Something Real
By Angelica Pierce
 
Okay, notes.  Absolutely necessary:
 
1) You need to have a working knowledge of the basic scenario and main characters of the IY series.  I won’t be coddling you by doing a recap of the early-canon every other page.
2) Sisyphus is a man in a myth that is condemned to forever roll a boulder up a hill.   Whenever he gets close to the top, however, it rolls back down and he must begin anew.
3) Events that occurred in the movies have not happened in this fic.
4) Not only is the age of consent in Japan 13, NOT 18, but Japanese TV is uncensored.  That means anyone with a remote control and a reception has probably seen porn.  A 5 year old could be flipping to Kodocha, and see ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ – the uncut, subtitled version on the way.  So think to yourself about how much the average Japanese teen would know about sex.
5) Claimer: I own Inuyasha.
 
*NEW* 6) Please note that SoutasSister seriously kicks major ass when it comes to editing!!  Thank you, Love, you are as fabulous a beta as you are an author.  ^___^  (Yes, the fic has been revised.  Mostly grammar mistakes and crap like that, but SoutasSister also helped smooth out my style in a few parts as well.  Again, much love for her…)
 
Enough Notes.
 
Suggested Soundtrack for ‘Something Real’:
   Evanescence – Anything For You
   Michelle Branch – All You Wanted

--
  
“I can’t play with you anymore.”
 
The young raven-haired girl shifted her weight from one foot to the other, unable to bring her eyes to meet his.  Even the loose ribbon that held back her hair drooped a bit more with every hurtful word.  It was not in her nature to be cruel, even to one such as him – that was assuming that those around her spoke the truth as far as his underlying nature was concerned. 
 
There was no sound but silence from the boy across from her as he struggled to digest the blow that had been imparted.  Portions of the girl’s soul had prayed that he would be angry and call her callous names.  It would make it easier if he were outwardly mean.  She was brought no solace, however, from his stagnant vocality.
 
The boy’s tiny clawed hands shook, bringing him to drop the ball he carried.  It bounced unceremoniously at his feet, rolling slightly to the side.  His mother had given it to him not even a week prior to replace the last one that had been… lost; and his hopes at being able to try it out for the first time with someone else began to crack and crumble faster than he could make repairs. “It’s okay, Hanako.  We don’t have to play with the ball.  We could go to the river instead.  I’d have to ask my mother, but…”
 
“No, it’s not that.” Hanako cut him off.  Why did he have to make this harder?  “I can’t play with you at all.  Okaa-san told me that you’d hurt me if I played with you.  She said I’m not allowed.”  Still unable to look her would-be friend in the face, she turned her back on him.
 
“Wait!” Inuyasha cried out in sheer desperation, running into her path to prevent her exiting just yet.  “What if I talked to your mom?  I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.”
 
Hanako did meet his gaze now and seemed to ponder his suggestion.  Light rekindled in the young hanyou’s eyes; he would convince her mother, or maybe his mom could talk to her...  However, the flame of optimism was quickly squelched when Hanako once more grew serious and turned her eyes to the earth.  “Even if she said yes, the other kids wouldn’t play with me anymore.  I’m sorry.”
 
Before any further arguments could be made, the girl side-stepped the boy and headed in the direction of the other children.  Inuyasha dimly heard them asking her what she was doing talking to ‘the freak’.
 
Oh, that’s right…  He was the freak.  The half-breed.  Somehow beneath them and dirty in comparison; born with more than his fair share of sin.  He had allowed himself to forget for a few precious moments this reality.  Once again his hopes had risen, that he might have actually found someone to accept him.  His ears wilted at the recollection that no decent being would ever accept one of mixed blood such as himself.  Why did he entertain the possibility that it could be otherwise?
 
Reality blasted him like a tidal wave – emotionless; without malice, but complete in its destruction all the same.  The waters held no ill-will.  They carried with them nothing more than blaring truths and swept away the barriers that concealed his raw pain.  It would forever be this way.  No person would ever look upon him in love who was not required or otherwise obligated to do so.

It was in that dark second of recognition that a part of his soul died.  He shrouded this part away with haste, rebuilding much stronger walls around it that would never be torn down or broken.  It was the tattered and dejected ambition of opening himself to those that would hate him.  Never again would he wish for the splendor of friendship with his peers.  It was a lost cause that he could not afford to keep fighting for.  He had nothing left worth the effort, so he acknowledged defeat and simultaneously refused to mourn the loss of his childlike innocence.  

Crossing to the ball, he brushed it off as he caught the familiar scent of his mother who, as it naturally turned out, wasn’t far.
 
The look on her face told him right away that she had seen the whole exchange.  His brow winced involuntarily at the sight of the only person in his life that didn’t welcome distance from him.  He was emotionally weathered beyond his few years and he silently wondered if this woman knew of the internal decision he had just reached not a moment before.  Did he look different somehow?  He lowered his gaze, not wanting to see the shame in her features.  Shame at having a lowly half-breed as a son.  Even at this slight age he knew his life tainted her and a part of him hated himself for it.  His presence caused her pain.  He wished for once that she could be proud of him; that he could make the others in the village see that she was someone worth respecting.
 
“Inuyasha…” she spoke softly.  He went obediently to her and allowed her arms to settle around his shoulders.  “Inuyasha,” she repeated, a bit more harshly.  “Osuwari.” 

--

“Gyah!” A grown up version of that same boy cried out as he was introduced face first to the roots of the tree he had been napping in.
 
“You were napping, weren’t you, Inuyasha?” a perturbed miko questioned him, hands strategically on her hips to exude the highest annoyance factor possible.
 
Grunting in frustration, he lifted himself from the Inuyasha-shaped dent in the ground.  His amber eyes slanted in anger, telling his charge that he was not amused the tiniest bit by her liberal use of ‘the word’.  Finally managing to stand, he brushed himself off and turned up his nose in defiance.

"Keh!  I was not.  Only you weak-ass humans sleep during the day.”
 
Kagome sighed.  She could have countered this obviously lie with ease, taking into account his comatose response to the first few dozen times she called.  However, unlike the boy before her, logic held sway in her decisions and she was more than aware that when he was in one of his moods, fighting would do no good, no matter how much solid proof one had.  He’d be in denial until the cows came home – and then he’d be in denial about the cows.  It was best to just shove this incident into the ‘stubborn hanyou’ file, which seemed to be growing impressively pregnant of late.

“Okay, fine.  Are you ready?  We have to hurry if we want to catch up with Sango-chan and Miroku-sama.”
 
“Well maybe if you didn’t have to stop to take a bath every ten minutes, they wouldn’t have had to go on ahead of us!”
 
“Well if YOU were more careful when you wave around that sword of yours, I wouldn’t have been covered in youkai guts!” she huffed in defiance.

“Hey, I was in the middle of a battle.  I don’t have time to make sure your weird-ass kimono doesn’t get stained.  Maybe YOU should be more careful where you stand, and stay the hell out of my way when I tell you!”
 
It was only then that Inuyasha took note of the fact that Kagome was no longer sporting her usual one-size-covers-nothing attire.  Although he’d never admit noticing such a thing to her, the clothing really had suffered more than its fair share of demon innards in that last fight.  She had clearly reached the same conclusion and was giving the garments a break.  Kagome now reluctantly wore the standard fashion of a Shinto priestess.  ‘Must have been stained pretty bad for her to actually wear the clothes Kaede gave her.  She hates those robes,’ he silently reasoned.
 
Seeing the look of contemplation on his face, Kagome turned her face away.  She knew how much he despised seeing her in the miko garments.  ‘I really wish I had brought more clothes with me this time…’ she privately berated herself, beginning to reconsider the equally unwelcome notion of changing into her pajamas – the only other current option.
 
“Well, let’s go.”

Inuyasha’s command snapped Kagome from her melancholic train of thought.  She jogged to catch up with him, noting that he had swung her bag over his shoulder, indicating that she was to walk beside him in lieu of traveling on his back as per their usual arrangement.

She exhaled a ragged breath knowing without any puzzling the reason that lay behind his desire not to make physical contact.  Once again thinking of changing clothes, she eventually dismissed the idea for fear of raising the hanyou’s ire even further.  Parade in front of him in this and then delay their trip further?  Not the best plan she’d ever come up with.
 
The pair walked in silence along the path toward the mountain range that had been rumored to have developed a strange jyaki over the past weeks.  Thinking that it might be the work of Naraku, the group had set out immediately to investigate the first lead they’d had in what seemed like ages.

In keeping with tradition, their journey was not without incident and no sooner had the group broke camp this morning, did a youkai decide to attack.  Unfortunately, said creature was unusually messy, and had left Kagome with the intense need to bathe.  Staying behind to insure her safety, Inuyasha had sent Sango and Miroku ahead.  It was either that or leave Kagome in the care of Miroku…  And considering the activity she’d be partaking in, he didn’t really deem that as ‘protecting’ her.
 
Back in the present, it did not take long for Inuyasha’s thoughts to drift back to his recent nightmare – or daymare, as it were.  The hanyou hadn’t thought back on that particular incident in quite some time.  He rarely revisited such memories willingly.  Why would his subconscious dredge it up now?
 
