Tuesday, November 27, 2007

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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

   LONG TIME NO SEE!!!!!!
My fellow brethren! And sistren!! Behold, I have created my interpretation of Total Freedom in the form of an epic movie involving martial arts, dancing, and drunken boxing! Watch and send to your friends! If I get the highest scored (determined by views + ratings), I win an XBox360, Assassin's Creed, and an Altair figurine! So.. Please help me!!! I'm desperate here :(


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Friday, May 26, 2006

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There are only a few chapters left in this story. if you want to finish reading it, please leave a comment. Otherwise, i have no reason to continue posting.
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Sunday, April 16, 2006

Chapter 65: Most Dreaded Words...
Miroku watched Inuyasha twist to look in the direction of the river for what had to be the hundredth time and rolled his eyes, “Inuyasha, Kagome-sama is well within range, and if something were wrong she would have called for us. You agreed to let her bathe alone, so stop fidgeting.”

Inuyasha scowled at him in irritation for pointing that out, stuffing his hands up into his sleeves and growling as he shifted to brace his back against the nearest tree, “You would hover worse than I do, if it was your own fucking mate, bouzu.”

When Shippou nodded sagely from his perch on Inuyasha’s shoulder, both monk and exterminator shared a suspicious look before moving to stand directly in front of the lounging pair of youkai. Sango frowned disapprovingly, folding her arms over her chest, and clearing her throat to get their attention, “What have you done?”

Shippou squeaked, and darted under Inuyasha’s hair to avoid the dark looks aimed their way, but Inuyasha’s own expression was bland as he looked up at them, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You have both been behaving strangely since you returned, Inuyasha,” Miroku pointed at them with his staff, his own look disturbingly similar to Sango’s. “What has occurred with Kagome-sama that you are not telling us?”

Inuyasha arched an eyebrow and looked completely unconcerned with their posturing. “This has nothing to do with the fact that she still can hear the voices, Naraku’s alive and obsessed with her, and she’s still not quite comfortable with handling youkai emotions. I mated her, for fuck’s sake, doesn’t that give me some right to behave ‘strangely,’ bouzu?”

Sango frowned at him, shaking her head and folding her arms over her chest, “You and Shippou never get along.”

“Maybe he’s practicing,” Shippou poked his head out from under the thick curtain of Inuyasha’s hair, and puffed up defensively.

“Practicing?” It may have been a more believable excuse if Inuyasha wasn’t wearing the exact same expression of confusion as the two humans.

The little kitsune folded his arms over his chest and tried his hardest to look completely confident with his explanation, “Well, Okaa-san and Inuyasha are probably going to want kits of their own-“

“Pups,” Inuyasha cut in, his cheeks faintly pink when both Sango and Miroku shot him startled looks.

“Whatever,” Shippou waved that off, really getting into his idea as he bounced to his feet and gestured enthusiastically, “so you know they’re going to have pups someday, but Okaa-san’s never going to agree if he can’t behave himself-“

“Shippou,” Inuyasha growled warningly.

“Well it’s true!” he defended, reaching up to grab Inuyasha’s ear and yank his head down. “She’s never going to agree if all she sees is you beating up on me, you know.”

Inuyasha scowled, twisting his head out of Shippou’s little hand, “She’s seen me with her little brother, dammit, it’s not like I ever did anything to him! That fucking brat practically idolizes me.”

Sango knew she probably looked just as dumbfounded at the monk at her side, her mind trying to process that not only had Shippou just openly accused the hanyou of trying to show Kagome that he could be a good father, but the hanyou was actually supporting that accusation with his defense, “I-Inuyasha?”

The youkai were a bit too engrossed in their mini-argument to give the shaky whisper any real notice, Shippou turning his nose up arrogantly to taunt, “I hope she washes your mouth out with soap every time you say bad words after you have pups.”

“Where the hell did you hear that?!” Inuyasha demanded, wondering where the kitsune had heard such a ridiculous thing. Why would Kagome try to wash his mouth if he cursed?

“I ask about things like that,” he stuck out his tongue. “It’s interesting to hear how they do things there, but you never act curious. She said the first time she swore when she was little, her mother washed her mouth out.” Shippou wrinkled his nose in distaste, “That stuff does not taste good.”

His brows lowered, “You tasted her soap?”

“I was curious!” he insisted, his own cheeks bright with embarrassment. “She was a pup herself when it happened, and she said it was really, really gross. So she didn’t think twice about listening to her mother about watching her mouth after that.”

Inuyasha looked thoughtful, settling back against the tree, “I’ll have to remember that one then.”

“You say worse!” Shippou pointed accusingly, feeling a sudden sense of foreboding at the smug look on Inuyasha’s face.

“I’m an adult.”

“That is so debatable,” the kitsune’s tail flicked rapidly in agitation.

“I guess you like the taste of that soap more than you admit,” Inuyasha heaved a sigh of mock disappointment as he made a grab for the baby youkai.

Shippou let out a shriek and darted away from him, shouting over his shoulder, “It’s for cursing, dammit!”

Inuyasha chuckled, cracking his knuckles as Shippou clapped his hands over his mouth, in wide-eyed realization of the mistake he’d made. “You were saying?”

Shippou let out a wail and started running in circles around the grove. Inuyasha was darting after him, but rather than the usual frustrated dashing, this time he seemed to actually be enjoying himself. The hanyou was obviously trying to hold his usual scowl, but his lips twitched every time he took a half-hearted swing at the boy, eyes glowing and much more gentle than the two engrossed humans had ever seen.

Miroku followed their progress with his confusion clear on his face, “This… is quite strange, Sango.”

Sango stepped back to sit down heavily in the grass before she ended up embarrassing herself, and falling on her face with just how deep her confusion and surprise were running, “Do you think it’s true, houshi-sama?”

He sighed and looked down at the exterminator, “You mean that Inuyasha is being kind to Shippou because he’s trying to impress Kagome-sama, and convince her he’d be a responsible parent?”

She nodded, watching the hanyou chase Shippou up a tree, and simply smirk up at the little kitsune hissing down at him from a low branch. “It’s… just so difficult to believe. Inuyasha wanting children… His behavior has always suggested that it was the last thing he would consider.”

“Perhaps we underestimated his desires,” Miroku crossed his legs and dropped easily to a cross-legged position beside her. “He has changed, drastically, since Kagome-sama was enchanted. This side he’s showing us now seems to be everything he really is.”

“How can something so little change so much though?” she raked a hand through her hair and murmured distractedly. “And so quickly!”

He frowned, trailing his fingers along his staff as he tried to think of the best way to vocalize his own theories concerning the mess they were slowly sorting out, “I believe the… idea of being with each other was far from new in their heads, but both believed it to be unobtainable. Suddenly everything they thought was in their way has been removed,” he closed his eyes to take up his most common meditative pose. “It stands to reason that neither of them wanted to waste any more time, when they knew they belonged together.”

Sango turned to look at him in amazement, vaguely aware of Inuyasha in the background calling up to Shippou, “Oi! You realize you’re just making your punishment worse than it has to be by running away, don’t you, runt?”

“You’ll get bored and forget to punish me if I stay out of the way long enough!” Shippou called back petulantly, digging his little claws into the branch under his feet.

“I’m feeling patient today,” Inuyasha’s lips quirked.

Sango looked back at Inuyasha, reaching out to stroke Kirara when the little cat hopped up into her lap. “Kagome-chan’s right… it is disturbing to see him so calm after getting use to him being so temperamental, and blowing up at the slightest provocation.”

Miroku didn’t bother to open his eyes, “I imagine that has a great deal to do with Kagome-sama herself.”

“Pervert,” she muttered dryly, rolling her eyes as her fingers slid down to scratch under Kirara’s chin.

“Sango! I can’t believe you would accuse me of such a thing!” he gave her his most perfected look of affront, pressing his hand flat over his heart to add to the over-all “innocence” of the expression. “My words were spoken in the purest sense!”

She slanted him a look out of the corner of her eyes, “You’re jealous that Inuyasha’s closer to having a pup than you are to having an heir, aren’t you?”

For a moment, his expression reflected his alarm at Sango’s observation before he schooled it back to casual blandness, “The thought has never once crossed my mind, Sango. I have nothing but their happiness in mind.”

Sango muttered something that was definitely disparaging under her breath, propping her elbow on her knee to rest her chin on her palm, “Shippou lies better than you do sometimes, houshi-sama.”

“I can do this all day, Shippou,” Inuyasha was sitting on the ground beneath the branch, with a perfectly bored expression on his face.

“Why don’t you just chase me and get it over with!” Shippou demanded impatiently.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and muttered before he had a chance to think through his knee-jerk response, “You’re starting to sound just like your mother, brat.”

Shippou blinked, the anger suddenly rushing out of him as his chest puffed out so far with pride that his ribs were in danger of breaking, “Really?”

“That’s not a good thing at the moment,” Inuyasha smacked himself in the head, groaning at the delight in Shippou’s voice. ‘What in the hell got into me to say something like that to Shippou? He was… just acting so much like Kagome, but do I really think of him like he’s ours already?’

The kitsune turned his nose up arrogantly, “You’re just bitchy because now you have to admit you like me.”

Inuyasha’s eyebrow twitched at that little perception, “You’re pushing it, Shippou.”

Shippou now looked completely unconcerned, plopping down lazily on the branch and fluffing his tail with special precision while he tried to keep the snicker out of his voice, “Pushing it would have been saying you have to admit you love me, ‘Oyaji.’”

Sango blinked when they took off again, Shippou laughing hysterically while Inuyasha swore and gave chase before observing with growing amusement, “I don’t think that it’s healthy for Inuyasha to be that red-”

She broke off abruptly when she felt the oh-so familiar palm rubbing over the curve of her backside, followed immediately by the firm squeeze of strong fingers.

Miroku heard the outraged shout at the same moment the equally familiar weight of the Hiraikotsu cracked down on top of his head, wondering in a rather disjointed way if Sango was aware that her face, at that moment, was just as dark as Inuyasha’s.

~

Kagome folded her arms on the rocks that created the natural pool close to the bank in the wide river, sighing heavily as she let her thoughts wander aimlessly with the breeze. This was part of the reason she wanted to bathe alone, she wanted to think without any distractions from her friends, well meaning or not. This was a conversation with herself that was long overdue.

You know we can’t stay there.

She closed her eyes as Inuyasha’s words drifted back through her mind, pushing away from the rocks and ducking down in the cool water. ‘Why aren’t I more upset at knowing that I have to leave my time behind? Have I really spent so much time here, fighting and searching for the shards, that this feels more like home to me? Do I even know how to live in the future anymore?’

That was really the thought that was confusing her, but who could she possibly talk to about her internal tug-of-war? Inuyasha had been the only one who really said it out loud, but Kagome knew he wasn’t the only one who thought she was running away whenever she went back to her time.

Kagome wrinkled her nose, “If I think I could get an unbiased opinion from the same hanyou who once thought smashing the well with a boulder was the perfect solution to helping me decide where I should stay, then I really have lost it.”

Or could she?

He seemed so much more… peaceful now, like he was actually taking the time to think things through instead of just letting his temper decide his reactions. He’d told her without hesitation that he’d take her to see her mother, even though he’d added that they couldn’t stay, but he was just being honest. He knew just as well as she did that she was just as out of place in the future as he was, the only difference was he was willing to vocalize it. But what would his response be if she finally admitted that she agreed with him?

She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts as she lifted her hands to rub her temples, ‘I don’t think I can talk to him about this… But I have to talk to someone… maybe hearing it loud will help it make sense.’

Sango and Miroku were more understanding and polite about her desire to go back and forth between times, but there was a look in their eyes every now and then… Like they felt abandoned, or hurt when she placed so much priority on her tests instead of in Sengoku Jidai with them, and with their quest.

She sighed miserably, shaking her head, “I can’t talk to them either. It seems so childish to even worry about things like this with everything they’ve gone through.”

More and more lately, even before this mess with tattoos and spells, Kagome had started to wonder how her life in the future must look to her friends. In this era there were lives at stake, deaths caused by hesitation, nightmarish dangers and the uncertainty that came from the day-to-day fighting it took just to survive.

She left it behind regularly for exams.

Pieces of paper where a low score didn’t get anyone killed, but she still acted at times, as though the world was coming to an end if she had to retake them?

Shippou’s parents had been murdered, Sango’s family and entire village had been utterly decimated, and Miroku had a void in his hand that would kill him if they didn’t kill Naraku. Not to mention everything that had happened to Inuyasha.

Kagome was suddenly feeling a bit ill.

‘Am I really that selfish?’ she looked up at the clear sky, brow furrowed with the darkness of her thoughts. ‘Inuyasha’s the only one who complained whenever I left for school, but how must they have felt when I went on about how important those tests were? Compared to what we go through here, my life in the future is like a fucking vacation…’

Kagome swallowed hard, trying to subdue the odd rise of guilt that swamped her, paddling to the riverbank and slowly climbing out. She reached for the simple kimono Kaede-baachan had borrowed for her, her lips twisting in a faint smile of self-deprecation, ‘And now I’m wearing kimonos. Was it some weird subconscious thing that I was just trying to use to keep thinking of myself as separate from everything here before? Is that why I only wore my own clothes?’

She chewed on her lower lip as she slipped her arms through the sleeves, ‘Was I trying to not fit in?’

As much as she didn’t want to think of that, she didn’t really have any other explanation. Jeans or any other kind of pants were at least functional, and not too strange after some of the outfits they’d seen youkai wearing, but she had always insisted on her uniform. It was easier to deny that her place was in the past, when every stare or not-so-quiet whisper about her appearance helped her feel out of place.

