Saturday, June 25, 2005

   Chapter 60: Only Skin Deep...
“Hiraikotsu!”

Shippou cringed, hiding behind Miroku’s shoulder as they watched Sango rip through the nest of giant centipede youkai. He curled his hands in the monk’s robes, peeking out every now and then to see the exterminator slice another of the massive creatures in half, “Maybe we should have let Sango hunt by herself this time.”

Miroku snorted, safe to drop his usual “holy” attitude with Sango’s attention fully focused some distance ahead of their position. His hand nervously fingered the rosary beads, alert to any sneak attacks that might come at the exterminator from other angles, “When she is still so damn concerned about Kagome and Inuyasha’s absence? If we weren’t with her, I don’t doubt that she’d be tracking them already and I don’t intend to be the focus of Inuyasha’s displeasure with that kind of fucking interruption.”

Shippou pictured the look the hanyou would likely have on his face in just such an event… especially considering what his reaction had been back before they’d mated and he’d accidentally interrupted. He tried not to wince and shuddered, “Point taken.”

“Especially if we happened to walk in on a delicate situation,” Miroku pointed out, setting his jaw in annoyance. “How do you think Inuyasha would appreciate our presence if he was actually mating with Kagome when we arrived?”

Shippou blanched, shaking his head in an effort to banish the image, “Hell, give me nightmares for the rest of my life, why don’t you?”

Miroku rolled his eyes and heaved a deep sigh. Inuyasha and Kagome had been gone longer than the week the hanyou had indicated, and that meant the hanyou had spent almost two weeks doing exactly what he had been trying to do for years. So why did Inuyasha have all the luck with getting a mate when he still had nothing?

Life just wasn’t fair sometimes.

The brash, arrogant hanyou had managed- despite all his years of less than perfect behavior, to have Kagome fall in love with him, no matter how rude and nasty he’d been to her. Granted even he had seen the moments that Inuyasha had been kind, even affectionate… and he WAS damned protective of the young miko, but still!

He was just as attractive as Inuyasha, more so in his own humble opinion, and he was much more polite when the women were close enough to hear him. So why was the hanyou mating with Kagome when he still had yet to convince Sango- or any other girl lately for that matter, to so much as kiss him properly? At this rate the hanyou was going to have an heir before he had even found a steady bedmate. Especially with his every attempt to get close to Sango still resulting in his rather painful acquaintance with the Hiraikotsu and Kagome quite effectively removed from his list of backup possibilities. It would be rude to ask her now -not to mention possibly detrimental to his own health, now that Inuyasha had staked a real claim.

Miroku let out a heavy, heartfelt sigh, shaking his head, “Fate is truly a cruel thing.”

Shippou looked at him in confusion, “What the hell are you talking about? Sango really must have hit you too hard the last time she brought that thing down on your head.”

“I am beginning to see why Inuyasha makes a habit of throwing you into trees, Shippou,” he gave the kit a dry glare before returning his gaze to Sango and admiring the perfect execution behind her rather violent attack.

“I’ll tell Okaa-san you’re being mean to me and now that she’s a youkai she can slam your ass into the ground just like she does to Inuyasha,” he turned his nose up arrogantly. “And you know you can’t do anything back to her or Inuyasha will take your head off.”

“Maybe I should tell Inuyasha you said he wasn’t strong enough for Kagome,” Miroku returned in a disturbingly calm tone of voice. “I wonder what he would do if he heard that?”

Shippou paled, his fists clenching convulsively in the monks robes as his tail bristled in agitation, “You wouldn’t!!”

“Try me, brat,” he glanced at Sango, making certain she wouldn’t see before he turned to smirk tauntingly at the terrified kitsune. “I’m not feeling forgiving at the moment under the circumstances.”

“But you’re a monk!” Shippou squealed in agitation. “Monks aren’t supposed to try and get kids killed on purpose!”

Miroku restored his perfectly stoic expression as he again turned his gaze away from the kit, “On purpose? Why, Shippou, I’m shocked at your accusation! I would merely repeat what I have heard to voice my concerns to Inuyasha.”

“Liar! I’m going to bit your ears off when you’re sleeping, you- AH!!” Shippou cut off, shrieking and disappearing down the back of the monk’s robes when a large portion of one youkai came crashing to a halt directly in front of them.

Miroku’s expression didn’t change in the slightest as the dust settled around them, but he waited patiently until it completely cleared before he started walking towards the panting taijiya. By the time he reached her side, Kirara was de-transformed and perching on the woman’s shoulder while Sango straightened and casually slung the Hiraikotsu around to her back, “I’m really starting to hate insect youkai.”

“We could have passed by this nest if there are more pressing matters you have to attend to, Sango,” Miroku pointed out, absently spearing a wriggling portion of one of the youkai and ignoring the hiss of purifying energy that spread through it. “There were no rumors of shards in this direction,” he reminded her.

“We couldn’t leave that village to be terrorized,” she made a face, reaching up to absently stroke Kirara as she lowered her mask to hang around her neck. “And this is still in the direction that Inuyasha and Kagome were traveling in when he left.”

Shippou peeked his head back out over Miroku’s shoulder and let out a sound of exasperation, “We really should be waiting. What if we interrupt and piss him off like Miroku said?”

Sango gave the monk a suspicious look, “Like Miroku said?”

Miroku managed to look perfectly innocent, “I was merely speculating on what state Inuyasha and Kagome could possibly be in if we catch them by surprise.”

“Pervert,” she rolled her eyes and muttered in annoyance, brushing past them on her way back to the main path.

“Well he has a point this time,” Shippou made the jump from monk to exterminator and chewed on his lip as he tried to look thoughtful. “I mean, Inuyasha has seemed really happy the other times he and Okaa-san went off alone. Won’t he be pretty pissed off if we cut that short?”

“He said a week,” Sango muttered in annoyance, shaking her head to deny her own misgivings at hunting out the absent pair. “I was not about to sit and wait in that village until he decided it was convenient to come back and tell us everything was all right.”

“Nothing will happen to Kagome-sama with Inuyasha,” Miroku chided gently as he trailed along behind her, his gaze tilted down to the interesting sway of her hips in the clinging taijiya uniform.

“I’m more concerned with what will happen to Kagome-chan with Inuyasha,” she snorted and glared back over her shoulder meaningfully.

Miroku held up a hand in an innocent gesture until she turned her gaze forward again, letting out a silent sigh of relief that he’d escaped her unpredictable temper without injury, “He won’t hurt her, Sango, you know that.”

“Houshi-sama, she has been acting so… so unlike herself in the last month,” Sango’s hands fisted hard at her sides until Kirara mewled and stroked the girl’s face in an effort to soothe her.

“Kagome-sama has undergone some major transformations in a short period of time,” he shrugged, lifting a hand to stroke his chin absently. “I’m sure things will settle back to normal, or rather, as normal as things can possibly be for us,” he clenched his sealed hand.

“You don’t honestly think that Kagome-chan can accept being changed into a strange cross that’s more youkai than human?” she stopped and turned to frown back at the monk, her jaw set and eyes filled with subdued concern. “That she’s suddenly mated to THE most arrogant and strongest hanyou I think any of us have ever seen. And to top it off, he’s put a barrier on her like a collar? How stupid do you think I am, houshi-sama? Kagome-chan is not going to be pleased when her head clears again.”

Miroku reached up and set his hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze, “You’re forgetting that Kagome-sama does not seem overly concerned with changing into a youkai, and that she happens to be ridiculously in love with that arrogant hanyou. Anyone can see that.”

Sango averted her face, a faint grunt of frustration working free, “Inuyasha takes advantage of that.” She allowed her eyes to fill with concern, ‘And Kagome-chan lets him... Is it really possible to be that much in love? Or is that just part of Kagome-chan’s personality to love so completely?’

Her brows lowered sharply when she felt the hand on her shoulder make the inevitable path down her spine and turn to squeeze when it reached her backside. She sighed heavily, bringing her elbow back hard into his stomach, “Is it too difficult to have a conversation without finding your hand groping where it shouldn’t, you perverted houshi?”

Miroku blinked in surprise at her calm, annoyed tone as he rubbed the new soreness on his stomach, “You really are worried about this.”

Shippou nodded, “No kidding, you didn’t even slap him.” He made a face and sighed miserably, “You guys are all getting boring and calm lately. How am I supposed to get my entertainment?”

Both adults turned annoyed expressions to the little kitsune, making his fidget nervously before he hopped down to the ground and started to trot on ahead, “Ah… I think I’ll… check the trail…”

Sango huffed in agitation, folding her arms over her chest, “Entertainment.”

“Honestly,” Miroku tightened his fingers around his staff, the rings jingling melodically as he tapped it impatiently against the packed earth. “Inuyasha is far more entertaining than you or I could ever be.”

She reached over to smack him upside the head, “I believe you missed the point completely, houshi-sama.”

He gave her a hurt look, rubbing his head, “But it is true. You have laughed at Inuyasha just as much as the rest of us, Sango.”

“But he was always there to hear it,” she pointed out, turning to start after Shippou to hide the faint blush on her cheeks. “It’s very rude to say things like that when Inuyasha isn’t present to defend himself.”

“You mean when Inuyasha isn’t present to puff up and get frustrated enough to snap at us until Kagome-sama sits him?” he challenged in a deceptively mild voice, lips twitching with surpressed amusement.

Sango lifted a hand to hide her own traitorous smile, feeling guilty about finding amusement while her friends’ situation was still so unclear, “That has nothing to do with it, houshi-sama.”

Miroku nodded in the distracted way of someone who could easily see right through what the other person was saying, “Of course not.”

She gave him a sideways look, eyes narrowed and searching on his calm expression, “You’re thinking something perverted, aren’t you?”

He blinked in genuine surprise, turning to look at her, “Why would you say such a thing, Sango? I was merely pondering on our attempt to locate Inuyasha.” He straighted his posture with a slightly regal air, lifting his nose in affront, “Besides, I am a monk, as you all seem to forget.”

Sango had opened her mouth to respond when Shippou let out a shriek from in front of them, racing back down the path and launching himself up and over Miroku to cling to the monk’s robes. He peeked up, pointing to the path ahead, “It’s right behind me! It must have been from the nest!”

“I guess I missed one,” Sango shook her head in frustrated annoyance when the youkai emerged from the foliage ahead. Lifting her mask back to her face as Kirara hopped off her shoulder and moved to the side, she muttered, “Move back, houshi-sama, this shouldn’t take more than a moment.”

Miroku nodded and stepped back, poised in a defensive position as she dragged the Hiraikotsu forward. He sighed again with feeling when he watched her bring the massive weapon up and around with a wordless shout, sending it ripping through the trees in front of them when the centipede youkai reared up to attack, ‘Miroku, you are some sort of twisted masochist to be so hung up on the single woman who makes a habit of trying to crack your skull every time you show affection.’

Sango smirked slightly as the boomerang sliced the youkai in half, holding up her hand to catch it effortlessly on the return trip. Compared to their usual battles lately, these little youkai almost seemed like nothing more complex than target practice. And while it was still a little frustrating to get distracted from her main objective, the release of tension still felt good. “Now if we could only find Kagome-chan and Inuyasha so we can make the hunting worthwhile,” she set one fist on her hip. “We can’t even look for shards without her to see them for us.”

Miroku nodded, relaxing his stance, “There is no greater way to appreciate her unique skills than to try and hunt without them, ne? It’s quite difficult to find something you cannot see.”

Shippou’s hands tightened in Miroku’s robes again and he hissed out as he looked past Sango to where the centipede twitched and started to shift restlessly, “Um… guys… I think one just found us.”

Sango spun around just as Miroku looped an arm around her waist and yanked her backwards when the centipede slammed down where they had been standing a moment ago. Swearing in agitation, she slid out of his hold and flung the boomerang again, “I’m really REALLY starting to hate insect youkai!”

The tail end lashed around in a violent arch, and Miroku grunted under the effort of deflecting the attack with his staff, “It MUST have a shard to be so resiliant to our attacks, Sango.” He stayed poised to defend as he set his jaw and searched for some sign of where the piece could possibly be located.

“I know, houshi-sama, I know!” she caught the handle of her Hiraikotsu, the force behind her previous throw dragging her backwards slightly. “But without Kagome-chan we have to do this the old fashioned way. Kirara!”

Miroku winced and muttered under his breath in annoyance even as the cat youkai scampered to Sango’s side and transformed, “Wonderful, a little fucking piece at a time.”

Shippou smacked him on the back of the head and hissed urgently, “You’re the laziest monk I’ve ever seen!”

Sango leapt astride her pet, but no sooner had she settled into place when the youkai split abruptly, violently down the middle. While the trio stared in confused shock, both halves when crashing to the ground with a resounding shudder that kicked up a wealth of dust and debris.

“Oi! I thought I told you to wait for us in the village,” Inuyasha voice carried through the dust before it settled enough to reveal the hanyou standing with one foot braced against one twitching half. He let out a faintly annoyed tsking sound, carefully easing Kagome down off his back with one arm, “So you win that one, koi. They did try to track me.”

Kagome coughed into her hand, frowning at him in annoyance as she walked to the glowing portion of flesh a short distance away and knelt to find the shard, “Well you said you told them we’d be back a week ago.”

“They can take care of themselves for an extra week. Hell, Kagome, they’re adults,” he tilted his nose up and snorted, but then made a face and looked pointedly at Miroku. “Sango’s an adult anyway.”

“Leave Sango-chan and Miroku-sama alone, baka. They don’t need to suffer from your weird mood too,” she scolded, rising to her feet and slipping the shard into the makeshift pouch Inuyasha had made until she could get a new vial.

Inuyasha smirked arrogantly, trailing along behind her for a moment before giving her a light swat on the backside that had her yelping and swatting at his hand. He chuckled and offered in an almost disturbingly cheerful voice, “You’re still pink.”

She turned to face him this time and smacked him on the shoulder, the pink in her cheeks turning into a full blown blush, “I said I’m sorry, okay?!”

Miroku recovered, clearing his throat when he saw a glint in the hanyou’s eyes that could only spell more trouble for the obviously embarrassed girl, “Ah… welcome back, Kagome-sama.”

Kagome gave Inuyasha one more frown, wrinkling her nose as she folded her arms across her chest and turned her attention to the others, “Arigatou, Miroku-sama.”

Sango looked impossibly confused as she slid off Kirara, her mind working in an effort to readjust from the battle mindset to the return of the two people she’d been searching for in the first place. Kagome looked different, not the blush, but she looked calmer. She was back to that almost human form, dressed in the washed and apparantly magically repaired kimono and hakama she’d been wearing when they found her with Naraku. But it was the look in her eyes really that had the taijiya, the most confused… She looked… happy?

She frowned and looked back and forth between the miko and the hanyou as Inuyasha moved to her side and slid his arm around her waist in a blatantly possessive motion, ‘That’s impossible… She was so upset two weeks ago!’ And why was she apologizing just for Inuyasha saying she was pink?

At least that answer shouldn’t be too confusing, she thought with mild annoyance, and inquiring almost hesitantly, “Sorry for what, Kagome-chan?”

Kagome’s reaction to that innocent question was completely unexpected, both monk and exterminator reflexively dropping into defensives stances when the younger girl spun around. Inuyasha ducked the hand she swept out towards his mouth, laughing delightedly when he met the panic-stricken eyes and closed his hands in his haori and the kimono beneath.

“Don’t-! Inuyasha-!!!” Kagome made another grab for him, hissing in frustration when he sidestepped her attempt and yanked both wide open over his chest.

Sango let out a startled gasp, stumbling back against Kirara and barely registering Miroku’s own exclamation as she turned wide, disbelieving eyes to Kagome’s averted, darkly flushed cheeks, “Kagome-chan! You… you did THAT?!”

“And these!” Inuyasha swept his hair back over his shoulder to show off four more long, healing gashes down and across the right side of his neck. “You should see my back.”

Kagome clamped her hand over his mouth, blushing even worse than she had before and growling at him, “Don’t you fucking dare!”

“What?” he asked with perfectly feigned innocence, but the twitching at the corners of her lips gave away the wicked amusement dancing below the surface even more than the dark glitter in his eyes.

Shippou tugged at Miroku’s robe and whispered in confusion, “Why is Inuyasha so happy that Okaa-san clawed his chest?”

At Kagome’s warning look, Miroku had to bite his lip to contain his own amusement, especially considering the pattern of marks down his chest would be most consistent with her fingertips raking down. He could only imagine what the hanyou had been doing to “encourage” her to make so many.

Inuyasha’s shoulders were obviously shaking with laughter as he nipped at her fingers and set about retying his robes, “All right, all right. I won’t show them the other ones.”

Kagome smacked him upside the head, giving an impressive growl for her almost human form and stalking over to where Shippou had grinned and reached out for her, “You shouldn’t have shown them THOSE ones.”

Inuyasha was still smirking, calmly walking to reach up and pat Kirara on the head, perfectly oblivious to Sango’s continued shock, “If you think I’m ever forgetting the look on your face when you finally sweated that heat out of your system and saw what you’d done, you’re mistaken, little girl.”

“Could we talk about this later?” Kagome gritted her teeth, gesturing to Sango’s rising blush of understanding and Miroku’s “coughing” fit.

“Of course!” he grinned easily, folding his arms over his chest.

She rolled her eyes, looking down at Shippou when she felt his little hands pat on her stomach lightly, “So what trouble did you get into while I was gone?”

Shippou made a face, “I just had to listen to Miroku bitching about getting hit on the head every time he groped Sango. And even that wasn’t that often.” He pressed a bit harder on her stomach, frowning when he felt the muscles contract, “It was way beyond boring.”

Inuyasha growled, reaching out and plucking the kit up and off her by the tail, “Kagome’s not quite healed, brat. No poking.”

“Be nice,” Kagome instructed absently, already moving away from the growling pair, her attention centered on Sango.

The hanyou paused in his growling to frown at Kagome scoldingly, “Oi! You agreed to stay close after you tripped this morning.”

She rolled her eyes, “Different circumstances, koishii, THEN my legs were tangled up in your haori. I’m not going to fall.”

Shippou looked up at the concerned indecision on the hanyou’s face when Kagome turned her back and reached out to take Sango’s hands. His eyes narrowed and he smirked wickedly as he whispered, “Ahhh….. so THAT’S what’s different.”

“You say one word, brat, and you aren’t going to live long enough to find out if you’re right,” Inuyasha snarled back at him.

“So I’m right AND she doesn’t know,” Shippou nodded sagely and looked supremely proud of himself. “This is even better than having the claw thing that got me my chocolate last time!”

Inuyasha bared his fangs, shooting a quick look up to where Miroku was reaching up to feel Kagome’s forehead. The monk’s lips were quirked in a taunt that had the girl blushing and swatting his hands away while Sango brought her boomerang down over his head and gave Kagome an apologetic smile.

Certain all three of them were distracted, he hoisted the kitsune up higher, “You were never in any danger of getting your ass beat if you spilled ‘the claw thing.’ You let this slip before I tell her and you’re going to be trying to find your way back for weeks from where I throw you.”

“So what did you do wrong?” Shippou folded his arms and tried to look superior from the undignified position.

His eyes narrowed, “What makes you think I did something wrong?”

“C’mon, I’m not as dense as you are,” the kitsune snorted in annoyance. “You don’t want Okaa-san to know, so you must have done something wrong.”

Inuyasha fought the urge to shake him, well aware that it would attract attention he didn’t want or need even as his cheeks tinted slightly, “I didn’t do anything wrong, you little shit! I just don’t want Kagome to know yet. I’ll find the right time to tell her, but it’s not now.”

Shippou rolled his eyes, “Oh this is gonna be good.”

“Don’t make me hurt you, Shippou,” he growled menacingly.

He just shook his head and somehow managed to look amazingly put out by the whole situation, “One condition.”

“I ought to rip your tail out.”

“You don’t stop me from laying on her stomach so I can listen,” he finished as though the threat had never been spoken.

Inuyasha blinked down at him in mild surprise, his head tilting to one side as his ears flicked in confusion, “That’s it? You just want to listen?”

“What the hell did you think it would be?” Shippou looked up at him in annoyance. “I’ll even help you take care of them until you tell her. You think I want something to happen to my new brother or sister or whatever she has?”

He huffed, frowning slightly and giving the kit a glare of speculation, “You can keep your mouth shut?”

“Promise,” Shippou held up his hand and gave the hanyou his most solemn expression.

Inuyasha set his jaw, clenching and unclenching his free hand before he nodded stiffly and set the kitsune on his shoulder, “All right. You can listen, but you tell me the fucking second you hear something that doesn’t sound right.”

He grinned and gave him a mock salute he’d seen Kagome give once or twice, “Hai!”

Kagome glanced up at the delighted chirp and let out a heartfelt groan, “I’d be willing to bet every shard I have that I’ve just picked up a babysitter.”

Sango blinked and looked past her to see Inuyasha looking particularly arrogant, his arms folded over his chest and Shippou trying to mimic the stance from the hanyou’s shoulder, “That is a most terrifying sight, Kagome-chan.”

“At least it’s not coming from your mate and son,” she rubbed the ache starting at her temples. “Gods, I just calmed down too,” she wrinkled her nose. “Although Inuyasha assured me I was just that bad a bitch because of how close I was to heat when things started to get nasty. And I thought PMS was bad…”

Sango kept her relief to herself at that, but was silently praising whatever gods had apparantly restored Kagome’s calm disposition, “Then… you feel normal?”

Kagome nodded, still distracted by the nearly identical looks on Inuyasha and Shippou’s faces, “Hn. I’m going to be spending a long LONG time apologizing for being such a brat though. I wanted to crawl under a rock when everything settle out and I stopped feeling like I was ripping apart from the inside.”

“It wasn’t that bad, Kagome-chan,” Sango took her hand and squeezed, giving her an encouraging smile.

“Tell that to Inuyasha’s back,” she blushed and found a point off in the woods very interesting for a moment. She finally looked back at her mate, frowning and rubbing at her head again, “Mou… What could they possible be plotting?”

“Look on the bright side, Kagome-sama, at least they’re not fighting,” Miroku offered, rubbing his own head but for a totally different reason.

“Oi, we’re wasting time,” Inuyasha cut into their muttered observations and turned his gaze up to the late afternoon sky. “In case you haven’t been keeping track of the days, the moon’s going to change soon. If we want to make it back to the village before Kagome and I swap for a night and see if that makes a mess, we need to get moving.”

Kagome nodded, rolling her eyes when Inuyasha turned his back to her and made a sound of impatience, “I can walk, Inuyasha.”

“You can ride just as easily,” he returned in that annoyingly calm, authoratative voice he’d started to use more frequently in the last month.

“This really isn’t worth the argument,” she shook her head, giving him a faint growl to display her reluctant compliance.

Miroku smiled behind his hand, “Perhaps things will finally be calm this way, Kagome-sama. If even Inuyasha and Shippou are getting along, we should have a bit more peace and quiet, ne?”

Kagome glanced at Miroku and reminded him in a whisper meant to reach only him and the taijiya as she started forward, “With Inuyasha and Shippou, that’s not exactly a sign of peace. That’s when it’s time to really worry.”

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Tuesday, May 17, 2005

   Chapter 59: Anything You Can Do...(Adult)
Kagome couldn’t put her finger on what exactly woke her.

