Fly Away by Meamiko

Chapter the First

Fly Away

By: Napea

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to Inuyasha. The slats idea came from Michael Crichton's Airframe because that's the only reason I could think of for the plane to crash.

x-X-x

Chapter the first

Kagome gripped the arm rests harder, her knuckles turning white from the pressure. It wasn't that she was a nervous flyer, all those years on Inuyasha's back made her immune to heights. No, it was big metal things. Very unnatural. All those years becoming immune to heights she got used to being technologically unadvanced. She had developed a phobia of machines.

She turned into her grandpa.

And, of course, they had to give her the window seat.

Casting a nervous glance around the cabin of the plane she suddenly found herself feeling undeniably silly. She apparently was the only one freaking out. Didn't they have like...relaxants for this kind of thing? She could hear it now, wind whipping through the cabin, the baby in the next aisle crying, metal ripping and people screaming...

"You have a hold of my sleeve." Wait...

Kagome turned wide, confused eyes to the man next to her. The plane was crashing and he was screaming about a sleeve?

"Huh?" Oh yeah, that was smooth.

"You have a death grip on my jacket sleeve. Let go." She would have been annoyed by the rancor of his words if she weren't so busy rushing to let go of the man's sleeve, muttering half incoherent apologies. The man righted his sleeve jerkily, making obvious his annoyance. She muttered another apology, her annoyance at his rudeness now taking over.

Then she finally looked at him.

She jumped to the side, up against the window. "Gah!" This got the man's attention. He quirked a brow at the strange girl.

"Is something wrong?"

"Sess..." She paused mid-word, the man looking at her with mild annoyance. Sitting next to her was the spitting image of the taiyoukai of the Western Lands. He could have been Sesshoumaru's twin even with the noticeable differences.

She hastily shook her head `no' as she finally answered his question. "Um, just...flying and me are kind of unmixy."

"Unmixy? You have a problem with flying?"

"Unfortunately."

"Wonderful." The man laid his head back against the seat. "Are you going to be like this the whole way?"

Kagome glared at the man, half-tempted to say yes and act as annoying as possible. "Probably not," she said finally.

"Why are you flying if it bothers you so much?"

"Because I don't think I could swim to America," she said with a glare. This man was getting on her last nerve.

"Take a boat." He counter glared, causing her to avert her eyes at the intensity of it.

"Yeah boats...worse than planes to me."

"Is there anything you're not afraid of?" Kagome snorted at his question.

"Youkai."

x-X-x

"Youkai," the girl answered. That caught his attention. He turned his eyes to the girl, trying to figure out what she meant by the comment. At his questioning look she gave a sheepish smile. "Well, I'm not afraid of youkai. Well, one did give me the wiggins but he's probably long dead."

"You see youkai often?" He asked cautiously.

She looked up, startled, as if she jut realized that she said something that she shouldn't have. "Um...well, not so much anymore." The girl looked out the window, followed by a mumbled statement about not wanting to be by the window. He wasn't deterred though, he wanted to know what she was talking about.

He tried rephrasing. "You can see youkai?"

She turned to him again, her eyes slightly widened but not with surprise, he realized but with something more like nervousness.

"Not always at first, but I eventually pick up on them. It's easier whe..."

"When...?" He prompted.

"Um...when they use something to amplify their power." The shortness of her words signified that she didn't want to continue on that subject. He wanted to drop it altogether but he just had to know.

"Are there any on this plane now?" He knew the answer but he wanted to see if she did.

The girl closed her eyes for a heartbeat, when she opened them again she looked straight at him. "Yes," she said quietly.

He paused, almost unsure for a moment. "Where?"

"There's a lower level that recently acquired the ability to mimic human form for short periods of time. She's five rows back and to the left. There's a kitsune close by but he can take human form so it's harder for me to pinpoint him. I only felt him because I spent some time around a kitsune youkai." She paused again, looking slightly uncertain at him.

"The same goes for inu youkai." Her voice was low, the suggestion clear but her eyes stayed steadily gazing at his.