Kagome blinked and frowned at that thought, ‘When did I start to feel so awkward about being in the future? If I was even feeling the need to remind myself that I came from there.’

Every time she went back, she always found herself watching her friends talking, thinking they were including her, when she felt detached from the entire thing. It had just seemed… seemed so petty, gossiping about boys and school, movies and shopping. Her thoughts would always wander to the past, thinking about Inuyasha and what he was doing without her. Or worrying if Shippou was getting into trouble, or even how many times she missed seeing Sango whack Miroku over the head, and try to pretend she didn’t have feelings for the lecherous monk.

“Kagome, you’re an idiot,” she shook her head, barely noticing how easy it was to fold and tie the kimono before she reached for the obi. She made a face and sat down on the bank, ignoring the water soaking the cloth from her hair and skin, “And you are in serious need of something to stop these damn mood swings.”

That thought had distracted her from her guilt momentarily, but in the peaceful silence of the warm afternoon, it wasn’t long before the guilt returned with a vengeance. Bracing her elbows on her knees, she propped her chin in her palms, and watched the sunlight chase over the smooth water in front of her.

In her head, she still had that nagging voice telling her that she was born five hundred years in the future, and nothing that happened could change that. That part of her insisted she finish the quest, give Inuyasha the jewel, and go back home, back to her own time. The guilt came from the feeling in her heart and soul, that feeling that she already was home.

Kagome closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, shivering slightly when the wind changed direction. She growled quietly at the sudden ping that hit the back of her awareness, making her already aching head start to pound, and forced the annoying twinge aside in favor of continuing her attempts to straighten herself out.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t helping her headache any. Especially since her head was starting to sound less and less convinced about where she belonged, and even now the protests only seemed like a token argument.

She wasn’t human anymore, and even before then, her powers were hardly something considered an everyday occurrence in the future. She’d mated Inuyasha, and even if by some strange moment of muddled thinking she actually wanted to leave, she knew letting her go, when all this ended, had never crossed his mind. Now that she thought back on their conversation about the fictional offer of disconnection, she could recall how he’d told her their mating bond would be weakened, and the miserable look on his face when he had. She’d have to be a total idiot not to see how possessive he was, even ignoring how badly they argued when she tried to go through the well.

No, Inuyasha would not let her go, and she did not want him to. Her home was wherever he was, and if she felt out of place in her own time, there was no way in hell the hanyou would want to live on that side of the well either.

But how was she going to tell her family about her indecision?

Or rather, her decision that would leave her locked in the past five hundred years away from them.

‘Maybe I should talk to Inuyasha after all,’ Kagome’s shoulders slumped slightly at the realization that, more than anyone else, she wanted him to reassure her that she was making the right choice. She wanted to talk to him about how to explain everything to her mother, and more than anything, she wanted him to just hold her, and tell her everything was going to work out and be okay.

“I’m absolutely hopeless,” she barely suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. It was hard not to feel ridiculous when the undeniable tightness in her throat that normally preceded a bout of tears rose up inside her. Between the chaotic mess of emotions, not to mention the recent events, her instincts had tangled with her desires. Now they seemed to have collided into one big mess, no matter how many different ways she tried to untangle them in her head.

Maybe that was her clue to let this go for now.

Kagome stood briskly, rubbing her hands down the kimono to smooth it. She turned to go back to where she knew they were waiting for her, ‘This has been the weirdest month in my life,’ only to nearly fall over in shock when she turned, barely suppressing a startled scream when she found she wasn’t alone, “How did-?!”

“What the fuck did that damn inukkoro do to you?” Kouga demanded, arms folded across his chest as his own pale eyes confused, but hard as they darted over her face, and paying special attention to her eyes, cheeks, and ears.

“How didn’t I sense you?” Kagome demanded, her voice choked as she pressed a hand flat over her racing heart. ‘How the fuck could I have been so distracted that I didn’t feel his shards?! Or smell him?’

She took a sniff and nearly smacked herself in frustration, “The wind changed. Fuck-!”

Kouga stepped closer, obviously trying to take in her scent with the water muddling it, “You smell different. You-“ he broke off, eyes widening in confused alarm, “you smell youkai!”

Kagome took a quick step back, biting her lip and groaning when she saw his eyes drop to the little point of her fang peeking out, “Kouga-kun, this really isn’t-“

“Why do you smell like a youkai?” he shook his head, cutting her off again as he followed her backwards progress. “Hell, Kagome, why do you look like a youkai?” he added with a slight grunt of impatient bemusement.

She swore when she nearly went tumbling back into the water, saved by Kouga’s hands snapping out and catching her by the shoulders. “It’s a long story. Kouga-kun, Inuyasha’s close and he’s not going to be happy to see you here alone with me.”

Kagome was thinking more along the lines of vital organs being ripped from the wolf youkai, if Inuyasha caught his scent here, with her, before she could get to him and calm him down.

Kouga, however, wasn’t listening. His eyes had dropped down lower when his hands pulled her kimono taut over her breasts, brows lowering and a deep growl starting in his throat.

Kagome’s thoughts all came to a screeching halt when the wolf youkai’s hands left her shoulders and closed over her breasts, squeezing firmly and then cupping the weight, “They’re bigger...”

Her cheeks flamed, a curl of anger making her eyes glow vibrantly as her own warning growl started, “What the hell-?”

Kouga lifted one hand to swipe her hair aside, ducking to get right next to her skin and inhale deeply as his other hand dropped to her belly, splaying his fingers and pushed hard. His eyes widened sharply, and he straightened, eyebrows nearly vanishing under his bangs as he hissed out, “The fuck?!”

“If you don’t tell me what the fuck you think you’re doing, I’m going to-!” Kagome’s eyes turned scarlet, one hand snapping to his throat and the other gripping his wrist bruisingly tight, but Kouga’s snarl cut her off yet again.

“You’re pregnant!?”


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Sunday, March 26, 2006

   Chapter 64: Perfect Balance...
Kagome’s eyes went wide, but her lips were twitching upwards slightly when she felt his hands start to tug at her kimono. “This has been on your mind since the last new moon? We hadn’t-” she broke off and swallowed, trying to control the way her cheeks still heated at the thought of their shared intimacy as she stubbornly continued. “We hadn’t… mated then,” she finished quietly.

Inuyasha’s lips curled back in a smirk, tilting his head to one side as he stroked down her thighs to find the bottom edge of her sleeping kimono, “You think I never thought about it before then?”

The blush darkened, ears flattening back slightly, “But… all we ever did was fight. I didn’t think you even looked at me with… well, that way, until…”

“Until you got that spell,” he finished for her when she faltered again, his eyes warming as he lifted one hand away from her knee to cup her cheek. He slid a thumb gently over the smooth curve of her face, flashing her a grin with the smaller fangs her blood provided for the night, “And I kissed you.”

“You scared me to death,” she stuck her tongue out at him in mild annoyance, and to hide the rush of warmth that went straight to her soul at the memory. “I never want to hear you laugh like that again, Inuyasha, I mean it.”

Inuyasha chuckled at that, leaning forward to kiss her other cheek softly, “I was happy.”

“You were terrifying.”

His shoulders had started to shake ever so slightly with laughter, “Maybe happy isn’t a strong enough word… I was feeling…”

“Diabolical comes to mind,” she muttered, inserting the observation when he failed to come up with one quickly, but averted her face and tried to stay irritated when he nuzzled at her chin.

“I was not,” he nipped at her mischievously.

Kagome’s eyebrow twitched, “You were fucking ecstatic and you went crazy with it, you can’t possibly deny that.”

“If I’d gone crazy with it, we’d still be at the well yelling our spells back and forth at each other,” he smiled against her skin, not denying that he had been pretty damned ecstatic when he figured out her spell. Inuyasha moved his mouth down over her throat to that little spot just above her pulse that always got at least a shudder from his obstinate bitch, “I went easy on you, and you know it.”

She let out a dry “keh” that had him chuckling again, but stubbornly refused to acknowledge that little truth.

“You’re cute when you’re pouting,” he kept trailing open-mouthed kisses along her bared skin; licking at her shoulder while his hands tightened slightly at her shivered response, then again when he felt the pulse of rising arousal echo in her blood.

“I take back every nice thing I ever said about you,” she murmured, eyes closing and head lolling back to expose more of her throat to his touch, despite her best intentions to pretend she was unaffected. “You’re evil.”

“But you love me,” he purred arrogantly, the hand still on her knee curling to skim the smaller claws up her bare thigh, delighting in the way the muscle tensed beneath his touch.

“Lapse of sanity on my part,” Kagome had tried to make the comment sound insulting the way she’d almost managed the last time they’d teased each other this way. However, it lost the edge under the faint whine that escaped her, when the hand on her thigh slipped higher and squeezed.

Inuyasha’s eyes took on a brighter, smug gleam at that reaction and he slid his other hand down her cheek to her throat, rubbing his thumb over the throbbing pulse point he’d been kissing moments ago, “I’d say you’re thinking clearly for the first time since you fell through that goddamn well.”

“I used to have such good taste in boys too,” she taunted in a low growl, her own hands coming up to lightly press on his chest, giving up on the pretense of anger under her growing need to touch him back.

He let out a sound of disgust, “Weakling human boys, especially if that brat I warned off you that day was any example. You’re lucky you have a strong mate to keep that trash away from you, little girl.”

Kagome rolled her eyes and let out a slight giggle, fumbling with the ties of his haori impatiently to get to the skin beneath, “Inuyasha, you’re the only person I know who can somehow be sweet when he’s being so damn obnoxious and insulting.”

“I’m special that way,” he mumbled, not really putting his entire focus on the conversation anymore, as he became much more engrossed at the way she was starting to shift restlessly in his lap. He could feel every inch of muscle in her legs and even up into her stomach bunch and twitch as she squirmed in an effort to bring herself in closer contact with him.

Kagome gave an inelegant snort, but that turned into a contented sigh, when the stubborn knot holding his clothes in place finally loosened enough for her to slip her hands past the cloth to find warm flesh. “I don’t think I can argue with that,” she finally admitted quietly, turning one of her hands to rub her knuckles along the well-defined lines of muscle over his chest.

He smirked, but refrained from making a comment about how much more obedient she was behaving lately, nibbling along her shoulder as the hand on her throat slid down to part the kimono and let it slowly expose more of her body to his roaming hands. He wasn’t a complete idiot, and he did know his blood better than anyone; taunting her about something like that now would just ruffle her instincts, encourage her to overcompensate trying to prove she wasn’t feeling submissive. While he admittedly didn’t exactly mind mating more forcefully, he was in the mood for something different tonight.

“Then you aren’t mad anymore?” one of Kagome’s ears twisted towards him while she leaned forward, sliding her arms inside his kimono and under his arms to run her claws slowly down his back.

Inuyasha closed his eyes and groaned softly at the tingle her touch had left behind. Her hands pressed down at the base of his spine more firmly as she pressed her lips over his heart, “Mad about what?”

She was the one smirking this time, delighting in her ability to scatter his thoughts just as completely as he did hers, “About the spell? The youkai lying about us being disconnected so he could test us?”

“Maybe I’ll be mad when I finally find the bastard,” both his hands were on her thighs again, shoving the soft kimono up to bunch it out of his way at her waist, as he gave in and pulled her closer to himself. His chest expanded with a thick sigh as he pulled her close enough to grind his erection against the juncture of her legs and lower stomach, ‘Maybe, but it’d just be for show… Stupid asshole actually fucking helped me catch Kagome…’

“I’m a bit more distracted by not being human on a new moon, for the first time in my fucking life, while my cute, blood-stealing mate is being ‘affectionate’ in my lap,” he added, nuzzling her temple before pressing a kiss directly over the same spot.

Kagome moaned quietly, looking up at him and trying her hardest to process his words, when all she really wanted to do was pull him up against her again, “Not being… Oh!”

Inuyasha’s lips quirked in a half smile at her almost dazed acknowledgement of his observation, “It’s… bizarre, but it’s amazing. I don’t feel weak, or helpless… I haven’t lost my youkai strengths; I can still smell and feel everything the right way, even if your senses aren’t as sharp as mine,” he couldn’t resist to add with a joking wink.

She snorted and pulled one hand out to smack him on the chest, “Just had to ruin it, didn’t you?”

He tried to hold in his laughter and look like he had no idea what she was talking about, “Ruin what?”

“You were actually being sweet until you insulted my abilities,” her chin came up defensively, hands squeezing and relaxing in protest to his remark. “So what if I’m not as good as you? I’m not weak anymore! And I-”

Inuyasha pressed a finger to her lips to stop the rambling and gave her a tender smile, “I didn’t say you were weak, koi.”

“But you said-!”

“All I said was that your blood didn’t develop as intensely as mine. I’m supposed to be stronger, faster…” he scolded her lightly. “I have to keep you safe, remember? How could I do that if we were exactly the same? Or better? This way you’re always mine to protect.”

Kagome bit his finger, but she knew from the way his eyes were glowing that he could feel how her heart fluttered at those words, “Mou… what did your blood do to me that I actually think it’s cute when you’re being so damn cocky?”

Inuyasha dropped his hands back to her waist and lifted her with ease to readjust her legs on either side of his hips, and seat her directly over his neglected erection, brushing a kiss over her cheek before tilting his head to nibble on her closest ear, “That’s all you, Kagome, not me. You just didn’t realize I was exactly what you wanted, what you needed, until the well brought you home to be where you belong.”