It wasn’t a gradual awakening either. One minute she had been asleep and the next she was wide-awake and staring at a rock wall a few feet in front of her confused gaze. “I have GOT to stop doing this,” she grumbled at herself in irritation as she tried to figure out what had caused her sudden return to consciousness this time.

‘Was I dreaming?’ Kagome sat up slowly, gasping in alarm when a wave of dizziness made her vision swim. Startled, she pressed her hand over her heart as though that touch alone would calm it when she realized just how fast it was racing. Her palm connected with the soft fabric, and she grimaced at finding her kimono practically soaked through with sweat. Almost panting, she swept her gaze around the quiet chamber and tried to shake off the muggy disorientation clouding her thoughts.

She was absolutely sweltering, and in frustration, she tore at the ties of her clothing until she had opened her kimono and hakama enough to slide them off and toss them aside. Seeking some measure of relief from the building heat, she closed her eyes while her chest heaved, trying to focus on the cooler breeze from the outside as it washed over her sweat-dampened, naked flesh. Under that subtle caress, a shiver went down her spine and pulled a low moan from deep in her chest that stunned her almost as much as the sudden jolt of desire flaring undeniably to life in the pit of her stomach.

‘Wha-what the hell is wrong with me?’ she clamped her arms around her torso to prevent more of that breeze from sliding over her and blushing furiously at the intense ache gaining strength between her thighs.

Kagome whimpered when her heart lurched, the muscles over her abdomen contracting almost spasmodically as a sharp twinge of need shot through her. She gritted her teeth against the sensation, swearing darkly at the prick of fangs against her lips followed by the heavy throb and nearly euphoric rush of strength she now recognized as the youkai blood rushing to take dominance inside her body.

“Dammit, I’m not fighting and I’m not angry! What’s going on?!” she hissed, falling forward to catch herself with one hand while the other fisted and pressed into her stomach helplessly. The burning feeling inside her tripled, wrenching a cry from her throat that was a mix of excitement and discomfort while her body lurched and the human blood began to wane at a much greater speed.

Strong nails hardened into claws and bit deeply into her fisted palms, and she could feel her ears stretch as they slid up to the top of her head. She still wasn’t used to the feeling of her ears elongating and growing that velvet soft fur when they changed to mimic Inuyasha’s, and she lifted a hand to shakily touch one sensitive triangle as it flattened back with her emotions, ‘Why am I changing now?!’

Inuyasha shifted alongside her, growling in his sleep as he flung an arm over her hips and nuzzled against the curve of her waist. Kagome instinctively bared her teeth, eyes gleaming feverishly as she looked down at the source of yet another painful rush of desire and longing.

‘How dare he be asleep and looking so goddamn peaceful when I feel like I’m getting pulled apart!?’ she bristled, frustration and confusion making it easy enough for her to use anger to tamp both unwanted feelings down. Especially since she felt like any second her blood was going to set her skin on fire with the heat radiating through her.

“You bastard!” Kagome hissed, rocking up on her haunches to knock his hold loose and face her obliviously slumbering mate. “You’re supposed to take care of this kind of thing! Not let it get like this!” her hands fisted tight against her thighs as she braced herself for yet another pulsing throb.

Inuyasha’s nose twitched and he took a deep breath, murmuring her name in a nearly incoherent growl but showing absolutely no sign of waking anytime soon.

Kagome bit down on her lip hard to keep from screaming in frustration, but a helpless moan choked out of her when the sharp prick only made her recall the feel of Inuyasha’s own teeth nipping at her with perfect clarity. Even more confused at just why every little thing had suddenly taken on such undeniable sexual associations in her mind, and rapidly growing impatient with her tingling body, she lifted a hand to reflexively strike at Inuyasha for not being awake to make it go away. For looking so content… for, for… Hell, she just wanted to hit him for being the one to show her that she COULD feel things like this, and yet…

Her hand paused before she did more than imagine how satisfying it would have been to awaken him so rudely, but a much more interesting thought had struck. Quite effectively distracted by her own imagination, her eyes narrowed with a new gleam of predatory speculation.

Since her senses had heightened, she’d become quite proficient at identifying not only Inuyasha’s distinctive scent, but also the subtle shifts caused by the change in his often-volatile emotions. And at the moment, there was an enticing edge to it that she easily recognized from the times they mated before.

‘Does that mean he can be aroused and asleep?’ Kagome blinked, focusing on her curiosity in an effort to ignore the gnawing ache inside her.

Her hand only shook a little as she reached down and plucked at the ties of his hakama and kimono. He’d undressed and stared at her plenty of times, so why the hell couldn’t she do it to? She could be just as strong as he was now that she could absorb, and if he could cast a goddamn collar without any remorse, then she should be allowed to take off his clothes if she wanted.

Despite her eagerness, Kagome was still new enough to intimacy with Inuyasha that she was completely unprepared for her own reaction to her audacity. When she eased his clothing aside to stare down at his naked body, the ache she’d been trying so hard to ignore sparked wildly and nearly doubled her over. She clamped her legs together hard, eyes wide in alarm as her muscles shook and to her absolute horror, her mouth watered in primal anticipation.

Kagome shot away from him with a yelp, sliding to a crouch at the opposite side of the cave on hands and knees as her eyes glowed and her chest heaved with her labored breathing. Flushed with both desire and embarrassment at her responses, she inched closer to him, the edges of her vision blurring slightly with a reddish haze, “Inu… Inuyasha… Gomen ne… I’m just so… so hot!”

Either by coincidence or unconscious reaction to the potent scent of Kagome’s own arousal, Inuyasha’s body was hard and ready despite his being dead to the world. Almost as though he was subconsciously taunting her to touch and explore as she whimpered and growled with confused longing.

Her legs carried her back to his side of their own accord, palms itching with the need to trail over the warm, soft flesh she loved so much. ‘Wait…’ Kagome’s brows snapped together as her mind tormented her with flashes of everything Inuyasha had ever done to her, the hanyou always starting each of their encounters on his own. Not just that, but he didn’t seem overly concerned with restraining any urges he had where she was concerned.

If he could do that, and never think twice about it, then why the hell was she hesitating?! Angry with herself for her insecurity after…well after everything he’d done to her, she gritted her teeth and reached out to press her palm on his stomach above the smooth, turgid erection.

Kagome’s eyes slid closed when a tingle spread up her arm in response to the contact, and before her mind even registered her body doing it, she was on her knees in between his strong thighs. Her muscles were strung taut; alert for anything that would indicate her hanyou was waking as her hand lowered to loosely circle the base of that thick shaft and squeeze.

Inuyasha inhaled sharply and let out a growling moan as he shifted restlessly against her hand, reflexively leaning into her stroke but still not rousing from his own deep sleep.

Kagome blinked several times in astonishment before a particularly iniquitous grin crossed her lips, ‘So he CAN be aroused in his sleep too.’

Unbeknownst to her, Kagome’s irises bled scarlet and began to glow softly in the dimming light, ‘He’s my mate, he’s insisted I remember that more than once, and somehow this just has to be his fault. I should be able to try whatever I want with him and he won’t be angry, right?’

Calmed by own perplexed logic even as she squirmed restlessly to give herself some measure of relief from the increasing ache, Kagome slid her legs back and lay down over his legs. Bracing one arm on his hip to hold herself up, she squeezed him again, but this time dipped her head and slid her tongue from the base of his shaft to the tip to learn the taste of him.

Inuyasha let out a loud sound somewhere between a snarl and a moan, his mouth falling open as his claws dug deep into the ground at his sides. His hips lifted, muscles bunching around her body and urging her to lap at him again while his ears twitched forward and flattened back more rapidly than she’d ever seen them move before. She could feel his heartbeat quicken through the tattoo as well as where her bare skin met his, his blood heating as the rhythm of his breathing changed from deep slumber to a slow pant.

Kagome frowned slightly, her own ears twitching forward to catch the change in the sound and the pace that his chest rose and fell. She was well aware from the alteration in the feel of him that he was waking up, and better to satisfy her curiosity before that happened. If he woke completely there was the possibility he would stop her from playing out the urges hammering inexorably through her blood.

With that thought in mind, Kagome forgot all about toying with him slowly and dipped her head quickly to scrape her fangs over the tip of his shaft once and then tilted her head to take the entire length deep in her mouth.

Inuyasha came awake in layers, his mind in a thick haze as it tried to process several things at once. First, it was hot… almost unbearably so, but taking his attention well away from that was a steady, massaging pleasure rushing through him and making his breath catch in the back of his throat. When he finally managed to pull in a choppy, almost regular breath, struggling to open his eyes through the heavy cloud of sensation, his nose picked up Kagome’s scent. But as it filled his senses, he realized there was something different about it. Something off…

His eyes snapped open and he reared up when he felt a sharp edge graze him in a particularly sensitive area, his mind belatedly connecting just what was causing the heated, wet pull around his throbbing erection. A jolt of searing ecstasy rocked hard through his frame, completely knocking the breath from his lungs and freezing his arms when his eyes locked on the sight of Kagome’s head in his lap.

Inuyasha swore his heart stopped as his mind rather abruptly blanked to everything but the sight of her lips around him and the feel of her tongue making a slow, firm glide up and back down. The combination threw him viciously over the edge.

Kagome heard Inuyasha choke out her name in startled amazement and stubbornly wrapped her arms around his hips to pull him closer when he tensed beneath her, and a flood of hot, thick liquid filled her mouth.

Caught up in the throes of the strongest instincts she’d experienced yet with Inuyasha’s youkai blood, Kagome held back a grin and swallowed before proceeding to lap at him with a sultry laziness she hadn’t known she possessed.

The throbbing in her veins burned even hotter at such an undeniable display of how very much he’d enjoyed her attention, but this time she welcomed the discomfort. After all, there was definitely something satisfying in the way his stomach still contracted with smaller aftershocks, that his shoulders were still heaving with his wild panting, the way his thighs still twitched against her ribs, or even the stunned look on his sweat-streaked face.

Kagome was so proud of herself over his reaction, she was purring with absolute delight, lifting herself up to slide her tongue into his open mouth and along his. She couldn’t stop the bubbling giggle from escaping, however, when Inuyasha continued to pant against her lips, making an obvious effort to catch her tongue and bring her into a kiss, but failing miserably in his own disorientation. He was still trying to catch his breath, blinking furiously as his passion-glazed eyes cleared enough to bring her face into focus again.

His biceps were protesting loudly from holding his upper body up after that shattering orgasm, but he ignored them in favor of taking several deep breaths and trying to calm his racing heart before whispering in amazement, “Kagome? You… I…”

“You liked it,” she drawled, smirking as she turned her head to rub her cheek down the side of his neck and inhaling the telling scents of his sweat-dampened skin.

Inuyasha grunted in annoyance, “Fuck, don’t tell me you thought I wouldn’t!” He rubbed his chin over the top of her head to take the sting out of his words as his thoughts finally caught up to her actions and cleared, “You really should have known better than that, koi.”

Kagome’s eyes glittered dangerously from where she hid her face against his shoulder, her hands sliding up his chest and tensing as her lips pulled back off her fangs in a smile that held little humor, “Does that mean you’ll let me try anything I want with you?”

“You have to ask?” he blinked in surprise and shrugged. “I’ve been trying everything I want with you, why would I stop you from doing the same thing?”

Inuyasha found himself abruptly thrown hard onto his back, letting out a snarl of outrage when his head cracked smartly against the rock, “Bitch! What did you do that f-?!”

The sound died in his throat when Kagome came down on top of him, her knees pinning his arms at his sides as her eyes gleamed with promise, catching his shocked gaze with ease. “Nice to know you intend to be so generous, koishii,” she flashed him a triumphant smile, sliding a clawed hand down over his chest to watch the muscles twitch and jump.

‘Oh fuck,’ Inuyasha went stiff, his eyes jumping from her scarlet eyes to the rest of the features that would indicate her youkai blood was in control. His ears, his fangs, and- he shuddered at the feel of her hand, ‘And claws. Shit, that’s what changed in her smell.’

“Kagome,” his voice almost broke and he paused to clear his throat, trying to breathe through his mouth and stay calm. If he pulled in too much of the scent of her heat, the last thing on his mind would be getting her back under control, “Koi, you… need to calm down a little bit.”

“Why?” she chirped out a little too innocently, bending down to nibble on his ear.

“You’re having a youkai heat,” Inuyasha’s eyes closed and he tried to tuck his fisted hands beneath him as he fought to control the lurch in his own instincts. ‘Dammit, this is what I get for wanting to laugh at Sango for warning me…’

His mate was in heat, naked on top of him with the challenge clear in her eyes. Well, at least this answered his question about whether or not she would breed on a youkai cycle instead of a human one; although he wasn’t so sure Kagome losing herself in the driving need to mate would be a good thing for her.

“Is that what it is?” Kagome leaned up to meet his eyes again, her lashes lowering slightly as she caught her lower lip with a fang and slid one claw down his throat. “I’m so hot, Inuyasha… But you should fix it since it’s your fault, right?” she leaned over again and he could clearly hear her pounding heartbeat.

Slightly mesmerized by way her skin seemed to shine with the fine layer of sweat and the fast rise and fall of her chest, he swallowed and tried to hold in a growl, “That’s… that’s normal. Let me up, koi, and I’ll help you.”

One brow arched sharply at the demand and the look in her eyes changed rapidly to irritation as she brought her hands down to hold his biceps against the ground, “I don’t want to.”

‘Dammit, Kagome, don’t argue with me! Not when you’re like this!’ Inuyasha wanted to scream at her, but he already knew that would only set her instincts off in an even more belligerent direction.

If only his bitch wasn’t just as stubborn as he was, he might be able to get out of this without completely losing his head. But the edge she’d taken off his desire was fading fast, being replaced… With every breath that brought him her delicious scent and every challenge she shot at him with her words, eyes, and even her body language, he could feel his blood heat. She was setting off his need to dominate almost as badly as the scent and feel of her was restoring the painful arousal.

“Kagome,” he growled in warning, sucking in a breath and gritting his teeth when he felt his hard-won control slip a notch.

Kagome growled right back, her hands flexing to dig the tips of her claws into his skin, “You said I could try anything. I want to try this way.”

“Remind me in the future to be more specific,” Inuyasha’s own eyes started to gleam as a drop of sweat that slid down between her breasts caught his attention.

Kagome wrinkled her nose in irritation, “You sound like Miroku when you talk like that.” A particularly strong pulse caught her full attention and she hissed, arching her back and clamping her legs into his sides with bruising force as her head fell back. Her throat worked as her jaw clenched and she lifted one hand to press against her stomach, “Fuck! It’s… so hot!”

Inuyasha wrenched to the side, yanking his arms free when he sent her tumbling to the ground and rolling on top of her. He caught the hands that lifted to try and throw him off, slamming them down on either side of her head as he growled and gave her a quick flash of fangs, “Kagome, listen-!”

Kagome’s eyes glazed and she rammed her forehead against his, catching him so completely off-guard with the unanticipated action that it was a simple thing for her to reverse their positions. “My way this time, Inuyasha!” she snapped, nipping his throat hard and grinning at the rush that went through her. ‘This is almost better than absorbing!’ her eyes narrowed down at him with dark exhilaration.

Inuyasha shook his head once to clear it, swearing long and violently in his mind when he felt her teeth scrape over his neck. ‘What the hell is it about me and Kagome that we seem to know just what to do to make the other completely lose it?’ the thought went through his head even as he felt his blood lurch and heat with even more anger at her refusal to submit. Not to mention that she’d attacked to try and get him to be the submissive one. When she was the one in heat? Not a chance.

Kagome was smirking down at him, one hand resting on her hip and the other over his heart, absently stroking with the tips of her claws. Inuyasha held his instincts back by a thin thread, biting his lip hard as his eyes burned into her own in silent command.

His experience with youkai females going into heat was limited, but universally it seemed they liked to toss out taunting remarks at males they came in contact with, attempting to crack the control already strained by the scent of the female’s heat. Likely it was some twisted way to get the strongest mate they could, provided that mate was interested or too weak to fight his own response to their scent.

Kagome was human… or at least, she used to be, so he could only hope she wouldn’t do the same. That had been the only reason he hadn’t taken Sango’s very valid concern seriously, despite what he knew about youkai mating. He hadn’t really anticipated this kind of a fight with Kagome.

He closed his eyes and chanted in his head as she ground her lower body against his stomach, ‘Just don’t do or say anything stupid, Kagome. Don’t say something that-‘

“You know…you should listen to me more often, Inuyasha,” Kagome tilted her head and smiled, her hair sliding in a thick curtain over her shoulder and tickling his stomach. Her eyes darkened with acerbic defiance as she leaned down and whispered, “After all, I can always find someone else willing to be my mate.”

Inuyasha went perfectly still beneath her as that last thread snapped, ‘Fuck that idea.’

Kagome let out a shriek of alarm when Inuyasha’s arms lashed out, breaking her hold on him with no more thought than he would give to Shippo or Myouga. Before she could tense or even take decent breath to scream at him, his hands locked on her waist and yanked her down hard while he thrust his hips upward and rolled with her.

In the blink of an eye, he’d freed himself from her hold, somehow entered her as deeply as physically possible, and still managed to reverse their positions yet again.

Kagome’s back arched as far as bone and tendon permitted, crushing her breasts against the wall of his chest as her eyes went wide from the exquisite feel of him filling her so abruptly, making the heat she was trying to soothe ignite into a full-on blaze. She started to lift her hands only to have Inuyasha’s snap up to catch her wrists and slam them down on either side of her head again.

His eyes were blazing scarlet while he towered over her, his expression feral with possessive fury as he growled down at her, “What the FUCK did you just say, Kagome?!”

Kagome ignored the violent snarl, already forgetting how she had goaded him with the much more important matter of attending to the smoldering craving in her blood riding her hard, “Inuyasha… please…”

Inuyasha snorted, forcing himself to remain unresponsive while he watched the flush on her face deepen and her wide eyes turn limpid, “I asked you a question, Kagome. You’re letting your blood make you reckless if you think I’ll let you so much as joke about something so goddamn stupid as that!”

Kagome shifted against him, grinding her hips upward to try and start the rhythm she needed, “I… please, it’s… it’s too much, Inuyasha!” When he shook his head at her again, she tugged hard against his hold and snapped at him, “But it’s your fault! I never knew it could feel like this before you! I never wanted… Damn you, for making me feel like this!”

Inuyasha leaned down, pressing her hips flat against the ground with his weight and stretching her arms up over her head to make it easier to transfer her wrists to one hand. Everything in him was dying to just pin her down and prove to her beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was her only one. That he was the dominant in their match, but still… He managed to bite back that feeling in favor of a nagging urge to understand the source of her actions. If not, would she go this crazy the next time she went into heat?

Their connection gave him a direct line to what she was feeling, but it was hard to distinguish individual emotions in that chaotic tangle and overwhelming arousal inside her. Kagome was beyond frustrated, but he could feel sparks of anger and confusion from time to time, and even a hint of pain. Was heat painful for a female? Was that why they fought so hard to find a mate? Experimentally, he slid out of her and then thrust back in, forcing his eyes to stay open on hers.

Kagome arched her neck and let out a growling moan, her legs wrapping around his hips as her irate hissing abruptly cut off. The tangle in his mind dissolved in an instant, giving him a smooth feeling of just what was making Kagome act the way she was. Unfortunately, or not, he mused, depending on how he chose to look at it, her intense emotions were unraveling his own until he was hard-pressed to ignore the demands of both their bodies.

Kagome sensed the shift even before she opened her eyes to see his previous rage smooth out into warm satisfaction, and when his fingers started to go slack, she yanked her arms free and moved her legs to roll him again to his back. He’d opened his mouth and was reaching for her again when she braced her legs on either side of his hips and rocked back as forcefully as she could.

The protest died in his throat, his hands squeezing her thighs as the vibrations from his low growl went through her everywhere their skin touched, “Kagome-“

“Shh,” Kagome’s thoughts smoothed out, however, every ounce of her being was focused on Inuyasha and the feel of him inside her. She lifted herself a little only to press back down gently this time, touching a shaky finger to his lips, “We can argue later, can’t we, Inuyasha? You…you feel so good.”

Later was starting to sound quite reasonable.

Inuyasha pressed upwards when she slid down again, his claws tensing on the smooth skin of her thighs. “Don’t think I’ll forget that you were misbehaving again, koi,” his eyes opened, catching hers as his hands slid up to her waist and lifted her easily, only to lower her back down on his shaft with a slowness that had her growling in renewed frustration. He moaned and pressed his head back, but kept his eyes open to look at her face when he added, “Or that you’re the one in control.”

Kagome’s back arched again when he slammed her down hard, her hands coming up to his wrists as her ears flattened back, “Inu…Inuyasha….”

Inuyasha sat up, smirking when her eyes went wide before he slid one hand up to the back of her head and pulled their mouths together in a devouring kiss, ‘I’ll never get tired of this.’ Especially not when Kagome melted so completely against him every time, each of her responses to whatever he chose to do so open and clear.

He could feel the wild, almost mindless edge to her desire calming with each stroke of his tongue along hers. The hands she’d wrapped around his wrists relaxing and sliding down his arms in a slow caress before they stroked up over his chest and lifted around his neck. She moved her legs for better leverage, rocking against him impatiently while her hands tangled in his hair and she tilted her head to make the heated kiss more aggressive.

Inuyasha trailed his claws down her spine, cupping her backside in his hands while he shifted to roll them yet again. When she narrowed her eyes, he lifted one hand to press a finger to her lips, “We’ll do it your way later, Kagome, but right now, I’m going to make sure no one else ever makes a mistake about who you belong to. Especially you.”

Kagome’s eyes widened when she felt his claws drag down to her knees, his hands hooking underneath them to lift her legs higher. She was about to protest when Inuyasha rocked forward forcefully, dragging a ragged moan from her throat at the feel of him so very deep inside her. She arched her head back, baring the line of her throat as her arms fell away from him to fist against the floor beneath them, “Inuyasha!”

“That’s the only name you’re ever going to say like this, little girl,” he held himself away to stare down at her flushed face, fighting the urge to sink his teeth into the tendon starkly outlined with every convulsive swallow.

Kagome had succumbed to her instincts again. The feelings brought on by having a heat just too much for her to handle or control when her previous experiences had all been felt through human emotions. Heightened emotions most definitely, but still human. Her first heat had turned her inside out and it wasn’t until he was gratifying that desire for her that her thoughts had become coherent. It was completely unacceptable, even dangerous for her to get that caught up in her arousal, the youkai drive to mate that was easily more violently intense than any other emotion she’d felt before. It was even possible, with as much pain and confusion that had been clouding her mind, had he not been close she wouldn’t even have cared who filled that need. And he was going to make damn certain that it never happened again.

Last time he’d been guessing…

This time, he wasn’t stopping until he was sure.

Inuyasha’s own gaze sparked scarlet as he finally let out the fierce growl that had been building in his chest. Dropping his head to sink his teeth into her throat, he gave into the instinct to press down and hold her body still. He had an odd moment of almost split thinking, feeling his youkai blood humming through him with crystal clarity as it rocked through him. That side of him was reveling in pure sensation, but still completely focused as it drove him into her hard and deep, climbing towards the peak that would fill Kagome with everything he had. He’d already positioned her with care, wanting to be certain that she would be satisfied as well as readied.

He wanted everything to be perfect this time.

Kagome was straining against his hold, her claws digging into his hips as she ground herself against him, “Inuyasha, please!”