A low, subtle growl emanated from his throat as though scolding his treacherous dreams.  Even his own body couldn’t let sleeping dogs lay.  It was bad enough having to deal with humans and their stupid prejudices during the day.  Keeping past slights from his mind was practically a full time job in itself being around the irritating mortals as much as he was these days.  Didn’t he deserve some peace?
 
He glared accusingly at the human girl by his side.  ‘Damn her.’ He cursed to himself.  Kagome was the only human currently in his company, and as such was the representative of her entire species at the moment.  She looked pensive, only serving to make the half demon curious, which naturally caused him to become irritated that she would dare make him curious.  Who was she to presume to be changing his emotions?  And why the Hell was she always so mysterious?  He often wondered what conniving plots she was hatching in that little brain of hers.  After all, it must take her hours of preparation to be so damned successful at getting under his skin.  What with the rosary, and the crying, not to mention the way she could change his entire mood without saying so much as a syllable…  It was truly a stroke of wicked genius, especially when her eyes were taken into account.  They were so innocent!  Too innocent.  Big, brown, gorgeous orbs that revealed the depths of her soul.  Set perfectly next to that flawless porcelain skin that covered…
 
‘Damn it!  When did I become so fuckin’ weak?  I can’t even insult her properly anymore!’
 
His glare deepened.  ‘How did she do that???’
 
Another growl erupted from Inuyasha causing Kagome to pay more attention to his mood than where she was placing her feet.  Just her luck, a slight protrusion on the path caught her foot and sent her stumbling.  She managed to regain her balance by instinctively reaching for her protector and grabbing hold of his haori.  The action caused her traveling companion to whirl on her. 
 
“What the hell you touchin’ me for, Bitch!?”

Kagome jumped slightly, surprised at just how harsh he had been over a simple falter.  Quickly getting past her shock, she narrowed her eyes.  “Well EXCUSE me!  Next time I’ll just fall and make you wait for me to recover.  Is THAT what you’d prefer?”
 
“Feh.  Stupid humans.  Can’t even walk without help.”
 
The miko sighed.  “Inuyasha, if the robes upset you that much…”
 
“Who the fuck said anything about your clothes?  I don’t care what you wear!”
 
Kagome returned to her anger, an emotion that seemed to get a lot of mileage when she was around Inuyasha.

“Oh, really?  Then why are you so angry with me?”
 
“Because you’re irritating!!  Always pressing my buttons and lookin’ for ways to manipulate me.  Well, I got news for you, Kagome.  Your eyes aren’t enough to defeat me!”
 
“My *EYES*?  You mean this is about my ability to see the shards?”
 
“Shards!?  Where?”
 
“There are no shards, Inuyasha…”
 
“Then quit tryin’ to change the subject!”
 
“What *IS* the subject!?”
 
“Miko-sama!”
 
Their arguing was abruptly quashed as a few men approached them from ahead.  It took Kagome a moment to realize that they were speaking to her.  She just wasn’t used to being recognized as a priestess, much less called ‘Miko-sama’.  That title was usually reserved for…
 
‘Oh, great.  There will be no living with him for the next week after this!’
 
“Um, hello.  Is there something I can do for you?” Kagome offered once the men came to a halt before them.

Inuyasha growled a warning at the mere proximity of the males to his charge, even though his stance gave the appearance of impartiality.
 
“What do you want?” he demanded without charm, evoking a reflexive twitch from Kagome’s brow.
 
The three men regarded Inuyasha with a certain wariness as he tucked his hands into the sleeves of his haori, but eventually proceeded to speak with Kagome.
 
“My name is Yasuo, and these are my companions Jiro and Hiroshi.  We live in a village not too far up the road.  My wife has recently given birth to our first born, and if it is not too much trouble, I would humbly ask that you pay a visit to my home to bestow a blessing upon him.”
 
Kagome blushed.  She had never been asked to perform a task such as this.  Could she even give a proper blessing to a newborn?  She had seen Kaede impart blessings upon babies born in the village, and it didn’t seem too difficult.  If nothing else, she could always ask Miroku to stop by upon returning from their journey to make certain she had done it correctly…
 
“Keh.  Kagome ain’t that kind of…”
 
“I’d be honored to bless your son.”  Kagome bowed ever so slightly, effectively silencing the hanyou beside her.  For the moment, anyway.
 
“My thanks, Miko-sama.  I must finish this errand, but if I could meet you in the village shortly…”
 
“Of course,” Kagome replied before the men took their leave.
 
Although nervous, Kagome found herself excited by the prospect of performing an actual priestess’ duty.  Purifying demons was all well and good, but mikos shouldn’t be so constantly consumed by violence.  It would be nice to help someone without needing to dodge attacks for a change.
 
“We don’t got time for this, Kagome!  We have to catch up with the others.  Besides, you’ve never done a blessing!  You’ll end up turning the kid into a goat or something.”
 
“Thanks ever so for your confidence, Inuyasha,” Kagome seethed.  “I can get through a simple blessing!  Not only have I seen Mama do it a thousand times, I’ve seen Kaede back in the village.  Not much has changed in 500 years so I should be able to do a proper one for this era.  And Sango and Miroku will be fine without us a bit longer.  They’ll probably even be pleased that we stopped to help someone in a clean, non-fatal way.”
 
Inuyasha was inclined to continue the argument, but begrudgingly realized that he had upset her with the goat comment.  If he protested much further, he was in for a sitting, and that was something he would very much like to avoid.
 
For once listening to his brain before his mouth got the better of him, he settled for an exasperated ‘Keh’, and began walking with her in the direction of the village.
 
--
 
A deep sigh escaped him as he shut his eyes and leaned back against the wall of the relatively small hut.  He shifted uncomfortably, pulling Tessaiga from his side and resting it in his lap.  The movement of his weapon did not go unnoticed by the women in the back of the hut who were there to witness the blessing.  More whispers drifted to his ever-vigilant ears, and not for the first time he wished that he didn’t have such adept hearing.
 
“Is he preparing to attack?  Do you think he’d hurt the baby?” the younger of the two questioned her companion.
 
“Not with the miko here,” she replied.  “We best watch what we say though.  I don’t know if he can hear us.”
 
Inuyasha did not wish to give away his advantage, so he remained immobile, never casting so much as a glance in their direction.
 
“Do you really think he has such good hearing?  He’s only a half-breed,” the first girl argued.
 
“Well, he must have some power.  After all, why else would the miko travel with such a creature as her ‘protector’?”
 
That’s right.  He was merely the miko’s guardian.  Upon entering the village, Inuyasha had been immediately analyzed by the locals.  Kagome happily explained Yasuo’s request, and the elders had seen fit to invite her into their community with open arms.  However, Inuyasha was not so easily welcomed.  One of the elders had questioned why a hanyou was traveling with her.  For lack of a better explanation, Kagome had told them that he was her protector.  They resisted still, at which point Inuyasha had declared that he wasn’t looking for their approval.  The miko scolded him for being so abrupt.
 
Didn’t she understand that he was just defending himself?  Sure, it was all well and easy for her.  SHE wasn’t the one being accused of malice just because of the way she looked.  What of THEIR behavior?  Why couldn’t she ever take his side?  He would have taken his leave of the situation, but in a new place with unfamiliar people, he didn’t trust Kagome not to get herself into trouble.
 
Begrudgingly, the villagers had accepted the miko’s reasons and had put up no fight when he accompanied her to Yasuo’s home.  However, to say that he was welcomed would be reaching.
 
“You mean you actually believe that he’s her guardian?  If she wanted protection, why not get a real demon?”
 
“She probably chose him on purpose.  If he gets out of line, she can purify him without killing him – his human side would just take over for a short while.”
 
“Ah.  Kind of like a leash.”
 
“All he needs is the collar to match those ears of his.”
 
At that, Inuyasha did open his eyes and turn his face directly towards the two gossiping females.  They gasped and immediately avoided eye contact, making their way behind a few of the elders should the hanyou decide to make good on his unspoken threat.
 
His nasty glower had been more than enough to subdue them.  ‘Keh.  Who’s on a fuckin’ leash now?’
 
He noticed that an elder had caught on to the little exchange between the hanyou and the girls.  Concern crossed his features and he moved to stand beside them, shooting what was probably meant to be an intimidating glance at Inuyasha.  Deeming the elder unworthy of battle, Inuyasha resettled himself and closed his eyes to wait for the stupid blessing to be over and done with.  The sooner they got out of the presence of so many humans, the more comfortable he would be.
 
“Inuyasha, it’s finished.”  Kagome spoke softly, a smile playing across her lips.
 
The hanyou cracked open one golden eye to make sure he wasn’t hearing things.  Indeed, Kagome stood before him, beaming however modestly at her accomplishment.  The blessing had obviously gone well, and the hanyou took in the happy expressions of Yasuo and his family.  Despite himself, Inuyasha felt his lips curl into a smirk; he couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride for the girl.
 