Kagome’s eyes nearly closed when he pulled her up against his obvious arousal yet again, lightly grinding it against the apex of her thighs to remind her of just what he was intending to do to her shortly, “Were you always so sure…? That I was supposed to be here?”

His tongue slipped over the spot he’d been biting, “Why else would I hate it every time you ran away? You were supposed to be here. With me. Why else would you have fallen through in the first place, or been the one who woke me up? What if the well had been damaged or destroyed, when you were on the wrong side of it when that happened? It would have taken me five hundred years to get to you again.”

She blushed slightly at the sheer conviction in his voice, her head turning into that tingling stroke, but when her mouth opened to refute that, her voice wouldn’t come. Her eyes widened slightly with confusion as her mind raced, ‘Do… do I feel the same? After all this time, do I look at Sengoku Jidai as my home now? Did I always think of it that way after I realized I loved Inuyasha?’

Kagome tried to shake that off, leaving the dawning realization for another day, but her voice was still subdued and lacking its usual fervor when she quietly insisted, “I still have to go back, Inuyasha. My mother…”

“I’ll take you back to see her soon,” he promised, working one hand up under the kimono to trace up and down her spine when she trailed off uncertainly. He’d felt the hesitation easily, but it was too soon for him to press her too hard into openly acknowledging he was right. Kagome needed time and patience to come to terms with her insight, ‘It’s about time you understood, koishii, and admitted it at least to yourself.’

His other hand found hers as he leaned back to give her enough room and drew it down to the ties of his hakama. Still, he was unable to resist giving her thoughts a little nudge in the right direction, “But you know we can’t stay there…”

Her ears flattened back, eyes closing even as she swallowed hard and gripped him tighter, whispering, “Please… Can we deal with that later? I just… I just want to be with you right now. Without anything else to worry me.”

Inuyasha slowly leaned back far enough to meet her pleading eyes, giving her a gentle smile as he lifted his hand back to cup her cheek, “I think I can handle that, koi.”

Kagome blinked before giving him a smile that started small and slowly turned brilliant, openly displaying her feelings. “You really can be perfect, Inuyasha, you know?”

He tilted his chin up arrogantly and snorted, “Of course I can.”

She giggled and braced her knees on the wide branch to get more control of her position, tugging his hakama open, “Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Too late,” he flashed her a smirk, inhaling deeply and closing his eyes when she reached out to push his own clothing out of the way. “I already know you love me, enough that you’re willing to give up everything you knew to be mine.”

Kagome’s blush darkened, and she ducked her head, silently admitting to herself that when he put it that way, he was right. How could she possibly expect him not to get cocky over the entire situation, when he was so certain of her devotion? “Mou…”

This time he simply smiled and chuckled softly, deciding it was time to move on to a much more direct route to getting on with more pleasurable things. Gripping the already loosened folds of her kimono, he carelessly pulled it open completely, letting the ends hang loosely at her sides to bare her to his rapidly warming gaze, “You still talk to much.”

She may have retorted differently to that amused remark, if Inuyasha hadn’t picked that particular moment to reach out, and lightly stroke his palms up and down across her ribs, his thumbs gently grazing the undersides of her breasts. He shot a discreet glance at the sky, mentally calculating the time until sunrise, before nodding and turning his full attention back to Kagome’s heavy-lidded gaze.

Satisfied with the observation, the smile on his face underwent a subtle transformation as he leaned his back against the trunk, and turned his hands to cup her breasts. It was hard to keep his emotions from showing on his face, as he curiously gave the soft flesh a gentle squeeze that had her ribs expanding sharply. ‘I thought so… She’s already swollen, and they’re more sensitive than they used to be…’

The real question he wished he could ask was if it was normal for her body to be reacting so very rapidly to her altered condition. Unfortunately his only two options for answers weren’t exactly his favorite sources. With Myouga there was a chance Kagome would find out before he told her, or the flea wouldn’t have accurate information; his other option was more reliable… provided Sesshoumaru would actually talk to him without trying to kill him.

But then all thoughts of worry, or finding answers to his questions went sailing off on the breeze when Kagome’s hands finally succeeded in getting his hakama out of her way, brushing past the slightly tangled clothing and wrapping around his erection.

Inuyasha growled low in his throat, his lips momentarily quirking in distracted delight at being able to make that particular sound just as well as ever despite the moon’s phase. That was quickly overshadowed by the feel of her hands sliding over him, encouraging him to raise himself onto his knees and make it easier for her to handle him. Her touch was light at first, then gripping tightly to squeeze, “Kagome…”

She looked at him through her lashes and gave him a lazy smile, “You were taking too long.”

“Was I?” one eyebrow kicked up, deliberately mocking as he held his breath to stop the telling groan hovering at the back of his throat.

Kagome put on the best serious expression she could manage under the circumstances, increasing her grip just to feel him tense and curl in around her with a soft growl, “Way too long.”

Inuyasha reached out, knocking her hold loose as he slid his hands under her thighs and lifted her up, “You’re always so impatient when my blood’s inside you.”

She let out a growl of annoyance, when all he did was hold her poised above his straining flesh, lowering her enough to feel the tip brush along her slick folds before he lifted her back up again. Baring her fangs at the deliberate teasing, she brought her hands to his shoulders and purposefully dug her claws into the muscle, “You just like driving me out of my skull wanting you, baka!”

He flashed her a grin, that only grew deeper at the way her growl changed pitch when he lowered her again, letting her sink halfway down on the throbbing shaft this time before lifting her back up, “I like hearing the words from you, koi.”

If Kagome heard that heated whisper, she gave no sign. Her head had fallen back, clutching at his back as she hissed with a wealth of feeling, “Inuyasha…”

Inuyasha repositioned his weight. His eyes sliding half-closed as he moved her back into alignment and simply dropped her, letting gravity sink him inside her to the base. His hands shook as he savored her choked gasp, moving them to get a better hold on her hips, while he nipped at her exposed throat and finally let the groan break free, “It feels so fucking good to hear you say my name like that.”

Kagome’s throat worked in a futile attempt to respond, clamping her thighs around his hips hard to keep him inside her, when she felt his hands start to lift her off him again, “No-“

Inuyasha ignored her, drawing her high enough to almost separate them before his arms tensed, and he yanked her back down forcefully, twisting his hips upwards at the same time. Kagome’s spine arched, her hands leaving his shoulders in favor of sinking deep into his hair and clenching demandingly, “Do it again!”

His eyes filled with smug pleasure at her demand, looking up at her closed eyes and flushed cheeks before bending his neck to blow softly on her closest nipple. His lips quirked with that same pleasure when she shivered and fisted her hands harder, letting his lips brush over the peak with his next whisper, “Ahh, then you’re done mocking your very generous mate, Kagome?”

“You have exactly five seconds to make up your mind as to whether you want to keep being evil to me or prove that you aren’t all fucking talk,” she bared her fangs, and tried to gain enough control of herself to look down at him. Cursing whatever the hell it was inside Inuyasha that seemed to make it so damned easy for him to still have control enough to tease her, when she could barely think straight. She arched her back even more, closing that tiny gap between his mouth and her breast on her own.

Inuyasha couldn’t help but chuckle warmly, wrapping one of his arms tightly around her waist to bend her backwards at a more severe angle, while the other pushed her hips down harder. He opened his mouth wider, drawing the nipple deep into his mouth as he rocked up onto his knees, penetrating even more deeply to change her growl again. When he felt her head drop back, he let his mouth slip off her, nipping at the distended peak as he chided, “You already know I’m not ‘all talk,’ koi… and here I thought that you would like the slow way.”

Kagome shivered, her fisted hands pulling to try and bring his mouth back down as she murmured, “Your blood isn’t feeling like the slow way at the moment.”

He snorted, his eyes closing on a groan when she finally managed to wrap her legs around his waist, clenching her thighs to rock back against him. His hand left her hip in favor of pressing between her shoulder blades, while he trailed the tip of his tongue to the other breast, “My blood can get over it. I told you, I’ve been wanting to do this since the last new moon.”

She let out a sharp cry when his teeth closed over the previously neglected nipple, his tongue making an apologetic swirl before his mouth closed over it with the same firm suckle he’d given the other. His growl vibrated through her everywhere they touched, as he thrust upwards just a little harder, making her earlier annoyance totally vanish, “Inuyasha-“

“I thought you’d like that,” she could feel him smirk against her breast, his voice getting rougher with each breath he took.

Kagome fought her own urge to grin, her pride highly mollified by feeling the way his heart was racing, each exhalation becoming more like a pant. Even the way he held her started to lose its taunting air and turn to something more possessive, “I like all of it, all of you. It’s when you’re not letting me feel you that you piss me off.”

Inuyasha dragged the hand between her shoulder blades down, raking his claws over the damp skin to encourage her to arch up again and press her breasts against his throat, “You know I’ll always take care of you.”

“Sometimes you take too long,” Kagome moaned, feeling her stomach and her thighs start to quiver from the vulnerable position he’d twisted her into. She forced her fingers to release his hair, sliding her claws along his jaw and then back to cup his head as she added, “Like now.”

His groan was deeper this time, yanking her up abruptly to lock his mouth firmly over her own, his tongue parting her lips and thrusting inside to mimic the motion of his hips. The hand on her back slid upwards, fisting hard in her hair while the arm around her waist all but flattened her to his chest. He used his hold in her hair to turn her head, growling as he bit down on her lower lip, “Kagome…”

“Now who’s talking to much?” her eyes gleamed with banked heat as she managed to lift her eyelids, tracing his lips with her tongue as she slid her claws down over his chest and around to his back. His mouth opened again, but she locked her ankles behind him and let her hands move up to lightly cup his face between her palms, brushing her words over his lips, “Shh… no more talking, Inuyasha. If you’re so determined to love me slow, then love me. Or I’ll knock you out of this tree and assault you on the ground.”

Inuyasha’s lips quirked in helpless affection before he traced her fang with the tip of his tongue, and unwound the arm at her waist to take up a hand-hold on her hip again, “Such a violent bitch.”

She bit his tongue in retaliation, but then sucked on it apologetically, “It’s your blood.”

“And I know just how to handle it,” the hand in her hair fisted at the nape to hold her where he wanted, when he dragged his mouth away from hers to bite her neck and then lower at her shoulder.

Whatever response Kagome might have made was lost in his mouth when it returned to lock over hers again. He dropped a hand under the curve of her backside, keeping her legs around his waist as he spread his knees into a wider stance. His breath rushed out in a low growl when she clenched her thighs and ground down against him, gritting his teeth against the urge to say hell with going slow and just slam into her, ‘I’ve waited a month for this, dammit, I can wait another few minutes!’

Kagome threw her head back again, her throat working convulsively with a keening cry at the flutter of warmth rippling outward from the pit of her stomach, until it felt like her entire body was starting to pulsate with every move he made. Inuyasha’s mouth was back at her shoulder, fangs scraping along the sensitive flesh. He released her hair in favor of cupping his hands under her, and helping her take him even deeper.

Her arms wrapped around him, clenching him to her with bruising strength before she turned her hands downward, claws scraping to try and find purchase on the sweat slicked skin, until she finally managed to dig them into his back, “Inuyasha, please!”

“Not yet,” he denied thickly, forcing his eyes to open and check the slowly lightening sky. He flexed his claws, digging them into her backside, and growling as he yanked her down harder to feel those wonderful muscles clench around his erection again. ‘Dear gods, be soon…’

Kagome whined, her ears flattening back as she squeezed her thighs hard around his waist, rubbing her aching breasts against him with each rocking motion in an effort to push him past his determined control. She could feel him, the tattoo pulsing with his rising frustration at every steady thrust and slow drag of his shaft deep inside her, but why wasn’t he letting them finish?

Inuyasha was starting to shake, biting down on his lip hard as he fought off every last instinct pounding through his head and blood while Kagome bucked wildly against him, trying just as hard to get them over that elusive edge. “Kagome,” he cracked one eye open, the points of his claws biting even deeper into her smooth skin.

He’d opened his mouth to say more when he felt it…

The jolting heat that snaked down his spine, made his skin itch from the inside out, like it had grown too small in the last breath of time.

“Fucking finally!” Inuyasha tilted forward, dropping Kagome flat along the branch to pin her down and completely let himself go.

Kagome’s eyes shot open, widening at the sudden change in sensation with the bark scraping against her back and the forceful thrusts she’d been missing that hit some point so deep inside, that she felt as though Inuyasha was touching all the way to her soul, “Oh… oh gods!”

He sat back up just as quickly, leaving her draped on the branch like some primitive sacrifice and reveling in the intense heat rushing through him. Every muscle snapped taut, making it hard to breathe while he held them suspended just short of climaxing, watching her face, “Look at me, Kagome! Keep your eyes open no matter what!”

Her eyes darted up to his, confused beneath the glazed heat of arousal as she managed to pant out, “Wha-?”

“Don’t close your eyes.” His own eyes twitched with the effort, his expression taut with the exertion, as he caught his lower lip in his teeth for that attempted distraction once again.

Kagome’s hands snapped up to grip his forearms, feeling the way the thick cords of muscle danced under his skin when the hands at her hips pulled her back for an even deeper thrust. Her claws raked long, shallow gashes over his ribs before she finally seemed to decide where she wanted them, and tangled her fingers in the thick locks of hair trailing down over his shoulders. Her heart lurched, a sudden pulse completely separate from the nearly blinding arousal almost doubling her, ‘That’s-!?’

Inuyasha let out a snarling groan. The muscles in his arms standing out starkly and claws ripping deep gashes in the thick wood as he pulled himself almost completely out of her, only to thrust inside her with bruising force one more time, “Now!”