"Well done, miko." It was all he could think of to say. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to say anything at all.

Her eyes lowered and her lips parted as if she was about to say something but at that moment the plane shuttered slightly. Her hands shot out to steady herself, one hand grasping the man's. This time he made no move to get rid of her.

"Is it supposed to do that?" she asked her voice high with fright. He contemplated lying to her but he could hear up into the cockpit of the plane where the pilot was making a frantic mayday.

"Not normally," he managed to reply as the plane started a steep decent from the sky. When it jerked upright again the face masks fell out of the storage above their heads. The plane jerked down again, starting another deep decent. The girl next to him screamed, causing him to turn to her. She was cradling her wrist in her good hand, a bit of blood streaming down her face where she must have hit the window.

"Inuyasha!" she screamed as parts of the plane started breaking away from the haul. The man next to her stared in shock at the name. A name, Sesshoumaru had hoped to forget. Thinking quickly he tore the seatbelt from the girl's abdomen and scooped her up in his arms. He headed toward part of the plane that was missing enough of the haul for him to jump out. When the girl started struggling against him he tightened his grip.

"Desist woman. I am saving your life." With that he jumped out of the disintegrating plane with the girl in tow.

Together they watched the plane crash.

x-X-x

Sesshoumaru watched from nearby as paramedics and an officer looked over the girl he saved. She had been crying non-stop since they landed. Her crying increasing when she saw that only a handful of people survived the crash. Sesshoumaru, who had not been injured in the crash, had to extend the glamour that made him look human to make him look injured so not to raise questions.

A paramedic gently pushed the unwilling girl into the vehicle as the officer that was questioning her walked away. Sesshoumaru approached the officer.

"That girl you just sent away, where did you send her?" The officer looked up, taking in Sesshoumaru's appearance.

"Were you in the crash?" Sesshoumaru fought the urge to strangle the man, instead he nodded, his eyes following the emergency vehicle with his eyes as it moved away.

"Yes, now where are you taking that girl?"

The officer looked back, then down at his notepad. "Higurashi? They're taking the girl to the nearby hospital. Have you been looked over?"

He lied. "Yes."

"Are you Higurashi's husband?"

Sesshoumaru paused, then replied, "Fiancé."

"You're both Japanese? You're English is pretty good. Sorry your coming to America had to be so terrifying." The man was trying to console him. All it did was annoy him.

"Directions," he said in reply.

"Sorry?"

"To find my fiancé."

"Oh, just a few questions first." The officer looked down, flipping through his notepad again. "Anything unusual happen on the plane?" he asked distractedly.

"It crashed," came Sesshoumaru's bland response.

"Well that much is obvious. What I meant was did you see or hear anything prior to the plane's decent?" By now the officer had caught on that polite conversation was not going to happen with this man.

"The plane shuttered before it began to descend."

The officer nodded, "So far that's what everyone's saying." He paused and yelled over his shoulder. "Hey Jake! Have the inspectors check into the slats."

"Slats?" Sesshoumaru questioned.

"Yeah, it's unbelievably rare but sometimes the slats deploy mid-flight. If the pilot doesn't know how to deal with it, it can lead to...well, to what you saw here today."

"Anything else?" Sesshoumaru didn't bother to hide the annoyance in his voice.

"Huh? Oh yeah, just your contact information." Sesshoumaru reached in his jacket and pulled out a business card, handing it to the officer. He took the card, giving it a once-over. "Thanks mister...Ni-shi-dai-shou. Phew, that's a mouthful."

"Directions," Sesshoumaru said again. The officer rolled his eyes and flipped to a clean page in his notepad and began scribbling.

"How did a girl that sweet end up with a guy like you?" He handed the directions to Sesshoumaru who in turn glared.

"We grew up together," he said, thinking it to be a lie. With that he walked away, completely unaware of how right he was.

x-X-x

TBC...

This was one of those ideas that wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote the little bugger. Hope you enjoy!

Napea