“Miko-sama, I’ll show you to your rooms.”  The elder that had challenged him not long ago had approached Kagome, and she nodded appreciatively.
 
“Thank you, Keiji-san,” she responded with a small bow.
 
“Wait, rooms?” Inuyasha blurted out, now on his feet towering over the priestess.  His outburst caused the whole room to become silent, save for the gurgling noises coming from the newly-blessed infant.  He hadn’t even been that loud…

“Yes.  It’s almost dark, Inuyasha, and Keiji-san has offered to let us stay in his inn.” Kagome informed him, no longer sporting her good mood.  Inuyasha wanted to argue, but not here in front of so many unfamiliar people.  Relenting, he nodded his consent to be led to their accommodations, wherein he would be free to yell at Kagome in private.
 
On the way to their rooms, Inuyasha realized that this village was larger than he originally guessed.  Thick forest surrounded them, save for a relatively narrow passage through the trees that lead to an entirely different section of the same community.  It was there that he caught site of the inn that the elder no doubt owned.  It wasn’t as nice as some of the lodgings that Miroku managed to snag for them over their months of travel, but overall it wasn’t bad.
 
Long hallways led to the back of the establishment, wherein Kagome was shown her room.  Much to the horror of Keiji, Inuyasha stepped in beside her, making certain to inspect everything around the room.  It was sparse, but comfortable; a futon against the far wall, a fire pit, and a privacy screen in the corner as well as a small table.
 
“This way, Hanyou.” Keiji called from the door.
 
Inuyasha turned to glare at the obtrusive individual.  “Keh!  There’s no way I’m leaving her alone with you people around.”  His fingers instinctively drummed against Tessaiga to make his point before crossing his arms in his signature fashion.
 
“What he means to say is that we are used to sharing.  We travel quite a bit and make due with rooms not nearly this nice.  It isn’t necessary for you to trouble yourself with two,” a blushing Kagome ‘translated’.  ‘Would it kill him to learn some manners?’
 
“It is no trouble, Miko-sama.  Besides, it would not be proper for him to share a room with you,” Keiji articulated.  The man clearly had an inherent fondness for the priestess, but did not understand her choice in traveling partners.  He hoped that the inference of impropriety would be enough to force her to relent.
 
“I thank you, Keiji-san, but I’m afraid I must insist.  Inuyasha is here to protect me, and he can’t do that if he’s not nearby.  Really, I assure you, this is normal for us,” Kagome tried.  She really didn’t care to give the impression that she was desperate to sleep in the same room with Inuyasha, but she did feel safer when he was nearby – especially in foreign towns.
 
“Very well,” Keiji sighed, showing no small amount of discomfort about the arrangement.  “You will at least allow us to provide you with a second futon?” he questioned.
 
“That would be appreciated.  Thank you,”Kagome smiled.
 
“But I don’t sleep on…”
 
Inuyasha didn’t get the chance to finish before Keiji unceremoniously shut the door on the two.  The hanyou growled, dropping Kagome’s bag off his shoulder and resting Tessaiga beside it so that he could speak with Kagome without worrying about being hindered by the inanimate objects.
 
“Honestly, Inuyasha.  You could *try* to be polite,” Kagome admonished the inu-hanyou.
 
Inuyasha gaped before snorting. “Me!?  They’re the ones who keep acting like assholes!”
 
Kagome let out her breath in defeat.  His temper was exhausting.  “Forget it.  I don’t want to argue.  Just don’t say anything when they bring the second futon, okay?  They already probably think there is something going on between us because I insisted that you stay in my room.”
 
Inuyasha winced at her words and turned away to cross to the other side of the room.  Of course she would be embarrassed if people thought they were involved.  They looked down on her for just being in his company!  What would they do if they had reason to think they shared a bed?
 
Unwelcome images of Kagome tucked against him filled his mind.  A dream that would never be realized…  Kissing those sweet lips of hers, trailing his mouth down her neck as she’d make little sounds of joy.  She’d hold him close, lay her head on his shoulder, and trust him completely as his hands learned her body.  He didn’t often think of touching her – it was hard to imagine when he didn’t know what to think of.  He had seen glimpses of her nude form, but his eyes had never really been given the opportunity to focus.  By the time he’d think to look away from her face and commit her body to memory, he’d either be sat, caught, or too embarrassed to keep staring.  No.  It was much easier to imagine Kagome’s hands on him – carefully placing those tempting lips on his neck while her hands moved across his hardened flesh below.  Sometimes she’d wind her hands in his hair and pull his face to hers, locking him in a searing kiss, delicate fingers eventually sliding down his neck and shoulders and across the heated skin of his back.  Her body, pressed against his, whispering words to him that he’d never hear as he…
 
His reverie was shattered as two servants entered the room with ‘his’ futon.  At first he was enraged by the interruption, but that dissipated as soon as he remembered that he shouldn’t be thinking those things in the first place.  Not only was he a ‘dirty half-breed’ that dishonored Kagome by just thinking of such actions, but the girl in question was standing not three feet away!
 
He inwardly cursed his body for responding to his wayward ideas.  All thoughts of objecting to their stay were forgotten and he resigned himself to the realization that he would have to wait to get out of this torture-chamber of a town for a while longer.  Why didn’t his friends ever seem to understand why he avoided the villages?  He pushed the ire at their ineptitude aside.  Now his mind focused on his more immediate need.  He couldn’t very well take care of this ‘problem’ where he was.
 
He crossed the rest of the room to the door that led outside.  He slid it open to feel the cool breeze rush over his face.  It was dark now, but luckily he didn’t need much light to see.  The porch which extended all the way down the length of the building held a few torches on its walls so that the occupants would not be walking around blind in the darker hours.  This illumination was more than enough for Inuyasha to see the open area which led to the forest.  He stepped out and readied himself to leap.
 
“Inuyasha?  Where are you going?” Kagome’s soft voice stopped his exit.  He growled.
 
“I need some air,” he bit out.  He really didn’t want her questioning him on this.  He was humiliated enough as it was.  Besides, it was her fault that he was in this state to begin with!
 
Without further discussion, he bounded from the tavern and into the safety of the immediate trees.  He couldn’t afford to go far from the room considering that Kagome was now left alone to the mercy of whatever might decide to attack.  This would have to be quick and not as well hidden as he would have liked.  But desperate times…
 
‘Well, at least the quick part shouldn’t be much of a problem,’ he thought dourly.  The images from before had managed to get him awfully worked up.  It wouldn’t take much additional stimulation for him to bring an end to this bodily crisis.
 
Suddenly, Kagome was there with him.  Her finger tips traced the swelling under his hakama before working it free and exposing it to the night air.  A thumb ran over the tip as soft, feverish kisses passed between their mouths.  He gasped as she pressed herself against him, moving her head slightly to the side to nip at his neck.  They were naked and vulnerable, their bodies caressing one another.  She worked her hand around his hardened shaft, pulling and tugging at the perfect pace to bring him over to a place of completion.  She whispered his name loud enough that it could almost be called a whisper, and he responded in kind to her plea.
 
“Kagome…” he moaned into her ear.
 
And then it went black.
 
A few seconds later, Inuyasha steadied himself just before another blow came to the back of his head.  This time, however, it didn’t stun him.  It merely hurt.  He turned angered eyes to see Keiji and a small number of village men standing behind him.  His groin ached with unfulfilled release, but that would clearly have to wait.
 
“Beast!” Keiji seethed.  “You would think to defile her in such a way!” The man raised the object he had struck him with before to do so again.  Inuyasha grabbed his hand to keep him from doing so, only to be pounded upon by a few of the other surrounding him.  He reached for Tessaiga only to realize that it was back in the room with Kagome.  He would have to rely on his claws – not something he was necessarily opposed to.  It was just that Inuyasha hadn’t actually intended to fight with these humans.  Tessaiga would have intimidated even the most courageous of mortals, thus preventing a brawl.  He knew he couldn’t kill the villagers, which made the fight that much harder to do with his claws.  One wrong swipe and they’d be easily cut down.
 
His body bore the blows under protest, but luckily humans didn’t really have the strength to cause much more than shallow bruises.  He crouched to the ground and darted through an opening to get clear of the circle his attackers had formed around him.  He was free, and he would have stayed that way, but one of them slapped an ofuda to his back, rendering him basically immobile.
 
One of the men sneered in accomplishment, tapping the ward with his weapon.  The villagers had no doubt acquired youkai wards due to their lack of a spiritual leader.  It was something most villages without a local monk or priestess did.  Inuyasha cursed himself for forgetting this.
 
The blows continued, but not for long.  Soon his arms were raised and he was dragged back to the tavern.  Inuyasha wanted to cry out to Kagome to come tear this thing off of him (and bring Tessaiga while she was at it), but he couldn’t even bring his voice to obey him.  ‘Damn powerful ofuda,’ Inuyasha bitterly mused.

Luckily, they seemed to be taking him in the direction of her room anyway.  He snickered inwardly.  Wait until Kagome found out what they did…  They only knew the pleasant side of the girl – they had never seen her angry!  And when she saw what they had done to him…
 
His relief was short lived, overwhelmed by panic and horror at the situation.  They were going to tell Kagome what he was doing!  More importantly, they would tell her whose name he had said.
 