Kagome barely remembered to keep her eyes open, fighting against the natural instinct to close them, when that low growl shredded the last tenacious thread of resistance, and the building heat finally wound tight enough to snap. She nearly screamed, clamping down around Inuyasha inside and out, just as the sun peeked over the horizon.

Inuyasha bared his fangs, his chest heaving when the rolling pulse shot down his spine, centering low in his belly and finally breaking free to pour everything he had into Kagome over and over again…

Right as the sunlight filtered through the trees to hit her face, arching their backs with the rush of blood between them, at the exact moment they hit the peak of climax.

Inuyasha’s eyes devoured the look on Kagome’s face, the dazed realization passing over cheeks still stained pink from the continued thrall of her humming body as the amber of her eyes began to darken and shift. Her muscles twitched, knuckles going white with the strength of her grip, as the hair at her roots changed to ashy gray, and her ears started to slide down the sides of her head.

“Inuyasha?!” Kagome gasped almost fearfully, when a completely unexpected rush of heat swamped her body again in a softer, but no less staggering climax for the second time.

“Just let it come,” he managed to reassure her in a shaking growl. Forcing one of his hands up to cup her face, he focused on the unbelievable sensations pouring through him, as he felt the balance shift and just as it had on that last new moon, level out completely.

Perfectly half and half.

“I wanted… to feel you when this happened. All of you,” he panted out softly; more overwhelmed than he thought he’d be by what he felt through their connection. Every thought, emotion, sensation… all of it was echoing through him to the core, as the tautness of their bodies started to settle from the height of mutual orgasm, into the lazy euphoria of afterglow. “Ever since I felt us change back when we were kissing. I wanted to watch your face.”

Kagome’s eyes were wide, slowly shifting to pale azure as the gray color spread down her hair like a wave, the roots turning black, while her ears shrunk in perfect time to Inuyasha’s own youkai features, melting back into place, “That… that was…”

“Unreal,” he finished, letting out a heavy breath when his blood gave a jolting pulse, and settled back into his body with ease. “That was just fucking unreal.”

She shivered when she felt the last of the transformation melt away, ducking her head shyly when Inuyasha slowly bent down to lie his body bonelessly over hers. The warmth that radiated from him had her slowly melting back into the branch even more, her throat vibrating with a low purring growl, “Yeah… I can see why you wanted to do that so badly.”

Inuyasha chuckled, “I didn’t know it was going to be that intense, koi.”

“Still,” she sighed and slid her arms around his neck, yawning and letting her eyes slip closed. “I’m less inclined to bite you for taking so long.”

“Nice to know that my mate feels the need to commit acts of violence if I’m in the mood to be gentle,” he muttered dryly, giving her a pinch before starting to wrestle with her twisted kimono and pull it back up to protect the flesh of her back.

Kagome nipped at him, lethargically following the directions of his hands, “It takes too long.”

“I thought humans liked it best if it took a long time,” Inuyasha tilted his head in confusion, pressing soft kisses against the visible beat of her pulse below her jaw. “You and Sango always talked about the sweet shit, and how much you’d like to be… what the hell did you call it? ‘Romanced?’ That’s the slow way, ne?”

She blinked and leaned back to look at him in amazement, “Oh gods, you were spying on us? How many times? You heard all of that?”

He yawned, the effort to keep his eyes from closing was just a little too much at the moment, “I was protecting you. I can’t help it if you spoke loud enough for me to hear what the two of you were talking about.”

Kagome’s cheeks flamed as she twined her hands in his hair and gave it a half-hearted yank, “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”

“Maybe not, but you said it,” he arched an eyebrow and grunted at the unexpected discomfort from the tug before managing to lean up just enough to look at her face. “Were you lying?”

“Not on purpose,” she still tried to look anywhere but at his laughing eyes. “I’d never even kissed a guy Inuyasha, how the hell was I supposed to know you’d turn me into some weird youkai nymphomaniac.”

“Nympho-what?” Inuyasha blinked in confusion at the unfamiliar word.

“I’ll explain some other time,” Kagome muttered more to herself than to him.

For a moment he was tempted to pry, but he finally just shrugged again and dropped his head back to her shoulder, filing the odd word away, in the separate part of his mind reserved for questions to ask Kagome when the opportunity presented itself. Well, it was either that, or say it where one of the others could hear; that almost always guaranteed they’d ask Kagome, where he could unobtrusively overhear and get his answer without looking like he was ignorant as well.

“That was almost as bad as being in heat,” she sighed wearily, bumping her cheek lightly against him with soft affection. “Your blood… likes being aggressive. Especially when we’re doing things like this.”

Inuyasha smirked, lifting his hand to cradle the back of her head, giving her a better pillow than the unyielding wood, “I can’t help it. Besides, females are usually more mild unless they’re in heat or breeding, you should know that by now.”

Kagome made a face, “I know you’re feeling extremely pleased with yourself over your little experiment, but can we keep the cocky remarks down to mild or moderate annoyance levels?”

He laughed out loud this time, kissing her shoulder and then her temple as he held her close, “You’re still cute when you’re pouting.”

“And you’re still an ass,” she huffed, but wrapped one of her legs around him, kissing his jaw and down to his shoulder.

Inuyasha rested his chin on her shoulder, closing his eyes with a sigh, and absently stroking her hair and down her sides. His hands paused ever so slightly whenever he neared her stomach, brushing his fingers over the smooth skin while she continued to cuddle up to him lovingly, “I can live with that.”

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Wednesday, January 4, 2006

Chapter 63: Easier The First Time...
“For the absolute last time, Kagome, no.”

“Just once? I promise I won’t hurt you this time.”

“Of course you won’t, cause you’re not fucking doing that again!”

Shippou snickered when Kagome made her eyes as big and liquid as she possibly could and threw in an applaudable pout before whining, “Pleeeease?”

Inuyasha looked remarkably put out before averting his face in a hurry and folding his arms over his chest, “No.”

“I’ll be your best friend,” she added in a singsong voice.

“Bitch, you already are,” he snorted and gave her a good scowl as best he could while still refusing to look directly at her. “There is no way in hell I’m getting on your back OR letting you carry me. I don’t care how much blood switched over, it’s not happening,” he enunciated the last three words deliberately.

“But I’m strong enough!” Kagome pointed out. “You said we could talk!”

“I said talk, I didn’t say anything about letting you experiment,” he finally turned back to give her the full weight of his disapproval. “Especially with what happened last time.”

She blushed slightly but lifted her chin in a defensive motion, “I’m sure I’ll be better at it this time.”

“You fell,” he shook his head and then corrected. “Actually, that’s being too nice, you sent us both slamming into the ground from a pretty good height.” And now you’re carrying my pups… “Absolutely not, Kagome,” he reiterated again.

She stuck her tongue out at him, folding her arms over her chest before she started to drop to the ground, “You’re no fun.”

Inuyasha’s hands snapped out, catching her under the arms before she completed the potentially jarring motion. Ignoring her confused look, he covered the reason for that by lifting her up against his chest, “You wanted to talk in private. Kaede-baba’s hut is hardly the place for it, even if Sango’s off bathing and Miroku’s trying to get himself maimed.”

“Oi! You can’t leave me by myself!” Shippou hopped to his feet from where he’d been sprawled out on Kagome’s unrolled sleeping bag, lazily watching Inuyasha trying to resist Kagome’s “cute face.”

Inuyasha frowned in exasperation at the little kit tugging at his leg insistently, “This is one of those adult conversations, runt. Besides, the old hag’s around somewhere and she’ll be back soon enough to keep an eye on you.”

Kagome blushed at the insinuation, but Shippou looked at him disbelievingly, “Is that all you think about? You were doing that for two weeks. Aren’t you tired of it yet?”

Inuyasha could feel Kagome’s shoulders starting to shake as she buried her face against his throat, trying her hardest not to laugh at the little kitsune. Inuyasha, however, was grinning broadly as he balanced her with one arm to crouch and pat Shippou on the head, “I think you’ll have to wait until you’re old enough to mate before you understand, runt.”

Shippou gave him a dry glare, “That’s such a bullshit answer.”

“And it’s all you get,” he ruffled the kit’s hair and rose back to his feet, resituating Kagome more securely in his arms. “Keep an eye on things for me here, Shippou. Kagome and I do need to have a serious talk about what that sonofabitch said to her.”

Shippou looked torn between pride that Inuyasha would assign him something so important and irritation that he couldn’t go too. He finally sighed and turned his back, folding his arms over his chest, “You’d better be back by the time I wake up.”

Inuyasha’s lips twitched in amusement, but he nodded, “We’ll be back after the sun rises.”

Before the kitsune could make a rejoinder to that, the hanyou had turned and left the hut, tightening his hold on Kagome enough that she looked up in slight confusion, “Inuyasha?”

“Let’s see what you can do,” he smirked, the muscles in his legs bunching as he sprang forward towards the woods.

“That’s not fair!” Kagome gasped out sharply, tangling her hands in his sleeves and glaring up at him in supreme annoyance. “Why can you see what you can do with my blood and I can’t play with yours?”

“Because I’m your mate and I’m the male,” he responded with distracted arrogance, the matter-of-fact tone revealing just how deeply ingrained that annoying instinct was. ‘Besides, I’m not the one breeding, and this is the perfect way for me to test out just what your limits are, bitch.’

“You’re an ass.”

“That may be, but I’m an ass with a mate whose healthy, strong, and staying that way,” he chided, giving her an affectionate squeeze before frowning in concentration as he meticulously tested her speed and endurance. Smirking in satisfaction at feeling her blood respond, not nearly as fast or strong as his own blood, but still impressive and more than enough for his chest to puff out proudly. When he was certain he’d adequately tested that physical side of the blood, he moved his focus deeper to check her senses, ‘What other youkai has the chance to know first hand what their bitch is capable of? And even if I can’t feel her the right way, I’ll still know if she’s pushing herself too hard.’

Kagome snorted, reaching up to yank on his hair when she sensed his attention wandering away from her, “Inuyasha, it’s hardly entirely up to you whether I’m healthy or not.”

He glanced down at her, jumping up into the nearest tree and coming to a halt, “Of course it is.”

She rolled her eyes and squirmed to be set down, “Whatever… I’m letting this slide for now, because I’m not in the mood to argue with you over this tonight. We have better things to talk about.”

Inuyasha’s brows rose at that, his complete attention returning to her once he was fully satisfied and certain he knew her blood’s abilities inside and out, “Better things? That’s not exactly the feeling I get after those fuck-ups have been having fun racing around in your head.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Inuyasha, I still intend to beat the shit out of whoever it is, but… well, this time it was different,” she chewed on her lip, her ears flattening back in her uncertainty over how to vocalize it.

“It was that cocky fucking bastard, wasn’t it? The one who’ll let you feel part of him?” he made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat, dropping down to sit with his back against the trunk before sitting her carefully in his lap facing him. His hands flexed on her waist, stroking lightly as his eyes searched hers for any anger, “What… did he say?”

Kagome squirmed a little to settle herself comfortably, wrapping her legs around his waist and taking a deep breath to try and prepare for the hanyou’s potential reaction, “Try to stay calm, Inuyasha… you’re, ah… probably not going to be happy.”

Inuyasha’s eyes widened fractionally, his hands looping around her and clasping his hands at the small of her back to make sure she was tight against him before he repeated with slow deliberation, “What did he say to you, Kagome?” ‘Dear gods, don’t let there still be something he can still do about the connection! We fucking fixed it and she’s mine! He said there was a time limit and it’s long since past…’

She reached up and started stroking her hands through his hair soothingly, a low rumbling purr starting in her chest in a further effort to calm him, “He wanted to talk to me about you. And about the spell.”

“About me?” his brows lowered in confusion.

Kagome squeezed her eyes shut and hurried out before she could think too much about his possible reaction, “He lied about the spell.”

There was a very long, very thick moment of silence while Kagome could feel the slow tightening of Inuyasha’s muscles everywhere they touched, and his heartbeat gaining speed long before he finally gritted out, “What?”

Her ears flattened again and she shifted forward to hide her face against his throat, wrapping her arms around his neck and trying to soothe his twitching back, “We haven’t been able to be disconnected for a long time, Inuyasha… He told me that if they tried, it would have killed me. He never intended to even attempt it.”

Inuyasha’s arms wrapped around her, flattening her up against his chest as he struggled back and forth between an unimaginable wave of relief that she never would have been taken away and a sweeping sense of rage that he’d been made to think she would be, “He lied. He fucking lied?! Is this a goddamn game to them? What the fuck was he thinking?!”

Kagome felt a helpless smile teasing her lips as Inuyasha continued to fume and ramble, but at the same time held her tucked up into him gently and was alternately stroking her hair, her back, and along her thighs. It was a moment that was just so singularly Inuyasha; the gruff, angry frustration clear in everything he said and the way he held his body, but contradicting that with protective and sweet in the way he touched her as he voiced his temper.

She sighed and pressed her palms flat to his chest to lever herself up and stop the angry muttering by closing her mouth over his. Kagome could practically taste his surprise, but the sudden stiffness melted instantly as he pulled her close and turned his head to take full advantage of the impromptu kiss.

When she finally drew back, she murmured against his mouth, “I’m angry too… but would you rather it have been true?”

Inuyasha sighed, giving her another quick kiss before he admitted, “No, but still-!”

Kagome giggled, pressing a finger to his lips and sitting back to look into those azure eyes, her eyes reflected in him during the swap, “Do you want to know what else he had to say?”

He huffed and nipped at her finger, “Am I going to get pissed off?”

“Highly possible,” she chewed on her lip and admitted reluctantly.

