A/N: Written for ToraAngel for this year's Dokuga Holiday Exchange.
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all related characters are property of Rumiko Takahashi. No copyright infringement is intended.
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Hot cocoa and favorite mug?
Check.
Cheap drugstore romance novel with Fabio on the cover?
Check.
Bottle of wine and random collection of chick flicks?
Check.
Everything was ready for her perfect holiday getaway. After a terrible week at work Kagome was more than ready to get away from it all, even if it was just for one week. She was grateful that Sango, one of her closest friends, had given her permission to use her ski cabin whenever she wanted. Sango and her husband Miroku were in New York celebrating the holidays with his family, giving Kagome one uninterrupted week at their vacation home. A short drive and a week of bliss. Kagome couldn't be more excited.
A well deserved break was exactly what she needed. Work was getting to her, as was her mother's harping about nearly being thirty years old and never married and her brother's questioning of her sexuality. Just because she hadn't had time for a date in well over two years did not make her a lesbian! It just meant that she hadn't found the right guy. After she had broken up with her high school boyfriend, Inuyasha, she hadn't exactly been on the lookout for a new relationship. Most of the men her age were immature and wanted to 'play the field', or they wanted to settle down and start a family. She wasn't up for a man who would call her whenever he was ready to deal with her and only when he wanted something, yet she wasn't ready to settle down and start a family either. It had taken a while to come to terms with it, but Kagome Higurashi was happy being a single girl with a well paying job. Love would happen whenever love was meant to happen, and that was that.
The only thing she could hope for now was a week in what she had dubbed her Fortress of Solitude, completely undisturbed. In her bag was a week's worth of comfort food (some of it made by her mother), more girlie movies than one could ever watch in a week, and one bottle of her favorite cheap wine. The only thing missing was ice cream, and she planned on buying that when she passed through the small town near the cabin. She had even indulged on a few cheap tabloid magazines, one of her guilty pleasures.
She had a week off to do as she wished, and life couldn't be sweeter.
Even the bullet train ride to the small town close to the cabin was pleasant. She was lucky enough to be seated by herself - she honestly didn't think that she would have been able to take three hours of a random stranger's senseless prattling on about something that she could care less about. The cab ride to the cabin was a touch bumpy, but nothing that truly upset her.
It wasn't until all of her luggage was sitting on the porch and the cab long gone did she notice a car parked next to the cabin, causing her blood to run cold.
Nearly dumping her purse, Kagome sifted through the bag for her cellphone.
"Sango, please tell me you didn't...." She flipped the phone open, only to be disappointed to find that she didn't have any service. "Damn it!"
Rather than use the key Sango gave her, Kagome reached to the door and twisted the knob. Whoever was here wasn't very smart, apparently. Even in the middle of the woods, what person would be so unconcerned about their safety that they just left the door unlocked?
"Hello!" she called, once inside. "You left the door unlocked so I just came right on in!"
"Kagome!"
She whipped around to the kitchen where a very shocked Sesshoumaru stood.
"Sesshoumaru!"
"What are you doing here?" they both exclaimed, at the same time.
At the same time they responded, "Sango and Miroku said I could stay here!"
Kagome pouted. "It's fine," she said. "I'll just call a cab and go back to the train station." She pulled out her phone and was about to flip it open when Sesshoumaru stopped her.
"No. There is a storm coming through, and it will surely block all trains in or out." He stepped around her and out to the front porch. "You brought all of these bags for a week?"
"I'm a girl! You know I don't pack light!" She turned to face the door. "I can get those, you know."
He shook his head and started grabbing her luggage. "You go to the kitchen. I've got a pot of noodles on the stove. Make sure they don't burn.
Knowing that tone in his voice, Kagome obeyed his order and went into the kitchen and over to the stove. She was going to kill Miroku. After her split with Inuyasha, the last thing she wanted to do was spend time with his older brother.
Sesshoumaru was a few years ahead of her in school. He was always the smartest one, top of his class. He was even one of the school's top athletes, having a spot on nearly every sports team the school had. Kendo was where he shined, but he was amazing at nearly everything. All of the girls used to say he was Mr. Perfect. Of course Kagome knew better, since she got to see him at home. Mr. Perfect wasn't so perfect after she discovered he had something against using the hamper and left his dirty clothes in a pile in the corner of his bedroom until laundry day. But the adoring girls didn't need to know that.
