fridge. Never mind that I hate banana and Swiss anything.'

Gritting his teeth, Sesshoumaru settled for serving himself a glass of milk before heading towards the bathroom to get some pain relievers for his headache. That is where he made the frightening discovery.

At first, he and Kagome had not planned to move-in together right away, but they hadn't expected someone to place an offer on her apartment so soon after it went up for sale. Afraid that the instability of the real estate market would cause the price to fall in later months, she'd sold her home and moved in with Sesshoumaru. Though it was earlier than expected, the wedding was only two months away; it would make little difference, anyway.

As it was, she had only been living with him for two weeks. 'Two magical weeks...until now.' It hadn't even occurred to him what living with a female would bring, beyond said female herself and the extra person in his bed every morning.

Now as he pressed himself against the closed door of the bathroom, he couldn't help but dread the next week of his life. He knew he should have been prepared, as it was a normal thing for any married man to endure, but even so he couldn't help but be terrified by the little purple box of Always pads sitting on the counter by the sink, and the mint-green plastic paper wrappers that littered the trash been.

Kagome had her period.