Inuyasha reached up and lightly touched her lip to urge her away from doing even minor damage to herself and flashing her an arrogant grin, “Are you going to distract me the same way if I do?”

Kagome blinked and couldn’t help but laugh, smacking him in the chest and shaking her head, “Mou… Shippou’s right, you don’t think about anything else but sex. Is that why you were always so grumpy before?”

He shrugged and leaned back against the tree, his eyes roaming over her face leisurely, “I wasn’t grumpy. It hasn’t even been a month since we mated, and especially with everything that’s happened, I think I should be allowed to be thinking about what it feels like to be inside you.”

Her cheeks turned pink, and this time her ears flattened back for an entirely different reason as she scolded half-heartedly, “Inuyasha.”

Inuyasha chuckled, feeling supremely proud of himself when he caught the shift in her scent and much more relaxed as he urged, “What else did that asshole say? Why did he lie about the spell like that?”

She made a face, “He said he was testing you.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Inuyasha grumbled sourly.

Kagome sighed, fidgeting with the strands of his hair that had fallen over his shoulder to pool in his lap, “It was confusing... He said that he knew how I felt, that I preferred being like this, but he was never sure about you, if you cared whether I wanted to be this way or not. He thought you would take it for granted if he didn’t make you think it could go back to what it was like before.”

Inuyasha wasn’t looking particularly happy with that explanation, his eyes showing the offense he felt while he set his jaw and tried not to let it carry into his expression, “Anything else?”

She lifted a hand to stroke his cheek, a low rumble starting in her chest as she instinctively sought to soothe him, “Inuyasha, he even had questions… He said that he did it to settle his mind about if I would have become human again.”

“You just said he knew you preferred being a youkai,” he pointed out in confusion.

Kagome shrugged, “Preferring it and living it are different. Everything… everything has to be different now.”

When her ears flattened back and her voice filled with that uncertain, almost “little girl” quality, Inuyasha pushed aside his agitation with the youkai to reach out and pull her down against his chest. He tucked her head under his chin, folding his legs around her, and stroking her hair, “Oi… You don’t have to worry about that, Kagome. It’s different, but I’ll be right here the whole time.” We’ll take care of you… the pups and me… It won’t be a bad life, Kagome; we’ll be a family.

Kagome closed her eyes, inhaling deeply, but making a face at the scent that was off under the moon’s influence, That’s the only bad thing about this damn swapping… I can’t smell him the way I want to. She pushed that thought out of her mind, wrapping her arms around his neck and letting him calm her doubts, “He didn’t think you’d tell me about what he’d said. His excuse was that he ‘handled’ the question before it had a chance to turn into an issue… well, that and satisfying his own curiosity.”

Inuyasha blinked, his hands pausing on her as what she’d just said actually clicked, Before it became… Good gods, he was right… As much as it galled him to admit it, even in his own mind, that soft remark had sent his imagination off on a wild run with what could have happened. They were both sure now, knowing that the spells were just how they wanted, but would either of them had stopped to think it over without the interference?

He looked down at her and couldn’t prevent the slight smile, Okay, so maybe Kagome hasn’t settled in to the barrier spell, but she’ll understand once she gets over thinking I just did it to annoy her. She didn’t hear what Naraku said to me when he had her mind…

Kagome cuddled closer, and he lifted her slightly, helping her fit her body snugly against him, Would it have hurt us? In the future? He slid his hands down her sides, discreetly squeezing when he reached her stomach and nearly jolting when that action sent the faintest glimmer of an impression in the back of his mind. Something amused…

“Kagome, did you-?” he started, only to cut himself off when her confused gaze lifted to him. It wasn’t her emotion… but that means…

Kagome blinked and slid her hands into his hair in what she hoped was a comforting manner when his hands tightened on her waist, his eyes filled with something she couldn’t quite place, “I’m okay, Inuyasha, really… It’s a lot to take in and, well, it hasn’t even been two months, but I’m not sorry it happened.”

He swallowed hard and nodded, sliding his arms around her and hauling her back up against his chest in an odd mix of force and care, I just felt my fucking pups… “I forget sometimes that it’s happened so fast,” he covered the shock that had sent warmth coursing through his entire soul, keeping her face against his throat to keep her from seeing the way his eyes had gone so impossibly soft.

“Would it cheer you up if I told you we’ve been connected since that day I first blew up at those youkai?” her ears perked against his chin, the soft fur tickling his skin.

Inuyasha’s brows shot up, his attention divided between searching for the impressions again and finding out just what Kagome meant, “What?”

She leaned back to look at his face, giving a faint growl and a nip when it seemed like he would try to keep her from sitting up. She wrinkled her nose and pressed her palm flat over his heart before she expounded on her earlier answer, “You were already in me. That’s what the voice forgot to look for that first time they got inside my head to fight. It wasn’t me they pissed off and got out of control, it was your blood already in me.”

Inuyasha’s eyes searched hers, his surprise and even confusion clearly displayed as he murmured out, “That long ago…? Wait, what do you mean it was my blood?”

“Apparently you have more resourceful blood than I do,” she reached up and yanked on his pointed ear. “And it wasn’t happy being inside me when it couldn’t sense a ‘claim,’ but it could feel other males in my mind,” she stuck her tongue out at him.

He couldn’t even begin to describe his relief at hearing what -to him, was a perfectly logical explanation for what had until now had always concerned him as a more sinister circumstance. The youkai had told him that he had possessive blood; hell, he didn’t bother to deny that, but this new snippet of information was remarkably good news, “You were always mine, Kagome, and you know how stubborn I am.”

Kagome made a noncommittal grunt of agreement before her lips twitched and she averted her profile to hide the wicked grin, “Must be a draw-back of old age, Inuyasha-jiji.”

“What the fuck did you just call me?!” his spine straightened as though someone had just run a steel pole through it, baring smaller fangs instinctively as his eyes blazed.

She couldn’t help but snicker, “I got a crash course in youkai aging… and the shock of my life at hearing what your blood did to mine to ‘catch up.’” She couldn’t resist lifting a hand to hide her mouth and muttering under her breath “cradle-robber.”

Inuyasha’s eyebrow started to twitch, “You disrespectful bitch. I ought to turn you over my knee until you-“

Kagome cut of his growling a second time, leaning up and brushing her lips across his, It worked once, after all… And by the way he relaxed into her, his hands again moving over her in long, slow strokes, she was feeling particularly smug when she moved back to give him a sultry smirk, “You have to be nice until I get better. That means no spanking.”

That comment distracted him from the first response that sprang to mind, instead sending a shiver of renewed fear through his stomach as he demanded, “Get better? Bitch, when the fuck did you get sick?!”

Now she looked confused, her head tilting to one side as her ears perked in a way he found impossibly adorable, “You already know, don’t you? The youkai said I would be sleeping more now that the spell’s closing off and he said with my ‘condition.’ That’s why you’ve been so bitchy about what I’m eating, isn’t it?”

“The spell’s closing off?” his eyes brightened even as his mind worked furiously to figure out how to keep her from getting suspicious. Why the youkai had kept her pregnancy secret when he seemed to take great delight in revealing everything else was completely beyond him, however, he couldn’t say he was complaining. He was still trying to figure out the best way to inform Kagome before she realized where the fluttering impressions were coming from… or the more physical indications, he thought with a quick glance at her breasts.

“Your blood didn’t like that being wide open,” she reached up to tug on her own ear with an annoyed expression. “He said the other time we swapped it started to close, but this time it knows what to look for. None of the voices will be able to get back in after the next new moon.”

“It’s about fucking time,” he gently took her hand away when she yanked and rubbed the abused appendage with expert strokes. “What about your little leech impression? That’s going away too, right?”

Kagome fidgeted slightly, “Not… exactly…”

One eyebrow quirked up in suppressed annoyance, “Kagome…”

“It won’t be as bad though,” she had no idea why she felt the sudden need to reassure him, but it was there all the same. “And it’s not like you intend to let me out of this thing… I don’t lose control the same way,” she made a face that clearly displayed her annoyance, but ducked her head to keep him from seeing the way the corners of her lips kicked up.

She wouldn’t admit it to him out loud if her life depended on it just yet, but she had come up with a plan… Actually, she couldn’t really take all the credit; it had more or less just popped in there when her head had finally cleared after that embarrassing week of attacking Inuyasha. But it had still been more than enough to soothe her ruffled instincts. Now she simply had to bide her time for the perfect opportunity, Don’t get rid of it yet, Inuyasha… Not until I’m done with it.

“Damn right,” Inuyasha was muttering, lifting his finger to trace over the red line. “I’m not risking you getting too far away when you can still draw off youkai.”

Kagome couldn’t resist ducking her head and chomping down on his finger at the arrogance in his voice, “You’re being an ass again.”

He yelped and gave her a swat on the backside, a scolding growl starting in his throat even as his eyes lit with amusement, “I hope you don’t have any more to hang on me about that fucking voice, koi…”

She blinked, distracted from the way he’d ignored her earlier “no spanking” remark by the look in his eyes and the way his touch suddenly changed from secure and comforting to possessive and languid. She couldn’t stop the pink that touched her cheeks or the slight shiver that went through her as the tattoo pulsed and warmed, “I… think that’s all… Why?”

Inuyasha slid his hand into the back of her hair and pulled her down closer, “See… there’s this thing I’ve wanted to do to you… since the last new moon.”

Kagome sucked in a breath, her heartbeat accelerating as her fingers tangled in the ends of his hair as her eyes darted around to the slowly lightening sky, “But the night’s almost over.”

His lips kicked up as he scooted back more securely against the trunk of the tree, the hand not in her hair skimming down to the hem of the plain sleeping kimono he’d dressed her in at Kaede’s, “That’s just about right then.”

Her hands snapped down to catch his wrist, swallowing as her ears flattened back, “Just right for what?”

Inuyasha’s smirk was hopelessly arrogant as he moved both hands down to grip her hips, “I have the perfect idea for what we should be doing when the sun comes up.”

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Sunday, December 18, 2005

   Chapter 62: Under The Black Moon...
‘Oh gods, I didn’t…’

‘Had I known it would take such an abysmally long period of time for Inuyasha’s soul to ease his barriers around you, Kagome-chan, I would have elected to bring you the same night I brought that idiot hanyou to me.’

‘I fell asleep,’ Kagome muttered in disbelief, covering her eyes with a hand and fighting the urge to smack herself in the head. ‘How in the hell did I fall asleep? The sun just went down!’

‘I was forced to wait for the moment Inuyasha’s waning blood began to transfer into you before I was able to connect with your soul and bring you to me.’

She frowned, pulling her hand away from her face to look around in confusion. The voice was close this time, much stronger than it had been in the past, and while that wasn’t overly surprising, this time she could tell it belonged to a man. Not Onigumo, but still… familiar… ‘Who are you?’

‘That is not of any importance at the moment,’ he scolded, just the barest hint of affection leaking into the low tones.

‘Is it too much to ask that just once the lot of you let me decide that?’ Kagome sat down, folding her arms over her chest in frustration. ‘I am getting pretty damn tired of hearing that excuse.’

‘I ask that you only be patient a while longer, little miko.’

‘I’ll bet,’ she snorted, muttering under her breath before lifting her head and trying to track this new voice in the indistinct gray haze of the dreamscape. ‘What do you want now? And what do you mean you had to wait? I've slept... almost regularly lately.’

'You have been asleep often enough, however, each time any effort was made to draw in your soul, Inuyasha's aura attacked. Mostly violently too,' he sighed in irritation. 'We believe it has to do with the measures he has taken to hold you to him, in addition to your present state. He wants nothing getting close to you.'

Kagome propped her chin up in her upraised hand and frowned, 'The measures he took? You mean this thing on my neck?'

‘I feel no need to hide how shocked I am that Inuyasha recalled the binding spell he used on you. Not only is it remarkably old, but the only time it was ever demonstrated to him, he was a very young pup.’

Kagome’s hand lifted to her throat self-consciously, and she couldn’t prevent the faint growl in her voice when she responded, ‘What does this thing have to do with you bringing me here? Wait…’ her eyes darkened with sudden understanding as a thought occurred to her. ‘It was you…’

‘What was?’

Kagome rose to her feet, turning to scowl in the voice’s last direction, ‘You’re the one; the one who told Inuyasha you could disconnect us. The owner of the spell… You’re the one who told him you could turn me back into a human and reverse everything.’

‘I am, and I did.’

Her hands clenched into fists at her sides and she tried to fight back the rush of anger that went through her, ‘You bastard. Did it ever occur to you that I might prefer things this way? Or is the state of my own body and soul something else that “is not important at the moment,” hn?’

There was a rather exasperated sigh from behind her right before one of the bizarre disembodied hands she’d become accustomed to in these dreamscapes came down on her shoulder and firmly returned her to a sitting position. ‘Kagome-chan, the more important question is not whether or not it occurred to me that you may prefer life as a youkai. That answer I have always known. The question is whether or not it ever occurred to Inuyasha.’

Her anger subsided slightly under a sudden rise of confusion, ‘What?’

‘Did your hanyou ever stop to think on just how remarkable your transformation truly was?’ he clarified. ‘Or did he take it for granted?’

Kagome shook her head, looking up and stiffening when she saw the faintest glow of white eyes above her, her indignant tone changing to a more uncertain stammer, ‘I… I don’t understand… what you’re asking…’

‘In all of my dealings with Inuyasha, he has shown a rather remarkable talent for ignoring anything that does not immediately involve him,’ he snorted in mild disgust. ‘He is not overly concerned with the "how" of circumstances turning in his favor so long as the are proven to undeniably be in his favor. I believe his first reaction to his ability to subdue you is a perfect example. If I am not mistaken, he did not care how he was able to do so.’