“You would think to defile her…”
 
A thousand or more ugly thoughts ran through his mind at once, summoning a tenseness that penetrated even the powerful ofuda.  He was still held utterly immobile but this did not speak for his mind which was racing more powerfully than it had since the moments before he was sealed to Goshinboku.  His pulse throbbed in every inch of his body creating a pounding in his ears so loud that he could no longer hear the conversations of the villagers dragging his inert form back to the priestess.
 
Scenarios came to his mind’s eye faster than he could register them in their entirety.  In each and every one, his worst fears came to pass.  The look of sheer disgust she would wear when she found out.  He could feel the heat of her hatred for him baring upon his soul already.  He had survived countless battles, been locked in a dark abyss for over fifty years…  But this?  He would never recover from this.
 
The vision of her smiling face shattered before him.  Never again would he feel her gentle caress as she tended his wounds.  She wouldn’t grasp his waist with her thighs as she rode his back, the sound of her cheerful laughter and innocent admiration of the beauty, which she saw in everything that surrounded them.  He would be labeled worse than the bouzu for nothing more than a dream.  A ghastly mutt that should have been drowned at birth had no right to have such disgraceful fantasies about a miko.
 
His desire to flee was awe-inspiring, but his useless limbs would not respond to their owner’s commands.  Full-blown terror coursed brutally through every fiber of his being.  If only he could struggle…  He had to get away!  Get away and never return.  It would break him to leave her but anything would be better than to see the heartbroken look in her eyes – the devastation of having been mentally molested by the likes of him.
 
Anything would be better than this.
 
Altogether too soon, he was dropped on the floor of the room.  He could hear Kagome’s startled gasp and her footsteps as she came to kneel beside him.  The scent of smoke assaulted his nose which in turn prompted his eyes to water.  The girl had clearly started a fire in his absence to ward of the chill of the night air.  Silly girl, always so fragile…
 
“What have you done to him!?” Kagome demanded, the venom behind the question overpowering.  He felt a hand on his head, and screwed his eyes shut.  This would surely be the last time he ever felt that soothing touch.  What would she do when she found out?  Would she even bother to remove the ward?  Or would she just abandon him where he was?  Perhaps she would subdue him with words, as only she could, until his body simply gave out.  He wanted to tell her… something.  He wanted to have something to say or do that would make all of this go away.  But it never would, and he knew it.  So he waited – and that alone was nearly his undoing.
 
“We caught him in the forest, Miko-sama.  He was degrading you with his disgusting actions.”
 
There was quiet for a moment, and the hand that had been stroking his hair stilled.  “Degrading me?  What actions?  What are you talking about?  What could he possibly have done to deserve…”
 
‘Stupid Bitch!’ Inuyasha cursed Kagome’s naivety.  Did they really have to spell it out for her??
 
“Forgive us, Miko-sama.  We realize that you are pure and probably do not know of such sinful acts.  He said your name as he pleasured himself.  He was imagining…”
 
“Get out,” Kagome commanded softly, cutting off any further explanation.  Inuyasha fell into confusion, debating whether or not to consider this a good turn of events.  On one hand, she had put an end to this humiliation by not allowing the man to continue his explanation.  Not only that but she seemed oddly calm – her voice lacking any emotion except for a small waver in tone.  He would have liked to take this as a sign that she wasn’t as angry as he assumed she would be, but the shaking of her palm told him otherwise.  She was angry.  VERY.  At them or him, or perhaps both, he wasn’t sure.
 
On the other hand, he worried that once the men left he would be in for the sitting of his life, not to mention the fact that he’d have to face the full brunt of her wrath.  He could just imagine the revulsion she would hold in her eyes when she looked at him from now on.  Things would never be the same between them.  He could never take it back, not that he was even sure he would if given the chance.  His dreams were all he had.  Fury filled the hanyou as he lay static on the cold floor, still bound by the ofuda on the back of his haori.  If those fucking men hadn’t followed him, none of this would have happened.  Kagome wouldn’t hate him, and he wouldn’t be in the most embarrassing situation of his life.
 
He knew why they followed him.  After that incident with those two bitches back at Yasuo’s hut, they had undoubtedly assumed that he was a danger and should be watched.  Those girls’ prejudice…  The hatred that humans held for half-breeds…  They were to blame for the circumstance.  Never before did he find himself wanting to kill humans quite as badly as he did now.  But at the same time, he hated himself.  A small portion of his soul still longed for acceptance; and it would be that portion that was the death of him in the end.  He didn’t want this – to be dirty.  He never asked to be what he was.  Who would?  He cursed his mixed heritage silently for the infinite time in his head.  Why did he have to be born a freak?  An abomination?  Born with more than his fair share of sin, he would never be clean. 
 
“Miko-sama…” one of his captors protested.  Inuyasha recognized the voice as that of Keiji.  “It’s not safe for him to be left with you.  He should be…”
 
“Just leave it,” Kagome spoke once more, this time her voice brokered no dispute.  There was no sound of argument, only the loud shuffling of feet and the closing of the door as the villagers exited.
 
‘It’, Inuyasha’s eyes went wide before squeezing them tightly closed.  ‘She doesn’t even think of me as alive anymore!’
 
In actuality, Kagome was reeling from what just occurred.  Her command had been to drop the situation; they had truly done enough damage as it was.  The villagers had assaulted her best friend because of his fantasies?  Her pulse beat with ire, that they would hurt him for no other reason.  He hadn’t done anything to anyone and yet they left him so injured that he was unable to move. 
 
Had he been in any other state, she would have been elated – flattered perhaps that Inuyasha thought of her as more than a friend, even if it was just a dream version of herself.  However, the rational part of her would have quashed the euphoria upon the realization that he had probably been thinking of her past incarnation and that the villagers had jumped to assumptions.  But the way he just lay lifeless on the floor terrified the young miko, so none of these thoughts had time to manifest.  The fact that he hadn’t made so much as a growl…
 
“Inuyasha, why aren’t you moving?” she asked, her voice shaking violently.  She could barely get out the words.
 
She took inventory of his appearance, moving from his head and limbs to the center of his back.  She had been so preoccupied making certain that there was no blood that she had completely missed the ofuda that held him immobile.  Making a small sound of understanding, she quickly reached forward and ripped the ward off of the hanyou.
 
The second he regained control of his body, Inuyasha launched himself into the darkest corner of the room, curling against the walls and hiding his face from view.  He could still feel her eyes looking at him; detesting him and what he’d done.  He couldn’t bring himself to meet those eyes, nor gaze upon any part of her.  Why did the earth never open up and swallow you when you needed it to?

Kagome sat stationary, not having the slightest clue what to do.  He was embarrassed, hurt, and angry, which usually meant violence.  She should just let him be, but she needed to know that he wasn’t seriously injured, and she couldn’t help but feel like they should talk about…well, what he was caught doing, and more specifically, if it was her that he imagined or perhaps a certain other miko.
 
“Inuyasha…  Did…  Did they?  Did they hurt you?” she questioned as carefully as possible.  If he would tell her that he was uninjured, then she swore to the Kamis that she’d let the rest be.  She’d leave him alone until he was ready if he would just be okay.  If he wasn’t?  Her mood shifted to that of revenge.  If they’d hurt Inuyasha simply because he was dreaming, they would pay.  Painfully.  Preferably with sharp objects and over long weeks.
 
Inuyasha was astonished at the question.  He’d been all but emotionally broken, and she had the nerve to sit there and ask him if he was okay!?  His entire life had been one big rejection after another.  Taunts and barbs at his expense, for no reason besides his existence.  He wanted to return in kind, but his stupid human conscience wouldn’t let him.  Why was it that the very thing that condemned him in their eyes also saved their necks?  The children that wouldn’t play with him, the adults that would torment his mother and whisper behind their backs.  The people that spat in his face and the demons and humans alike that tried to expunge him from the Earth.  That was why Kagome never took his side when people treated him badly.  Deep down she knew they were right.  She was just too kind-hearted to do it herself.
 
And now the wench wanted to know.  How was he?  Oh, he’d tell her.
 
The boy sneered.  “Did they hurt me?” he growled out.  “Nope, just fine, Kagome.  Not a scratch, thanks for asking.”
 
Kagome winced at his tone, but stood and started to cross to her futon, satisfied that he didn’t need medical help. 
 
“Oh wait, did you mean hurt as in humiliate me the same way everyone does every fucking day of my life?”
 
Kagome turned back around, eyes wide as he continued.  She hadn’t expected him to say more.  He never so much as admitted that he had any pain, much less talk with her about the cause.
 
“Did you mean, ‘Did they piss you off with the way that you couldn’t even step foot in their precious village without soiling it with your filthy half-breed hands?  Did those bitches mocking you during the blessing bother you, Inuyasha?  Was it terrible to hear that you should be on a leash rather than treated like a person?  Do the cuts still sting from when your own brother tells you that you have no right to share his father’s blood?’  Or maybe you meant the way every single time I walk into a crowd of humans that they shrink away in disgust or fear!  No friends even as a child because their parents was afraid you’ll hurt them.  No one wants to play with a foul mutt, or spend time with a monster.”
 