Inuyasha released the hold on her neck, wanting to watch her face when it happened. His shoulders were heaving, sweat rolling down his cheeks as he leaned over her, feeling the muscles deep inside her start to clench around him. When her eyes started to drift closed, he growled warningly and dug his fingers into her flesh, “Don’t close your eyes, Kagome. Look at me.”

It obviously took a supreme act of will for Kagome to open her eyes, and even then it was only halfway. Her eyes were glassy and glowing through the shield of her lashes while she gasped and trembled from the feeling winding tighter inside her. It was nothing like it had been the previous times, and considering how a great many of those had knocked her cataleptic from pure sensation, she was certain Inuyasha was about to shatter her soul into a million pieces.

Her mouth opened to try and force out his name again when he slid one of his hand inward enough to rake two of his claws along the over-sensitized flesh. Kagome’s eyes snapped wide open as her back arched, her legs wrapping around his torso and clenching so hard that Inuyasha could feel his ribs groan in protest. But when her claws dug into his back and raked downward, he lurched forward over her, just barely keeping his eyes open as he let out a short, wordless exclamation.

Inuyasha felt his entire body clench, hips twisting forward involuntarily as he shifted his hands to hold her pinned up high against him. He bared his teeth involuntarily when her internal muscles spasmed and clenched impossibly tight, sending him spiraling over the edge with a flood of liquid heat.

Kagome’s mouth had fallen open, the muscles in her neck standing out starkly and giving every impression that if it were possible for her to find her voice she would have made both their ears ring for days.

It felt like forever, but Kagome finally relaxed her crushing hold on him. Bit by agonizing bit until she was slumped exhausted and panting on the ground, looking up at him through heavy lidded eyes that slowly faded back to sedate azure. He kept both hands on her legs as he eased her down into a more comfortable position without breaking their physical connection.

“What… WAS that? …Is… is that what it was like… for you?” she whispered in awe, her voice almost slurring as she fought the urge to go right back into the thick, fathomless sleep she’d woken from so unexpectedly. “For youkai?”

He kept one hand on her hips, holding her immobile against him and bracing himself up with the other to give her a warm, leisurely kiss, “It’s even better with you feeling it too and giving it back to me. That was your first taste of a youkai cycle, koishii… What did you think?”

Kagome smiled, taking a deep breath in an effort to soothe her burning lungs and stretching languidly. Her hand came up to stroke the nearest ear, her touch light and absent as she answered, “It was… intense… Is it over?”

Inuyasha lightly brushed his lips on her forehead, “I doubt it. Even as a human you had at least a week.”

She let out a heartfelt groan and let her hand fall back to the ground, “You’re going to kill me, Inuyasha.”

He chuckled richly, feeling her lose her hold on awareness more with each passing moment, “You might need a little rest, but I don’t intend to kill you anytime soon, Kagome.”

Kagome’s eyes gleamed as she yawned, turning her head to brush her lips over his cheek, “It’d be a nice way to die though. I’d be smiling...”

Inuyasha rolled his eyes when she made a face at him, leaning up to nip at her drooping ear, “Rest, Kagome. You’re morbid when you’re exhausted.”

She giggled softly and nodded, her eyes sliding closed, “You’d be amazed at the kinds of things that go through my head lately, Inuyasha.”

Recalling the remarkably pleasant way she’d woken him earlier, he couldn’t keep the rather arrogant smirk off his face, stroking his hand over her cheek, “Try me.”

Kagome wrinkled her nose and pouted, “I am exactly two minutes away from totally passing out. There’s no way in hell I have the energy to do anything more than growl at you if you try getting cute with me, baka.” She paused and seemed to think about what she’d said and then sighed with regret, lazily turning her head from side to side, “Maybe not even that.”

“I know, koi, I know,” Inuyasha stroked her hair soothingly with one hand, the other lightly massaging where it rested on her hip and palming the tattoo with exaggerated care. “Sleep.”

She sighed one more time, leaning into his hand, “I love you, Inuyasha.”

His smile came quick and easy, brilliant with arrogant pleasure as he kissed her again, “I know that too.”

“One of these times you’ll get that right,” Kagome grumbled in annoyance, her voice trailing off as she slipped back into deep, dreamless slumber.

Inuyasha smirked down at her peaceful expression, a faint smile playing at the corners of her mouth and making her look even more vulnerable. Even better than seeing that smile, was knowing that he had been the one to put it there, he thought smugly. His claws trailed down the side of her face to her throat and then down farther to pause over her calming heart, “Maybe…”

He shook off his wandering thoughts, purposefully turning his attention lower. Taking a deep, bracing breath, his hand slid over her body until he was pressing down gently but firmly on her stomach, his brows furrowed in concentration. He’d been careful… more than careful really, and now that she was asleep he could take his time to examine the results of his efforts. His palm flexed, moving gently from side to side as his eyes closed and he focused through their connection, ‘Let me hear you, Kagome…’

The two heartbeats he was so used to sensing were there, beating in perfect synch, his leading hers as it had since she’d nearly died fighting Kikyou. The frown deepened and he pressed harder, growling slightly when he felt the faintest hint of protective resistance hindering his search, “Don’t be stubborn, Kagome. Don’t hide it from me.”

There.

Inuyasha’s eyes went wide and he reared up, sucking in a sharp breath when the barriers inside her moved reluctantly aside. His heart started to race as his mind made the connection, lips pulling back in a wide, triumphant grin that probably would have blinded Kagome if she were awake to see it.

A low, delighted chuckle bubbled up out of him despite his best attempt to smother it for Kagome’s sake as he leaned down, sliding his arms around her with painstaking care and cradling her close. He inhaled deeply, tucking his face into the curve of her neck and rolling just enough to curl his body possessively around as much of her as he could. His hands slid down to press curiously on her stomach, smirking when she let out a faint growl and tucked herself tighter against his chest.

He rested his chin on her head, closing his eyes and letting the last of his previous tension melt out of him. Now there wouldn’t be any mistaking, not from that idiot Kouga, his asshole brother, or even Kagome herself. Any youkai would be able to tell just whom it was she belonged to, and just who would be ripping their hearts out if they came near her.

Beneath the normal feeling of their heartbeats inside her, there had been a very faint, almost unnoticeable fluttering.

Weak… new… and utterly unmistakable.

Kagome was breeding.


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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

   Chapter 58: All In How You Say It...
For a very long moment there was only the thick sound of disbelieving silence, four sets of eyes looking at Inuyasha as though at some point in time between fighting Sesshoumaru and the present moment, he’d completely lost his mind.

Sango slowly set down the Hiraikotsu, shaking her head and folding her arms across her chest. ‘For every time I think Inuyasha is more intelligent than any of us ever suspected, he opens his mouth and says something like that,’ she rolled her eyes and just stood quietly, waiting for the imminent explosion from Kagome over that little gem of wisdom from the hanyou. There was absolutely nothing she could do that would be worse -or more entertaining, she admitted to herself with a hidden smile, than watching what Inuyasha was about to bring down on his head.

Miroku coughed into his hand to hide a misplaced laugh while Shippou slowly inched away from the pair, his eyes riveted to the subtle changes in the look on Kagome’s face. She’d been beyond pissed already and he could see the exact moment Inuyasha’s words really clicked in her mind. Her pupils contracted and faded completely, the pale lines of her scars darkening to scarlet and that weird gray tint smudging her skin around her eyes. Whatever she was about to do to the hanyou, it was going to be big.

Kagome slowly straightened her posture, sucking in long, deep breath as she obdurately schooled her expression into what she hoped was a bland enough look. Her hand came out, tangling in the front of his haori as she dragged more of his physical strength into herself and lifted him up as high as she could manage before demanding in a flat whisper, “You what?”

Inuyasha did his best to look unconcerned from the rather undignified position, and in the face of what he could sense humming off her aura, grabbing hold of her wrist and shifting his weight back to bring his feet back to the ground. He still had the advantage of strength and weight despite her ability to draw off him, and he used both to his benefit, “Until you prove to me that you’ve got ALL your youkai emotions under control, my way is safer. This way I don’t have to keep my eye on you constantly and worry about you fucking running off at every little thing.”

“I’m going to ask you once, Inuyasha,” Kagome shook off his hand, slapping her palm against his sternum and getting a grunt of surprise from him as he took a step back. “What EXACTLY did you just do?” she couldn’t completely keep the growl from her voice as her hand lifted self-consciously to the line of red around her neck.

Inuyasha smiled slightly, impressed by the change in her controlled reaction from only having the spell for a short time. Before she would have been off and running by now, making him chase after her to calm her down, but now she was standing in front of him and asking questions. Granted she HAD taken off, and had only come running back for an answer, but it was still better than what she’d done before, “The only times we had serious problems were when you went out of range. It’s an old spell… a youkai spell. I don’t even remember where I learned it, but it’s designed to keep unwilling or disobedient females close beside the male who claims them.”

“How close?” she gritted out, clenching and unclenching her hands spasmodically.

“I had Shippou make the circle just inside the edge of my spirit range,” Inuyasha rubbed his chest, his lips twitching in a smirk at the way her brows had steadily lowered. Kagome bristled badly enough under the constraint of the subduing spell, and now her youkai instincts were going into overdrive at hearing he’d tightened that restriction into this “leash.” He had to fight against the urge to chuckle, his amusement at her resentment directly linked to his own need to prove his dominance to his half-wild mate.

Kagome’s eyes had nearly gone black, “And when I get close to that ‘edge?’”

He held out his wrist, drawing her gaze the dark lines around his wrist, “I feel it twinge, you feel it heat, and you hit the barrier. You can’t go farther than that, koi, no matter how hard you push. And if you push too much, the circle gets smaller.”

“WHAT?!” she grabbed him again, yanking him forward in a physical display of just how deep her emotions were running beneath the hard won calm. “What the hell do you mean it gets smaller?” she demanded, almost nose to nose him.

Inuyasha’s shoulders shook slightly as his delight grew, “If you fight it, you’ll trigger part of the magic into thinking you’re being taken away from me. When that happens it drags you closer to make it easier for me to protect you from that threat.”

“Even if it’s just me trying to get away from you and not a ‘threat?’” Kagome bit down on her lip to keep from screaming at him the way she was dying to.

“Even then, Kagome,” he nodded. “Your miko power and youki; my youki; Miroku’s magic; and even Shippou’s kitsune-bi. You put yourself into that willingly and that made the barrier too strong for anyone to break, even you,” his voice lowered, one brow arched in almost playful teasing.

“You tricked me,” she bared her fangs, backing up when he reached for her. “This didn’t have anything to do with being disconnected, you just wanted to make sure I couldn’t go anywhere.”

“I did what I had to do to shut out those goddamn voices making you lose control,” his eyes narrowed fractionally at the wordless defiance. “What any mate would have done in my place if their bitch was behaving like you’ve been,” Inuyasha bared his fangs right back at her.

“Behaving like what?” Kagome’s hair fluffed out like an angry cat, increasing the feral look in her appearance.

“Behaving like a pup run wild,” he folded his arms over his chest and gave her an arrogant glare that only served to increase the family resemblance with Sesshoumaru. “You want to learn control, little girl, I’m going to teach it to you whether you like it or not. But you’re going to learn how I want you to.”

Kagome just barely resisted the urge to snarl, instead letting out a disgusted snort, “Why bother pretending the magic is there to protect me then, hn? Why not just say you fenced me in because you think I’m disobedient? You’re trying to punish me.”

“You are disobedient,” Inuyasha nodded in agreement, giving her a pointed glare when she hissed at him. “And it’s my responsibility to discipline you for that.”

“Is he trying to get Kagome to rip his ears off?” Shippou scaled Miroku’s robes to perch on the monk’s shoulder and whisper in disbelief. He watched tensely as Kagome’s growl deepened and dipped her head just enough to change her look from defensive to openly aggressive, “Casting that kind of spell? And being proud of it so openly?”

Miroku shook his head, gripping his staff tightly as he tried to move unobtrusively out of what he was certain was about to be a nasty fight. Sango came to his side, muttering darkly under her breath as she slung his arm over her shoulders and dragged him to the tree line, “If Kagome-chan doesn’t kill him, I’ll do it for her the moment I know she’s safe. He tricked us, houshi-sama!”

He slumped back against the tree she dropped him against, pressing his hand to the trunk to steady himself as he looked back at the two growling at each other across the clearing, “Inuyasha is trying to protect her. His methods may be extreme… but I… think he’s right.”

“Kagome-chan is human! He’s imposing a youkai punishment on her!” Sango protested, glaring at the monk and trying not to show her concern at how pale his face had become.

Shippou blinked at the exterminator and nervously reminded her, “Um, Sango? She IS a youkai now, and Miroku’s right. I just think he should have been… less excited about explaining it.”

Sango looked at them in alarm, “Are you both insane? This is Kagome-chan we’re talking about!”

Miroku turned to put his back to the tree, motioning to the pair, “You’re correct, Sango. This is Kagome-sama…”

Shippou fisted his hands in Miroku’s robe, restraining his own urge to run to Kagome’s defense, “He’s her mate and she’s been wild. If Kagome doesn’t learn to stop running off she really could get hurt. And she already HAS been hurt really badly when she ran before, but Inuyasha didn’t punish her those times…”

“Shippou is quite right,” a new, almost forgotten voice added matter-of-factly. “Inuyasha-sama’s behavior is perfectly acceptable as Kagome-sama’s mate.”

Three sets of eyes turned down to the tiny youkai in amazement while Miroku dryly inquired, “Myouga-jiji… just where have you been through all of this?”

Myouga bounced up and down in agitation, his face red with defensive embarrassment, “Why do you all have so little faith in me? There have been many rumors I felt obligated to research for Inuyasha-sama that kept me occupied elsewhere!”

Momentarily forgetting the tense scene unfolding in front of them, Shippou muttered over his shoulder to the monk, “He was probably scared of everything happening and ran away.”

Miroku nodded while the flea looked decidedly ill at ease, “Indeed. No doubt he sensed what occurred with Kagome-sama’s transformation. It has been dangerous, more dangerous than normal since she fell under this spell.”

“But Myouga-jiji is here now! Does that mean it’s safe again?” Sango frowned suddenly in surprise, her gaze darting to the nearly silent stalemate between Inuyasha and Kagome.

Myouga folded his arms across his torso, tilting his head down to convey an image of deep thought, “It’s true that Kagome-sama’s aura has been remarkably unstable lately, but Inuyasha-sama has… taken control of her. The worst of the fluctuations has been closed off, tamed in a sense. The aura around her is settling.”

Miroku frowned down at the youkai, "Is this because of the spell he just cast on her? This binding spell?"

Myouga nodded, "Kagome-sama’s youki became much more volatile whenever she went beyond a certain distance and now that she is no longer capable of doing so, there is not such a feeling of being drained when one is close to her. A small youkai such as myself would have been destroyed venturing too near were Inuyasha-sama not controlling her emotions."

Shippou frowned thoughtfully, "So that's why you stayed away. Okaa-san would have killed you when she was absorbing- wait… If it’s dangerous for small youkai, why didn't I ever get hurt? She’s been holding me when she was at her worst!"

"Youkai females are very protective of their young, Shippou," the flea scolded lightly, cracking one eye open to peer at the fox. "Kagome-sama obviously feels your aura as she would one of her own offspring and that protects you from her even at her most wild. Not all of us have such a luxury."

Shippou puffed up proudly at that, turning adoring eyes to Kagome while his tail twitched back and forth with the speed of his silent musing, 'Her own offspring... She thinks of me as her own pup? Kagome really DOES love me!'

"Myouga-jiji," Sango knelt down to frown at the youkai. "How exactly do you know all this if you have been hiding?"

"I haven't been hiding!" Myouga flushed and began hopping up and down in agitation again. "I was merely observing from a safe distance and trying to discover what had happened to Kagome-sama! It is a very complex transformation for a human girl to make in becoming a youkai, especially one so young, and I thought Inuyasha-sama could use more information!"

“Then what did you learn?” Miroku inquired, honestly curious about what the flea demon could have to offer.

Myouga wasn’t given a chance to answer, jumping up to hide on Shippou’s shoulder when Kagome broke the silent clash of wills. She let out a shriek of fury as the tenuous hold she had on her temper snapped, leaping across the clearing to slam her shoulder into Inuyasha’s chest and send them crashing backwards, “You sonofabitch!”

Shippou winced when they hit the ground, a rolling tangle of limbs as they wrestled and snarled at each other, both fighting for the dominant position. The kitsune let out a regretful sigh that was echoed almost simultaneously by the flea demon, “She really shouldn’t have done that.”

Inuyasha twisted, bringing his feet up and flipping her up over his head as he rolled to a crouch, eyes narrowing on her in sharp disapproval, “Kagome, behave..."

Kagome hopped to her feet, shaking her head to clear it as she turned to face Inuyasha again, “Behave, my ass. I’m on a leash, Inuyasha! You put me on a fucking leash like a pet! Like a DOG!”

“Bitch, you ARE a dog!” he snapped back at her, eyes carefully trained to watch the telltale twitching of muscles in her legs and shoulders. She would spring at him again soon… His ears swiveled forward and back, mind racing to plot out just how he wanted to handle her as he spoke, “Calm down, Kagome. If you really want so badly to fight, I’ll fight, but you know just as well as I do that you’re worn out. Do you want to knock yourself unconscious like you have before when you finally admit I’m right?”

She huffed defensively, trying to deny that bit of truth even as a blush tinted her cheeks. She was just as aware of what would happen when she stopped pulling his energy as he was, after all, she’d been purposefully ignoring the pulse of her own exhaustion underneath the borrowed youki since her fight with Sesshoumaru.

She bared her fangs, pushing that thought to the back of her mind and reaching up to press her fingertips to the warm line around her neck, “How do I get this thing off?”

“You don’t,” he growled at her again. “I’m keeping you close, koi, so you don’t get your goddamn impulsive ass killed!”

Kagome’s eyes narrowed and she flexed her claws, “I’ll show you impulsive.”

Inuyasha was ready when she raced at him again, ducking to catch his arm around her waist and use her momentum to spin her around away from him. Kagome blinked in surprise, trying to maintain her balance when his arm came around her again, dragging her back hard against his chest. She’d opened her mouth to snarl at him when she felt his teeth sink into the back of her neck, her eyes going wide when he removed his arm and gave her a firm shake with just his mouth before dropping her to the ground.

Kagome blinked wide eyes, trying to process what had occurred as she sat dazed where he’d unceremoniously dumped her. She managed to get her vision back into focus and look up as he leaned over her, pressing a clawed hand to her forehead, “You act like a pup and I’ll treat you like a pup, Kagome. You wasted all of your own strength on Sesshoumaru, and if you just relax, you’ll see how tired you really are.”

“I’m not too tired to fight with you, Inuyasha,” she twisted, bringing her heel against his ankle and sweeping his feet out from under him. The moment he was down, she pounced on him, grabbing his wrists and holding him, “Tell me how to break it! Now!”

Inuyasha rolled, bringing one leg up to wrap around her torso and slam her to the ground underneath him, “You won’t like how this ends if you don’t calm down.”

She managed to throw him off again, coming to her knees as she studied the set expression on his face, “It’ll end when I smash your head into the ground and you tell me how to take this off, you baka.”

Myouga grunted when they clashed again, nodding in approval when Inuyasha again managed to twist Kagome around and throw her with just a bite at the nape of her neck, “Inuyasha-sama will see to it that she recognizes her boundaries before he is finished. It will not be so dangerous to be near her after she knows what is appropriate.”

Shippou’s brows drew together while he winced sympathetically, “He really is fighting her like she’s just a pup; he’s hardly using his hands at all.”

Sango watched tensely, but her gaze still held a glint of curiosity as she watched Inuyasha repeatedly knock Kagome to the ground like Shippou had observed, like a dog batting at its pup. As much as she struggled to watch as a friend, a lifetime of taijiya training couldn’t be suppressed, and she studied the “fight” with a critical eye, “I’ve never seen inu youkai behavior like this so close before…”

Miroku folded his hand into his sleeves and sighed tiredly, shaking his head at the whiplash of youki filling the air every time they wrestled together, “This would be much easier if Kagome-sama would calm down and let her youkai blood settle.”

Myouga hopped back down to Shippou’s shoulder, satisfied the fight was going to stay well away from his perch, “Kagome-sama does not have the advantage of growing up as a youkai, having her pack to teach her what is acceptable and what isn’t. And Inuyasha-sama is not always the most calm example…”

Shippou snorted in disgust, “What a nice way of saying he’s usually just as wild as she is.”

Kagome came crashing to the ground a short distance in front of them, interrupting their observations and growling as she righted herself to a kneel with more effort than she had had to use previously, ‘Damn… he’s blocking it from me this time, keeping me from absorbing… but I need more! I’m not done yet!’

Inuyasha folded his arms over his chest, looking down at her with almost regal arrogance, “You’re running yourself into the ground, Kagome. Stop trying to pull off me and calm down.”

She pressed her palm hard against her throbbing chest, each heartbeat bringing a dull, intensifying ache from the healing flesh. The wounds she’d received from Sesshoumaru had yet to completely mend, and without pulling in more energy to sustain her rapidly waning strength, she was finally unable to ignore the feel of them.

Her eyes fluttered closed when her vision swam momentarily, her jaw clenching before she blinked and tenaciously focused on Inuyasha’s face, “I’m fine.”

“You are the most stubborn bitch I have ever known, koi,” Inuyasha walked forward and calmly crouched down on his haunches in front of her. She was swaying slightly, bracing herself up and gulping in long, deep breaths to stave off the swimming blackness he could feel dancing just below the surface. “Quit growling, Kagome, it’s not going to change anything,” he scolded lightly.

“I’m not finished,” she insisted, arms shaking as she tried to rise to her feet, but only succeeded in stumbling back to her knees.

“You are,” he shook his head, reaching out to lightly rub one of her ears, coaxing it from it’s flattened state to a more natural position. “You were exhausted during your fight with my asshole brother, and if Miroku’s so tired he can barely hold himself up, then I know the spell wiped out more than enough to wear you out on its own.” He gestured around the campsite expansively, “Do you want me to add what we’ve been doing now and just admit you should already have passed out cold an hour ago?”

“Get out of my head, Inuyasha, I know what I’m feeling,” she bristled in agitation, but completely ruined the image by leaning into his touch.

“If you’re going to ignore your body until you send yourself into a coma, then it’s my responsibility to sta- to BE in your head and make sure you don’t hurt yourself,” Inuyasha corrected himself when she tensed at the aborted word, sliding his hand down from her ear to her cheek. He frowned when he felt how hot her skin was against his palm, “You could burn out what’s left of your human blood if you aren’t careful, Kagome.”

“It’s my body,” Kagome reached up and wrapped her hand around his wrist, not nearly as concerned as she thought she would have been at the thought of her human blood disappearing.

Inuyasha looked down at her hand, his brows drawing together when he felt how weak her grip had become. He rocked forward on the balls of his feet, sliding one arm around her back and the other beneath her knees to pull her up into his lap. He ignored the token squirming, nipping her ear and settling her down as he sat back, tucking her protectively to his chest, “I told you before, it’s no fun fighting when you can’t fight me back.”

She grumbled under her breath, supremely irritated with herself at the way the tension was steadily melting away with every soothing stroke or wordless rumble vibrating from Inuyasha’s chest, “You’re a real jerk sometimes, Inuyasha.”