‘Just that he could,’ Kagome looked away from those disturbingly piercing eyes as she murmured distractedly in answer to the unspoken demand for verification.

‘Precisely. Inuyasha is still young and like any youth, he does not always take the time to think through a situation. He was aware only that you had changed into a youkai, freeing him from concerns he would have been forced to face when you mated him had you remained human. I doubt he even realizes that is the reason a large part of his insecurities where you are concerned have disappeared.’

‘I’m still not quite understanding… What does that have to do with disconnecting us?’ she pressed her hands to the sides of her aching head. ‘The first voices told me that it would have killed me to try and change me back and you told Inuyasha that it could be done?’

‘Attempting to revert you to a human state would indeed have killed you, Kagome-chan.’

Kagome went still and very slowly sat up straight, her brow furrowing in confusion and more than a little dawning suspicion, ‘It would have killed me?’

‘There is very little human blood left inside your body, and despite what I told Inuyasha, it would be impossible to find a way to replace that even if another human was used to transfuse you. Especially since what human blood is left has been repeatedly filtered through the youkai blood and bonded together to protect it. Your body has held youkai blood within it for an extended period of time, twisting it with your magic to make it your own, and your body has changed to accommodate it.’

‘Then you… you lied!’ she jerked away from the restraining hand to hiss out accusingly, shooting to her feet in alarm. ‘You lied to Inuyasha! You never intended to disconnect us at all!’

‘That is an accurate statement,’ she could hear the shrug in his voice.

Kagome gaped, for a long moment her mouth working soundlessly to vocalize the sudden chaotic jumble her thoughts had become. Finally, she put a hand to her head, feeling dizzy and managed to murmur a shocked, “Why?!”

‘I took advantage of the chance to finally settle my own guilt and curiosity in the matter of your transformation.’

‘Your…guilt…?’ Kagome repeated numbly, sitting rather abruptly when her knees simply refused to support her any longer.

‘I have never been certain if you would have chosen a different path for yourself if given the chance, Kagome-chan. I was also never aware of what circumstances led up to your alteration, not in the ways that I am now. I have never understood how the mind of a miko youkai works.’

Kagome was again staring up at the “eyes” watching her with unblinking intensity, her hands shaking as she lowered them to her lap, ‘Given the chance? You lied to Inuyasha just to see if I would have tried to become human again?’

‘You were changed by the unexpected error of two amateur casters,’ he explained, eyes narrowing slightly in remembered exasperation. ‘Part of the blame, however, is mine, as the spell does indeed belong to me, and my inattention regarding its use in inexcusable.’

Kagome was starting to wonder if it was possible to faint when one was dreaming, trying again for some better clarification, ‘You just decided to say that you could reverse the spell to see what we would do?’

'I lied to see what Inuyasha's reaction would be,' he admitted calmly. 'I have no doubts that if circumstances were reversed, you would have cared for that hanyou regardless of the form he selected. However, I was never certain if he would have been selfless enough to give you the same courtesy once you had been youkai for him.'

'You thought he wouldn't tell me about disconnecting,' Kagome's brows drew together in anger on Inuyasha's behalf. 'He may be a bit selfish most of the time, but he would never do such a thing!'

'I do not have the faith in his integrity where you are concerned that you do,' the hand was back on her shoulder, strangely calming when she wanted nothing more than to snarl and attack the faceless man defaming her mate. 'Inuyasha has proven time and again that he will go to great lengths to keep you beside him, and I regret to say that I do not completely understand every intricacy of this spell. There may have been a possibility for you to be restored due to your association with the Shikon-no-Tama, but if that is so, the time has long since passed.'

Her mouth worked soundlessly before she managed, 'Do... do you know when?'

There was a moment of silence before the voice came almost mockingly at her ear, 'I thought you liked yourself better this way.'

Kagome felt the blood rush to her cheeks at the taunt, hissing out, 'I DO! But I can't help but be curious if you know when I was too changed to go back!'

There was a low chuckle before she sensed the presence lower itself behind her, 'You told me once... a long, long time ago that you once woke in a great deal of pain. You told me it came from the mark.'

She jumped when she felt the hand graze her side, clamping her hand down over the tattoo, 'I told you?!'

'Did this or did this not happen?'

'Well, yes... I did wake up like that once-'

'The blood changed hue, correct?'

'Hai-'

'That was when Inuyasha's blood settled itself inside you too deeply to be removed.'

Her eyes widened, 'Then? That long ago?'

'I told Inuyasha that I had never seen blood as possessive as his,' the hand was on her shoulder, comforting her again and soothing her control over her emotions. 'The hanyou was using that ridiculous word spell so frequently that his blood awakened within you before those two idiots suspected. They believed they teased your instincts into letting them into your soul, when it was his instincts reflected through you. That was why it was so easy for them to encourage that rage, yet infinitely more dangerous when it broke free.'

Kagome shook her head, her eyes unfocused as she tried to process the information she'd wanted from the start, finally being revealed so long after it had already occurred, 'Inuyasha was already inside me.'

'His instincts were newly awakened, and once they became aware of their surroundings, they became violent. Especially when they sensed you were not claimed and there was another male presence inside your mind.'

She winced, then gasped and reached up to feel her head when she felt the unmistakable feeling of ears flattening back, 'Damn... We did swap again...'

The voice was chuckling quietly, but continued with his explanation when she made a sound of impatient encouragement, 'When the "voices" encouraged you to give in to your instincts, they actually talked you through reaching inside yourself and breaking the seal that held Inuyasha's blood separate from your own. Inuyasha was already angry at seeing you attacked and his instincts are more... passionate about fighting with everything at their disposal. His blood worked through you and awoke the power it felt in your soul.'

Kagome tried to turn back to look at "him" only to have two hands gently but firmly keep her facing away. She wrinkled her nose and huffed in annoyance, but obediently stayed put, 'That's why my miko magic started working better than it has before.'

'Indeed. But to accomplish its proficient use, he matured your blood over a hundred years in a matter of mere weeks, Kagome-chan. It's no wonder you were rather... unbalanced while the rest of you attempted to catch up and adjust to the necessary acceleration.'

'A... a hundred years?!'

'I believe, at this point in time, your kit is as old as you were in human years.'

'Shippou-chan?!' she gaped in amazement, her mind having a hard time adjusting to hearing the kit she had by all rights adopted was the same age as she was.

'Youkai age just a little differently than humans do, and Inuyasha's blood is strong enough that he ages as a youkai. It is not always such for hanyou children,' he added, forestalling her next question before he could ask.

She wrinkled her nose, 'He's old enough to be my grandfather, isn't he?'

This time the laughter was quick to come and openly amused, 'In time you will learn that youkai view aging differently as well. It does not have the constriction that humans place on it in their shortened life spans.'

'Considering he asks like a junior high student himself most of the time... or at least he used to.'

'That was not nearly as entertaining an insult until humans made their schools and I was able to make the comparison for myself.'

Kagome blinked, frowning again as her curiosity peaked, 'Who are you?'

'I have not answered that question, nor do I intend to,' he scolded. 'Asking it repeatedly only takes more time than we are able to spare.'

The frown changed to one of confusion, 'What do you mean? None of the other voices were ever concerned with time limits.'

'The path that was opened to your soul is healing closed every time Inuyasha's blood makes a full exchange with your own,' the disembodied hand moved out in front of her face to gesture around the dreamscape. 'Now that his soul is aware of what is causing your distress and distortion, it is taking the time inside you to force it closed. You would not notice, but already the space has decreased considerably. By the next new moon, the path will have healed completely.'

'It... it will?' Kagome lifted a hand absently to her heart.

'Aa.'

'What... will that do?' she chewed on her lip nervously, fidgeting as she waited for the answer.

'You enjoy that talent for sucking the youki out of those around you a bit too much,' a deep sigh, and then he reluctantly admitted. 'Unfortunately, that seems to be one of the side effects of the spell's distortion. Closing the path will decrease the wildness of that talent; help to prevent that obnoxious propensity for completely losing yourself to basic instincts of your chosen opponent, however, the ability will still be present in your soul to a degree.'

'Where were you in the beginning when I needed to hear all this?' Kagome sighed wearily, rubbing her eyes against the ache started just behind her temples. 'You could have made everything so much easier.'

'I was completely unaware that my spell had been stolen, Kagome-chan,' he responded with just the faintest hint of apology in that low, smooth tone. 'Had those fools come directly to me, we may have been able to stop some of that distortion if not all of it. Then again, perhaps not, Fate has already played its hand after all.'

Kagome made a slight sound of frustrated impatience, tucking her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, 'Are you always this infuriating?'

'I have had numerous centuries to perfect my skills.'

That dry comment was almost enough to bring a smile to her lips, 'Was it so important? To cause this mess with Inuyasha thinking he had to disconnect us? Was it worth the problems that you caused just by suggesting it was possible to change me back?'

'I had an opportunity to be certain of his devotion, and that is more important than a minor inconvenience to both of you. Otherwise neither of you would have been aware that Inuyasha was willing to set you free if you so desired.'

'If it was ever really an option.'

'That too,' he acknowledged. 'But would you have rather been plagued with the doubt for the rest of your existence? I lied as much for your protection and peace of mind as for my own curiosity. I put an end to the question before it ever had a chance to possibly become an issue between you.'

'At least you aren't pretending it was purely altruistic,' she muttered, resting her chin on her hands.

'It is rare that I speak anything less that truth, and if I do lie, it always has purpose. Remember that.'

Kagome snorted, 'I highly doubt that I'm going to be forgetting weird youkai men taking me to in-between realms to lecture me.'

'It is comforting to hear that your mind suffered no permanent damage at being born human,' he didn't even bother to disguise the amusement in his voice this time.

'You're enjoying this far too much for my peace of mind,' she bristled as she felt the blush rise in her cheeks.

'I am feeling remarkably well with the outcome of my deception,' a hand stroked down her hair, again soothing her ruffled instincts. 'Your hanyou is worried since you don't wake, however, you may wish to inform him that you be experiencing more lethargic periods given your condition and the closing of the spell.'

'My condition? Inuyasha was hovering and telling me what I could eat... I really am sick?' she looked faintly worried at the possibility.

'You will recover with ease, I believe; there is no reason for you to be concerned, and I have said all I intend to say at this time.'

'And of course, you're the one making the rules,' Kagome rolled her eyes, completely and totally frustrated at that vague answer.

'Your capacity for understanding a situation is the main reason I prefer to deal with you over Inuyasha at your current ages,' there was a faint smile in the voice, taunting her blatant sarcasm.

'Remind me to kick you in the shin when I figure out who you are,' she muttered, folding her arms over her chest.

'Luckily, Kagome-chan, your hanyou is aware of the need to curb your untrained blood's propensity for violence. The next time we meet, I expect you to have this urge more or less under control.'

'I'm cursed, aren't I?' she wearily rubbed her hand over her eyes. 'My entire life is going to be filled with arrogant youkai men who all think they know what's better for me than I do.'

'If it will settle your mind, you will love us soon enough.'

'That's not encouraging.'

'You will feel differently.'

'Neither is that.'

The voice chuckled quietly at the almost pout in her tone, again sliding one of the disembodied hands through her hair, 'You are in good hands, Kagome-chan, trust in your "family" here where you belong.'

She wrinkled her nose in annoyance, but rather than pull away, she simply resumed her position with her knees drawn to her chest and her chin resting on her folded arms. Her thoughts were starting to turn sluggish, and that was giving her a pretty good idea that her "time-limit" with this voice had just about expired, 'I have this horrible sense that the moment I wake up, I'm going to think of a hundred other things that I should have asked you.'

'The only areas you need to be concerned with have been addressed,' the voice sounded just casual enough to make her grind her teeth together against a frustrated retort. 'Any other answers will come to you with time, provided you do not kill your hanyou before he comes into his own and grows up.'

Kagome felt her cheeks heat slightly at the amusement and mild censure in his voice, 'I would never hurt him intentionally.'

'Indeed.'

Her cheeks darkened more and she ducked her head guiltily, 'Not seriously anyway.'

There was yet another low chuckle from behind her and she went perfectly still when she felt him lean forward, brushing a light kiss to her cheek, 'I have every confidence that you will be exactly what your hanyou needs.'

***

Kagome came awake with a start, clenching her eyes shut with a startle yelp when the sudden brightness assaulted her and burrowing into the warmth at her back, "I am going to start banging my head against the wall if I wake up like that one more time."

When the pressure around her tightened, her mind actually connected that solid warmth with its owner just before Inuyasha's concerned voice penetrated her slight daze, "Kagome, are you all right?"

"The sun set and you just...well, dropped!" Shippou tugged urgently at her arm before clambering up into her lap and squeezing into between their bodies to snuggle against her stomach.

Kagome was absently stroking the little kit's head even as she started to slowly open her eyes and growl out, "Irritating, goddamn, pompous bastard."

Sango blinked while the confused concern on Miroku's face melted into one of understanding, "Ah, you had a 'visit,' did you not, Kagome-sama?"

Inuyasha tensed when Kagome grunted and started to lift herself of him slightly, "The fucking voice? Which one was it? What the hell did it say to you?!"

Kagome winced slightly, feeling her ears immediately flatten in protest to the agitated demands, "Mou, not so loud! I don't get it... the only time I ever feel like I'm going deaf is when you spill over into me."