She was, to him, nothing more than his little brother's annoying girlfriend.
"I put your bags in the other bedroom."
Kagome nodded. "So what are you doing here? You're making my Fortress of Solitude not so solitudey."
He shooed her away from the stove. "I believe you are making my Fortress of Solitude, as you say, not so solitudey."
"Miroku told me last month I could stay here." She plopped down into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. "He said I deserved a vacation."
"Funny you say that, as I was told the same thing." He removed the pasta from the stove and dumped it into the strainer in the sink. "As a matter of fact, he approached me about it."
"That little..." Kagome saw red. She knew when she had been had.
He put down the pot, walked to the table, and knelt in front of her. "What are you thinking?"
In a childish move, Kagome flailed in anger. "I'm going to kill him! With one of the ugly statues he's got in the entryway!"
"What are you thinking?" he repeated.
"He's trying to set us up!" she screeched. "I'm tired of everyone trying to either get me laid or pushing me to start a family! Can't anyone accept that I'm happy being single?" She sighed. "Plus, I've already had enough of you Kouinu men after I dated your brother."
"Half brother," he corrected her.
"Whatever!"
He shook his head. "Regardless of the circumstances, you are here and will not be able to leave any time soon. Let's just enjoy the dinner I've made and make the best of this."
Kagome weighed her options. She could go lock herself into the spare bedroom for the rest of the week, or she could try and enjoy Sesshoumaru's company. There was enough food and chick movies in her bag to sustain her for a week, though judging from the aromas of the kitchen it was no where near what he had prepared.
"Alright. Hit me with your best shot."
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The pasta dish alone was more than enough reason for her to join Sesshoumaru for dinner.
"...and after the fire was put out, Inuyasha swore off of matches and hasn't touched a lighter since."
"I wondered why he always asked me to light candles for him!" Kagome giggled. "And here I thought it was because he had some sort of thing against candles!"
"If you speak with him again, also ask him about my mother's fur stole." He grinned at her, looking very much like the cat that got the creme. "How is your dinner?"
"This is so good!" Kagome moaned in pleasure as she put the last fork full of chicken carbonara into her mouth. "There isn't anything you are bad at, is there?" she said after she swallowed.
"Pardon?" Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow.
"Come on," she said, giggling, "In school you were always the best at everything!"
He rolled his eyes. "I wasn't the best at everything."
"Oh, yeah!" Kagome snorted with laughter. "I never understood what your deal with the hamper was."
"And you will never understand," he replied, leaning over and flicking her in the nose.
Kagome batted his hand away and started to collect their empty dishes. "You cooked, I'll wash up!"
"I am not very proficient at that, either."
"Yeah, right. You just don't like to get your hands dirty."
"I will neither confirm nor deny that."
As Kagome filled the sink to wash the dishes, Sesshoumaru leaned against the countertop next to the sink. "Are you really that bothered by your family and friend's attempts at match making?"
She nodded. "Every guy they try to match me with has something wrong with him, or he only wants one thing from me." She put their dishes into the sink. "Is there something wrong with me? Do I have a sign on my head that says 'hey, hook me up with terrible men! I like trouble!'?"
"Well," he said, "your friends don't always go for the scum of the world, do they?"
"Ninety-nine percent of the time it ends up that way."
"Would you rate this experience in that ninety-nine percent?"
She pulled her hands out of the soapy water and wiped them on a dish cloth. "Had you asked me that question as I walked into the door, I might have said yes. As it stands right now? You're in the one percent of matching that has turned out well."
He smiled. "While they may be slim, I think I like those odds," he said, reaching down to caress her cheek.
Kagome leaned closer and parted her lips, hoping that he was going to kiss her. It was early, but for some reason it just felt right to her. Disappointment flooded her when he pulled away.
"You finish the dishes, I will start a fire and put in a movie."
Dreamily, she watched him leave the room. It seemed that sharing her Fortress of Solitude for a week wouldn't be such a bad prospect at all.