“And you’re a brat,” he returned easily. “This is the way it has to be, Kagome. This is the only way to keep you from running away and putting yourself in danger. Or would you rather have Naraku getting into your head because you get too far away from me?”

Kagome ducked her head, not meeting his gaze as she actually took a moment to process that. Inuyasha, whether or not she wanted to admit it, was right about that. If she couldn’t go out of Inuyasha’s range of spirit in the first place, according to the voices and even her own experience, she wouldn’t be vulnerable to outside influences.

“Well?” his hand came to her chin, tilting her face up to catch her eyes.

Her ears flattened back and she focused stubbornly on a point behind his head, “Why do I have to be tied to you like this?”

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, reaching up again to rub her ears and smirking in satisfaction when her eyes drifted closed, “Because this is the only way I can make sure you stay in range.” Her body was slowly slumping against his, urging him to tuck her even closer, “That’s it. Just relax and calm down so you can rest.”

“No,” she mumbled into his chest, hands already lifting to tangle in his haori as she rubbed her cheek against the comforting beat of his heart. She was just so tired, and Inuyasha was so warm…

Of course it didn’t help her any when he leaned forward and rested his chin on the top of her head, surrounding her even more with his soothing presence, “Aa. I can feel it, koishii, your body wants to sleep. Don’t you trust me to take care of you?”

“Cheater,” Kagome managed to tilt her face up, barely lifting one eyelid to look up at him, her gaze glassy from pain, exhaustion, and even fever. “You can’t say things like that,” she yawned hugely, closing her eye again and pressing against him, trying to curl up in his lap as small as she could.

“Why not?” Inuyasha’s lips twitched at the way she still tried to act angry even as she burrowed down in his arms.

Kagome could feel his ribs expand and contract in time with the warm breath fanning over her cheek, joined by the gentle, steady thump of his heart. No matter how hard she tried to push away her exhaustion and the void of unconsciousness pressing in on her, Inuyasha had managed to block off her attempts to pull in more energy, and he was right… She really had used all her energy, actually more than her own, when she’d been fighting with Sesshoumaru, but she hadn’t noticed with the massive amounts she had been absorbing from him. Then helping Inuyasha had eradicated the last of her borrowed strength from the youkai lord and even what she had pulled from Inuyasha afterwards, but she had ignored that fact to try and fight for removal of the spell.

Saying her body wanted to sleep was an understatement, and being tucked up in his lap, surrounded so possessively by his arms and his familiar scent was sapping away at her resistance. Unfortunately for her, losing that was sinking her deeper into groggy blackness even as she tried to mumble her answer before she completely lost consciousness, “It’s not fair when you already know how I feel. You’re… being sneaky… baka.”

Inuyasha did chuckle then, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead just as he felt her completely relax in his arms. He sighed in relief himself when her ears twitched, her back arching slightly as they slid to the sides of her head and shrunk back down into her slightly pointed human ears, “Fuck, it’s about time.”

Shippou perched on Inuyasha’s head, rolling his weight forward to get a better look at Kagome’s sleeping face, “She’s okay? She’s back to normal again?”

Inuyasha tilted his head, trying to shake the kitsune at least down to his shoulder as he felt his own transformation start to fade, “Better than she’s been the other times she pushed herself this far.”

Sango frowned when he rose to his feet, still holding Kagome protectively to his chest, “What were you thinking, Inuyasha? You used all of us to trap Kagome-chan.”

“She’s not trapped, Sango,” Inuyasha rolled his eyes, turning to face the troubled exterminator as the stripes faded from his face while the scarlet and blue reverted to his natural white and amber. “The barrier is mobile. I’m her central point, so if I move, it moves. She isn’t trapped in any one place.”

“Still-!” Sango started, shaking her head in protest.

“Inuyasha-sama has not done anything cruel or improper, Sango,” Myouga made his way to hop on Kirara’s head, urging the feline youki up to Sango’s shoulder. “Given the nature of Kagome-sama’s enchantment, I am surprised he did not secure her to his aura after they first mated.”

“I’ll deal with you later for making yourself scarce when I could have fucking used your advice for once,” Inuyasha glared pointedly at the flea.

Miroku was the only one who picked up the undertone in the hanyou’s voice, frowning as he leaned more of his weight on his staff and inquired, “Where are you going? Kagome-sama quite obviously needs to recover from her injuries.”

Shippou dug his claws into Inuyasha’s shoulder, his eyes widening in panic as he squeaked out his disjointed thoughts as rapidly as they came to him, “Go?! You can’t go! I’m coming with you!”

For once, rather than looking irritated with the kitsune, Inuyasha looked highly amused, “You can’t come with us, runt.”

Sango opened her mouth to speak, but stopped and frowned as a thought occurred to her, “Inuyasha… are you-?”

“Kagome and I should be back in a week,” one corner of his mouth kicked up in smug smirk. He lifted Kagome higher in his arms, rubbing his cheek against her own once before he almost casually licked at the abrasions on her face, “Head back to Kaede-baba’s and we’ll catch up.”

“But-!” Shippou protested sharply, squealing in startled fright when Inuyasha shook his head hard and knocked him loose. “Jerk!” he rubbed his head, scampering up onto Miroku’s head to glare up at Inuyasha.

“Will Kagome-sama be all right?” Miroku asked softly, his expression slightly concerned as he looked at the unnatural paleness of her face, and the shallow rise and fall of her chest.

“She’ll be just fine,” Inuyasha nodded easily, turning and testing the wind for direction. “All that fighting pushed her into heat… so it’s actually a good thing she’s so worn out. It’ll make it easier for me to hide her until she’s clear of it.”

Shippou’s eyes had rounded, the little growling dying abruptly as his mouth dropped open and he let out a startled, “Oh.”

“Tell Kaede-baba that we’re going to sit down and figure out what the fuck is going on when Kagome and I get back,” Inuyasha turned his back, tightening his arms securely around her lax form.

“Inuyasha, wait!” Sango took a step forward, holding out a hand as her face filled with a determined sort of uncertainty.

He glanced back over his shoulder with a frown, “Kagome’s my mate, Sango, and taking care of her is more important than arguing with you over whether or not she’s ‘trapped’ now.”

A faint blush touched her cheeks and she shook her head, “That wasn’t what I was going to say.”

One brow lifted curiously and he half turned, “Then what were you going to say?”

She looked off to one side, biting her lip and murmuring softly, “If… what they taught us about youkai females is true… Be careful.”

Inuyasha blinked in mild surprise and then grinned, nodding to the exterminator, “I’ll take care of her.”


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Friday, April 22, 2005

   Chapter 57: Far Enough To Scream...
Kagome arched away from him in reflex when she felt the odd vibration of power in the ofuda, it’s aura clashing with hers when they came close, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Inuyasha tightened his arm around her waist and held her still, frowning down at her when she bowed her body as far away from the charms as she could, “You’re a miko, Kagome, you don’t have anything to be afraid of.”

“But I’m a youkai too,” she shot back with a snort, her voice challenging. “And right now, THAT part is telling me I don’t want to touch those,” her ears twitched with agitation. “Why did you put them in your blood?” she scowled suspiciously, eyes searching his for the answers she wanted.

“You’re going to soak yours into this end,” he instructed in a deceptively flat voice, tapping the end once against her chest and drawing a startled yelp out of her at the odd jolt of heat. “And you’re going to do it willingly,” he added with a sharp glare.

“You’re out of your mind,” Kagome pressed a hand hard to her heart and scowled up at him despite her curiosity. The only times she’d been exposed to ofuda, REAL ofuda, all her blood had been human. It wasn’t exactly that the touch was painful to her in this form, it was just… bizarre, “Those feel… really weird, Inuyasha. I don’t like it.”

“That’s too damn bad,” Inuyasha bared his teeth, tightening his hold again when she renewed her attempt to twist away. “Do you want to keep the spell, Kagome?” his voice held a slightly taunting edge, eyes narrowed as he caught the startled gaze that snapped up to focus on him.

Kagome stopped leaned away to gape up at him in disbelief, “You’re fucking threatening me with that?!”

“I’ll ‘fucking threaten you’ with anything that gets you to agree to do this without fighting me,” he agreed without even a hint of remorse. “Behave and do as I say, or I’ll have to let that damn voice disconnect us to protect you.”

She set her jaw, brows lowered as she straightened her spine and growled out, “You sonofabitch.”

Inuyasha smirked as he brought the ofuda down against the blood at her throat, “No more than your sons will be, Kagome.”

The remark had the desired reaction, Kagome’s growl dying while her cheeks flamed and her hand dropped to instinctively press on her stomach, “I’m not-“

“Yet,” one brow arched in a taunt that had her averting her face and fidgeting nervously. “Well?”

Her shoulders hunched faintly, self-consciously, “What do I have to do with the ofuda?”

Inuyasha dipped his head and gave her a light kiss, “Good girl… All I need you to do is concentrate your magic into your blood for the ofuda to soak it up,” he answered, turning the paper against her neck to make sure she wasn’t using the magic as a buffer against the charms.

Kagome looked at him suspiciously, shivering faintly when the mingled aura of the paper slid through her blood. She hadn’t consciously tried to “send” her miko powers or her youki for that matter into anything but arrows, and that was only when she was fighting. She was getting extremely good at absorbing, so this shouldn’t be too hard, right? But WHY was she infusing her youki and magic into the papers? She could already feel the trace of holy powers from Miroku, the feeling dampened under Inuyasha’s considerable youki and…

Kagome’s eyes widened in alarmed shock, ‘This is… miko energy? From… from Inuyasha?’

“What IS this doing?!” Kagome’s aura rippled, and Inuyasha’s hand tightened on her to keep her from moving away. “How are you-? When did-?” she stumbled over the questions uncertainly, not wanting to bring it to his attention if he wasn’t aware of the change.

“I don’t remember when I learned it,” he admitted with a shrug that eloquently conveyed that he didn’t particularly care either. “But if I’m going to keep you from running off every time you get irritated, I need something that you can’t break. If I try holding you with just Miroku’s magic, OR mine, you’d walk right through it.”

The deep-seated apprehension returned, making her eyes widen with the implication, “Hold me?”

“Keep going, koi,” he ordered, tapping a claw against her collarbone when he felt the magic going into the ofuda flutter uncertainly. “I’ll tell you when you’ve infused enough.”

Miroku could already feel the pulse of energy in the charms, surprised and even a little alarmed at just how strong the sensation was. Inuyasha had never before seemed to be all that knowledgeable about spells and magic, but he certainly seemed to know exactly what was doing with those ofuda. Not only that, but the spell felt almost disturbingly complex, even multi-layered. But what was he intending to do?

If the hanyou was effortlessly casting a spell like this, he had to be MUCH more familiar with magic than he let on. The monk was frowning in confusion as he wondered just how much of Inuyasha’s ignorance was all an act. And if it really was to the extent he now suspected, then why had the hanyou felt the need to lie to them all about his knowledge in the first place?

“Inuyasha…. you can’t really be intending to try and seal Kagome into a hut, can you?” he inquired, his voice displaying his own disbelief in that theory even as he prodded for the real answer.

Inuyasha snorted, taking the flame out of Kagome’s eyes by denying that idea before she could lose her temper, “What kind of idiot do you think I am? Sealing her into a hut wouldn’t fix anything, even if I could get her inside one when she’s like this and expecting that. But even if I did, all I’d have would be a pissed off mate about to cycle on top of everything else.”

Sango looked at Kagome in alarm when he said that, “Then she really is going to have-?”

Inuyasha huffed to stop the older girl when he saw the confusion in Kagome’s eyes, she wouldn’t understand yet and he wanted to take care of this spell before he tried to explain what exactly she was about to experience. He looked at the curiosity in Kagome’s eyes and fought the urge to growl in irritation, traveling with a youkai exterminator definitely had its drawbacks.

“You really are balanced again,” he improvised quickly.

Kagome’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, “You’re avoiding telling me what the hell you’re trying to do with our blood on Miroku’s ofuda.”

Inuyasha was actually relieved to hear her still focusing her attention on the spell, turning his gaze down to the ofuda when the pulse of energies smooth from three separate feelings into a single, potent mix, “Don’t worry, Kagome, this won’t hurt a bit.”

Her lip curled in dry annoyance at the smug, almost cheerful tone to his voice, “You’ll understand if that’s not exactly inspiring confidence.”

“You really shouldn’t doubt your mate,” he smirked and lifted the charms, holding the thin line of untouched paper spaced between the bloody ends. “Oi, Miroku, Shippou, this is the part where you help me,” he called back over his shoulder, drawing the two closer while Kagome took advantage of his averted face and stuck out her tongue in a show of pique.

Shippou looked absolutely delighted to be helping, rushing forward and jumping to Kagome’s shoulder to give her a quick kiss on the cheek before focusing on Inuyasha. He patted her shoulder absently while he fairly bristled with excitement and demanded, “Now? I can help now?”

Inuyasha held the ofuda up to Miroku first, arching one brow when the monk’s brow furrowed with concern and he seemed about to protest, “The spell, bouzu. Cast the same one you cast on me that time you stuck me in the hut with Shippou, but I want it stronger. As much magic as you can pump into them, got it?”

Miroku let out a resigned sigh and started to reach for the charms only to have Inuyasha pull them away and shake his head, “I can’t risk you smearing them. It’ll work the same from right there, so don’t try telling me that you can’t do it unless you’re holding them.”

Kagome was too distracted wishing she actually had the heart to throttle Shippou for being so thrilled at the prospect of helping Inuyasha to notice the look the monk shot her before he nodded and lifted his hand, focusing his powers. However, she definitely noticed when the charms began to glow, the tattoo giving a heavy lurch matched by her own heart and disturbingly enough… echoed through the ofuda.

“Oh hell,” she mumbled, grinding her teeth when the chill of magic went down her spine. Reassurances or not, something about that mix was agitating her, urging her to get away from it before he could finish the spell. She bit down on her lip, fighting against that feeling to prove to Inuyasha that she could control the youkai emotions.

“Try to relax, koi,” Inuyasha taunted gently, the arm around her flexing when he felt her legs twitch and sensed the small battle she was having in her head.

“Let me up and I’ll relax,” Kagome shot back with a challenging scowl, his obvious enjoyment in the face of her discomfort irritating her to no end.

He shook his head in denial, “If I let you up, you might run away again, and I already told you I’ve had enough of that. Be patient, Kagome, I’m almost done.” His gaze slid away from hers to Shippou’s expectant face, “Listen up, runt, I’m giving you the important job.”

Shippou puffed up importantly, hopping from her shoulder to her lap and standing as tall as he could, “I won’t mess up! What do I do?”

“Keep casting, bouzu,” Inuyasha frowned when he felt Miroku start to pull back, holding the ofuda out to Shippou. “Your hands are small enough, hold them right in the middle here where the blood doesn’t touch,” he instructed easily, watching while the little kitsune reached out to hold them with painstaking care.

“Like this?” Shippou hopped to the ground, holding the paper with both hands and looking up at the transformed hanyou for praise. ‘This is the first time Inuyasha has actually asked me to do something this important! I can show him I’ll take care of Okaa-san just as much as he will!’

Inuyasha rubbed Shippou’s head and smirked, glancing sideways at Kagome’s tense expression, “Aa, just like that. Now run straight out away from us and when I tell you to stop, put one down and mark it with your kitsune-bi. You should have enough to make a circle around us from that far away.”

His eyes widened and he nodded vigorously, turning to grin up at Kagome reassuringly, “Don’t worry, Okaa-san, we’ll make sure you’re safe!”

Inuyasha waited until the kit had darted off and turned to Sango, “Follow him with Kirara, but let him put down the ofuda himself.”

Sango glared at him, folding her arms over her chest even as Kirara transformed, “I’m not helping you seal Kagome anywhere, Inuyasha. You want her trapped you can do it yourself.”

Kagome grinned at the defense, mimicking Sango’s pose as best she could while Inuyasha growled in annoyance, “Dammit, Sango, I don’t have time for this! I’m not sealing Kagome, but if we can’t protect her from the voices outside the range of spirit Naraku could get hold of her again. Do you want that?”

The exterminator’s determination visibly wavered as she looked between the two of them and then to where Miroku was deep in meditation, focused on the sealing spell in the distant ofuda, “But…. the spell….”

“She isn’t going to be trapped like I was,” he frowned, tilting his head as he tested the wind for Shippou’s distance. “The voices said they opened up the path to her soul, but mine can keep them out of her head inside that range. I’m trying to close that path!”

Sango set her jaw, her hands flexing as she shook her head, “I don’t-“

“Please, Sango,” Inuyasha scowled in frustration over the uncharacteristic politeness of his request, the scowl darkening at the look of absolute shock on both girls’ faces. “It’s not THAT rare that I say please!” he protested crossly.

“Yes it is,” Kagome muttered, ears flattening back when she saw the same hesitant resignation in Sango’s eyes that had been in Miroku’s before he started casting the binding spell.

Inuyasha leaned over to absently nip her ear in censure, his eyes on Sango expectantly, “Well?”

She was silent a moment more and then turned, “Kirara.”

“Arigatou, Sango,” his lips quirked as she climbed astride her youkai. “Just make sure Shippou lays the ofuda in an even circle around this point and marks them,” the tension smoothed out of his shoulders when she nodded stiffly and took to the air.

Kagome turned up her nose haughtily when he chuckled and rose to his feet, dragging her up against his chest and holding her still, “If I wasn’t so worried about both of us losing our tempers, I’d bite you, you pompous asshole.”

He leaned down and caught her lips for a gentle kiss, silencing the growl in her throat while her arms reflexively unfolded to slide around his neck to pull him closer to her. Inuyasha’s ear twitched when he broke the kiss, purring as he rubbed his chin on her head soothingly before he turned and let out a sharp sound like a bark. At Kagome’s bemused look, he stroked his hand up and down her spine and answered, “Shippou’s far enough away.”

Her own ears twitched when she heard the distant, high-pitched “kitsune-bi” where the kitsune obediently marked the ofuda, “I can’t believe they’re helping you.”

“Why not?” he shrugged, unconcerned with the disgruntled tone. “We all know you aren’t thinking clearly, and you should know by now that we’ll do anything to keep you safe. Even if you fight us.”

Kagome blushed, averting her face, “When did you get so damn good at being reasonable, hn?”

“You just weren’t listening before,” he snorted, lifting his hand to stroke her cheek. “I’m impatient, Kagome, not stupid.”

Kirara and Sango returned before Kagome could respond, the exterminator looking mildly surprised as she remarked, “Shippou-chan is…. quite fast when he wants to be.”

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, “He’s had plenty of practice with all the running away he’s done. He’s almost as bad as Myouga-jiji.”

“Inuyasha!” Shippou called out, his voice slightly worried as he scampered back into the campsite, gingerly holding out a single ofuda. “There was one left, but I made them a circle like you asked!” he jumped to the hanyou’s shoulder.

“There was supposed to be,” Inuyasha plucked it from his hands and wuffed at the kit approvingly. He lifted the forgotten scrap of fire-rat fur and laid the last charm across it, youki and magic crackling between the two while he held it to Shippou expectantly.

“Kitsune-bi!” he slapped a hand down on the torn fabric, obviously relieved and delighted that he’d done it right.

The moment the foxfire touched the bloody charm, there was a blinding flash followed immediately by a staggering wave of energy snapping through the campsite and knocking all but Inuyasha and Kagome off their feet. Kagome let out a scream of outrage that was nearly lost amongst the other cries of surprise when Inuyasha’s free hand yanked her forward, wrapping half the strip around her throat. Before she could pull away, he twisted his hand, wrapping the loose ends of fabric around his wrist twice and holding them both still.

Kagome hissed, her eyes momentarily copying his as she tried to pull out of the energy funneling inward from the radius of Shippou’s circle. Inuyasha tightened his hand and yanked her forward, his other hand dropping to the small of her back while he again caught her mouth with his to take advantage of just how close she was to her cycle to keep her from fighting against the spell until it was complete.

Miroku shielded his eyes against the light, gaping in tense surprise at the visible streams of almost blinding fire. The violent mix of colors was curling around and around the pair before soaking into the wrapped fabric around Kagome’s neck and Inuyasha’s wrist. “What the hell?!” his brows snapped together.

The last of the flames wrapped around them, pulling them closer together before it completely soaked into the fabric, pulsing once and then dissolving the fur and ofuda into a thin line of scarlet tint where it had rested against skin.

“What WAS that?” Sango pushed herself to her feet, eyes wide as she rubbed at her arms, trying to smooth the tingling down her skin and making her hair stand on end.

Kagome shoved Inuyasha away from her, her hands coming up to grasp at her neck, searching for the strip of fur, “What did you do? Inuyasha!”

Inuyasha was looking at the two lines of red around his wrist, his brows lifting and lips quirking in a smug smile, “Sonofabitch, it does work!”

She bared her fangs, snarling as she slid farther away from him, “What WORKED?!”

To their complete and utter shock, Inuyasha didn’t answer and instead just casually strolled back to the campfire, dropping down into his usual cross-legged position. He folded his arms over his chest, sliding his hands into his sleeves as the tension visibly released across his shoulders.

“It’s late,” he called back at his stunned companions calmly, looking for all the world as though nothing out of the ordinary had taken place. “We should get some sleep before we head back to Kaede-baba’s in the morning.”

Kagome’s lip curled angrily, eyes darkening as she turned, all thoughts of proving she wouldn’t run away gone in a heartbeat as she shot off into the woods. Shippou let out a shriek of alarm, torn for a moment between trying to catch Kagome and yelling at Inuyasha to demand what he was thinking. Finally he opted for the stationary target, leaping across the clearing to yank hard on the hanyou/youkai’s ears, “What the hell are you doing?! Go after Kagome-Okaa-san before she gets out of range and gets into more trouble!”

“Don’t have to,” Inuyasha rolled his shoulders easily, taking his right hand out of his sleeves to stare at the double lines on his wrist.

“But, Inuyasha-!” Miroku leaned heavily on his staff, drained after using that much energy and determined not to show it until they had dealt with what was going on now.

He was cut off abruptly when they heard what was obviously Kagome’s voice giving first a startled yelp and then raised in a string of curses that even had Inuyasha’s eyes widening in appreciation. Inuyasha smirked at looked at the way the lines had started to glow faintly, sparking in an erratic rhythm, ‘It really worked.’

Kagome was back as quickly as she had run off, her eyes blazing and perceptibly trembling with suppressed anger, all of it aimed at Inuyasha’s back as she enunciated each word in a slow, deadly hiss, “What…the…FUCK?!”

Sango lifted her hand to her mouth, her eyes going from Kagome’s neck to Inuyasha’s wrist, “Inuyasha… did you-?”

Inuyasha turned an almost nauseatingly smug grin over his shoulder and drawled out, “What’s wrong, koi?”

She stalked across the space separating them, bending down to grab the closest ear and yank him to his feet with a yelp of pain, “It was like running into a goddamn brick wall, Inuyasha! I felt myself getting close to the edge of your aura and all of a sudden my neck got hot, I slammed into nothing, and knocked myself flat on my ass!!”

“You said she wasn’t going to be trapped!” Sango yelled at him, her eyes flaming as she habitually reached for her Hiraikotsu.

“She’s not,” Inuyasha reached up and took Kagome’s hand away from his ear, rubbing it with a frown as he ignored the deep-throated growl coming from her. “Not that way, at least.”

“Then what did your spell do?” Miroku reached out, putting a restraining hand on Sango’s shoulder when the girl looked about ready to commit serious mayhem against Inuyasha. “What did Kagome-sama run into?”