"My ears are better," he shrugged absently, not wanting to get into a long, drawn-out discussion over something trivial when he had much more burning questions he needed answered. He should have known it was too good to hope that bastard youkai would leave Kagome out of it when he'd taken such delight telling Inuyasha he would bring her by force. His only consolation was the time-limit the youkai had put on being able to disconnect them was long since past, and Kagome had more than adequately assured him of her desire to keep the spells the same.

She finally felt safe to open her eyes, glaring at him for the casual arrogance in that remark when her retort died on a wave of curiosity, "The hell-?!"

Inuyasha's frustrated anger was momentarily curbed, lips twitching in amusement, "I forgot how easily you swear when you're me."

Kagome just shook her head, twisting around to straddle his hips and grabbing onto his face to twist it from side to side. She frowned at the pointed ears before looking back at the azure eyes that had first caught her attention, "You don't look human... Why don't you look human, Inuyasha?"

He made a noise of impatience and thunked her on the head before grabbing a handful of her hair and dragging it up for her to see the drastically lightened strands, "Baka. We swapped again, but this time it swapped all the way. Or at least most of the way."

She shrieked and nearly went toppling over backwards, saved only by Inuyasha grabbing onto his waist as her hands flew to her head, "My hair!!"

"Dammit, bitch, be careful!" he snarled at her.

"My hair's white, Inuyasha, this didn't happen last time!" Kagome let go of her own hair and grabbed onto his, yanking him forward.

"Oi-!"

"Fix it!"

Inuyasha blinked and then gave her a dry look, "While it is rather flattering to know that you think so highly of my skills, koi, I don't have control of the moon just yet."

Kagome leaned back, suddenly realizing just how idiotic that last demand had sounded and turning bright scarlet. She averted her face and folded her arms, growling when she heard the attempts to muffle snickering from her friends and the kit in her lap, "I hate you sometimes."

He started to chuckle as well, sliding his hands up through her hair in a soothing motion, "I'm aware of that."

She muttered a few choice words under her breath before getting her embarrassment under control and snuck a glance back at him, "I… don't look weird?"

Inuyasha made a show of giving her a thorough once over, sliding one hand out of her hair to cup her cheek and give her a kiss on the forehead, "You don't look weird." Although he was suddenly hoping at least one of his pups was going to be female, delighted at the thought of having such a perfect mix of himself and Kagome instead of just his blood echoed through her. Then again, he tilted his head when she gave him a dazzling smile, I'm not sure I could handle that... Too many youkai would chase her.

Kagome glared at Miroku when he opened his mouth, some ingrained feminine instinct warning her that whatever he was about to say wasn’t going to be as innocent as his expression, “Don’t even think it, bouzu.”

Miroku’s brows shot up and he blinked several times at just how very “Inuyasha” that response had been before murmuring, “Was the transformation more complete this time?”

Inuyasha’s lips were twitching suspiciously while Kagome gasped and clamped her hand over her mouth in surprise. He nuzzled his face against the side of her neck, smirking when her cheeks heated, “Bouzu, hn?”

The casual action had Sango leaning forward from her kneeling position and murmuring her absent observation, “It must have… Inuyasha’s being even more openly affectionate than he’s ever been.”

Miroku sat back and sighed with only slightly exaggerated envy, yet again observing, “Fate is indeed cruel.”


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Friday, November 11, 2005

Been a while
Sorry, i've been busy with school and training. I'll try to post here and there, still a few pages left in the story, so i'll finish that up as well. Bell's about to ring, so i have to log out. Study halls aren't long enough.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2005

   Chapter 61: Suspicion Comes In Many Forms...
“What is all this shit in these things, Kagome?” Inuyasha scowled at the writing on the snack package she was currently attempting to snatch out of his hands. “I can’t pronounce half of it and it doesn’t even sound like real food when I can.”

“It’s called food processing, baka,” she leaned up, but Inuyasha just lifted it up and out of her reach and continued reading off the ingredient list. “That’s how it all keeps in my bag while we’re traveling. Why are you so curious about it all of a sudden?”

He frowned down at her, ignoring the question he hadn’t come up with a plausible cover for and focusing on the unfamiliar word instead, “Processing?”

She rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest, pouting but unwilling to make them a source of more laughter this evening for their highly amused companions. She turned to frown at them, more annoyed by the carefully bland expressions hiding the shine of forcefully suppressed mirth in their eyes than she would have been by a more open display. Setting her teeth against her own urge to stamp her foot like a little kid, she turned back to Inuyasha’s expectant look and explained, “They use machines and things to make sure it doesn’t spoil and tastes the way it’s supposed to.”

Inuyasha turned his attention back to the package, “Is it natural?”

Kagome gave him a look that clearly said she was having doubts about his state of mind as she repeated in confusion, “Natural?”

“Fresh? Healthy?” he prodded, annoyed at the look on her face. ‘Safe for developing pups? Something a pregnant bitch should be eating? Dammit, why didn’t I think of the food thing sooner?’

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kagome lifted a hand to rub at the sudden ache that started at her temples. “Inuyasha, if you were really worried about all this, why didn’t you ask me the first time I gave it to everyone? All you ever did was say ‘what’s this,’ smell it, eat it, and then ask for more. Wait, that’s not right,” she poked him in the chest for emphasis. “You would just go digging through my pack trying to find more and tell me to get more if you couldn’t find any.”

Inuyasha rubbed his chest and snorted, his mind racing to come up with something credible, “It just wasn’t important before.”

“And just like that? Out of the blue it is?” she gave him a look of dry disbelief.

Inuyasha blinked at her, momentarily at a loss over how to answer that without sounding horribly suspicious. Finally he just crossed his fingers behind his back and went for something completely irrational, but still true in his mind, “Now I think it’s important, so it is.”

There was a short, abortive bark of laughter that had Kagome’s gaze snapping around to where Miroku was apparently having a coughing fit into his hand while Sango found something particularly interesting about her lap. Shippou’s lips were twitching suspiciously, but he was valiantly holding it in while his tail flicked rapidly with his own silent amusement.

Inuyasha reached out and set a hand on her shoulder when he saw the pale azure of her eyes get more intense. When her focus turned back to him, he urged gently, “Breathe, koi. This isn’t something to lose your temper over.”

Kagome gave him a flat look, but did indeed take a deep, slow breath to hold in the urge to smack him upside the head. It was obnoxious to acknowledge, but he was right about that... Not that she would ‘admit’ that to him, but she did make an effort to calm down. Only to blink in surprise when the heated emotion that had been rising in her blood almost immediately calmed. “For some reason, it’s a lot easier than it used to be,” she ran a hand through her hair and frowned in slight confusion.

Inuyasha snorted, tapping a clawed hand over her heart, “You didn’t get really bad until you got close to your heat. Now you’ve had your cycle and I took care of it, so of course it’s easier.”

Kagome’s cheeks heated, “Inuyasha!”

“What?” he tilted his head in genuine bewilderment. “That’s what was wrong for the most part. You’ve never had a heat before and your blood went over-board trying to catch up for the years it thought it missed.”

“You aren’t going to convince me that the only reason I was acting so horrible was because I wanted to have sex with you,” she gritted out in a low whisper, trying to prevent her friends from overhearing, but well aware she was failing when they leaned forward eagerly.

Inuyasha smirked arrogantly and patted her on the head, “You’re calm now, aren’t you?”

“Weren’t we discussing my craving for potato chips just a second ago?” she folded her arms over her chest and gave him a very pointed glare, warning him to change the subject to something less personal.

He shook his head, holding the bag behind his back when she reached for it again, “You were arguing, I’m already done discussing. If it’s not natural, you shouldn’t be eating it, Kagome. I’ll find you something else to eat.”

“You’ll find something?” Kagome tilted her head and repeated in a disbelieving tone.

“Something fresh,” he rocked absently on the balls of his feet, his eyes going down to her stomach. “Healthy.”

Kagome arched an eyebrow and set her fists on her hips as she leaned up on her toes to growl at him, “I refuse to take nutritional advice from a hanyou who would live off nothing but instant ramen if given half the chance.”

“It’s completely different for a bitch,” he nodded sagely. “And since you’re my bitch, it’s my responsibility to make sure you’re eating properly.”

“Inuyasha, you have exactly two seconds to hand over that bag or I’m going to bite you, and this time you won’t like it.”

Shippou was biting down so hard on his lip he was sure he was about to draw blood as he glanced up at Sango and Miroku and whispered in delight, “Oh gods, this is even better than before!”

Miroku and Sango nodded in unison, all serious thoughts forgotten in light of the highly amusing scene playing out in front of them. Kagome was starting to growl in frustration, awkwardly trying to reach around the hanyou to grab at her chosen snack while he used his advantage of height to hold it just out of range each time.

“It’s almost like she’s completely back to normal,” Sango commented, her voice tinted with slight skepticism under her amusement. She was delighted to see the girl looking so well and acting so much like her old self, but did it really take the -in her eyes, extreme measures Inuyasha had employed?

“Inuyasha-sama selected the most appropriate way to deal with Kagome-sama’s state of mind,” Myouga murmured from his perch on Shippou’s shoulder, sipping at his sake as he did his best to look unconcerned with the entire situation.

“He must have or you’d have left the first time Okaa-san growled,” Shippou remarked dryly.

“You should show your elders more respect!” Myouga flushed and hopped in agitation while Shippou rolled his eyes and looked back at where Kagome was starting to boost herself up on Inuyasha’s legs to reach higher. “I already told you why I was away,” he huffed angrily.

Miroku glanced briefly at the flea before letting his gaze return to the bickering pair, “You had said you were making an effort to assist Inuyasha with this spell.”

“Of course I was!” Myouga snorted, folding his arms and tilting his nose up.

After a moment of nothing but the background sound of Inuyasha and Kagome arguing the nutritional properties of potato chips, the trio of onlookers gave Myouga nearly identical dry looks, “And?”

Myouga’s cheeks turned slightly pink, “Well… it’s ah… quite unique.”

Shippou propped his chin up on his hand, “If that’s all you’ve got, Inuyasha is definitely going to flatten you.”

The little flea fumed, bouncing up and down on Shippou’s head, “The spell is hard to research when none of the youkai knew such a thing was possible! I was more interested in their advice over how to transition Kagome-sama.”

“Transition?” Sango frowned in confusion.

“Well, she obviously can no longer live as a human,” he shrugged, settling back down and scratching his head absently. “Kagome-sama is even more youkai than Inuyasha, but for some reason, that seems to make Inuyasha-sama’s youkai blood stronger.”

“What do you mean by that?” Miroku’s curiosity spiked as he looked back and forth between the flea and the argument.

“Normally a hanyou’s body is too weak to sustain transformations back and forth from youkai to hanyou,” Myouga shrugged. “You are aware of that, and you saw the side effects when Inuyasha-sama changed before. Since the two of them were bound, Inuyasha-sama’s aura has grown more powerful. His body and mind make the transformation easily, and the usual clash between his human and youkai side have settled.”

“Kagome-sama helps his youkai blood?” Miroku blinked in mild surprise at that piece of information.

Myouga nodded sagely, “Something about the blood in her, whether it’s her own, or the youkai blood, it actually fights to make him stronger. If she senses he’s weakening or losing control, she pulls the excess from him, purifies it, and gives it back. She has been doing it more openly since she lost most of her human blood while she was in Naraku’s company, but even before that she was using her power to strengthen him. It’s not uncommon behavior between mates.”

“Ite! Dammit, bitch-!”

“Give me that bag, Inuyasha!”

“It isn’t good for you!”

“I’m looking for tasty, not healthy, you arrogant baka!”

Myouga sighed wearily, “Unfortunately, so is that.”

Sango gave him a highly disbelieving look, “You’re kidding, ne?”

The flea demon shook his head, heaving an exaggerated sigh of long-suffering as he wiped a little cloth across his head, “Inuyasha-sama and Kagome-sama are newly mated, and they are both vying for the position of dominance in their pairing. Mostly they won’t realize it, but it’s instinctive, and it will continue until Kagome-sama accepts Inuyasha-sama’s place.”

“You don’t think Kagome-chan will ‘win’ that position?” Sango frowned disapprovingly at the complete confidence Myouga seemed to have in the hanyou’s victory.

Shippou was the one who snorted and answered in his most “high and mighty” tone, “An inu male back down submissively? One like Inuyasha? Don’t be dense, Sango, Okaa-san’ll compromise WAY before he would even consider it. Look at the whole thing with her ‘collar,’ she hasn’t mentioned it or gone more than three feet from him since they got back.”

Miroku nodded in agreement, “Kagome-sama is far too compassionate to continue pushing him for extended periods of time, and she does not appear to mind unless she is trying to return to her time.”

She sighed and sat back, her eyes concerned, “It just… doesn’t seem fair to her.”

“Kagome-sama is happy with Inuyasha, Sango,” he assumed one of his most classic meditative poses, well aware her eyes were on his profile as he spoke. “We should be so lucky in the paths we choose for ourselves.”

Sango blinked, a faint blush touching her face, “Houshi-sama…”

Miroku’s hand froze where it hovered over the curve of Sango’s backside when a ringing “Pervert!” rose over the sound of Inuyasha’s voice, turning his stomach upside down with the remarkable speed he’d been caught in this time. He pulled back, expecting to feel either the bite of Sango’s hand, or worse, the weight of her Hiraikotsu coming down over his head. However, when he opened his eyes, he saw Sango’s eyes again across the path and turned in mild surprise to blink at the now oddly positioned pair, ‘It was Kagome?’

“You WOULD think something like that at a time like this!” Kagome was hissing down at Inuyasha, her cheeks flushed with renewed embarrassment.

