Kagome and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by thetroll

Chapter 1

The day started off bad enough. Kagome was startled awake by a boar yokai traipsing into their camp, looking for the jewel shards. InuYasha had been quick to react but his claws had resulted in both Kagome and her bedding being covered in the boar's shredded, bloody remains. 

It had taken her over an hour to get the gunk out of her hair alone.

While Kagome had bathed and cleaned her bedding, InuYasha had depleted the last of her ramen. Miroku had tried to fish while she'd been away, but he hadn't caught anything before her return and so the rest of them had gone hungry.

With bellies empty, Sango had suggested that they break camp and try and find a village where they could get more food on their way back to the well for Kagome to pick up more supplies. It would take them a few days to make it back, at any rate, so they'd need more food in the interim.

Unfortunately, as they set out, Kagome felt her cramps start, indicating that her period would arrive in the next day or two. She'd had to stop to take a pain reliever before they could continue, much to InuYasha's vocal displeasure about the delay. InuYasha's complaints had sparked Shippo's need to defend Kagome, which had resulted in a brawl that a weary Sango and Miroku had been forced to stop.

By the time they'd finally begun traveling some two hours after Kagome had awakened, everyone was in a foul mood.

Even Miroku's normal con and subsequent feast hadn't set everyone to rights. They'd departed not long after he'd 'cleansed' the wealthy merchant's house and resumed their travel in relative silence. 

The group traveled in relative silence for awhile. Sango would occasionally whisper something to Miroku and he would whisper back—likely discussing the tension in the group—but otherwise, the group was silent. Even Shippo was unusually quiet after his latest fight with InuYasha that morning, preferring to sit on Miroku's shoulder as he sucked on a lollipop rather than chat with anyone.

"Err..." Sango hesitated for a moment as she waved a hand awkwardly at Kagome's skirt. "Kagome? You should..." She fell silent, obviously struggling to find the right words.

"What's wrong, Sango?" Kagome pushed aside her irritation, concerned for her friend. It wasn't like Sango to beat around the bush.

Sango pointed at Kagome's legs with a helpless gesture. "You're, ah... You're bleeding," she whispered so low that even Kagome barely heard her.

Kagome looked down at her legs and wanted to scream. Instead of her period starting in the next day or two, it had come early and she was bleeding. She wanted to curl up somewhere and cry but first, she needed to take care of her current problem.

If there's blood on my uniform, I might have a meltdown. She bit her trembling lower lip, the stress almost more than she could take. 

"InuYasha, we need to stop," Kagome said once she'd swallowed back her tears. 

InuYasha turned and glared at her, incredulous. "Stop?" he growled. "We just finally started moving. If you weak humans hadn't insisted we stop for food—"

"InuYasha." Kagome's tone dropped as her eyes narrowed.

InuYasha's ears flattened; he knew that tone anywhere. He huffed, shoving his hands into his sleeves. "It better be a quick break."

Kagome shifted her backpack, all too aware of the moisture between her legs now that Sango pointed it out. If she didn't get to put in a tampon in the next minute or two, she would end up bleeding on her socks. Her pure, white socks... "It'll take as long as it'll take, InuYasha."

InuYasha immediately bristled. "Oy! You're the one who wanted to go back to the well and the damn village—"

Miroku put a hand on InuYasha's shoulder. "Calm yourself, InuYasha. We will be back on the road as soon as she's ready."

Kagome didn't bother to stick around to hear InuYasha's response. All too aware of the blood dribbling down her legs, she rushed off into the forest on the side of the road they were on and as soon as she was far enough away, she dropped the backpack next to her and quickly rummaged through it to begin damage control.

She sighed with relief as she mopped up the blood, noticing that her clothes had managed to escape unscathed. Probably because I was walking upright, she thought to herself ruefully, grateful for once that InuYasha was such a slave driver.

Once she was clean, she took the tampon out of its sleeve and inserted it slowly. No matter how many times she inserted one, getting it into place never seemed to get any easier. She could only sigh with relief as it began to glide inside.

"Priestess."

Kagome jumped, nearly dislodging the partially inserted tampon. No...

"If you desired gratification, this one imagines that the hanyo would not dissuade you from coupling with him."

She turned bright red as Sesshomaru moved to stand before her but she could see no way out of the situation. Part of her hoped the ground would open up and swallow her whole and the other part was all too acutely aware of the fingers still gripping the tampon applicator, the tampon only halfway inside.

Fortunately, only Sesshomaru seemed to be there. She didn't see any traces of Jaken, the dragon, or the little girl who followed Sesshomaru around.

And then the meaning of his words hit her. "This isn't a sexual object," she hissed, scandalized. "It's for—well, something else."

He looked vaguely amused. "Is it not?"

And then he stood there as if he was waiting for something. 

Kagome figured she had two choices at that point. She could either shove the tampon in the rest of the way and finish up or pull the whole thing back out and risk bleeding on herself again. After a quick debate with herself, she decided on the former and took a deep breath.

"You have no weapons with you," Sesshomaru observed just as Kagome rammed the tampon in. "Yet you expose yourself thus and risk being taken advantage of in your weakened state." He lifted his chin at the bloodied wet wipes next to her. "And you do so with none to watch over you for your own protection. It would seem, priestess, that you have become increasingly foolish in regards to your own well-being and evidently the hanyo does not see fit to properly look after you."

"I'm not injured!" Kagome felt her face heat further, antagonized by the judgmental look on his face, as she removed bloody fingers from her vagina. "I'm on my period, okay?!"

He raised a brow as he inhaled for a moment and Kagome whimpered, hoping he couldn't smell the fact that she was on her period. Can't mortal dogs tell that a woman is on her cycle? Oh gods, please don't let him know.

She wiped her fingers on a clean wet wipe and pulled up her panties, desperate to be covered once more. 

"Hnn." Sesshomaru studied her. "This one was not aware that humans came into heat so often," he admitted.

Kagome blushed again but didn't correct his misconception. "Um," she said, tucking the used wipes into a plastic bag to toss out later, "well, I'm going to head back to the others now."

As she turned to leave, he called out, "Priestess."

I knew it was too easy. She froze but didn't turn around, hoping that he would just let her go.

"If the hanyo neglects you again, this one will interfere. Your power cannot be lost to his negligence." 

Kagome tried not to shiver at the ominous words. "InuYasha doesn't neglect me," she said instead.

"Hnn." He was silent for a moment and then, as he turned to walk past her and continue on his way, he added over his shoulder, "You are wasted on the hanyo."

Those parting words lingered in her mind long after he'd left and she'd returned to the others.