Inuyasha bent down and kissed her on the tip of the nose while she took several deep breaths, restraining herself with great effort while she waited for his explanation. He reached up and gently rubbed her ear to change the growl into a purr as he answered matter-of-factly, “I collared my bitch.”


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Monday, April 18, 2005

   Chapter 56: From Deep Within...
Miroku looked from the charms in his hands up to the glaring match between the two of them and finally to meet Sango’s concerned eyes. He cleared his throat, and frowned at Inuyasha again, “Inuya-?”

“Now, bouzu!”

Kagome smacked him in the chest with her free hand, trying to pull her other free to check his wound as she absently growled out, “Don’t be rude, Inuyasha, they have nothing to do with this.”

Inuyasha growled, twisting his shoulder away from her searching hands. Eyes blazing in anger, he hooked his ankle behind her knees and shoved, sending her to the ground. He was on top of her in the next second, pinning her arms down with his knees and baring his fangs at her, “Don’t bitch about me being rude, Kagome, this is really not the time to accuse me of that. Be still and quit trying to run off or I’ll make you.”

“You bastard!” Kagome snapped up at him, turning her head to bite his thigh.

Inuyasha leaned down, sinking his fangs into her throat and making her suck in a sharp gasp. The vibration of the violent snarling made her tense, eyes wide at the sudden rush of blood and the lurch in her heartbeat. Her chest expanded as she held her breath, everything about him screaming at her to submit to him as the dominant and her hands fisted tight over his thighs while a faint whine escaped her in reflex.

Satisfied at the sound, he slowly released the hold, swiping his tongue up the column of her throat to soothe the seeping bites. He slid forward, scraping his fangs over her cheek, then up to nip her nose before dropping his head and biting down, hard and brief on her shoulder, “You’re in for a hard lesson if you try pushing right now, bitch. I’m not feeling especially forgiving. Understood?”

Kagome was panting lightly, eyes wide and ears flattened back as she swallowed hard and tried to calm the unexpected pounding in her blood that was sliding down her spine to form a low, interesting pulse in her stomach. ‘Why now?’ she thought a little frantically, trying to shake off the beginnings of the familiar ache.

Snorting at what he knew was only a temporary distraction, he threw a dark scowl over his shoulder to the hesitating monk, “Don’t fucking make this more difficult, bouzu, now give them to me before she starts fighting again! I want those ofuda and I want them now!”

Miroku let out a sigh, but was unwilling to take a chance of unintentionally setting them off in another round of fighting. Arguing, they could definitely take and would probably be hearing a lot of. However, Kagome did not appear to be in any condition for more fighting, despite how ready she seemed to WANT to keep trying.

His expression was grim as he came closer, holding the ofuda out to Inuyasha’s outstretched hand. The youkai all but ripped them away and jerked his head, clearly indicating that he wanted the monk to back away. Miroku, however, paused and looked from Inuyasha’s enraged expression down to Kagome’s look of shock, “What do you intend to do with those, Inuyasha?”

“Something I should have done when this started,” he muttered, glaring down at the little papers heating his palm. Miroku was a powerful monk, regardless of his personality flaws; even better, both he and Kagome were even stronger. The monk’s skills with Kagome’s miko powers on top of his youki would make this almost ridiculously easy, “Something I would have done if I’d been thinking clearly. And you’re going to help me,” he slanted the monk a sideways glance that dared him to argue or refuse.

Miroku held up his hands in a placating gesture and nodded, “You know we will do anything we can to protect Kagome-sama.”

He grunted in approval before turning back to look at Kagome and capture her gaze. Despite the speed he’d used to procure them, Inuyasha’s hand closed carefully around the enchanted papers as he waited for her eyes to refocus on him, “I am so goddamn sick and tired of having to keep my eyes on you like a pup, Kagome. You have absolutely no regard for how serious it is that you ‘stay’ calm and ‘stay’ close!”

Kagome bared her teeth when her legs went numb under the spell’s effect, Inuyasha letting his legs slide down to straddle her hips now that she had lost her inability to use her legs for leverage. She opened her mouth on a hiss to snarl at him, but he lifted the hand with the charms and smacked them hard against her nose, arching an eyebrow when she yelped and gaped at him.

“Not a fucking word, not yet,” he took the hand away and to her confused fascination, dragged the lower half of the ofuda stack over the blood pooling on his shoulder. “You’re acting like a spoiled little girl, and worse, I’ve been letting you. I was so worried with keeping you calm that you’ve gotten even more wild than even *I* ever was. That’s my fault and it’s unacceptable.”

Her brows drew low at what she saw as an insult, but the tightening of his thighs around her hips warned her that he wasn’t done. With her throat and shoulder still throbbing from the bites he’d given her, and that absolutely degrading swat to her nose, she felt it safer to let her displeasure show in a throaty growl.

Inuyasha shook his head, keeping the ofuda on his shoulder with one hand and reaching down to wrap the other around her throat, “You told me to start acting like your mate, but if you really want that, then you’re going to have to give me the same damn thing! Just because I haven’t been disciplining you the way I should doesn’t mean I won’t. And that means no more of this juvenile shit unless you want the punishment that goes with it.”

Kagome was startled enough to fall silent, her eyes sliding away from his to where the ofuda had started to sizzle, soaking the bottom of the papers dark crimson. Inuyasha growled, his arm tightening to draw her gaze back to his, “Sesshoumaru wanted you to prove that you were strong enough-”

Her shoulders hunched defensively, eyes narrowing as she cut in with a quick argument, “He was giving me a chance-!”

“Don’t mention anything else about him!” Inuyasha cut her off sharply, his ears flattening back as the muscles along his arms and shoulders went taut. “I can smell that bastard all over you and it’s REALLY not helping me calm down, Kagome.”

Miroku reached out to take the ofuda away when he noticed the slight hiss it was making against the hanyou’s shoulder. Cursing himself for not considering that the hanyou’s youkai form would be sensitive to the ofuda’s powers, he began apologetically, “Inuyasha, the binding scrolls-“

“A little longer,” he barked out, lifting his shoulder to block Miroku’s hand the same way he had Kagome’s earlier attempt. Doing his best to swallow his irritation at all the interruptions, he took a deep breath and looked back down at Kagome’s flushed face, “I know exactly what I’m doing.”

Kagome was watching him intently, her cheek twitching as she ground her teeth in tense frustration. There was a determined glint in the murky violet of her eyes, but gratefully, they showed no sign of fully reverting. She was balanced, and she was calm enough to be controlling herself, but for how long?

The youkai blood was even more volatile with how close she was to her cycle, and Sesshoumaru fighting with her, not to mention his own transformation, only excited the blood, bringing her to the edge. This was not going to be one of her more calm weeks, even if he DID get her under control….

“The first thing you do is run,” his brows lowered while he shifted his hold on her enough to rake his claws down her chest and press his palm flat to the tattoo. “If I’m fighting, you fight because you know I’m too busy to stop you. Anything else and you either sneak off when my back is turned, or you hit me and run as fast as you can. It’s just as bad as before when I couldn’t subdue you and you’d go running off through the goddamn well!”

A blush spread across Kagome’s cheeks and she averted her face. She had tried listening, but this just demanded that she answer and she snapped out defensively, “What about when you run off to be alone, hn?! I’m not doing anything that you haven’t done before!”

“Have I done it recently?” he challenged, his voice taking on a hard edge from his own frustration. “Hell, Kagome, what kind of an idiot do you take me for? As soon as you told me the voices warned you to stay in my spirit range I haven’t ONCE been the one that moved you out of it. You’re the one who goes too far and then ends up losing your head and getting your fucking ass attacked!

“You attract more life-threatening situations than any other creature I have EVER known,” he continued, gesturing expansively. “Even Shippou stays out of trouble better than you do and he’s a kitsune! You were like that even before the spell and now it’s only gotten worse! Now it’s like you go looking for it instead of it just falling into your lap. Why the hell do you think I’ve been trying so hard to keep you close to me?!”

She opened her mouth, taking in a breath to yell, but abruptly stopped. Kagome pulled back, blinking in confusion as the scarlet in her eyes faded away completely. Her eyes widened as she tried to come up with even one time he’d run off alone since the time she’d been attacked at the well, ‘He…. he’s right…. Every time I went out of range…. it was my fault. And I’ve ended up fighting someone until Inuyasha came for me.’

“You’ve almost been killed by Kikyou; kidnapped and enchanted by Naraku; and now you’re taking challenges from Sesshoumaru!” Inuyasha’s accusation grew in volume with each word that he growled in her face, his fingers tensing and claws pricking into her side. “What next, Kagome?! How are you going to top that, hn?”

“I….” she started in a weak voice, but it died under the anger in his eyes, and her ears flattened back under a flood of guilt.

“It’s been so fucking up and down that if you weren’t pulling it off me on purpose, I would have snapped a long time ago,” his eyes narrowed sharply and he leaned down low to bring him nose to nose with her. “I refuse to be on my guard every damn second just waiting for the next time you lose control. I’m not going to do it again,” he promised in a low voice.

“Then help me!” Kagome yelled back at him in frustration. “I’ve never been a youkai in my life and these things I feel…. They’re so strong that I just…. Before I know what’s happening I’m just reacting!”

“That’s what I intend to put a stop to,” Inuyasha leaned down even more, his mouth hovering just over hers and his voice quieting to a low snarl through gritted teeth. “It’s not your choice anymore, Kagome. When the voice comes back, I’m going to do what it asks so we can get this fixed!”

“I don’t want the spell gone, Inuyasha!” she fisted her free hand in his haori, setting her jaw in grim determination. “Wait…. What the voice asks?”

“What do you think is fucking telling me to release my hold? Were you listening at all before you punched me and ran off?” he reared up and demanded, muscles twitching uncomfortably from the stress of holding his taut frame still when he youkai side was screaming to let go. “He told me that if I didn’t tell you what it said, he would tell you himself. It’s not like I have a choice either!”

“And you believe him?” Kagome’s back arched as she fought his hold again. “Those ‘voices’ are what started all this in the first place! That’s how Onigumo and Naraku talked to me, and you think this one will help?”

“You think I’m willing to take chances like that with your soul?! This one ‘wanted’ me to feel him! He wanted me to know he was a full youkai, and he was only too happy to tell me that he would do whatever it took to make you aware of how to set yourself free!” Inuyasha clamped down on her hard, his voice full of enraged disbelief as he moved his hand from the tattoo back to her throat to hold her still.

“Free?” her hands came up to grab the front of his haori and yank hard to drag his face closer to hers again. “Is that how you see this? You want to be ‘free?’ Goddammit, Inuyasha, I tell you I love you, I mated with you; is that supposed to all just go away because you want it to?!”

“Being my mate isn’t something that is going to ‘go away,’ bitch!” he warned darkly, the unmistakable threat in his voice that she’d even dared to voice the suggestion. “The spell might be breakable, but the mating isn’t even up for discussion. You’re mine, Kagome,” the hand on her throat went from holding, to lightly dragging his claws down her throat. He fought the urge to smirk when he felt her shiver, “What you gave me, you can’t take back. Even if the voice said it could.”

“I don’t want to go back to being a human, Inuyasha. Humans die,” her voice lowered as her eyes almost closed involuntarily under that stroking touch.

Inuyasha stared silently, pressing his palm more firmly over the tattoo again to feel his own heart beating through her. It was getting harder and harder to keep arguing with her about this while he was still fighting with his own conscience and desires. He wanted to agree…. All of Kagome’s objections were the same ones that he had himself, but didn’t that just prove it really wasn’t all coming from her? But she seemed so adamant. What if it wasn’t all him?

He shook his head, growling in aggravation at his continued attempts to rationalize keeping the connection, “I’ve been too selfish with you already, Kagome. This time I’m doing what’s best for you.”

“Then let me be selfish for a change,” she pleaded in a low hiss, her eyes going huge and liquid with emotion. “You want to do what’s best for me? Don’t let go of the spell. Don’t fight me like this!”

Inuyasha slowly forced his legs to relax their tight hold on her hips, feeling the muscles in her legs twitch with the return of feeling, but remain lax with inactivity. ‘Dammit, it CAN’T be! But she just…. she sounds so sure. What if she wants it for a different reason?’ Then couldn’t he be certain it was really coming from her? Would he have to feel guilty about wanting to keep the spell? She was calmer now, probably only his change keeping her from fully reverting to her almost human appearance, he could feel it and see it in her eyes. So maybe he could take her answer seriously?

Only one way to find out.

He took great pains to keep a stern glare on his face, focusing completely on the feel of the emotions in the back of his head, “Why?”

Kagome blinked, her thoughts stumbling with the sudden change in the argument from Inuyasha’s unbending position to actually questioning her, “What?”

“Why, Kagome? Why don’t you want to change?” Inuyasha repeated, fighting the urge to shake her into understanding how important this was.

Kagome jerked back slightly, her eyes filling with irritation, “Why?! Are you insane? Why wouldn’t I want to be like this? I’m strong; I’m fast…. I don’t feel like I’m a bother or that all I’m going to do is distract you by needing to be protected! I don’t feel like an obligation any more.”

“Baka,” Inuyasha muttered, cutting into her tirade and frowning at her. “Is that what you thought?”

“It’s true!” Kagome’s cheeks flushed with embarrassed anger. “Damn, Inuyasha, do you want me to count how many times you’ve almost gotten killed just because you had to save me? I hated that,” her voice faded to almost a whisper of self-disgust as she continued to meet his searching gaze. “Every fucking time I knew the only reason you were hurt was because of me. Because I was too slow and too weak for you to focus.”

Inuyasha caught his breath, his mind racing furiously in a tangle of excitement of guilt. Kagome had paused, but he could tell there was more she wanted to say, and he wasn’t about to stop her when she was finally getting this out of her system. Would it help her calm down and control the youkai blood? Now that he would know what she really thought?

Maybe that way he could keep her connected to him and keep her out of the dangers she was experiencing every time she lost her hold. He’d had to learn as a child, she was right about that, so why couldn’t he teach her too?

‘But it really is different! Why she wants it…. Sure, some of it may be a little like why I want her to stay like this, but her reasons are….’ His thoughts trailed off as he let the barest of sighs escaped him and he prodded to end her continuing silence, “Why didn’t you tell me you felt like this?”

Kagome just shook her head, “It wouldn’t have been fair. You’ve always done ALL the work, you, Miroku, Sango, and even Shippou sometimes! All I can do is see those goddamn shards….”

“Kagome….” Inuyasha growled warningly, angry that she was so fast to downplay her own skills.

“And before you never looked at me,” she ignored him, her ears drooping as her gaze again shifted uncomfortably to the side.

“What the fuck are you talking about? I looked at you all the time! That didn’t change at all,” he cupped her chin and squeezed gently.

Kagome leaned up, ignoring the faint rumble in his throat as she lifted her clawed hand and lightly slid them down his cheek. Her eyes softened and a sad smile teased the corner of her lips, “Not the way you do now…. And I wanted…. for so long, Inuyasha.”

Inuyasha couldn’t prevent the way the heat in his eyes changed from anger to smoldering passion, releasing her face to glide his claws up her arm and take her hand as he repeated in an almost wondering voice, “For so long?”

Her blush darkened, but for a completely different reason this time while she admitted, “Almost from the start, but I never wanted to hurt you. Before you…. were sealed, you seemed to think you had to change, and I don’t want you to be anything else. But if you stay hanyou and I go back to being human, I’d age and you….”

Inuyasha stayed silent when her voice trailed off again, just staring at her for a long moment before he let out a low sigh and murmured, “You want to stay connected to me….”

“Baka!! What do you think I’ve been screaming at you about?!” she started squirming again, helpless to the tears that tracked down her cheeks unnoticed to herself, but not the hanyou above her. “Why do you think I ran away? YOU were trying to change me!”

“And YOU don’t want it,” he clarified one more time, holding her down when she almost succeeded in pulling herself free.

“NO!” Kagome barked sharply. “Have you listened at all?!”

Inuyasha leaned down and caught her mouth for a long, searching kiss, focusing on his emotions in an effort to let her feel them. She went taut; startled at the contact after she’d been so absolutely certain she knew exactly what was going on. But she’d been sure that Inuyasha wanted the connection broken…. why could she feel his relief at her denial if that was true?

‘Maybe he doesn’t want it broken either?’ she thought distantly as her eyelids slipped completely closed, her attention much more focused on the warm feel of his mouth moving over her own.

He answered her a second later when he pulled away just enough to speak, smirking when she frowned and tried to kiss him again. He made a slight rumble of momentary denial and murmured, “Then that fucking bastard can kiss my ass. We’ll just have to take other precautions.”

Kagome blinked owlishly when he looped his arm around her back and sat up, pulling her into a seated position. Her heart lurched and then began to pound hopefully, “Other…. precautions? What are you talking about? You…. you don’t want….?”

“Hell, Kagome, I don’t want it gone either!” Inuyasha gave her a glare for even hinting that he would have. “You think I want to go back to that one-sided subduing? Especially after I’ve had mine? You’d break my back without a second thought.”

“I would not!” she denied, blushing and looking away to settle her gaze on the relieved expressions on Sango and Miroku’s faces.

Convinced the worst of the danger had passed, they had come closer, looking down at the pair expectantly. Sango was the one who reached out and lightly touched Inuyasha’s shoulder as she inquired, “What do you intend to do, Inuyasha?”

Inuyasha tightened his hold on Kagome, turning the ofuda in his hand so that he held the bloodstained ends, “Making sure this doesn’t happen again.”


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Sunday, April 17, 2005

   ........
sorry for the long wait, my security program has caused some problems with access to this site. i've updated it, and now i'm back. you might notice some changes in my personality, as well. some things have occured that made me realize something.
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Sunday, March 13, 2005

   Chapter 55: Through My Eyes...
Kagome heard the leashed menace in Inuyasha's voice, her ears flattening back self consciously, "Let go of me, Inuyasha."

"Not on your fucking life, little girl," Inuyasha growled, rising easily to his feet with Kagome still pinned to his chest. "How dare you?" he turned her in his arm, one arm banded around her waist and the other lifting to her chin to tilt her face up. "How dare you fucking run away from me after you promised you wouldn't!?"

Kagome set her jaw, her chin lifting out of his hand before she averted her face and stubbornly stayed silent.

Inuyasha's hold tightened, forcing her face back, "Don't even think I'll let you behave like that, Kagome. You try pushing me right now and you're not going to like the results, understand?"

Her brows lowered as she yanked hard against his hold, "What did you think I would do, Inuyasha?! I never ask you for anything and suddenly you ask me to give this up?" she gestured to herself with her chin when he refused to release her arms. "You go running off all the time when you want to be alone!" she accused hotly.

"I don't go running off to attack the first youkai I come across," he hissed in answer, baring his fangs. "You know how serious it is to balance and control yourself and you STILL went jumping off and fucking attacked Sesshoumaru!! Of ALL the damn worthless youkai you could have found, you run into him! Are you really that unlucky or are you purposefully doing everything you can to piss me off?"

"I didn't know I was going to run into him!" Kagome hissed defensively, her brows drawing together when her knees shook slightly. 'Damn... I'm starting to feel it,' her fingers curled in his haori, holding her steady against him. She didn't feel quite as tired as she had the other times, but she could feel the blackness teasing just at the edge of her consciousness as the pain turning into a nagging throb through her injuries.

"If you hadn't, would you still be running?" Inuyasha bent, lifting her effortlessly in his arms and stalking past the others as though they weren't even there on his way back to the campsite. "Is Sesshoumaru the only reason you stopped?"

"And if I say yes?" she grumbled in annoyance, folding her arms over her chest.

Inuyasha's lip curled back off his fangs and his eyes blazed down at her averted face, "Goddammit, you promised me that no matter what you wouldn't run away again, Kagome!"

"I said I wouldn't leave you, not that I wouldn't run," she shivered faintly, eyes closing as she tried to hold back the memory filling her thoughts at the reminder. She breathed a few choice curses under her breath when she felt her heart lurch and then warmly pulse in time to the tattoo as his aura cracked through the last of her barriers and rebalanced.

Inuyasha's growl momentarily changed to one of satisfaction, his hands tightening to lift her higher against his chest, "That's better. It really is getting easier every time you make me do it this way."

Kagome blushed, well aware of why his hands had gone from tense to faintly stroking and growled herself to banish the mental images. She could feel the youkai blood calm, blinking to clear her eyes when she could actually feel them changing back, "I wanted to be alone, Inuyasha. I wanted to think and running seemed like a good way to keep from getting angry."

"Don't bullshit me, Kagome," Inuyasha snorted, glancing back to be certain Miroku and Sango were holding Shippou back before he leaped into the trees to distance them and gain some privacy. "You were already pissed off before you ran or you wouldn't have hit me... or changed," he frowned down at her. "Miroku told me you were like this before you started running."

Kagome made a mental note to throttle the monk later, "I had to get away, Inuyasha."

"You were running away from me," his voice dared her to deny that after all the proof he had that it was the truth. He dropped back down into the clearing, his anger returning steadily with the continuing silence from the still girl in his arms. Setting her on her feet again, he braced her up against one of the trees, but retained his hold on her wrist in a vice-like grip, "Answer me, Kagome. I'm trying damn hard to be patient but you're making it very difficult."

"What would you have done in my place, hn?" Kagome snapped up at him, tugging ineffectually against his hold and planting her other hand on the sturdy trunk at her back. "You were standing there, happy as you please, telling me that we're going to get disconnected! Was I supposed to thank you?!"

"I was not!" Inuyasha barked back at her, his own temper snapping at the accusation that he'd actually "enjoyed" telling her about what the voice had said.

Kagome kept going, too tired to reign in the hurt and stop the words tumbling freely from her, "Do you even care why I ran? Why I was fighting with Sesshoumaru? Contrary to what you seem to think, I wasn't fighting with that pompous asshole on purpose."

"You lost control and-"

"No!"she slapped her free hand hard against his chest, the unexpected action sending him back a step before he regained his footing and stared at her shimmering eyes in surprise. "I DIDN'T lost control when I ran, OR when I ran into him, baka! Sesshoumaru challenged me. He accused me of being too weak to be a youkai, or to be your mate, and challenged me to prove to him that I wasn't."

"What?!" Inuyasha yanked her forward, the anger redirecting to his brother. What the hell was he thinking saying something like that when he had to have known, or at least sensed she wouldn't be able to resist. Sesshoumaru might be a lot of things, but unobservant wasn't one of them.

"He challenged me to prove I was strong enough for your family, strong enough to mate with you," her eyes were blazing in weary frustration as she ground out a repeat of her explanation. "That I could be a youkai-"

"That sonofa-!"

"Dammit, Inuyasha, I've been trying to do that on my own!" Kagome cut him off again, but this time her voice held a flat, heavy edge of defeat. She turned her head up and met his gaze unflichingly, "I knew exactly what I was doing."

Inuyasha's eyes went wide, sucking in a sharp breath, he grabbed her face to keep her from dropping her gaze again and demanded, "You what?!"

"You always said how weak and pathetic I was when I was human," her azure eyes had filled with a wealth of self directed disgust and she snorted in irritation. "Now I can be a youkai. I can be strong on my own and no one can see that! Every fucking time I fight all you want to do is stop me."

Inuyasha's hand dropped to fist in her slashed kimono and drag her up until they were nose to nose, "You can't control your youkai blood, and if you think that for one second I'm going to risk you losing it completely like I did you're out of your fucking mind, bitch."