He was standing now, no longer really addressing Kagome.  He was pacing the room, directing his commentary toward the walls.  He looked angry enough to murder – not to kill, but to seriously wrap his hands around someone’s neck just for the pure bliss of feeling it crack beneath his fingers.  Kagome covered her mouth with her hands to keep from making a sound.  She didn’t believe that he’d harm her, but the smallest sound might bring him down to Earth, and he clearly needed to vent.  Had he ever let any of this out?  Talked about these things with anyone?  How did he live feeling like this every day?
 
Tears formed in her eyes and made their way down her cheeks in streams.  She wouldn’t make a sound though.  She wouldn’t cry out.  No whimpers or ragged breaths.  She’d be silent if it killed her to do so.
 
“…Never have friends.  Never have family.  Hanyous don’t get to have parents or mates or children of their own.  Who would choose to spend their life with someone that doesn’t belong anywhere?  Someone made up of two halves that equal nothing.  They’re not supposed to exist.  They’re impure and tainted, and they do nothing but drain the life from those around them.  They don’t deserve to be happy.  They don’t deserve any of it.  They should be drowned as soon as they slither from their mother.  It would save everyone time and suffering not to have to look on such ugly abominations.  Such unnatural freaks that don’t deserve to breathe the same air as the rest of you.”
 
She had to snap him out of this, but she didn’t know how.  She would have normally run and put her arms around him and held him close until everything dark and ugly was gone from his thoughts.  But she didn’t think he even realized she was there anymore.  He would surely attack her if she reached for him now simply because he wouldn’t recognize her in time.  Although, she dare not argue with him either, that would only make things worse.  Years of pent up rage were now coming to a boiling head, and she didn’t have the knowledge or the power to convince him that the things he was spewing weren’t true.  And most of all, she didn’t want to cry.  Then he’d feel even worse for making her upset.  It would only confirm all of his beliefs.  She knew him.  He’d feel guilty and then there might be no helping him.
 
“…What exactly makes me so different, damn it!?  So different that they can’t even let me have my dreams.  Not even my dreams, which is all I’ll ever have.  I’m not allowed.  My thoughts are unclean.  They’re not supposed to exist and the fact that they do is…”
 
“You’re right.”
 
Inuyasha stiffened and his eyes flew wide.  Kagome had been there the whole time?  He sniffed the air and could tell she was crying.  He turned to face her, only to find her face hidden beneath her bangs.  Her silky purple pajamas vibrated with their owner’s shaking, causing what little light the room had to the bounce off of her in ripples.
 
Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn’t for her to say that.  He stood astonished and motionless; to think that she’d so bluntly agree.  That even innocent Kagome wouldn’t raise her voice to comfort him.  It was because he defiled her.  He was no longer worthy of her help to make him into anything worthwhile, and as such no longer worth defending.  After a long minute, she finally lifted her face to reveal her eyes.  They were blurry with unshed tears, but no stains adorned her face.  She must have wiped them clean before speaking because he could smell the salty liquid in the air.
 
“You’re right, Inuyasha.  That is what this world thinks of you.  These people?  They hate and fear you because of what you are.  They don’t care whether or not you’re evil.  You’re a half-breed.  Why would they give you a second thought?”
 
She was insulting him, and yet she sounded so calm.  Ever-forgiving Kagome was condemning him and it was no less than he deserved for what he did.  But still he wondered how long she had been holding such opinions inside.  Her voice was eerie and the words it produced wrenched the heart in his chest.  He had always held onto foolish hope that maybe Kagome saw him differently – she was the only one who didn’t try to hurt him at first sight.  Everyone he now considered a ‘friend’ started out hating him.  Except her.  And now he knew for a fact that she did hate him, the same as the others.
 
His hopeful delusions about her acceptance crumbled and he could feel his insides collapse upon themselves and die.  As much as he’d like to, he knew he couldn’t blame her for the loathing that she harbored.  She had begun to walk towards him, and though his instinct was to flee, his feet wouldn’t move.  He was a captive audience as she closed the short distance between them.  She now stood directly in front of him, her face upturned to look him in the eyes as she spoke. 
 
“I guess that’s why I’m not from this world,” she softly mused, seemingly almost to herself although her eyes continued to penetrate his without waver.
 
Inuyasha reset his jaw to stop trembling and took a gulp of air, having it suddenly occur to him that he hadn’t breathed in.  ‘Wait.  Did she just…?’
 
Kagome broke eye contact to look down between them before returning to his face.  Gently, she reached forward and placed her hand just behind one of his ears.  He jumped at the contact but made no move to stop it.

“You hate it when people touch your ears,” she reflected, even as she stroked the downy fur.  “You hate it because they are the most noticeable difference between you and others.  But I can’t count how many times you’ve heard me scream for you and you’ve come running to my rescue.  These ears you hate made you hear me; they’ve saved me.”
 
The hand left his ear to trail across the side of his face.  Her open palm flexed before contouring to the curve of his cheek.  A small smile presented itself on her face.  “Your eyes are a different color.  But in my time?  People pay good money to have their eyes look like yours." She seemed to get lost in a small reverie for a moment before snapping herself back, the serious expression replacing the grin.  “They see better than humans do.  But not as well as a full youkai, I suppose.  But you use them to keep people safe, and to scout out danger.  Beautiful golden eyes see so much prejudice, and yet they welled with secret tears when you thought your friends had left you.  I can’t imagine a youkai like your brother showing such brave compassion.  And a human couldn’t have held themselves together long enough to save us.  Your demon blood gave you the strength while your human side gave you the motivation.  We’re alive because of both your sides.”
 
She reached for his trembling hand with her own, curling fragile digits around his calloused and clawed hands.  She lifted the palm up so that he could easily see it.  “Claws that could slice through me in a second if you wanted to hurt me.  You could kill me right now, Inuyasha.  I wouldn’t be able to stop you…  And yet you don’t think like that.  Instead you use them to catch and prepare food for the people you care for.”
 
She hummed and gave a slight giggle.  “I remember the first time you brought back a rabbit for us to eat.  It was whole and still had the fur on it, and I remember crying because it was dead.  And to comfort me, you told me I was a moron, and that the animals were there to be eaten.  I knew you were right, but I still cried.  And rather than force me to get used to such things, you haven’t brought any animal back to camp that you haven’t already prepared for cooking.  You did that just so I wouldn’t be sad.  Here you were nourishing me – doing me a favor; keeping me alive, and I never thanked you for that meal.  And rather than hold a grudge as you would have every right to do, you decided to shelter me from the harsh realities that I should have to deal with on my own.”
 
His brow creased in thought.  He never realized that Kagome noticed his change in behavior towards his kills.  It hadn’t really been a question with him.  Death upset her, so she wouldn’t see death.  Simple as that.
 
She pressed his clawed palm to her cheek, smiling as his thumb caressed the flesh of its own volition.  “Everyone here thinks that you’re this product of something unnatural, and that it makes you dirty.  But to me?  To me, it makes you amazing.”
 
His eyes widened and shook in confusion, not understanding her meaning in the slightest.  “Your mother and father loved each other so much that they looked beyond social norms and the ‘proper’ way of things.  It took so much courage, and such strong feelings to come together, but they did.  They did because of how true and earnest their love was for one another.  And you are the product of that.  Inuyasha, you are walking, talking, living proof that there is true love in the world, despite all the evil and corruption.  You give me hope, Inuyasha.  Your existence isn’t filthy, it’s miraculous.”
 
A small sound like a whimper escaped his throat although his eyes held no sign of tears.  “And I hate the fact that this world doesn’t appreciate you like it should.  These people have no right to look down on you.  You’re the best of both races – with the strength and assets of a youkai, with a human heart and conscience.  The truth of it is that you’re better than any of us, Inuyasha.  You’re better than those men, those kids that were mean you.  You’re better than the people you save who show you nothing but hatred in return.  You’re better than me…”   
 
She closed the distance between them even more, their clothing barely brushing against the other’s.  His hand slipped from her cheek and came barely into contact with her back, for lack of a more appropriate place to put it.  “Your whole life, people have deceived you into thinking you’re a lesser being.  But it was lies.  All of it, Inuyasha.  You’ve never had anything…  No hope to hold on to, and no truths to make you see through the deceit.  But if you let me…  I want to give you something real.”
 
Kagome let her eyes drop to his lips.  Normally at this point she would shock herself out of what she was contemplating.  She’d back off, too frightened to follow through.  She feared rejection and even if he did accept her, she worried that he’d be wishing she was someone else.  She was nervous that someone like her could never have the affection of someone like him.  He was so close to her on a daily basis, and yet he remained teasingly out of reach.
 