“It would only be perverted if I wasn’t your mate, bitch,” he shot back, still holding the chips out of her reach. “And the answer is still no. Sit down and I’ll get you something else!”

Shippou shook his head at their behavior, deciding it was time to give Inuyasha a little help when Miroku and Sango both began to snicker behind their hands. He scampered down to where his “parents” were arguing, Inuyasha bent so far back that Shippou was astounded the hanyou hadn’t gone toppling over backwards. Especially since Kagome was kneeling on his stomach, leaning over him in her efforts to get at the bag of chips in his outstretched hand.

Taking advantage of the mutual distraction, Shippou stretched up on his toes and snatched the bag of chips for himself before making his way back to his perch by the amused human pair, “This would probably be a lot easier all around if they weren’t the two most stubborn people in the world.”

Miroku absently reached over to take a chip when the kitsune ripped the bag open, relieved at not being on the receiving end of a slap for his aborted attempt, and munching as he commented thoughtfully, “But a great deal less entertaining.”

“True,” he grinned up at the monk, his tail flicking. “How long until she gives in and ‘sits’ him?”

“I imagine it will be as soon as she realizes you’ve eaten her chips,” Miroku nodded once, his expression yet again set in calm, stoic lines.

Shippou glared at him, making a mental note to stash the bag somewhere near the monk when he finished with it, “I’m being helpful. If I eat them, they won’t have something to fight over. Inuyasha gets to bring her food, Okaa-san still gets to eat, everybody’s happy.”

“And since when do you concern yourself with how Inuyasha and Kagome-chan are getting along?” Sango’s brows lifted suspiciously. “You’re usually the one trying to encourage Kagome-chan to get annoyed with him.”

“With everything that’s happened, it doesn’t seem fair to do that,” he shrugged, immensely proud of himself for already having considered getting this question. After his other attempts at keeping secrets from Sango and Miroku, this time he had prepared, “They need to relax just as much as the rest of us do.”

Any response they might have made went on hold when Inuyasha let out an unintelligible sound of annoyance and purposefully dropped back. Kagome broke off growling immediately, squeaking in surprise and tangling her hands in his haori reflexively to hold on. He grunted when his back hit the grass, absorbing the impact and frowning up at her while his hands went to her hips.

“Do you have to fight with me about every little thing, koi?” he squeezed lightly, rubbing his hands up to the narrow curve of her waist and back down.

Kagome set her jaw against the urge to give into the warmth in his amber eyes and the soothing stroke, “It’s just a snack, Inuyasha. It’s not like I’m knocking back anything dangerous.”

“You’ll still be better off with real food,” he pinched her, smirking when she yipped and slapped at his hands. “Come on, just sit here and I’ll find something safe for you. Let me take care of it before the sun goes down and we see what swaps.”

“I don’t like this calm, cheerful hanyou who’s seemed to have taken over your body, Inuyasha,” she muttered, leaning over to tweak his ear. “He’s obnoxious, and he makes me miss my rude, arrogant, immature mate. The one who let me eat whatever I wanted.”

Inuyasha chuckled at her disgruntled tone, nipping at her breast as he sat up and wrapped his arms around her to keep her from jumping back, “Smart ass.”

She folded her arm over her chest and huffed, frowning as she realized both his hands were on her. She leaned around, searching the grass for the bag, “What happened to my chips?”

Inuyasha blinked, looking down at both his hands, up at her, and then over to the others just in time to see Shippou dump the bag in the monk’s lap. Despite his best efforts he was chuckling as he nudged Kagome’s cheek with his chin, “You have a thief.”

“Thief?” she repeated in confusion, following the direction until her eyes fell on Miroku, the bag in his lap as he obliviously munched on yet another chip. Her eyes narrowed, “Excuse me, Inuyasha, I have to go chew off someone’s hand.”

Inuyasha was biting back his amusement when he felt her chest start to vibrate with a growl, stroking her back soothingly, “Easy, koi, don’t puff up and kill him just yet. He’s a good fighter.”

“A good fighter who’s eating my food when you won’t let me,” she muttered.

He shrugged, “I don’t care if he gets sick, but whether you do or not is a completely different matter.”

Kagome stuck out her tongue, planting both hands on his chest and shoving as she rose to her feet, “You’re being overbearing.”

“You love me this way,” he returned with a smug look, folding his arms behind his head.

“Mmm, apparently I’m out of my mind,” she rolled her eyes, stepping on his stomach and smirking at his surprised grunt as she started towards their friends.

Shippou was already bouncing in delight, holding out his arms to be picked up when she came close, “Are we stopping for the night?”

Inuyasha rolled to his feet in a fluid motion, stretching as he shook his head and followed Kagome’s progess with overprotective concern, “We have enough time to eat and make it back to Kaede-baba’s by sunset. I’d rather be there when we find out how my blood decides to handle the new moon this time.”

“I’m hungry, Inuyasha, and I’m not feeling very patient,” Kagome lifted Shippou absently, stroking his hair as he snuggled up to her stomach and grinned. “If you can’t get me something soon, I’m eating your ramen.”

“All right, all right,” he rolled his eyes and casually went to her side and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be back soon, and I won’t be far. Yell if you need me.”

She made a face but reached out and squeezed his hand reassuringly, “I can keep out of trouble for a few minutes.”

“I’d feel even better if you promised to sit down in one spot and wait for me,” he reached out and slid his arm around her waist.

“Don’t push your luck,” Kagome leaned up on her toes, giving his hair a yank even as she gave him a quick kiss. “Go, I want food.”

Inuyasha chuckled, wishing he had the freedom to tease her about getting demanding now that she was pupped, but wisely keeping that to himself. Instead he nodded, lifting her off her feet and sitting her down on the grass between Sango and Miroku, “Stay.”

“Sonofa-!” Kagome fumed when her legs went numb, but Inuyasha was still holding her up enough the she didn’t slam to the ground. “Inuyasha!!”

He patted her on the head and darted off in a blur, the sound of his laughter echoing back to them.

“Oooh, I’m going to kill that baka,” Kagome hissed in irritation, turning to glare in the direction she could feel him in.

Miroku very calmly diffused her temper, handing her the remainder of the chips, “At least wait until after you have eaten, Kagome-sama.”

Shippou intercepted the bag and hopped off her lap, shaking his head when Kagome looked at him in surprise, “You really probably shouldn’t eat these if they’re not fresh, Okaa-san.”

Kagome’s brows lowered suspiciously, tilting her head and looking up at first Sango and then Miroku, “Am I sick? Did Inuyasha tell you something when I wasn’t awake or when I was gone?”

They shook their heads, looking equally confused while Sango remarked absently, “Maybe it’s just universally a youkai male thing… They hovered before whenever you were ill, what if they just think this is how to prevent it?”

“I AM still here, you know,” Shippou grumbled dryly at being excluded from the conversation so quickly.

Miroku ignored the comment, rubbing his chin and appearing to ponder, “Inuyasha’s logic is not always easily understood.”

“True,” Kagome chewed on her lip and then brightened. “Myouga-jiji!”

The little flea gulped, freezing on Shippou’s head, “Me, Kagome-sama?”

She fidgetted, rubbing her thighs in an effort to speed the return of feeling, “You usually know what’s going on with Inuyasha, Myouga-jiji. Why is he being so fanatical about what I eat?”

“Ah…well… you see,” Myouga cleared his throat nervously, looking around the circle of inquistive faces. “It’s… it’s not uncommon for a youkai to have such concerns when newly mated, Kagome-sama. Especially with a… young mate,” he clasped his hands together in an effort to look more calm.

Sango frowned and shared a look with Kagome before turning her attention back to the flea, “A young mate?”

Kagome shook her head, “This isn’t really making sense, you know. I don’t see what being young has to do with Inuyasha and Shippou not wanting me to eat potato chips.”

Once again, Myouga was saved from having to answer when Inuyasha came bounding back into the clearing, looking supremely proud of himself as he showed off a fat pair of rabbits. Kagome blinked up at him and couldn’t help but giggle behind her hand, whispering to Sango, “Damn, I love it when he looks like that.”

Sango’s own lips twitched in amusement, “You mean like he’s about ten years old?”

She nodded, giving him a warm smile as he walked over to her and crouched down, “That was fast.”

“I had to get back before you could get up and wander around without me,” he smirked and held the rabbits out to her. “Does your little portable fire thing cook meat or just water?”

“I think it can handle rabbits,” Kagome reached up and scratched his ear, her smile growing when he tilted his head into her touch. When he grinned and went to poke at the little stove, she shook her head and added to the exterminator, “The only bad thing about it is that I can’t stay mad when he looks like that.”

Miroku blinked when the two of them giggled quietly behind their hands, tilting his head and looking over at the hanyou curiously, ‘Is it really that simple?’

Shippou looked a bit annoyed, wandering away from Kagome and over to Inuyasha, “You need to tell her soon, Inuyasha. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

Inuyasha looked down at him, frowning as he glanced over to Kagome and make sure she wasn’t listening, “What do you mean it’s harder than you thought?”

“She’s not completely naive, baka,” Shippou rolled his eyes. “And any idiot would notice suddenly getting told what to eat. She’s asking Myouga-jiji if it’s normal youkai behavior.”

“How the fuck does he know?” Inuyasha’s brows lowered in irritation.

“He IS a youkai, and you can’t think he wouldn’t try doing his flea thing,” he shrugged. “You weren’t exactly subtle about marking her either. Any youkai can sense or smell what you did. Except her, but I doubt she knows what to feel for.”

“One of these days I’m going to beat your head in until you tell me how old you really are,” he huffed impatiently, cleaning the rabbits and tearing strips of meat to lay across the heated surface.

Shippou snickered, “I’m young, not stupid. Otou-san used to say I drove him crazy with how many questions I’d ask.”

Inuyasha blinked down at him, more than a little amazed that the kitsune was talking about his murdered father so easily, ‘Is it this? Feeling like he’s in a pack again that makes him relax?’

“Anyhow,” he shrugged again and glanced over at Kagome, “he also used to say that when a bitch is… like that, you shouldn’t ever keep them waiting if they’re hungry. He said Okaa-san got mean before I was born.”

He smiled in amusement, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Shippou nodded, plopping down beside the hanyou and rocking absently, “So do I get to name one of them?”

Inuyasha nearly burned himself, gaping down at the kitsune in shock, “What did you just say?!”

He glanced up innocently, his tail swishing back and forth, “It’s only fair, ne? I’m their big brother!”

“How many fucking hearbeats are you hearing?” he hissed in shock, grabbing hold of the kit and lifting him up face to face.

“Inuyasha?” Kagome’s voice had both their heads snapping up guiltily, but her attention was past them, on the meat.

Inuyasha let out a relieved breath and snatched up a strip, holding it out to her, “It’s better for you if it’s still a little-“

“Bloody,” Shippou supplied when the hanyou trailed off, not nearly as concerned with what her human side might think of that kind of thing.

Luckily for both of them, Kagome simply sat down beside the two and snatched it out of his hands, barely chewing before she swallowed and held out her hand for more. Inuyasha blinked, shared a look with the kitsune who just shrugged again and prodded for him to comply. Inuyasha shook his head and smirked, obediently passing her another piece of meat, “Try to chew this time, koi. Slowly.”

She stuck out her tongue again, but took more time with the second piece, “I’m starving, Inuyasha. I just… didn’t realize it until I smelled this.”

He set Shippou on his shoulder, reaching over to hook his hands under her arms and drag her over into his lap. He turned her around to set her back against his chest, wrapping an arm around her waist and tucking his legs up around her, “I’ll make sure you have more tonight.”

Kagome nodded and reached for another piece, “That sounds good.”

Sango looked across the clearing at them, sighing more than a little enviously, “I think you were right, houshi-sama. She is happy, isn’t she?”

Miroku nodded, “Hard to believe considering… well, everything, but I find it most difficult to imagine either of them with anyone else.”

She propped her chin up on her hand when Kagome nipped at Inuyasha’s fingers for holding the last piece of meat out of her reach, “If they don’t kill each other.”

“Have no fear of that, Sango,” he leaned back, closing his eyes and giving every appearance of perfect relaxation. “Kagome-sama and Inuyasha would never seriously do each other harm.”

Kagome was thinking along a much different vein when Inuyasha slipped a piece past her to eat himself, “Inuyasha, si-“

He cut her off, clapping a hand over his mouth, “Don’t! We’re too close to sunset and the last time that happened, you were the one who went down.”

Kagome’s brow furrowed as her eyes searched his, slowly nodding as he drew his hand away, “All right…”

Inuyasha sighed, smiling in satisfaction, “Wait until morning, koi. If you’re still angry at me then, you can say it.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly, suspiciously as he turned his attention back to feeding her, absently chiding Shippou not to make himself sick on the chips. ‘Something strange is definitely going on. But what in the world could make Inuyasha act like this? And Shippou!’

Kagome watched them unobtrusively from beneath the shielding curtain of her hair, ‘What could you two be hiding?’

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Wednesday, August 3, 2005

   .........
you'll have to forgive my long dismissal. i've had a few problems lately. life isn't what it used to be, you know. mysterious things sometimes reveal themselves at the most inconvenient times. secrets are told in odd places, and stories revealed under heavy circumstances. but in the end, it all makes sense. the purpose for it all, what it is to become, what it will change. sometimes certain things just aren't meant to be understood by everyone. many things reside within a single person, while others in none, and others yet in everybody. this is a confusing and dark place we live in, slowly being destroyed by it's own inhabitants. the path to understand often crosses with that of pain and suffering. another price to pay for reaching one's destination.
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