"Well she said that I cared for you, and. . ."

"Do you?" he cut her off.

"Huh?" this took her by surprise.

"Do you?" he repeated. He didn’t look away from the suddenly fascinating ceiling.

"Well, um," she looked down at the suddenly fascinating floor.

"Aryana come here!" Lonla called from the door.

"I’ll be right back," she hurried off to see what Lonla wanted.

"Is your boyfriend here?" she asked.

"He didn’t want to get up early. He’ll be here. I might have to go get him during my lunch break, though. Is that all that you wanted?" Aryana turned away without waiting for an answer.

"You still haven’t answered my question," he stated without looking away from the ceiling.

"Well the answer is. . ." her voice trailed into a whisper that even he couldn’t hear.

"What was that?" he sat up and looked at her.

"Yes," she said just loud enough for him to hear it. "Um, we have a plan to get you out," she changed the subject.

"Well are you going to tell me what it is?" he smiled one of his tiny smiles at her.

"Okay here it is. . . ." so she explained the whole plan to him.

(AN: I’m keeping you in the dark about the plan for dramatic effect.)

"Sounds good. When would be best to put it into action?" he asked.

"Tomorrow is as good as any. Darby just has to be here, and so does Rena. So they can both play their parts," she told him.

"Where are they now?" he asked.

"Rena had the day off. And Darby is volunteering at the veterinary-clinic. You will never guess what I found at the pound. A baby dog demon. They thought that she was a dog and had her in the kennel. I adopted her as a pet. When I got her home, Kagome and I calmed her down enough to get her change into her humanoid form. She is sleeping in my bed at the moment, if she hasn’t woken up yet. She told me that her parents were dead. The poor little girl," Aryana explained.

"That means that there are still demons in this time," Sesshomaru was very pleased at the idea that he wasn’t alone, besides Aryana.

"Yes. I guess it does. I’m going to take her back to the feudal era when we go back," she said as she smoothed out a wrinkle in her skirt.

"Aryana! There is someone here to see you!" Ponell called from the door to the enclosure.

"Coming!" she called as she stood up and walked away from the bed. As she left, Sesshomaru caught himself staring at her swaying hips. He smacked himself on the forehead, and looked back at the ceiling. "Hi Sho!" she said to Inuyasha when she saw him.

"Hi," he looked around the lab with disgust plain on his face.

"Who are you?" Lonla asked as she came around the corner and saw Inuyasha.

"This is Sho. I told you he would come," Aryana answered for him.

"How long have you known Aryana?" Lonla asked.

"Well. . . Around two years, I think," he answered. That part was the truth.

"How did you meet?" Lonla was still unconvinced.

"Common enemy," he replied, shortly.

"We went to the same school, and the same people were always out to get both of us. We leaned on each other," Aryana put in.

"I see. Why are you interested in her?" Lonla narrowed her eyes at him.

"Um. . ." he stopped to think for a minute, "She doesn’t crack under pressure. . . and she always knows how to handle any situation. . . She isn’t superficial, like most girls," he shrugged his shoulders.

"And Aryana, why do you like him?" Lonla turned to Aryana.

"Well, he is athletic. And puts his heart into whatever he does. He’ll never go down without a fight," she thought a little faster than Inuyasha had.

"Fine. I guess you two have legitimate reasons of dating. But I am watching you," Lonla pointed a finger at Aryana before she walked off, back down the hall.

"Where did you get all of those answers?" Aryana asked Inuyasha after Lonla was gone.

"I just told her why you are my friend. How about you?" he asked.

"I told her a few of the less embarrassing reasons that Kagome likes you so much," Aryana smiled at him, "I have work to do, so you can go home," she turned to leave, but Inuyasha followed her.

"I have got to see this," Inuyasha grinned at her.

"You most certainly do not. Now go home, before I call Kagome. She can ‘sit’ you through the phone, if she has to!" Aryana blocked his way.

"Come on," Inuyasha tried to get by her.

"No," she didn’t budge.

"Why not?" he wined as he tried to get by her again.

"He would be mad at me if I let you see him," Aryana still held her ground.

"Why?" Inuyasha asked.

"He just would be. You know him as well as I do," she hissed at him.

"Just let me by," he crossed his arms and met her defiant glare.

"Is something wrong?" Lonla asked from down the hall.

"No, he was just leaving," Aryana pushed him toward the door.

"He can’t leave yet. Sho, would you like to come and see the demon?" Lonla offered.

"Sure!" he sidestepped Aryana and walked to Lonla.

"He is in here," she led him into the room that opened into the enclosure.

"Holy crap," Inuyasha said when her saw the dome, "Why is it so big? He doesn’t take up that much space."

"Well we don’t know exactly how big he can get, and we had to make it big enough for him in his true form," Lonla explained.

"Okay. You’ve seen him. Now I’m going back in to talk to him. You can stay as long as you like, but I’m going to be busy," Aryana told Inuyasha as she walked back into the enclosure.

"I tried to stop him from getting in to see. But Lonla offered, and I couldn’t stop Inuyasha without a reason," Aryana told him as she sat down beside him.

"I’ll just kill him later," Sesshomaru said simply.

"Now you know that you won’t. If you actually wanted to kill him, you would have done it a long time ago. You care about your little brother. Just the smallest bit, and you know it," she thumped his shoulder.

"I don’t really feel like arguing about this. Can’t we talk about something else?" he hoped that she would drop it.

"Whatever you say, Sesshomaru," the sarcasm in her voice made him grimace.

"We will start the plan tomorrow, right?" he asked to change the subject.

"Tomorrow," she nodded. The rest of the day passed uneventfully and soon night had fallen. Aryana had spent the rest of her day in the enclosure, talking and singing to Sesshomaru.

"See you tomorrow," Darby said as Aryana put on her jacket. She had arrived at around seven, when the veterinary clinic had closed.

"Tomorrow," Aryana gave her a nod and walked out of the door. The cool night air greeted her face as she walked down the sidewalk. ‘I can’t believe that I told him that. I am so stupid. Now he knows that I care for him. Didn’t seem to bother him, though. Why did he want me to sing to him? He didn’t go to sleep. Did he just want to listen? Why was he acting so strange today? He has never spoken that much to me. I liked it a lot,’ she thought as she made her way to Kagome’s house.

She spent most of the night tossing and turning. She was worried that the plan would fail. What if something went wrong? When she finally went to sleep, it was almost one in the morning.

She got up earlier than was necessary. Once she had taken a bath, she pulled on her tight jeans, and a simple green shirt. She pulled her hair into the usual braid, and put on her shoes. She took her time with everything, going over the plan in her head to check for flaws. Of course there were flaws, but none that couldn’t be glossed over. Only one of them could cause a serious problem.