But now wasn’t the time for her to worry about such things, and she didn’t.  The possibility occurred to her that he might not want this, but he would have to stop her.  He needed to be wanted, and after months of longing, she knew that in this moment she alone could truly give this to him.  So she put her own needs aside; the need to be comforted and soothed, and to be told that she was more important; the need to be told that she was loved and cared for by him…  All of it she pushed aside without even realizing it for the simple reason that the man who stood before her would be better for it.
 
Tentative fingertips came up to faintly caress his lips.  His mouth parted ever so slightly upon contact and the mere fact that he didn’t pull away was taken as a sign that it was okay to continue.  The digits moved to the side as she rose, and she hesitated for a part of a second after every inch of progress made.  Her throat ran completely dry, making her breath come harsher to her, even as her heart steadily increased its tempo from sheer and unmitigated excitement. 
 
Her eyes drifted semi closed just as her sensitive lips came into the briefest of contact with his.  It was as though she didn’t want to admit that it was a kiss right away.  She tilted her head slightly to allow a second brush against him, this time actually managing to get the smallest taste of him on her mouth.  She opened her mouth to breathe, brushing a third time before finally puckering to complete the action.
 
At long last, her lips rested upon his, and to her relief, he pressed back.  It wasn’t much of a movement on either of their parts, but it was enough to melt the surrounding world away.  Her fingertips began to pull his face a bit more firmly toward her as she tilted her head once more, breaking the kiss for a few seconds before resettling with a bit more force.  Her other hand began to make its way up to rest on his chest and she sighed with relief when she felt his arms begin to tighten around her form and lift her up towards him.  A gentle fist grabbed his haori for support – and unlike earlier today, this time it went without reprimand.  Her eyes closed completely, followed in suit by his own, as she again moved her head to a different angle.
 
Their mouths met more insistently, breath escaping loudly through their noses when air was not an option any other way.  Inuyasha began to adjust his own position as their kisses broke and began anew over and over.  His heart pounded remorseless in his ears, the organ attempting to press against the delicate hand fisting his clothes.  His throat tightened as his human emotions ran unbridled across the surface of his mind.  It was the highest contradiction; to feel so vulnerable and powerful all at once.  He could be undone by the girl in his arms, and yet she had come to him not only willingly, but urgently.
 
There was no discernable pattern to the length of their meetings.  Sometimes their lips would barely touch before moving, and yet in others neither partner would pull back for long, unashamed seconds.  The hand on his haori came up to sweep over his neck before passing to tangle in his long silver tresses. 
 
She let out a small sound of appreciation when she felt his hands start to wander to new places on her back and shoulders in an effort to hold her even closer.  It was as though he thought she would disappear, and she wanted him to know that she wasn’t going anywhere without him.  His fingers gripped and soothed her through the silky material of her clothing.
 
Her diminutive cry did not go unnoticed by him, and his being ached in response.  The sound sent a shiver…no, more like a burning throughout every last part of his being.  He wanted this – needed her – to continue.  He felt frantic and yet oddly in command of himself as his lips once more sought to meet with hers.  Her scent surrounded him, and appeased him, while simultaneously setting him ablaze.  If he was coherent any longer, he wasn’t sure, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that he didn’t care.  The wounds she had inflicted on his heart earlier began to heal under her care.  And even more extraordinary than that, he could feel the older scars start to fade.
 
More confidently, her hand came to rest on his cheek as she made to deepen the kiss.  Her head was swimming with passion – his masculine flavor intoxicating her senses.  She was content with what she had and yet needed more.  Cautiously, she slipped her tongue across his bottom lip.  The action clearly caught the hanyou by surprise as his next intake of breath came ragged to his lungs.  She drew it back before resuming their previous motions.  They had all the time in the world, and she planned to use every second of it to her advantage.  She committed the feel of his taut form to memory, to allow her to relive these moments when they had passed.
 
Again she tried to take their kisses to the next level, happy to find that this time he went without apprehension.  Instead, he resolved that this was possibly a good idea, and moved his own tongue to massage hers.  The sensation sent another jolt through him although the first had yet to subside.  A low growl rumbled in his chest as his eyes slit open to take in the sight of the girl in his arms.
 
Her face was flushed and beautiful, eyes contentedly closed.  A visage of complete trust and abandonment, as well as abundant pleasure.  A hand carefully nested itself in her silken hair, successfully earning him another whimper from her.  He rewarded her with one of his own, a brief but unmistakable sound that caused Kagome to intensify their kisses even more so.  His body hardened and the straining from the earlier non-release had returned to him ten-fold.  Whatever he had imagined her kisses being, it was a pale imitation to the treatment he was currently indulging in.
 
Finally, passion overwhelmed them and their kisses stopped being butterfly light and gentle, turning into something deeper and far more primal.  Heatedly, the two pressed together as though they would die if parted for a solitary second.  Both of her hands stroked and held the sides of his face, alternating between caressing his cheek and stroking his hair and scalp.  His hands roamed her back and shoulders once more, pulling her impossibly close as his fingers danced across her covered flesh to further tease and secure her.
 
His mouth crashed against hers over and over in an attempt to devour and bring to life her essence.  Her tongue pushed its way into his mouth and battled his before he found himself wanting to be the aggressive one.  He forced her back into her own mouth and followed, swirling to learn the insides of that warm cavity.  She tasted how she smelled – a flavor all her own.  He may not know as much about anatomy as the girl he held but he knew enough to appreciate the fact that the senses of taste and scent were closely linked.  And being of inu-youkai blood, these two senses were very crucial to daily survival.  The fact that she delighted these two senses in particular carried more meaning than she knew, and he could feel himself growl in approval.
 
His hands moved her head to grant him a better angle to explore what she was willingly giving.  For a split second he pondered whether or not he was being too rough in his advances.  It was a question that passed in no time at all, however, because Kagome returned his fervor equally.  She would be trying to break away if she minded, not further deepening the vigorous kisses and encouraging his ravenous hands.  Surely she wouldn’t be clinging to him as though he were her last remaining lifeline…
 
When he felt his knees ready to buckle beneath him, he moved his head sharply to the side to break contact with her sweet, tempting mouth.  He drew in a desperate breath as she did the same. His face returned to hers, their foreheads pressing together, even as their hands obstinately refused to cease their roaming.  Kagome was the first to crack open lust-filled eyes, but found quickly that she was not ready to keep them that way.  She closed them once more before taking exaggerated blinks to regain her senses, and she was surprised when she met his dilated amber gaze.
 
She felt herself grin a reassurance to them both that this had been a good experience.  His mouth returned her gesture in what was more a cocky, satisfied smirk. 
 
How very like him to choose a moment like this to look that conceited.
 
Finally having her lungs once more, she made to speak.  She meant to tell him that she enjoyed herself.  That he was her one and only, and that she loved him more than he could ever know.  She wanted to further soothe his uncertainties after years of constant rejection from the world he lived in.  To drive home a few more points as to why he mattered and that she didn’t care what anyone else had to say on the issue of his worth.  All of this she poured into a speech, a look, a caress of her hand as she at last located her voice and forced it to the surface. 
 
“Kiss good.”
 
Satisfied that she had articulately conveyed all of her points, she grinned as his smile widened and a low chuckle sounded in his chest.  One of his hands came to her face, and pushed the hair away from the side and back with the rest behind her.  His palm returned to her back, rubbing up and down passively.  Their foreheads still rest against each other, and he closed his eyes as he let her words sink in further.  A signature pride-filled laugh escaped his lips, and he reopened his gaze to hers.  “Yeah, Kagome.  Kiss Good,” came his husky teasing assent.
 
Kagome allowed her head to fall to his shoulder and slid her arms around his back.  Her eyes drifted closed once more as she inhaled his scent and nuzzled the side of his neck.  A relatively stable hand came up to comb through her hair, an altogether soothing motion, and she let herself relax completely, a sigh of relief and contentment, a gift from her all-together relieved lungs.
 
Inuyasha placed his jaw and the side of his face against the top of her head.  He too closed his eyes, holding her steadily against his body.  Although happiness and ease flowed through his veins, he found the trauma from earlier begin to take hold.  He knew that this was real.  Kagome wasn’t just kissing him to prove a point.  She had wanted this – wanted him, as much as he wanted her.  And yet what would happen when they set foot outside this room?  Would she pretend nothing had changed when they were around others, gracing him with her engaging kisses only in private where the rest of the world would not see that she had affection for a lowly hanyou?
 
Despite her words, that was how the world saw him.  The last thing he wanted was for them to look down on Kagome the same way they scorned him.  Such a pure, beautiful creature she was.  She deserved the best that the Earth had to offer, and he couldn’t give her that perfect life.  After all, she had been the one to make the first move.  That wasn’t the way it should have been.  She shouldn’t have had to comfort him and use her body to alleviate his embarrassment over something that he shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.  Kagome would run terrified of him if she knew what sinister lust he had for her, and rightly so.  She was kind and innocent. 
 
Although, come to think of it, where DID she learn to kiss like that?
 
