Only Drunks and Children by Celyia

Prologue

Had it been any other night, her eyes would have been wide open in order to enjoy the mesmerizing way errant beams of starlight escaped the shadow of the moonless sky, but instead, her fingers were splayed over her eyes in an unsuccessful attempt to ignore the knowledge that the only reason she had yet to fall the several hundred feet to a rather messy death was due to the uncomfortably precarious grip the madman had on the old and quite threadbare band of her skirt.

"Cease your screeching," the aforementioned madman commanded, his smooth voice flat with the confidence of one who knows his orders will not be ignored.

No insults flung to put her in her place. No threatening "or elses ... " tacked onto that soft command to remind her of her desperate position. No, the youkai was evidently so used to others accepting his orders that it probably never dawned on him to qualify it, Kagome decided in wonder, her mind almost numb from the fear.

After all, it would be easier on him to just drop me than to continue carrying me.

Her jaw clamped shut as her survival instincts kicked into action, sending her small hands behind her back in order to grasp onto the slender, nearly effeminate wrist that dangled her so high above the ground. If he did decide she was too much trouble to carry and tried to drop her, Kagome vowed, she'd make damn certain he'd fail. If nothing else, Kagome had much experience clinging to the most slippery of surfaces with the persistence of a happy barnacle.

Anyway, she had survived through way too much in her life to allow some make-up-wearing-boa-carrying-anal-retentive-ice-queen to get her now.

She inhaled deeply through her nose, her eyes squeezed shut even as the moist scent of the heavy clouds in the air relaxed something inside her core. Slowly, carefully, her fingers blindly searched out the madman's delicate skin, refusing to admit to herself that if he decide to release his grasp on her skirt's band (or if the thing should finally snap, which was another option she denied to herself existed) her position was awkward enough to make it impossible to stop the long fall.

"Stop moving," Sesshoumaru, Lord of the West and Part-Time Abductor, murmured softly, his tones somewhat muted by the flush of air constantly battling against them.

"I'm not moving!" the girl grumbled, her annoyance finally getting the better of her common sense as she tried to bend her head back to glare at the youkai, but considering her position, it was an impossible task. While the youkai lord had not (fortunately) decided to carry her by the back of her neck, there was a reason that this paralyzing position she was currently in was favoured by mother cats the world over.

"Remain silent."

Sighing in frustration, Kagome reluctantly shut her mouth, her every instinct screaming for her to do something to get out of this mess, yet her mind unable to focus upon a single option (other than remaining still) that would keep her from becoming intimately acquainted with the rather hard ground.

In short, she would just have to wait to see where the mannequin Lord of No Emotion would eventually take her.

Not too unlike a kitten being carried away, really.

Except, Kagome comforted herself, this little kitten would scratch her abductor's golden eyes out the second they landed.

Well, if she didn't throw up out of terror first.

"Do you have to go this high?" Kagome blurted out in a desperate attempt to distract herself from the nausea, opening one eye for a microsecond to peek at the world below. Her voice caught as she briefly considered the wisdom of questioning her captor but her natural loquacity refused to be stifled.

No answer.

"Normally, I don't mind heights too much, but I think I'm going to throw up here," she exaggerated threateningly, only to squeal in fear as the youkai held her, wordlessly, out further from him. "Stop that!"

There is one little fact about Our Heroine that she did not like to admit to, but was definitely clear at times like this: if the choice ever came between pride and survival, Kagome had no qualms about choosing survival every time. And at that moment, Kagome's biggest goal was getting back to the safety of her abductor's single-handed grasp.

"Pull me back in, please?" she asked as sweetly as her chattering teeth would allow. "I promise to behave."

Yet, the youkai seemed untouched by her request.

"I promise I'll stop moving and I'll stop talking and I'll ... " Kagome shook her head, aware of slight tearing sound coming from her skirt. The band, she thought in a panic, it's ripping. Oh god, it's ripping. Now that she thought about it, she could feel the fabric slowly begin to give way, each second bringing her closer to a rather messy doom.

"Please. Look, I don't know why you took me," the words came out in a rush, sincere and slightly breathy. "But please don't let me fall."

It took all her willpower to open her eyes and try to crook her head to look up at the creature holding her so perilously in the air. Vivid golden eyes, alive with curiosity and distrust, met her gray ones, locking them with their intensity.

This creature who carried her, the girl suddenly thought as she let go of his wrists as if they were hot potatoes, she really knew nothing about him. What did she really know of the youkai Sesshoumaru, the lord of the ever-growing western lands? His little brother's angry words and Kaede's murmured teachings were all she had ever heard. Who knew what the slender monster was really capable of?

Maybe, she thought for a second as a wave of panic crashed over her, maybe it would be better just to fall.

No, it's not. No, I still have a fighting chance here. I'll be damned if I'm going to blow it by just dying.

She bit the bottom of her lip as she stared the best she could at his beautiful face, squelching the panic screaming within as she ignored for the moment the knowledge that it would be only moments before her skirt's band broke.

"Please," she asked simply, staring into those electrifying eyes that so did not seem to match with his stoic face.

Had she not known better, Kagome would has said the youkai sighed impatiently even as he pulled her up to tuck the girl beneath his arm, but at that particular moment, his expressions (or lack thereof) meant nothing to her.

She wouldn't fall and, for the moment, that's all that she needed to know.