"It's getting easier!" she protested, bristling over the censure in his voice that put her so distinctly in mind of Sesshoumaru's early remarks about being immature. "I haven't even known I could do this for a month, Inuyasha, and you AREN'T helping me learn how at all!"

"In case you haven't noticed, every time you go over the top and lose it, we're just a little bit busy trying to keep you from getting your stubborn ass killed!" he roared at her, lifting her off the feet and pinning her against the tree with his own body weight. "It's not like I've had time to teach you how to control yourself!"

"What about now?!" she grabbed his haori with both hands and yanked him forward too. "Things are settling down and all you have to say to me is 'You can be human again!' Haven't you thought for one second that I might not WANT the spell to go away? Did it ever occur to you that I don't want anything to change?"

Inuyasha's mind screeched to a rather abrupt halt, jerking his head back reflexively to study her narrowed glare. 'She... doesn't want...? That can't be right!' he shook his head with a growl of miserable frustration. 'She's still youkai; she's not thinking like herself. She wanted the spell gone from the start, even Kaede-baba said so! Dammit, Kagome don't make this harder on me!'

But to Kagome, he simply growled louder, clenching his fists and hissing out, "You think I don't know how my blood thinks, Kagome? You're not yourself and that's the only reason you're saying this."

Kagome's eyes widened in disbelief and then narrowed sharply as her lips pulled back in a snarl, "You-you fucking bastard! You think I'm any different this way?! You think that I don't know what I'm saying?"

"I know for a fact how fast you lose control," he accused in a rising yell. "Hell, Kagome, it's like you're not even trying to control yourself!"

"I'm NOT!" she snapped back, catching him off guard and slamming both hands against his sternum to knock him back again. "Don't you get it? If I use the youkai blood, I can fight too! Even my miko powers work the way they're supposed to since this spell was cast. I don't feel like I'm slowing you down any more!"

Inuyasha gaped at her, his eyes sweeping her as he clearly felt her draw off his strength to push back her body's exhaustion, "You... you're losing control on purpose? Bitch, are you fucking insane?!"

The blue in Kagome's eyes darkened to murky purple as the scarlet mingled with it, "I LIKE being like this, Inuyasha. I fought Sesshoumaru to prove to him I could be a youkai, and I was winning. If you try to make me a human again, I'll fight you too."

Inuyasha's body went stiff when he caught the enticing edge filling her scent yet again, violently cursing the fact that his own youkai blood had yet to completely settle and restore the hanyou balance when the answering thrill of excitement made his heartbeat speed up, "Calm down, Kagome. You aren't in any shape to fight and against me, you'll always lose."

Kagome started to slide down into a crouch, the growl vibrating in her throat, "You're a fucking hypocrite, Inuyasha. What is it about me this way that makes you so eager to change me back?"

He flexed his claws, eyes narrowing at the insult, "Hypocrite?"

"I've never given half a damn what shape you were in," she raked him from head to foot, making him well aware of his own altered state. "And now you're deciding that I have to be human for you?"

A flush spread over Inuyasha's face, "You never asked to get turned into... whatever the hell that spell turned you into. You aren't either one, Kagome, do you really want to live like that? Can you live like that?!"

Part of Inuyasha was snarling at himself, demanding to know what the hell he was thinking, arguing with her about this when all he wanted to do was scream out his excitement that she didn't want things any different than he did. SHE didn't want to be disconnected any more than he wanted to let them be...

But the youkai's accusations hung heavy in his ears. He'd always been selfish with Kagome; almost disgustingly selfish from the very start. Hell, he tried to stop her every time she tried to go home, not to mention what he'd been doing since he'd found out about the spell that tied them together.

His expression darkened abruptly when he thought of his reaction to Kouga and even that human boy. She had always been his, but then she had seen him kiss Kikyou more than once. He'd even used to compare her to the miko and tell her she fell short, and yet never allowed her to search out someone else... anyone else besides him. If that wasn't the height of selfishness on his part, he didn't know what was.

And what if she really wasn't thinking clearly? This could just be his blood protecting his hold on her soul, his real desire reflected through Kagome. The youkai told him he'd never seen blood as possessive as his... was it making Kagome just say what he wanted to hear?

"You survived as a hanyou your entire life," she pointed out, tossing her head as she visibly trembled with her anger. "Why can't I learn to live like this?"

"You'd be giving up everything you knew, dammit!" Inuyasha closed the space between them with ease, grabbing her wrists and pinning her back. "I can't let you do that, Kagome. Not when I can give your life back to you."

Kagome arched, straining against his hold, "It's my body! It's my blood!"

Inuyasha pinned her back again, his eyes blazing, "It's MY blood!"

"Not anymore," she challenged angrily. "I can feel it, Inuyasha, it's not the same anymore."

His brows rose sharply, "What?"

"You're my mate, start acting like it!" Kagome reared up, her eyes shimmering as she fought to hold back tears of helpless frustration. Why was this so hard? Why couldn't he just tell her that he'd accept her no matter what? "You can fucking feel me when we balance, and you've never lost my scent. Do I smell anything like you except for as your mate?"

Inuyasha reared back in momentary surprise, "What are you talking about?" She just smelled like Kagome... Why would she smell any different?

Kagome didn't even stop to wonder where this was coming from, simply snapping out the knowledge her blood was steadily feeding to her, "Shippou said when we swapped that you smelled like me and I smelled like you. If this was all your blood still, why wouldn't I smell exactly like you? Or at least a mix of you and me? It's mine, Inuyasha... It's... it's changing..."

Inuyasha frowned, his ears flattening back and his eyes filling with confusion and just a hint of fear. Was this something new that not even the voices had been able to predict? "How... how did you know it was changing? What changed it?" he demanded, his fingers biting into her.

"I don't know!" Kagome shook her head fiercely, tears slipping down her cheeks as her breathing hitched on a restrained, frustrated sob. "Do you think any of this is easy? There are things in my head, thoughts and feelings, and I have no idea where they come from or how I know them! The only thing I know to do is listen to it and let it out!"

He released her wrists, looping an arm around her waist and crushing her up against his chest and sinking his other hand into her hair, "Kagome... We can fix it. Everything can be back to normal and you won't have to worry about any of this."

Kagome scowled up at him, "You still don't get it, do you? Damn, Inuyasha, how many different ways are you going to make me say the same thing?"

Inuyasha set his jaw, "You aren't calm enough to be in control. I can't take the risk."

Growling, her hands snaked around and caught his wrists, breaking his hold and throwing him away from her, "I'm not letting you take this away from me."

He hadn't thought there would be anything Kagome could do or say right then that would seriously spark his banked temper. He was determined to ignore his own desire to keep them bound for the sake of her sanity, but ever last bit of that went sailing off on the wind when she turned, every line of her body screaming that she was about to run again.

"STAY!" Inuyasha roared, slamming his fist through the tree at his side in a reflexive, physical manifestation of the rage that went pouring through him.

"Sit!" she barked back, twisting her upper body to glare back at where he flattened to the ground. "You're the one who keeps reminding me how pointless this shit is now, Inuyasha, what are trying to accomplish?"

Inuyasha's eyes burned into hers silently, making the growl in her throat settle out and finally quiet completely. Under that unblinking stare, she started to fidget nervously, her claws flexing against her thighs while her ears alternately flicked forward and back.

"I'm surprised I even remember how to do this," he finally said, his voice low and almost painfully flat as he grabbed the sleeve of his haori, ripping off a narrow strip. "Even worse, I can't believe I was stupid enough not to do this a long time ago. We could have avoided so much of this idiocy."

Kagome didn't know what was making her more nervous... the way his voice was so disturbingly calm after they'd spent so much time yelling, or the actual words themselves, "What's 'this,' Inuyasha. What are you talking about?"

"Stay," he murmured almost absently when he felt the spell lifting, waiting with predatory patience for her outraged hiss and the return of his own. He fell silent again after that, keeping a firm grip on her through the connection and barely restraining a relieved smile when the anger in her started to fade beneath the curious apprehension.

Kagome's brows furrowed when she felt something pulse deep and heavy in her heart, something big... and waiting tensely, "What are you doing?"

Inuyasha ignored her, his ears flicking back when he caught scent of their companions returning, "Oi! Bouzu! Quit taking so long when you can finally do something useful!"

Miroku's look of confusion completely matched the one on Kagome's face as Kirara landed, waiting for her passengers to dismount before reverting back to her much smaller form. Shippou was squirming in his hold, hissing and swearing in his effort to get down and go to Kagome's side, but the monk stubbornly held on, "Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha huffed at Shippo in annoyance, catching the kit's gaze first, "Calm down, brat. You can see her when I'm done with this." A sudden thought hit him on the best way to gain the kitsune's agreement and his lips quirked in the barest of smug grins, "Besides, I'm going to need your help."

Shippou stopped squirming, his eyes widening as he studied Inuyasha's face for a hint that he was teasing, but he seemed perfectly serious. He nodded, puffing up importantly, "What do I do?"

Kagome tugged against the spell, something in the back of her mind shivering with bone-deep anxiety as she watched Inuyasha rise up on his haunches, "What do you need Miroku for?"

And still he said nothing to her.

Instead, he reached up, digging his claws into his shoulder until the sharp twinge of blood scented the air and made her cringe, eyes rounding in alarmed surprise. No matter how confused or angry she was, the scent and sight of an injury on him always brought every protective instinct rising to the forefront of her mind.

Now was no different, and her eyes turned liquid in concern, "What the hell are you doing?!"

She was on her feet the moment the spell wore off, rushing to his side and reaching up to grab his wrist and keep him from digging any deeper. Inuyasha silently caught her hand before it could reach him and stop the action, linking their fingers and yanking her into his side. He was staring at her, eyes gleaming with an intense emotion that made her shiver, while he raised his voice to Miroku, "Oi... You still have the ofuda you and Kaede-baba used when you sealed me into that hut?"

Miroku blinked, reaching into his robes to remove the paper charms, "Ofuda will not work on a miko, Inuyasha. Kagome-sama destroys barriers-"

"You're not sealing me into a hut, Inuyasha," Kagome shook her head, growing even more confused, and this time the youkai blood wasn't being forthcoming with the information. What in the world was he thinking?

Inuyasha still refused to speak to her, turning his head to level a narrowed gaze on Miroku, "Bring them here."

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Wednesday, March 9, 2005

   Chapter 54: Darkest Before Dawn...
Kagome's mind instantly went completely and totally blank.

The blood drained from her face, eyes widening in pure shock and every muscle in her body going tense at the feel of Sesshoumaru's lips moving like warm silk over her own.

The youkai's kiss was leisurely, practiced and explorative when her jaw went slack in surprise, giving him a chance to very briefly, almost absently tap his tongue against hers.

Kagome's heart lurched painfully in her chest, the tattoo at her hip fairly exploding with heat that raced through her body with staggering force. Inuyasha's presence shattered through her enhanced barriers as if they were nonexistent, and if she'd thought her own emotions had been intense, she was in for a rude awakening. Never in her life had she been so very enraged or even thought any creature, let alone Inuyasha, could feel such a soul crushing sensation. It had happened so fast, and the last of her conscious thought melted under a wave of instinctive response.

Sesshoumaru was abruptly shoved back when Kagome slammed her forearm across his chest, following it immediately with a punch square to the face using all of the mingled strength she could pull from both brothers.

The youkai didn't have the chance to connect with the trees behind him, a clawed hand curling around his neck to stop the backward momentum and redirect it into the ground beneath him in a blinding rush.

"I'm going to tear your heart out with my bare hands, you fucking bastard!!" Inuyasha snarled violently, claws and fangs lengthening murderously as he released Sesshoumaru and leapt back protectively in front of his shaking mate. "Get up!" he demanded, shooting a warning glare to Kagome as she sunk down in a taut crouch, claws raking furrows in the disrupted soil.

Sesshoumaru shot away from them both, blurring as a sweep of his youki poured back into him and restored a large portion of his strength. Confused, he looked first to Kagome, taking in the animalistic glaze to her glowing eyes and frowning at the wild aura that curled around her just outside her taut form. It was disturbingly reminiscent of what he had felt from Inuyasha... when the hanyou lost control.

His gaze snapped around to Inuyasha and for the first time in decades, Sesshoumaru was utterly shocked.

Inuyasha was standing regally, in front and to the side of his mate, but as surprising as that stance was, it wasn't what made his eyes widen. Inuyasha's narrowed eyes has changed drastically, crimson and azure, his face striped and all traces of human blood gone from his scent as if they'd never been. Yet this time, his eyes were bright with intelligence and deadly with rage, clear and sharp.

His little brother was a youkai.

Sesshoumaru's speculating gaze shifted between the growling pair quickly, his mind working in an effort to understand just what had happened. Was it because of his bitch that he could do this? Something in this human's blood or soul that strengthened the hanyou's body to accept full blood? More importantly, did something in her contain that mindless bloodlust that had over taken him before?

Inuyasha had paused just long enough to ensure he had a tight enough hold on Kagome's aura to keep her at least close to the path before he let his banked rage flare coldly in his gaze and faced Sesshoumaru. "I don't know what the fuck you were thinking when you dared to put you filthy hands on MY mate, Sesshoumaru, but you're going to regret it for the rest of your considerably shortened life, you fucking bastard!" he roared and shot forward.

Inuyasha's first slash of claws roughly caught his shoulder, slicing through muscle and tendon to scrape against bone. The second he blocked, but just barely, sliding backwards with his eyes gleaming as he reassessed the fight before him. If he had understood correctly, without Inuyasha catching her, Kagome was absorbing youki. But she would balance the skill with the hanyou instead of draining from him. Now that Sesshoumaru knew the feeling, he could tell Kagome was still pulling enough of his energy that he barely felt like he had half his normal strength.

If he wasn't mistaken though, Inuyasha was stronger than ever. He was under the control of his youkai blood... but he hadn't lost his mind... And worse, the youki swirling around them suggested Kagome was unconsciously feeding the stolen power she couldn't hold into him. The two of them made a dangerous pair like this; Inuyasha had the control and the skill, while Kagome was adding to his already impressive brute strength and keeping his mind clear.

Sesshoumaru couldn't help but be impressed.

Kagome rocked forward on the balls of her feet, her eyes narrowing as she watching Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru fight. Before she could move to rejoin the dueling, however, she sensed a small presence, the familiar aura heightening her protective instincts. Her thoughts redirected, pulling on the other youkai's control to bring her back to a measure of lucidity a moment before she felt the light weight land on her shoulder. She turned to look at the concerned kitsune before her gaze slid to the side to find her human friends running closer, unfazed by her transformed shape.

Shippo was lightly brushing his hands over her cheek, trying to see for himself if she had been seriously injured fighting against the cold youkai, "Okaa-san, are you okay?! What happened? Why were you fighting Sesshoumaru?"

"Kagome-sama," Miroku knelt at her side, uncertain as to what they should be doing, if anything to Kagome with Inuyasha in his youkai state. Inuyasha was angry, but Kagome didn't seem to be as effected by that as she had been previously. Perhaps her control was improving? Grimly he shook off the thoughts and held out a hand to help her stand, feeling her tense and try to push herself up, "How badly are you hurt?"

"That bastard is stealing my fight," Kagome hissed in annoyance, ignoring the question from both the kitsune and the monk, but accepting the hand to pull herself to her feet. "It's my fucking challenge!" she reached up absently to pat Shippo on the head when he let out a grunt of distress.

"Inuyasha's trying to protect you, Kagome-chan," Sango watched in surprise as Inuyasha managed to catch his brother's wrist and throw him back several feet.

Kagome's ears flattened back and she shook her head with a disgusted snort, "He's just pissed off." She tapped a clawed hand on her hip, "I can feel him. He's not letting me push him out this time, and I'm trying. He thinks I'll just give the fight to him because that sonofabitch kissed me."

Sango set a hand on her tense shoulder, concerned at the way the girl was spasmodically clenching and unclenching her clawed hands. She was taking deep, panting breaths, obviously restraining herself with effort when she wanted nothing more than to rush into the middle of them and quite possibly take both brothers apart.

"Shit!" Kagome's fangs flashed in a snarl, looping her arms around both Sango and Miroku and yanking them backwards when Inuyasha came crashing down where they had been standing. Shippo hid himself in her hair with a squeak while she yelled out in frustration, "Goddammit, Inuyasha, watch what you're doing!"

"Bitch, you'd better be grateful I'm doing this!" Inuyasha snapped back as he rolled to his feet. "You'll be lucky if I don't take my time beating you bloody after pulling this shit! AGAIN!!"

Sesshoumaru smirked with mocking amusement, brushing his hair back over his shoulder, "What more could she expect from a bastard hanyou like you. It’s no wonder she ran away; her youkai blood searches for a mate strong enough to control her."

Kagome clutched at her heart when Inuyasha swore more violently than ever and attacked his brother again with renewed force. Saved from falling only by Sango and Miroku, she sucked in several deep breaths in an effort to dispel the sudden, overwhelming feeling. She felt a rush of heat snake down her spine, her vision spotting for a moment and then oddly bleeding red. She growled, rubbing at her eyes and then blinking, but the stubborn red haze refused to dissipate. Her eyes narrowed when the calm and restraint she had pulled from Sesshoumaru began to fade with every heartbeat until the anger radiating through both youkai swamped her and shattered the fragile hold of her fraying control.

"Stay behind me," she barely managed to grind out, all but knocking the breath out of Sango with how hard she thrust the kitsune into her arms.

"Wait! You must stay calm! Kagome-sama!" Miroku tried to reach out a hand to stop her, but she had already shot between the startled youkai.

One minute, Inuyasha was ducking to avoid Sesshoumaru, and the next, pain exploded across the side of his face. Shocked at the unexpected attack, he reared up to find Kagome crouched over a fallen Sesshoumaru, hissing as her claws glowed vivid green with his own poison.

His eyes flared dark with anger and he darted forward, fully intending to rip her away from the fight and finish it on his own, "Sta-"

Kagome swung back, the back of her fist cracking against the side of his face and killing the word before it could be completed to work its magic. Satisfied when Inuyasha crashed heavily to the ground, she turned her attention back to Sesshoumaru.

Inuyasha stayed where he was, panting heavily and eyes huge with shock, 'She knew I was going to subdue her. She hit me on purpose, just to stop me...'

Sesshoumaru caught Kagome's wrists, holding her back even as he frowned, 'She's changed again. Her eyes... they're filled with the same mindless need to fight as Inuyasha's had been. Damn.'

Her lips quirked in a tiny smile as she leaned closer to him, planting her knee in his wounded stomach and pressing her weight into it, "You started this, youkai. Don't disappoint me like the hanyou did."

Inuyasha snapped out of his daze when he caught the growled whisper, shooting to his feet and spinning around in time to see Sesshoumaru bring his knees against Kagome's back and pitch her over his head. Kagome crashed to the ground in a rolling tumble, somehow righting herself before she stopped and skidding to a crouched halt. He had barely taken a step towards her when her cold gaze turned almost casually and pinned him to the spot.

Kagome's eyes were heavy-lidded... disturbingly intense and taunting, her lips quirked off her fangs in a smirk as her hair lifted in the late breeze. She was challenging him with that look, but... there was no recognition in her eyes.

"What the hell?" Inuyasha murmured more to himself than anyone else when a shiver of excitement rolled down his spine.

Sesshoumaru had risen to his feet, careful to not make a sudden move and set off the girl teetering on the brink of her instincts. He couldn't prevent the growl of annoyance that escaped him, as he looked from the still girl to his brother, “You idiot. Can't you even smell when your own mate is about to cycle?"

Inuyasha went stiff, shooting his brother a look filled with reluctant curiosity beneath the simmering rage, "She's not due for a week."

Sesshoumaru didn't even bother restraining his urge to backhand his youkai brother and send him to the ground, "Your bitch is a youkai, not a human. Are you truly that ignorant of the blood?"

Kagome let out a throaty purr that turned their attention, her muscles obviously tensing as she sunk down into an even deeper crouch. She was staring at the two youkai, watching their mouths move, but all she could hear was the rush of her own heartbeat in her ears, pulsing with the red haze coloring her sight. They were boring... why weren't the fighting? She pushed herself to her feet, claws tensing as she tried to decide which one to attack first.

Inuyasha's brows lowered angrily when he watched her eyes slide to Sesshoumaru, his lips pulling back in a snarl, "Kagome...!"

She giggled, holding up two fingers as the claws tipping both began to glow. Sesshoumaru’s brows lowered in annoyance, mimicking her action as she lashed out with the glowing whip of energy. The two clashed together and crackled as they wrapped around each other and pulled taut. Inuyasha darted forward, ducking under the whip as Kagome twisted to break it free and snap it around at him.

Inuyasha caught her stomach with his shoulder, tackling her to the ground, "Snap out of it, you bitch!"

Kagome rammed her forehead against his, throwing him off and grabbing onto the front of Sesshoumaru's kimono. She gave a hard yank, pulling the youkai off his feet and sending him crashing into Inuyasha. Her lips pulled back in a cold smirk as she watched them break apart, absently scuffling, more out of habit than real desire to fight each other before they faced her warily.

Inuyasha clenched his hands into fists, "Sta-!"

Once again Kagome cut off the word before it could do damage, the whip forming in an instant and snapping forcefully across his face to send him spinning head over heels to the ground. Sesshoumaru took advantage of the distraction, blurring forward and grabbed her wrist with one hand and her throat with the other.

Kagome was snarling, poison flowing freely from her hands over Sesshoumaru's uneffected flesh. He smirked and lifted her higher, looking over his shoulder at his enraged brother, "Shall I distract her again, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha shoved himself to his feet, his eyes blazing as he completely forgot the rage and pain that had gone through him to know Kagome was purposefully killing his attempts to subdue her. His face and shoulder burned from the poison as he stared at Sesshoumaru's amused expression, his blood fairly boiling with hateful rage. "Get your hands off her!" he crouched and leapt forward, claws poised to rend his brother into shreds.

Kagome twisted, cracking her heel against Sesshoumaru's cheek and gaining her release in time to dart out of Inuyasha's newest attempt to grab her. She was getting so hot.... but every time she attacked, the pressure would ease just enough that she felt good again. She could feel her heart accelerate when Inuyasha opened his mouth, and something in her insisted she stop him from saying whatever it was he was trying to say.

Sesshoumaru was more fun to fight with. He wasn't trying to stop her, but she sensed that he was holding back when before he had been much more open. Why wasn't he attacking with everything?

Inuyasha was fuming.

His eyes gleamed with deadly anger as he regarded the almost smug grin on Kagome's face, "Oh, little girl, you're going to regret this when I get my hands on you."

Sesshoumaru regarded his growling brother and couldn't resist taunting, "What's wrong, Inuyasha? Even when she makes you a youkai, you aren't good enough to make her obey? Even the weakest youkai knows how to control their mate."

Inuyasha slammed his elbow into Sesshoumaru's face, grabbing his throat and pinning him to the ground, "It your fault she's like this, you asshole!"

"Inuyasha!" Miroku called, casting a glance at where Sango stood poised with the Hiraikotsu. "Kagome-sama's aura is fluctuating too drastically! She's still pulling from both your emotions... This has to stop!"

Kagome turned her head, baring her teeth at the interuption. Her head was starting to pound again and she shook it fiercely in an effort to clear both it and her swimming vision.