He had never felt anything quite like what Kagome had given him.  He had pressed his lips to exactly one other person, and even then his lips did nothing more than put the tiniest amount of pressure upon his partner’s.  Kagome’s kisses were hot and moist, causing friction with the tilts and angles of her face.  Breaking apart only to find one another again, her lips occasionally capturing one of his between hers, sucking back ever so slightly.  And that thing with her tongue?  Was that normal?  Did other people do that?  Or was it something she invented?  Regardless of the answer, his mind raced as he recalled how wondrous it had been to explore her mouth.  To taste her fully, tongues massaging and dueling.  He recalled that she had slipped over one of his fangs and shivered in delight, of all things, against him; unafraid of the monster that now held her even tighter – desperate to not let the closeness end so soon.
 
He would not hold it against her if she chose to keep their interlude a secret and any future excursions away from meddling eyes.  In fact, it would probably be best that way for her safety as well as her dignity.  And if this was all he ever received in the way of tenderness, it was more than he ever expected or deserved.  If only time would stand still for him so that he might never let go.
 
As though sensing his change in mood, Kagome began planting modest kisses on his neck where she was tucked securely against him.  Her hanyou clearly needed more proof of her affection.  Or perhaps he just needed to lose himself for however brief an encounter.  He had carried the massive weight of prejudice for his entire life, and the miko wanted to allow him to set the burden aside.  In that second, she made it her goal to steal Sisyphus’ boulder, or perhaps help him to finally push it to the top.
 
Inuyasha flexed his neck in a silent appeal for her to continue her attentions.  She answered his call, and ran a thumb across his opposite cheek as the rest of her hand cradled his tilting head.  A soft moan proffered from his lips, encouraging her to make her way upward before retreating back down to the hem of his haori.  She paused to suckle the tender flesh, her mouth opening to accommodate her tongue.  A second moan as well as a brusque intake of breath was her reward and she took thorough pride in it.
 
Her unoccupied hand decided that she did not have enough of his skin available to her and sought to remedy this inconvenience.  Fingers tugged at the hem by his collar bone, pulling the fabric aside and almost off his shoulder.  His shoulder blade and some of his chest now stood exposed to the air.  A slight chill ran over his heated skin before Kagome’s mouth and hand rushed to take the place of the garment. 
 
He was startled by the action at first.  He had believed their encounter to be finished but it seemed Kagome had other ideas.  The resemblance was uncanny to his earlier fantasy with her scorching lips upon the flesh of his neck and chest. 
 
Her attentions continued along his shoulder blade and she grumbled in frustration as she once again encountered the resistance of his haori.  Wordlessly, she rectified the injustice of it all, the hand which had been on his cheek escaping down to the front of his chest where the ties to his clothing took residence.  With impossibly quick movements of her fingers, she had the clothes at her mercy, sliding them open and then completely off his muscular torso.
 
His eyes snapped open at her brazenness, and turned his head to take in the site of his ‘innocent’ little miko hungrily lapping at his body.  When did she get this aggressive and confident?  He must have stiffened or ceased his instinctive movements across her back because her glazed eyes opened to look into his, questioning without a sound whether or not she was free to continue her uninvited assault on his upper body.
 
She must have decided that he needed convincing because her mouth quickly sought his, her fingers roaming the newly exposed expanse of his chest.  Her middle finger encountered a quickly hardening nipple, and she brushed over it a second time before taking it between her thumb and index.  He cried out suddenly into the kiss, hands clamping down on her arms and shoulders.  She would have taken this as a bad sign but his mouth told a different story.  His tongue urgently pushed between her lips to battle and dominate hers.  She pinched the flesh between her fingers once more before moving to simply run her fingers and palm across it.
 
That hand worked its way around the back of his neck as the other concluded that his opposite nipple deserved the same attention.  He harshly broke the kiss to draw a ragged breath but immediately returned to her as soon as his lungs were sated.  ‘That’s it, Inu.  Let it go…’ she encouraged him within her own mind.  Inuyasha hauled her against him, no longer leaving room between them for her wandering hands but having her crushed to him once more was almost worth the loss.
 
Kagome knew that her legs were becoming all but useless and felt the strong impulse to move this endeavor elsewhere.  Briefly, she contemplated her options on how to accomplish this.  She didn’t want to leave this open for discussion.  Surely if she allowed for that, he would say something that would cause her to lose her nerve.  She was blissfully avoiding all the arguments her mind would normally come up with against this sort of licentious activity.  But Inuyasha had a knack for saying the wrong things and she just knew he’d find a way to snap her reasoning back into line with the habitual status quo.
 
After a few moments of inner debate, a course was chosen.  Her hands gasped his, moving to place them on the sides of her face and twisted in her hair, a position that was entirely agreeable to him as he continued to plunder her mouth unchecked.  Now moving her own arms around his waist and across the firm expanse of his back, she contracted one of said arms to indicate that she wanted him to rotate with her.
 
Quick footwork accompanied her arms’ efforts and Inuyasha, through his hazy lustful thoughts, acquiesced.  She backed him up a few steps, realizing that he was about to come out of his daze.  Without further delay, she locked one of her legs behind his and brought it upward to push against the back of his knee.
 
Already unstable from pleasure, Inuyasha allowed the leg to give without protest and the other bent to accommodate.  He was surprised to find that he now sat quite comfortably on the softness of the extra futon that the horrid tavern owner had provided.  How Kagome had been able to accomplish that complex a maneuver in the midst of such high passion was truly a feat but he didn’t have much time to contemplate it.
 
Kagome strategically moved her leg from behind his just as he settled onto the futon, grinning against his mouth triumphantly that her mission had been accomplished.  She now kneeled on the futon between his bent legs and she moved her hands back to his sinfully fit chest.  Relocation complete, she lightly shoved her hanyou onto his back, her mouth not breaking from his until necessary.
 
His eyes reopened when his head came into contact with a pillow and his back settled against the soft cushion beneath him.  He didn’t think he liked the fact that his kisses had ended but his objections was short-lived.  Kagome’s illusive pink tongue flicked the first nipple she had raised moments before triggering shots of fire to course through his body.  The lurch of his neck caused his head to be thrown back in bliss at the sensation, his eyes shutting instinctively before opening wide to mimic his gasping mouth.  How was he to guess it would feel like this?  To have her do this to his body without question or apology.  He was well aware he could stop this at any time and knew she also held this knowledge.  Such a powerful feeling to be wanted…  She desired him so forcefully that she had pushed aside her own need to know she would not be refused.
 
He probably would have pondered that fact further but the feeling of her hands playing with the ties of his hakama snapped him out of wonderment.
 
“Kagome…” he managed to rasp, drawing her attention from his remaining clothes to his features.  A guilty expression greeted him and a coy smile worked its way from corner to corner of her lips.  Without reply, she crawled up his body in what would have been a predatory stalk had she not been so tender and nervous.  She lay her weight slightly upon him, and drew questioning lips to her own before pulling back.
 
Fingertips touched his cheek and he opened his eyes to meet hers, not really sure when they had closed again.  Her gaze was understanding and purposeful but also betrayed her anxiety.  She searched his golden depths before ultimately tracking down her lost voice.
 
“Inuyasha.  Let me do this for you.  Unless you’re uncomfortable, I want to,” Kagome whispered her plea.
 
His eyes narrowed contemplating her possible meaning.  “Wha-” he started, not sure of his ability to speak coherently.  “What are you going to…”
 
Her hand stroked his face with a bit more firmness and she closed her eyes, pushing her forehead to his.  Gazing at his bewildered expression again she answered his unfinished question.  “It’s okay.  Trust me.  I’d never hurt you,” she told him.
 
“Like you could,” he stated with a certain air of indignation.  That she would think he’d be frightened of someone as fragile as her…  Feh!  Clearly that wasn’t the issue, he was merely curious – not to mention hesitant toward the idea that she’d be seeing…  and touching…  well, there.  It was far more a matter of whether of not he wanted to risk her being disgusted.  He didn’t exactly think much of his body, and that part in particular wasn’t necessarily attractive, per say.  He had on occasion seen other males in a state of undress (namely Miroku), so he knew he wasn’t terribly disfigured or different, but would Kagome know that?
 
Eventually his mind reasoned that she would considering she seemed to have some sort of plan formulated in her mind.  He always knew that sneaky wench was plotting something.  He really never fathomed it would be this, but he narrowed his eyes in accusation and new found awareness all the same.
 
Reaching the verdict that he’d allow her to proceed, his hands cupped her face and brought her in for a gentle, reassuring kiss.  Kagome took this for the consent that it was and crawled her way back down his body before sitting up between his powerful thighs.  She was relieved that he hadn’t said more.  Her bravery was beginning to waver and she needed to re-surrender herself to lust soon before it drained too terribly low.  She forced eye contact with the hanyou as she worked the top button of her blouse loose.
 
When she first left his mouth in favor of scooting further down his body, he had tensed, still wary but making no move to stop her.  In his mind he saw a time when he had been bathing in the company of his mother.  A couple of the village children and their own mother had seen him.  The exact words of their repugnance hadn’t been engrained on his mind.  Only the disapproving scowls and the fact that his mother had said nothing to defend him for fear of retaliation.  In private, she had told him to heed not their words.  What if Kagome suffered the same revulsion – believing herself to be brave enough to handle it, but proving herself wrong upon actually seeing a completely exposed ‘freak’?  The girl often times did act without thought and as a result habitually landed herself in unfavorable situations.
 