Inuyasha almost smacked himself in the head for his own stupidity, glaring over his shoulder where Kagome weaved unsteadily on her feet. Her body was wounded and exhausted, but she was drawing in enough to ignore it. For as tangled as her aura appeared to be, her thoughts were strangely smooth, but then again, she was only interested in the fight. He just hadn't been paying enough attention to what her youkai blood was telling her to do.

"This has indeed been allowed to progress too long," Sesshoumaru kicked Inuyasha off him casually and rose to his feet. "Your mate is out of control," his brows lowered in disapproval, "but what more can one expect from a hanyou."

Inuyasha got back to his feet, lashing out, but barely catching a glancing blow across his back as Sesshoumaru closed the space between himself and the youkai girl again... Or would have if the massive boomerang hadn't torn up the ground in front of him and made him dodge back. Kagome's hand snaked out and caught the handle, the weight of the thing dragging her back as she turned towards the exterminator.

She had just tensed to fling the thing back when an arm snaked around her waist, but that wasn't nearly as shocking as the sensation of fangs sinking deep into the nape of her neck.

Kagome arched, letting out a scream of fury as she dropped the heavy boomerang and attempted to shake off the restricting hold. She felt the growl vibrate through her back, the teeth biting down harder and a second arm wrapping around her arms to pin her in place as they dropped to the ground.

Inuyasha ignored Sesshoumaru's curious stare, closing his eyes and focusing only on the struggling girl pinned down in his lap. He could feel her heart thundering through her back against his chest, his aura sliding into hers easily and taking a firm hold as he forced Sesshoumaru's youki out.

Sesshoumaru regained his stoic mask in slow degrees, each pulse of the aura around the pair sending a warm wave of strength and control seeping back into him. His eyes burned curiously into Kagome's own as the glow dimmed steadily, the glassy look slowly leaving as she panted under Inuyasha's hold. 'So this is what they meant by balancing,' he mused as the wild look completely left her gaze. 'Inuyasha is forcing her to release the energy.'

Inuyasha slowly eased the hold on her neck when he felt the ripple slide down her spine, resting his mouth beside her ear as he kept a suspicious glare on Sesshoumaru, "Don't fight me, Kagome. You know better than to try pushing me out when you're like this."

Kagome panted, trying for a moment to cling to the draining strength, but the soothing stroke of Inuyasha's soul against hers was restoring her clarity. With every pulse she knew it was a futile effort and she slowly slumped back against him, finally able to blink away the red haze that had filled her vision.

"Damn you," Kagome growled in a whisper, dropping her head as helpless tears slipped down her cheeks. "You should have let me go, Inuyasha," she awkwardly shifted her shoulders, wrapping her arms around her aching stomach. Something was wrong... She knew her stomach SHOULD hurt, after that hit she'd taken from Sesshoumaru, but... This wasn't exactly pain....

"Interesting," Sesshoumaru murmured thoughtfully, his face cold and arrogant, but to Inuyasha's growling displeasure, his eyes warmed when they touched on Kagome. She was strong, stronger than most of the youkai he had come across. And that skill of hers would only improve over time... provided his idiot brother actually taught his mate discipline.

"Leave, Sesshoumaru," Inuyasha's eyes still gleamed violently, arms tightening around Kagome possessively. "If you aren't gone by the time she calms down, I'll rip out your throat," he promised darkly.

He snorted, completely ignoring the threat as he glided close to the pair; this Kagome would not be allowed to run wild so long as he was Lord of the Western Lands. Letting out a soft growl that drew Kagome's gaze upwards in an instant, he captured her scarlet gaze and held it with ease, "You will learn control, bitch."

Kagome bristled in annoyance, but Inuyasha vocalized the irritation much more directly, "You've no rights to give her orders, bastard!"

"If you intend to be worthy of my father's blood, you must prove yourself," Sesshoumaru continued, completely unperturbed by the snarl. "If the hanyou cannot teach you, I, Sesshoumaru, will have to do so.... And you will not find me an easy instructor, little youkai," he watched the surprise flicker deep in her eyes, her emotions humming close to the surface. In that moment, he saw something that nearly made him smile.

Determination.

And respect.

"You won't get a chance to get within thirty feet of her after what you've done," Inuyasha hissed, his fists clenching with his desire to leap up and finish ripping his brother to pieces. The only thing that stopped him was knowing that if he let go of Kagome now, she'd likely slip right back into her youkai instincts and it had been hard enough to catch her this time. What if Sesshoumaru was right and they really were forcing her into an early, wild heat? He couldn't take that risk.

Sesshoumaru finally looked at Inuyasha, snorting in disgust, "If you neglect you mate, you will not have her long, Inuyasha. She is a youkai. If you don't learn to accept that, she will run."

Inuyasha frowned, shaking his head in confusion at Sesshoumaru's words. His brother's voice as condescending and emotionless as ever, but the words... "What the hell are you talking about?!"

His eyes had already left the confused hanyou, returning to the girl slowly regaining control of herself, "I have no doubt that I will soon have many more responsibilites because of you. Your time is close and my brother is too young to restrain himself."

Now it was Kagome's turn to look confused and she shook her head, "I don't... understand..."

"I, Sesshoumaru, am now watching you... Kagome," Sesshoumaru took a step back, his eyes connecting with hers to pass along a silent message. His earlier words of challenge easily read in his eyes, 'Prove it to this Sesshoumaru.'

Kagome stared after him as he turned and walked away just as casually as if the fighting had never happened. Her hand lifted to press over her chest, feeling the burn and pulse of her wounds, 'Control. Sesshoumaru... wants me to learn control...? But that just... doesn't make sense!'

Inuyasha's growl at her back brought her attention back as his hand lifted and covered hers, his claws pressing to her healing flesh, "You have no idea how much trouble you're in right now, Kagome..."

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Saturday, March 5, 2005

   Honor Thy Brother...
Kagome brushed the back of her hand over her lips, wiping off the sluggish trails of blood as she slid to a halt on the opposite side of the grove from the powerful youkai. She watched him with an almost gleeful expression, flexing her claws as her ears pricked forward to catch the slight acceleration in his breathing. Sesshoumaru wasn't having an easy time with this fight either.

She had never expected Sesshoumaru to be quite this strong, but... she looked back at him, grinning at the startled look on his face as he touched the four long gashes across his stomach. She couldn't hide the delighted giggle as she rotated her shoulders, pulling yet more of his seemingly inexhaustible energy into herself to cover the strength she'd lost with her own wounds. It was exhilarating to feel this powerful, and her previous emotional turmoil had dimmed in favor of this almost euphoric rush.

Of course, Sesshoumaru wasn't just strong, he was ridiculously fast, and as much as she was delighting in that, she was having a little bit of trouble adjusting to his youkai abilities. In response, she was relying more and more on her newfound talent for letting herself get lost in the instincts of her "opponent." After all, who knew how to fight against Sesshoumaru better than the youkai lord himself?

But... it was more than a little disturbing, the roiling emotions and skills he kept carefully tucked beneath the stoic, cold exterior, but giving into those -in addition to the power rush, was making pushing aside her own confusion almost sickeningly easy. And that gave her all the more reason to follow the subconscious directions he was ignoring to hold onto his control.

Sesshoumaru turned back to face her, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the new slice he'd made along her cheek, joining the other, mostly superficial wounds he'd struck. He didn't necessarily want the girl to die just yet, but the more they fought, the more he was being forced to begin his assault seriously. It was either that, or fall himself beneath her own strangely successful advances.

The little youkai had shown the most reaction when he'd brought his fist into her stomach, but where he had expected his hand to go through her; it had simply knocked her backwards into the trees. Kagome had barely been fazed, shaking it off with irritating ease and attacking him again. He was just as confused as he was curious that this little girl was so resistant to his attacks. And when the hell had she gotten as fast as him? It was impossible she could so swiftly attain what had taken him centuries to master!

"You cut me," there was just the slightest hint of his surprise coloring his voice as he felt the warmth of his own blood against his palm. Something was seriously wrong with the aura around this girl, and it was just getting worse the longer they fought...

The youkai energy was crackling in wild arcs, slowly overwhelming the original feel of her spirit. It was just like that time he'd faced Inuyasha; that time his half-brother had changed into that thing that felt nothing but the thrill of battle. Could it be that this human could lose control of the stronger youkai blood the same way?

He dismissed that almost as soon as he thought it. This was different... He had no idea how he knew, but on an instinctual level, it was there.

Kagome's wounds should have at the very least hampered her speed, but each time he connected, she would shake her head and the youkai aura would flare stronger. How was she ignoring the damage to her body like that?

Kagome's eyes had darkened, the flesh around her eyes graying as her head lilted ever so slightly to one side and she gave him a slight smile, "You're strong..."

One brow arched and he inhaled deeply, trying to discern why she seemed to be so oddly unbalanced, even disconnected from their duel. He frowned in irritation when he caught the faint spike in her scent beneath the tangled aura, this one purely physical and most unwelcome. No wonder his brother's mate was acting so aggressive, "You're nearing your cycle."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Kagome shrugged nonchalantly, turning her attention down to her bloody claws. Lifting her hand to casually lick at the blood, she gave him a sideways look, "Are you done already? Here I thought a great youkai like Sesshoumaru would be more of a challenge than this."

Sesshoumaru let out a faint growl, his blood bristling at such blatant disrespect even as he used his icy control to tamp it down. How could his little brother let her out of his sight if she was so close? Purposefully, he turned his gaze away from her, "Fighting now will only push you into heat, little girl. You would lose what miserable control you have over yourself, and I am not as impulsive as the fool you mated."

A sudden, violent growl warned the older youkai that he'd just said the wrong thing in front of the volatile girl a split second before she had leapt at him again. Sesshoumaru dodged to the side as Kagome's fist came down on the ground he'd been occupying, shattering the soil under the force of impact. Her head whipped around, eyes narrowing on him as she rolled to her feet, "How dare you?! Just because you're Sesshoumaru doesn't mean I'll let you get away with insulting Inuyasha anymore than I let your little follower, you sonofabitch!"

Sesshoumaru frowned in annoyance when a very distinctive scent caught his attention, distracting him from the girl as his gaze went to the woods off to his left. Kagome took full advantage of his inattention, throwing all of her strength behind her shoulder as she slammed it into the taller youkai's stomach to send them both crashing to the ground.

Inuyasha came barreling through the last line of trees, skidding to a shocked halt as his eyes found the tangled pair wrestling on the path. He stood for a moment in wide-eyed disbelief, blinking and shaking his head in an effort to clear the bizarre image from his mind.

Kagome was astride Sesshoumaru, the latter on his back and snarling up at her with more emotion than Inuyasha had ever seen openly displayed. Of course, Kagome wasn't much better, her eyes glowing with rage and her clawed hands locked with his as they fought for leverage. The most startling sight, however, was their hands... Both Kagome and Sesshoumaru's claws were leaking with his trademark poison, neither appearing the least bit effected by the dripping, noxious liquid melt the ground beneath them and hissing as it ate away spots of their clothing.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted, ripping the Tetsusaiga from its sheath and trying to figure out the fastest way to get his mate away from his brother.

Her head snapped up, and Sesshoumaru used the distraction to throw her violently away from him. Rising to his feet in a single fluid motion, he frowned and cast a disdainful look to the growling hanyou. Inuyasha was gripping his sword almost convulsively, casting his mate concerned glances while trying to focus on the one he considered to be the real threat. It obviously had not occurred to his half brother that Kagome could possibly be a willing participant of a fight with a youkai like Sesshoumaru.

The youkai lord would have laughed had his attention not been centered on his recovering opponent. Kagome's youki had wavered when Inuyasha appeared, giving him the opening to over-power her, the hanyou's reaching for her with a level of control that amazed him. The enraged girl's eyes flickered blue for the briefest moment before she scowled and tensed; forcing Inuyasha's youki away from her as he again felt that rippling drain on his soul.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed as he studied the bloody girl more closely, a suspicion forming in the back of his mind with the massive fluctuation in youki all around them. A low growl started against his will as he made the connection, his eyes glowing with a surprised sort of admiration. When he felt his energy drain, Kagome would take a deep breath and straighten, her exhaustion fading and the waning of her strength vanishing as though she hadn't fought at all.

Inuyasha's bitch was somehow fortifying herself with his strength.

It was a powerful, dangerous skill for a youkai to have, let alone a youkai as undisciplined and uncontrollable as this one. His stance changed slightly, menace humming in the air around him, 'At least I know how she is mimicking my poison.'

Sesshoumaru's gaze was drawn again to his brother, searching for understanding in the hanyou's eyes. Could his brother be stupid enough to let her leave his side when she lacked training for her ability, much less when her aggression was heightened by the moon's cycle?

If he allowed himself, he would have smirked at the helpless anger flitting across Inuyasha's face. He knew... but Kagome herself was fighting his dominance? He arched one brow and looked back at Kagome, recalling her claim that Inuyasha couldn't accept her as a youkai. Perhaps his brother wasn't teaching her to control herself in favor of trying to return her to a human? He had been right after all; Inuyasha was jealous that his once human mate had become what he had always dreamed of being.

This was simply a moment that he could not less pass by, "You have no place in a fight between youkai, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha's gaze snapped from Kagome to Sesshoumaru instantly, his eyes flashing scarlet with rage at the bored disapproval in his voice as well as the insinuation that HE was the one who didn't belong, "This is between me and my fucking mate, Sesshoumaru! Get the hell out of here!"

Kagome frowned at Inuyasha, her muscles tensing and relaxing nervously as she debated in her mind whether to run from both brothers or stay and finish her fight with Sesshoumaru. Honestly, she didn't want the fight to stop... Fighting with the powerful youkai was making her feel as though she was finally getting some recognition for her new skills, and she still had to prove to him that she was strong enough. But at the same time, Inuyasha was pushing at her, trying to force down the barriers she was using to keep him out of her head and that was taking more of her focus than she wanted to spare.

Frustrated, she snarled out at Inuyasha, "Goddammit, Inuyasha, this is my challenge!"

Inuyasha stumbled back in surprise at the vehemence in her voice, his brows lowering in a scowl when he could practically feel the amusement in his brother, "Not a chance in hell, Kagome! You don't even know what a challenge is!"

Kagome blinked, momentarily distracted as she admitted to herself that he was right. How had she known to say that? Shaking her head in irritation at the return of her confusion, she retreated more into her instincts and bared her teeth at him, "I'm not weak. I don't need your help, hanyou."

Sesshoumaru let a smirk grace his lips, flexing his clawed hand as his body tensed to continue, "You heard your mate, hanyou. This is a youkai challenge, and unlike you, your mate seems to know how to honor that."

Inuyasha let out an enraged shout as his brother blurred forward and clashed with Kagome, and yet... rather than fall under the assault, Kagome ducked the first slash of his deadly claws. Swearing blackly when the two of them locked together, spinning in an effort to force the other to lose ground, he slammed the Tetsusaiga back into its sheath. The two were too close for him to use the sword without accidentally catching Kagome in the process.

'Dammit, couldn't that bitch have run into ANYONE but him?!' his hands curled into fists as he tensed and waited for a chance to get in between them. Kagome was blocking him out on purpose, but he had seen the hurt she was trying to mask with anger. And it would take a complete moron not to see that she was deep in the control of his youkai blood, once again looking and feeling like she didn't have a drop of human blood in her body.

Inuyasha blinked, feeling an unwelcome flash of pride when Kagome smashed the back of her hand across Sesshoumaru's face and knocked him to one side. Was this what the voice had meant? It was a tangible thing this time, watching Kagome as he felt her aura block his and pull on his brother. The youki weakened in the exact same degree that Kagome's rose, and her eyes glazed under the force of her instincts.

'It's like he's fighting against himself,' he snarled instinctively when Sesshoumaru caught her by the throat and flung her through a particularly large tree. 'A short, female him,' he corrected grimly, amending that Sesshoumaru still had a hefty advantage of height and reach, and biting back his desire to rush in and take his brother apart for hurting her. If he interrupted now, she might run before he had a chance to stop her.

Kagome let out a shriek of outrage as she reared back to her feet, hissing as she shook off the slight haziness and clashed with him again. Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed grimly when the undertone of enticement under her scent grew incrementally stronger, and he broke contact to leap across the clearing.

This just wouldn't do.

He was enjoying the fight immensely, delighting in the ability to actually let go and still find his skills challenged. It was even more fun than fighting with Inuyasha, but unfortunately, she was too close to fertility. The blood smell was obviously teasing her instincts if the scent was even starting to affect him. But couldn't just back out of the fight... Sesshoumaru flicked the blood from his claws and focused inward, prepared to end their attack in one sharp action.

"Wait, no-!" Inuyasha yelled when he felt Sesshoumaru's power shift, his eyes going wide and bleeding scarlet as his lips pulled back on his fangs in a violent snarl. Kagome was absorbing and he was going to try changing forms?!

Kagome's spine arched, her eyes going wide when the wild excess of energy arrowed through her. Sesshoumaru was putting out power in waves, each one caught and absorbed as quickly as it came off him. She stumbled backwards, clutching both hands over her heart as the muscles in her legs gave out, dropping her unceremoniously to her knees.

Something inside her was on fire, clawing at her heart and pulling bone and tendon with so much force she felt like she'd be ripped apart any second. 'Why isn't this attack absorbing?!' Kagome's mind raced frantically, blood seeping from her lips as she set her jaw against the urge to scream. Was she not pulling hard enough?

Kirara cleared the trees in time to see Inuyasha slam full force against Sesshoumaru's back, Kagome's head thrown back as she finally screamed, the sound shattering the stillness of the night and echoing off the distant mountains before it was thrown back at them with enough force that even the humans cringed.

Sesshoumaru was startled enough that his attempt to transform died instantly, but with the retreat of the change, he staggered and fell to one knee. His eyes went wide in alarm at the weakness that swept through him, snarling at himself in disgust as he forced his protesting body to rise. How could he have possibly lost so much energy with a simple attempt at transforming to his full form? He should have felt stronger after that, not drained and groggy. Snarling, he swung about in a search for something to vent his frustrations on, hoping to restore the lost power before Kagome attacked again.

Inuyasha happened to be the closest target, finding himself the recipient for the weakened youkai's anger when an elbow rammed into his stomach with enough force to send him to the ground gasping for air.

Sesshoumaru was reaching down to grab the hanyou by the back of the neck when a wave of heat suddenly rolled down his spine, his instincts bristling a deeply rooted warning through his awareness. Startled, he looked up to see Kagome pushing herself to her feet with effort, almost as if sometime in the past few moments her body had grown too heavy for her to lift easily. This time she was moving…. his eyes narrowed in speculation, like she was intoxicated somehow?

Kagome stared down at her claws, blinking as she stumbled slightly before catching her balance and looking up to flash him a cruel smile. Even the slight, nagging pains she'd been feeling a moment ago had vanished, leaving behind the most amazing heat and strength that continued to spill over her aura and pulsate in the air around her. It was too much... this amount of youki rushing through her, but it felt too good to let him have it back so soon.

She blinked when her vision seemed to swim for a moment, lifting a hand to her head when her body gave a heavy pulse. She took a deep breath, pressing a hand against her stomach when the muscles twitched and spasmed uncomfortably, 'Dammit, I don’t feel the others, why this? How hard did he hit me?' She tried to shake off the bizarre fluttering, forcing her mind to pull the anger back to the forefront of her emotions as she growled at the agitated youkai.

Inuyasha's eyes went wide and his attention snapped to Kagome in disbelief when a very unmistakable scent curled around her, "Oh hell..."

"Control your bitch, or I'll do it for you!" Sesshoumaru barked at him in irritation as he watched Kagome slide down into a taut crouch. He’d been afraid of this. The signs had been there, but he hadn’t been expecting them and it was his own error that he even began the fight in the first place. Without control, her instincts would be going wild with the smell of blood and adrenaline, picking up on the agitation in both himself and Inuyasha. They really would force her into an early heat if he let this continue.

Inuyasha took a step back in confusion, blinking as his mind processed Sesshoumaru's sharp order so soon after identifying the enticement curling into Kagome's scent, "What the-?"

"We're not done yet, onii-sama," Kagome growled deep in her throat, determinedly steadying herself against the dizzying rush and flicking a quick glare to Inuyasha. She could already feel it... Inuyasha was reaching for her with his aura again, trying much harder this time as he attempted to soothe the anger she had been blocking from him. She huffed in annoyance at having to waste more of Sesshoumaru’s borrowed power just to dispel that calming sensation.

Inuyasha felt Kagome close herself off, turning his attention to take in the way she was weaving unsteadily, her eyes glassy and unfocused, "Dammit! Kagome, you have to calm down!"

"Not on your life," her eyes narrowed sharply as she swung her gaze from the brothers over to where Kirara had deposited Sango and Miroku, both looking tense and ready to aid if they could. Would they agree with Inuyasha? Did they think she should give this up too? "I'm going to prove it to you that I'm good enough to be a youkai! I'm good enough to be your mate," her voice lowered to a pained hiss and she launched herself at Sesshoumaru again.

Despite his weakened state, Sesshoumaru managed to dodge a little more easily than he had before. Kagome had almost slipped at that last moment, the force of her swinging claws almost sending her toppling over onto Inuyasha even as it ripped up the ground in front of her with ground-shaking pressure. She barely managed to right herself and dart away from him to focus on Sesshoumaru’s bland face.

Inuyasha was gaping at her in disbelief, catching hold of her the farthest thing from his mind at the moment. She had NEVER been that strong, not even when he’d lost control and transformed himself, but she had even less control over it. She was fighting sloppy…. His brows suddenly snapped together when he replayed her words in his mind, realizing just why she was being so stubborn about not obeying him.

"What the fuck have you been saying to her?!" Inuyasha roared at his half brother, his eyes sparking with anger at the insinuation behind Kagome's words.

Sesshoumaru just barely tamped down the urge to scowl at the hanyou, annoyed with himself for letting his physical weakening bring his emotions to the surface, “I am not the one who cannot accept that there is youkai blood in her. I, Sesshoumaru, am protecting the strength of father’s bloodlines.”

“I never rejected her blood,” Inuyasha clenched his fists at the censure in the youkai’s voice.

Dodging Kagome yet again, he rushed at Inuyasha, catching his throat the same way he had hers before and lifting him off the ground, “Then why was she running away from you?”

Inuyasha grabbed his wrist, digging his claws into the skin and trying to force the chokehold loose. As much as he hated to admit it to Sesshoumaru, something in his tone demanded an explanation and he grudgingly responded, “She can’t control the blood yet. If she’s confused, she runs.”

The two were rather abruptly ripped apart when Kagome fisted one hand in Inuyasha’s haori, yanking him backwards as she knocked Sesshoumaru’s wrist away with the heel of her foot. She released him almost as fast as she caught him, throwing him back towards Sango and Miroku carelessly.

“Leave Inuyasha alone, Sesshoumaru,” she scowled meaningfully and glanced behind her to make sure the three of them weren’t hurt. “And you!” she pointed a clawed hand back at the scowling hanyou. “Don’t even try getting close to me until I’m done with this!”

Sesshoumaru arched one brow curiously at that and he tilted his head to regard the pair of them. Kagome had been taking great care to stay out of his brother’s reach, and he’d have to be a weakling not to feel the way their youki were clashing together; Inuyasha’s trying to wrap around his mate while hers pushed him away. What kind of bond has the hanyou used to tie the transformed human to him? Not even he knew magic strong enough for that kind of spell.

“Fuck that, Kagome, you aren’t using your head!” Inuyasha snarled back at her, jumping to his feet and looking for all the world like he was getting ready to pounce.

To his growing amusement, Kagome leapt up into the trees, putting Sesshoumaru between herself and Inuyasha, baring her teeth at him before her gaze dropped back to the older youkai, “Not until I’m finished.”

Sesshoumaru was ready when she jumped at him again, instinctive defending and attacking while his attention focused behind him on Inuyasha and his human companions. Now he was even more curious than before, and it seemed like the best way to gather the information he wanted was to focus on the murmuring voices obviously trying to avoid Kagome’s attention.

“Inuyasha, is there a way we could distract her while she’s so focused on fighting Sesshoumaru?” Miroku studied the two youkai moving together almost like a dance. Kagome's eyes had gone glassy again, her face determined as she dodged and attacked, but Sesshoumaru almost seemed distracted. They were occassionally hitting each other, but the blows were obviously superficial. "You can push the excess energy out like you did with Kouga and Naraku, ne?"

"Aa," Inuyasha nodded, his eyes following her tensely.

Sango shook her head, "Inuyasha... when she's close to you and she loses her control it seems like... like she doesn't want you to push out the youkai energy she's absorbing."

"I know that," he growled angrily. "When she's not pushing me out of her head, I can feel her. She likes having the extra strength, and she knows it goes away when she's balancing with me."

"Maybe if we force her this way she won't notice?" Sango's hand tensed on the handle of her weapon and she eyed the best possible path for a shot.

Inuyasha shook his head, grabbing her wrist to stop her, "She'll run."

"Why don't you subdue her?" Miroku whacked the hanyou lightly with the staff for overlooking such an obvious solution.

"While she's fighting Sesshoumaru?!" Inuyasha rounded on him, yanking the staff out of his startled grip and snarling angrily. "Are you fucking insane? He'd slice her in half!"

Sesshoumaru caught Kagome's wrist, yanking her forward and pinning her up against his chest. Balancing, absorbing, and subduing... Their words suggested that if Inuyasha could catch hold of Kagome, she'd lose her ability to draw away his energy. He could understand why she would fight against that, but he wanted to see the other side of the spell.

Kagome was snarling, pulling violently against his hold while he vaguely heard Inuyasha scream with outrage behind him. As much as he hated to be the one to help Inuyasha, the hanyou's mate was a full youkai, and only another youkai was strong enough for this fight. Especially when that female was fluctuating with such an enticing scent.

Inuyasha needed his mate distracted, did he?

Sesshoumaru let the briefest of smirks cross his lips as he turned, grabbing Kagome's chin and forcing her face up. His gaze slid sideways to Inuyasha as he dipped his head and pressed his mouth hard to hers.


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Tuesday, March 1, 2005

   Chapter 52: A Taste Of Something More...
For the first time since she fully understood the workings of the spell, Kagome concentrated every ounce of her soul into not only completely waking the youkai blood inside her, but using it as well. She felt the heavy lurch of her heart adjusting to the thicker blood, her body temperature spiking with each pulse as her strengthened muscles bunched and released to carry her away from what it perceived as a threat.

Kagome's bare feet barely touched the ground in the grove of their campsite before the youkai blood finished taking dominance, the last of her human blood willingly pushed into full submission. Her breath let out in a heavy rush of tangled emotions as her ears transformed, sliding up to the top of her head and twitching in agitation as the last of her youkai features settled in.

“Kagome-sama!” Miroku’s disbelieving whisper snapped her head around, but the hand he’d reflexively extended towards her froze at the pained look in her changing eyes.

“What happened?” Sango was on her feet, her own attention shifting uncertainly between the younger girl and the path Inuyasha had taken such a short time ago.

She slid away from her human friends, feeling awkward and out of place, even as her heart clenched and she could feel the prick of tears making her vision shimmer. Shaking her head viciously to clear the wash of misery, she crouched and leapt beyond the startled Miroku and Sango to vanish into the darkened forest in a blur that would have put Kouga to shame.

In the back of her mind, she was fully aware that running away was probably the worst thing she could do with Inuyasha. He'd chase her down for sure, probably screaming and cursing at her the whole way, but she was honest enough to know that in no way whatsoever was she actually getting away. All she was doing was delaying the inevitable confrontation.

Her lips pulled back in a self-directed snarl of disgust at letting herself get wrapped up in her instinctive response, but that didn't slow her leaping run in the slightest. If he thought she would quietly submit to losing this new side of herself, he would be in for a nasty surprise when he caught up with her. Before she hadn't known she could pull off his abilities and use them for herself, but now... Hell, let him try it! She'd fight against him with his own strength and if not beat him, at least she'd be able to defend until they'd both exhausted their energy.

Go back to the way she was before? That weak, spineless girl she'd been who could barely hold her own in even the simplest fight? She'd been so unsure of her powers, her miko abilities passing at best and horribly inadequate at worst. But now... now all she had to do was concentrate and they reacted as though she'd known how to use them forever. And then, of course, there was her newfound ability to draw strength from the youkai around her, pulling their own power into her to use against them and enhance her skills.

Inuyasha wanted her to give that up?

Her brows drew low as her eyes bled to the full youkai scarlet, 'Not a fucking chance!'

A surge of adrenaline flushed through her system, mingling with her anger and encouraging her to push that much harder in her efforts to physically distance herself from the hanyou. At the same time, however, each step made her wince on a jolt of pain and sadness, dividing her mind until she was arguing with herself so loudly in her own thoughts that her head was starting to ache. Half of her was demanding she stop and run back to him, wanting to know why Inuyasha could even think to ask such a thing. Yet the other half was just as vehemently insisting she keep running to prevent him from finding her and following through on separating their blood.

Maybe this was why youkai tended to be so violent, she mused with an odd sort detachment from the rest of her chaotic emotions. The more she reacted to the sadness and despair from the one side of her thoughts, the deeper she growled, the other side despising that weakness of those feelings even as she used it to fuel her anger and speed. The youkai blood hated that helplessness, and it was steadily forcing it to the back of her mind, telling her instead that she needed to find an outlet for her confusion. Preferably one that could fight back and allow her to lose herself in the thrill of exertion.

One that would bleed.

Kagome shook her head fiercely yet again, trying to clear the uncharacteristic thoughts from her head. Youkai emotions were so strong, and while she was beginning to get used to them, she was still inexperienced enough that she was easily overwhelmed under their crushing influence. Her clawed hands flexed and she bit her lip, trees rushing by with dizzying speed as she tried to ignore the urge to rip something apart with her bare hands.

Ignoring that, however, left her thoughts open to sink back in the reason she was running in the first place and she let out a violent growl of confused aggravation. If she loved Inuyasha no matter what form he was in, how dare he stand there and tell her he was going to disconnect and turn her back into a regular human. Was it that hard to accept her like this?

She LIKED being this way, being a youkai. She finally had the strength to fight the same way the others could, and even considering giving that up for a moment had her chest tightening in frustrated anger. She never asked him to change for her…

Hell, she'd told him how she felt when he was in his youkai form and it hadn’t changed how she felt when he turned back to a hanyou or even human! Couldn't he at least give her that same courtesy of accepting her regardless of what blood was dominant inside her? It wasn’t her mind changing…

Her lips quirked in a sudden twist of sardonic amusement, ‘Well, maybe my mind has changed a little. But I’m still me!’

The amusement vanished and she clenched her jaw, ‘Before it was always that I though he saw Kikyou and now…. Can he not see me in the youkai? Does he not want to see?’

Kagome was so deeply engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't even register the scent that reached her nose until she slammed forcefully against a hard, definitely humanoid creature. The forward momentum sent her crashing back to the ground with a startled yelp, almost knocking the air from her lungs as she swore darkly over her own inattention. The shadowed figure fell back a few steps before catching its balance, and then turning startled eyes down to the source of the wholly unexpected, and from the look of amazement on its face, unbelievable strike.

She lifted her hand to her spinning head, shaking it once to clear it as she looked up... and up into the face of the creature she'd nearly run down. A snarl of frustration left her lips in pure reflex, "Oh this is just fucking PERFECT!"

**

Inuyasha sat up slowly, lifting a hand to his bruised cheek and gingerly pressing to check for broken bones for the second time in as many days. Distantly he reminded himself the he really did need to teach Kagome the more delicate points of controlling her youkai strength unless he wanted to spend a large portion of his time recovering.

But that thought was quickly overshadowed by the realization that now she wouldn't have to learn. The voice would return the next evening and remove the spell, and Kagome would once again only have the strength of a human miko.

Muttering absently to himself to cover his new flash of desolation, he winced over a particularly tender spot, "I never should have taught that bitch how to punch."

But then, why had she punched him?

Kagome hadn't even warned him! One second she wouldn't even look at him and the next she was punching him in the face and running back to camp? Did she think he'd known all along and just neglected to tell her? That would have made sense, except for her running away. If she'd thought that, wouldn't she have stayed and tried to hit him a few more times, or at the very least yelled at him?

His ears flattened back dejectedly as he rolled to his feet, turning to look nervously towards the path of her scent. Kagome still needed him to balance, otherwise he would have given into his urge to run blindly in an effort to smooth out some of his tension and sort out his thoughts. He closed his eyes and slowly drew in a deep breath to gather his courage before he let it out, 'Just enjoy the connection now... you won't have it much longer and you'll never get the chance to balance with her again. She won't... she won't need you anymore, and you'll be back to the fucking one-sided subduing.'

Inuyasha trudged back towards camp, his shoulders slumping as he cringed over the thought of what was sure to come. He could already picture Kagome’s face set in anger, practically hearing her voice cursing him and subduing with each shuffled step he took. What would she say, though? Would the youkai blood get the better of her and make her scream and insult him? Even worse…. would she cry?

He winced at the thought, shaking his head in an effort to banish the clear picture of Kagome with her eyes filled with the much-hated tears from his mind, but this one was much more stubborn than the others. “Dammit, Kagome, don’t be crying,” he growled to himself in an almost prayer. “I can handle the yelling, just don’t be…. I never wanted to make you cry,” he finished, sinking even deeper into his gloom.

It was laughable really, that he was so terrified of facing one little girl when he had been facing down with things most people only saw in nightmares since he was a child. He would rather be forced to fight everything Naraku had to offer than face off with Kagome when she was upset.

When the light from their small fire came into view, Inuyasha paused to collect his meandering thoughts and to brace himself against what he was sure would come. Several long, deep breaths later, he pushed aside the branches and stepped into the clearing with his eyes trained on the ground as he waited in silence for Kagome to confront him.

And waited….

‘Something should have happened by now,’ Inuyasha’s hands fisted at his sides and he tentatively cracked open one eye.

“GAH!” he took a reflexive leap backwards when he found Miroku and Sango standing less than a foot away from his face. Embarrassed, he tucked his hands into his sleeves, hunching his shoulders and averting his face to his flushed cheeks behind a thick curtain of hair, “What the hell is wrong with you two?”

“What did you do to Kagome-chan?” Sango demanded darkly, grabbing his ear and yanking hard to drag his head down.

“Ite!” Inuyasha tilted off balance for a moment before righting himself and growling at the woman. “She-“

“Kagome-sama was most upset,” Miroku interrupted, frowning in disapproval at the bristling hanyou. “What did you say to cause her to transform int-?”

Inuyasha’s head snapped up and he was on the monk in a flash, fisting his hands in his robes and lifting him up over his head to snarl out, “Transform?!”

His eyes widened as he dropped Miroku to the ground before the monk had a chance to reply, ignoring the outraged curse as he searched the clearing for Kagome’s presence. ‘How could I have not noticed she was gone? Why didn’t I feel it?!’ his nose twitched as he could the end of her “regular” scent in the center of the camp. A growl rose in his throat and his brows snapped down as he concentrated and picked up the way it had twisted, mixing into her “youkai” scent and leading into the woods.

Kagome was running.

His eyes began to gleam dangerously and every muscle in his body went taut; she was breaking her promise. Had she forgotten so soon the promise she’d made after Naraku had tricked her? She’d sworn she wouldn’t leave him, no matter what…..

“She changed in front of us and ran when we asked her what happened,” Sango was saying, following his line of sight with concern. “Inuyasha, what did you say to her?”

Inuyasha had already sunk into a semi-crouch, preparing to chase after her, “That stupid bitch! If she goes too far, she’ll stop balancing!”

Miroku had turned to restrain him when the growling hanyou suddenly fell backwards with a hiss, grabbing his haori over his heart. “Inuyasha!” his hands came up to brace his companion, eyes wide as he searched for the cause of his distress.

Inuyasha’s fingers clenched against the searing pain he’d felt streak across his chest, biting down on his lip to hold in a telling grunt, his heart began to race with the implications. His eyes went wide and his arms fell to his side as a sliver of apprehension raced through his blood.

HE wasn’t injured, but he felt the pain as clearly as though he had been hurt…. Kagome was missing, in her youkai form, and -by Sango and Miroku’s observations, upset. He knew first hand that Kagome was a long way from knowing how to keep those instincts under control, and his first instinct when he was overwhelmed was to run, ‘Run and….’ His ears twitched when a faint sound reached his sensitive ears, a sound like…. like some kind of crash, 'Oh hell!’

“Kagome…”

“Wait! Inuyasha!” Miroku yelled after the hanyou when he rather abruptly ripped away from them and raced off much in the same way Kagome had done previously. “Damn it!”

“C’mon, houshi-sama! Kirara!” Sango scooped Shippo up in on arm, hopping astride her transformed youkai and reaching for Miroku all in the space of a heartbeat. “If he ran off like that, Kagome-chan must be in danger.”

Miroku nodded grimly, his mind already filled with images of Kagome under Naraku’s control. And yet, none of them had sensed him nearby, “Hopefully we are not too late to help her this time.”

**

“What the hell are you doing so close by, hn?” Kagome growled out, slowly rising to her feet as she kept a wary glare on the unwelcome, but unmoving interruption. At the same time, she inhaled deeply, ears flicking forward as her senses instinctively reached out to memorize the smell and feel of him. Mildly surprised at the pleasant scent, she covered it by sliding back a step and baring her fangs, “What do you want, Sesshoumaru?”

THEN she caught wind of an odor that wrinkled her nose, like the reptile house at the zoo she’d visited once, and more what she’d expected. But it was coming from behind the youkai, growing stronger and making her sneeze a single time and try to shake it off in a motion much more doglike than human.

“Hn? A female inu youkai?” Jakken emerged from behind his master and peered at the strangely familiar girl standing off to the side of the path. He leaned forward and then back with a snort of disgust, covering his nose, “Eh! A female that reeks of that pathetic half-breed.”

Kagome turned freezing eyes down to the little toad youkai, sending him back several steps in surprise at how very similar it was to the flat glare he often received if Sesshoumaru was highly displeased with him. Unlike the much more indifferent creature, however, this youkai let out a deep growl and flexed her claws.

“If you speak of Inuyasha so disrespectfully again, I’ll rip out your tongue, you little freak,” Kagome hissed at him, momentarily distracted from Sesshoumaru’s presence by the heated aggression that had filled her when Jakken spoke. The banked emotions she’d been feeling in her run through the woods flared up again, and her expression changed to calculating. Maybe she could work out her annoyance on the annoying little youkai...

“You are the human bitch who travels with my foolish half brother,” Sesshoumaru broke the tense staring match between the girl and his retainer. He had felt the way the air around her thickened with aggression, and while it may be amusing to watch her beat on Jakken, he was much more concerned with his growing questions. His head tilted ever so slightly to one side as he studied the very obvious youkai features on the slight girl, and inhaled her scent much in the way she had done to him.

There was no mistaking, this WAS the girl who trailed after his idiot brother like a trained pup. But she had been human every other time he had encountered her, and at the moment, there was nothing remotely human about her. Her aura had grown to incredible strengths, the leashed power he’d sensed inside her before now radiated from her taut frame, but how had she changed so completely?

Against his will, he was curious.

“You are a youkai,” Sesshoumaru remarked with the same emotionless tone, yet there was an underlying challenge in the feel of his voice.

Kagome was instantly defensive, but her heart began to pound, “I am a youkai. No one can take that away from me.”

His brows rose faintly at the vehemence in her voice, and he turned to face her fully as Jakken waved his staff and shouted at her, “Sesshoumaru-sama is never wrong. You were that lowly human girl who removed the Tetsusaiga! You do not deserve the honorable blood of a youkai-”

Kagome snarled, darting forward before her mind was even aware she had moved as she caught the toad youkai’s staff and lifted him off the ground to growl in his face, “It is MY fucking blood!”

Sesshoumaru felt a traitorous tugging at the corner of his mouth when Kagome pulled back and flung his retainer through the air in a high arch back the way they had come. He was right, it had been most amusing. Hopefully he would have the presence of mind to steer Rin away from what would possibly become a nasty fight, “You are immature.” He remarked casually, “You lack control.”

The censure in his voice was embarrassing, making her feel like she was back in school and had been caught misbehaving by her teachers. She had no idea what prompted her response, but it was automatic, “I’m getting better.”

Sesshoumaru glanced at her, arching one brow in a mockery of her words a split second before he was on her. Kagome let out a shocked gasp as the clawed hand closed over her throat, lifting her off her feet as the youkai rushed them backwards, slamming her back against the trunk of a tree.

Her head cracked sharply against the rough bark as the wood shuddered beneath her and knocked the air from her lungs again. Hissing in agitation, her eyes began to glow as she blinked and focused on the cold face close to her own. She felt the blood seep from her nose as her anger rose, her hand lifting to curl around the striped wrist reflexively.

His gaze, however, was riveted to the blood trailing down her face, frowning slightly as he reached up with his borrowed arm to touch a fingertip to the blood and examine it more closely. That line of blood smelled human...

Kagome growled violently, her aura flaring in response to the power in Sesshoumaru’s own and forcefully pulling it into herself to boost her strength enough to get him off her. His eyes widened in surprise when the air around her seemed to thicken, and the strength in her grip increased sharply as she ripped his hand away from her neck. Kagome threw his hand away from her and let out an incoherent shout, her eyes glowing brightly as she blasted the youkai backwards with her magic.

Sesshoumaru slowed his backwards momentum, hovering to a halt and lowering his feet to the ground with his trademark grace. His eyes narrowed as he studied the girl yet again, confused by the way she seemed to pulse with his own energy. Just how much had this human changed?

“You were transformed into more than any other youkai,” he accused in a low voice, lifting a hand in front of his to will his poison to flow into his claws.

“I am a miko first, Sesshoumaru,” Kagome’s eyes narrowed, smirking at the rush of power filling her veins. ‘This is…. so much different than pulling off Inuyasha! Sesshoumaru doesn’t even look like he noticed what I drew off him. Is he really that strong that he has so much to spare?’

“You are my brother’s mate,” Sesshoumaru’s eyes gleamed. “You think you are strong enough for my father’s bloodlines? You're just as delusional as Inuyasha.”

Her instincts were whispering to her this time, her heart beating faster and her blood heating as it urged her to attack. All those emotions, all the confusion and hurt were begging to be transferred into anger and used to fight Sesshoumaru. She had the most insane urge to attack him for speaking to her in such a condescending tone, for suggesting she was too weak to be Inuyasha’s mate.

“You won’t be able to kill me, youkai,” her voice deepened with a renewed growl, reaching out with her aura to connect first with the familiar feel of Inuyasha at the edge of her spirit range. She was well aware that she had no idea how to fight, instead trusting his instincts to take over and direct her. All she needed was to block enough from him so he had no idea what she was about to do, and considering how far away he was, it shouldn’t been too difficult.

“He was produced from weak blood, and he’s only bringing weaker blood into our family lines,” Sesshoumaru’s eyes had narrowed with disapproval. “Now he has mated a human who thinks she is worthy to be a youkai.”

Her fists clenched, claws digging deep into her palms, “I….am not weak….”

His claws flexed, “Prove it to this Sesshoumaru.”

Kagome's eyes narrowed, taking a deep breath as she straightened her posture defiantly. Her lips curled back off her fangs in a feral snarl as he launched forward in a blur of motion. ‘Just once,’ her mind whispered, keeping her still in the face of his rush. ‘If Sesshoumaru touches me once, I can pull off of his aura and absorb his attacks,’ she braced herself as he swung his claws.

Sesshoumaru’s claws connected at her shoulder, raking diagonally down across her torso and slamming her back against the tree he’d just held her pinned against. Already weakened from the last attack, the wood groaned and cracked, toppling backwards with a crash that shook the ground.

Kagome hit the ground hard at Sesshoumaru’s feet, biting down on her lip with a snarl of pain and her arms automatically wrapped around her burning torso. ‘Sesshoumaru’s poison….’ she forced her tearing eyes to open, focusing all her energy inwards to follow the sluggish pain beneath the more intense feeling of the torn flesh. Her fisted hands opened slowly to press flat to her bleeding chest, pupils fading as she fought to absorb it the same way she had the other youkai magic.

Sesshoumaru flicked the excess blood from his claws, looking down at her coldly, and wondering at the odd sense of disappointment humming through him. He had hoped for so much more of a fight, and the quick defeat had left his instincts feeling cheated, “Weak.”

Kagome felt, more than saw the taller youkai turning away from her, walking away with indifference as she writhed on the ground. Her heart gave a heavy pulse, echoing the sensation through her aura once and then again as the stubborn youkai energy finally smoothed and bonded to her own. The burning faded almost immediately, bringing with it a easy sweep of strength as she pulled his youki into her.

A low, cold chuckle made Sesshoumaru pause in mild surprise.

He looked back over his shoulder at the girl on the ground, frowning when she pressed bloody palms flat against the ground and levered herself upwards into a crouch. His brows rose when her face tilted upward, glowing eyes opening to meet his as she flashed him a cold, mocking smirk.

“If that’s the best you can do, youkai, then you’re in trouble,” Kagome chuckled with confident arrogance, rising gracefully to her feet as she reached inward to examine just what powers she would have access to.

Sesshoumaru turned back, brows lowered when he felt a strange ripple slide through him, followed with the most bizarre draining sensation, almost as though his energy was being sucked away. More importantly, and definitely more confusing, he could no longer smell his poison in her, ‘My poison has never been purified…. How?’

“How did you do such a thing?” he demanded, his eyes moving over her as aura flared even stronger than before.

Kagome’s eyes had narrowed and she held out her hand, looking at it curiously as she connected with him enough to absently summon his poison into her own claws, “Inuyasha will not accept me as a youkai, my own mate…. And now you, Sesshoumaru, accuse me of being too weak to even call him that.”

Sesshoumaru watched her, his bland expression fully restored as he pondered what could have changed the weak human girl into such a youkai, a full-blooded youkai that apparantly was copying his poison claw. And Inuyasha could not accept her as such? No doubt his half-brother was jealous that this human bitch had attained what he had been striving to attain for so long. Perhaps she would be even more suitable for carrying on their father’s bloodline than he’d thought.

“I have challenged you to prove otherwise, little hu- youkai,” he was more than a little annoyed with himself for making such an error, but forced that thought down in favor of the much more interesting prospect of fighting against his brother’s transformed mate.

Kagome closed her eyes and took a deep breath, rolling her shoulders as the burn across her chest eased with her accelerated youkai healing. She cracked her knuckles and flashed him a fanged grin that put him disturbingly in mind of his half-brother. Her voice was cold and almost insulting as she growled out, “Let’s go, onii-sama.”


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