And come to think of it, Kagome had seen him naked before…  Twice, to be exact.  Once he was in a hot spring and the heat had gotten to him.  The miko had come at the sound of Miroku’s and his outcries; they had seen Sesshoumaru’s youkai mule above and assumed the inu demon was close by.  She had screamed upon finding him collapsed and spread-eagle, and he was not surprised by her resounding shriek of appall.  The other time had been not too long after in her era.  The little brother had taken him to bathe in the house but the water was scalding hot.  Souta had tried to tell him it was a normal temperature, but ‘virtually boiling’ was not natural at all!  He had broken free of the horrid water with its odd bubbly surface and run to his comfort zone: Kagome.  The girl had promptly thrown everything within her reach at him, screaming to get out of her bedroom.
 
These thoughts weren’t exactly comforting.  If it came to a similar experience, Inuyasha was not certain what he would do. He could always just push her away and run out to the solitude of the surrounding forest.  Although he wouldn’t willingly leave her, he may have no choice…
 
However, these thoughts screeched to a dead halt as he fixed upon her movements.  Inuyasha’s breath caught, eyes gaping in anticipation.  Delicate digits took their time slipping each button from its constraint, giving him a sight to truly behold as she slowly worked her way down her own body.  He hadn’t ever really given much thought to anything like this.  The few times that he had seen Kagome add to or subtract from her clothing, it had been a hurried process of necessity.  Never was she looking directly into his eyes, fully conscious of the fact that he was watching.  Never did she use such cautious and sensual movements.  And never did the wench take so damned long to get so few buttons undone!
 
Her agonizingly slow pace served only to arouse him more; an achievement that a few moments ago he would have proclaimed impossible.  But as his eyes met with supple skin and teasingly calculated movements of her fingers, the stiffness inside his hakama became that much more unbearable.
 
Finally, the last button was unclasped, and Kagome broke her gaze with him, in favor of the futon at her side.  Had he any real concept of seduction, he would recognize that she was purposefully baring her neck to him.  Unfortunately her subtlety was lost on the hanyou, although he had to admit she was quite the enticing vixen at the moment.  She opened the shirt soon after her work was complete and allowed it to slide down her shoulders, to her arms, and then finally to the floor.
 
He cursed inwardly as he realized that she had been wearing something underneath.  It was not a lot of something, but he had been expecting to see those tempting vivacious curves of hers unhindered.  Then she had the nerve to smile coyly towards the ground before returning her eyes to his.
 
“I didn’t want my sleeves getting in the way,” she mused, now sitting before Inuyasha in a thinly strapped tank top of the same silky material as the rest of her bedclothes.
 
Well, one positive aspect of this new apparel was that he could now straightforwardly see her plump, distended nipples pressing against the fabric when she moved.  The top was still too loose for his liking as it did have some give and didn’t cling steadfastly to its owner’s skin, but he resolved to enjoy whatever show she was planning to give. 
 
To facilitate his efforts, the hanyou reached back and to the side of him, gathering the pillows that lay within arms reach to push them behind him, elevating his back to a slightly inclined position.  Whatever Kagome had dreamed up in that sexy little head of hers, he’d be damned if he was going to miss a second of it.  Now half-way sitting up, thoughts of earlier imagery flashed through his mind.  Her fingers stroking him, pulling at him, and making those delicious mewls of desire in his ears.  Perhaps he was setting himself up to be disappointed, but he dismissed the thoughts as quickly as they came, reasoning that if she was, after all, in a wholly virgin state of mind that he would simply have to teach her.  That thought alone was enough to make him close him eyes in ecstasy.  Showing her not only willing but eager hands how to bring him to the heights of pleasure was a strict taboo even in his dreams and he had only indulged in that particular forbidden a handful of times.
 
Once more, decisive fingers toyed the hakama ties.  All together too slowly, the knots came loose and the material fell slack.  He lifted his hips briefly to accommodate the removal of the last garment he wore, now sporting nothing but the rosary around his neck and his skin.
 
Kagome tugged the pants off of her would-be lover, shuddering at the erotic site of his legs being bared to her.  There was something about her own hands having been the cause of the sight that made it sinfully exquisite.  She hadn’t dared to let her gaze trail further than his thighs for fear of the unknown.  She wasn’t exactly one to usually panic in the face of something new (after all, here she was time traveling to a time where vicious demons roamed the planet…), but this was different.  It was Inuyasha.  And as excited as she was by the prospect of finally putting an end to her deduced imagery, there was a certain amount of nervousness associated with seeing a naked man for the first time; at least one that was actually there, in her presence, that she was not only permitted to but was expected to touch.  However once his clothing was successfully cast aside, she found herself unable to avert her eyes any longer.
 
Her heart thudded in her chest, seemingly dropping out of place for a second before eventually working back up.  The pulse sent an ache to tips of her nipples causing the already aroused buds to stiffen even further.  Her head tilted to the side and she licked her lips unconsciously, suddenly finding her mouth lacking of any moisture at all.  And that was something that simply wouldn’t do for what she had in mind.
 
Inuyasha studied her reaction intently.  At first it didn’t seem that she wanted to look at him.  Perhaps she had caught a glimpse and was repulsed?  But before he could react to such negative thoughts, the miko had glanced down at what his body had to offer.  A smirk presented itself upon his lips as Kagome’s breath shook and her eyes filled with primitive lust.  Taking note of the rest of her, she had noticeably tensed, her body excited and her now even more taut breasts strained against the fabric of her shirt.  Clearly the girl before him didn’t hate what she saw.
 
Inuyasha wasn’t as outrageously huge as some of the men were in her time, but he was certainly larger and notably thicker than most she had seen.  And this was the first one she had seen displayed for her so closely…  The skin of his erection was a shade or two darker than the rest of him, though that could just have been due to the increased amount of blood that flowed beneath.  A miraculous individual he was and she felt her lower body throb in yearning.  She would have to deny her body’s request, however.  This wasn’t about her, and she knew it.  Still, she all but shook with anticipation for what was to come.
 
Not meeting his eyes, Kagome’s fingers splayed over the surface of his outer thigh.  Her head dipped and eyes closed and she placed lingering, wet kisses along the inner flesh of the same leg.  She swirled her tongue over the heated skin, occasionally pressing her teeth against him as well.  It was not enough to be called a true bite or even nip, but merely enough pressure to give a less pliable gesture than her tongue could provide.
 
Fingertips teased and massaged the opposite leg, not wanting to leave it ignored.  Her greedy hand molded the muscles beneath, making her mind reel at the power his legs possessed.  She was extremely aroused and a large part of her wanted to skip right to the end of her plans.  She resolutely fought against these urges, however.  She intended this to last a good long while.  She might have been in a playful mood; she wasn’t entirely aware of her own emotions at the moment – not really able to give the feelings a name.  She just knew that she was going to savor every last second with him that she could or she would be damned trying.  It would be a more pleasurable experience for him if his release was prolonged, and that was, after all, the whole point.  Inwardly, she grinned.  And he thought her ‘osuwari’s were torturous… 
 
Her mouth continued to work towards the center of him and she noticed a slight change in the feeling of his skin.  It was no longer as giving, the skin becoming more firm, and yet softer and a bit smoother to the touch.  At the apex of where his thigh met his torso, Kagome leaned in and sucked with her lips.  Long, demanding pulls meant to drive the hanyou beneath her crazy.
 
Even as she did this, she shut her eyes as she felt herself finally give into her mind’s demands.  The hand that had previously been playing with the ignored thigh came down to place butterfly strokes across his hardened shaft.
 
At the sight of her mouth on his leg, Inuyasha’s head rolled back.  He hadn’t ever imagined kissing someone there, believing until now that the mouth never ventured lower than the chest, and that was only supposed to be on females.  But that delusion was quashed effectively as her tongue came out to dance across his thigh.  Licking and suckling her way down…  He thought he would die from the torment, the stiffness between his legs protesting loudly at being left unattended.  Her hand moved to his other leg, leaving no part of him unsatisfied, save for the one part that truly needed satisfying.
 
When her mouth began to suck on the junction of his leg, his hips bucked involuntarily as his shaft twitched in rejoinder.  Kagome didn’t seem to mind his loss of control over his lower extremities.  She didn’t even cast him so much as a scolding glace, so he figured his reaction hadn’t been unwelcome.  The sight of Kagome working his lower body made him reel and keen both physically and emotionally.  Her dark hair gathered behind her shoulders, eyes shut in concentration.  Those sly hands of hers playing the role of an expert seductress on his self.  He found his voice calling to her, lost behind incoherency and a cloud of rapturous agony.  His eyes fought to stay open but it was a battle he was defeated in several times.  He didn’t want to miss the sight before him but his body was working against him in this.  Hands fisted the sheets of the futon at his sides as he struggled for a semblance of control.  He needed her to touch him there, and while he tried to form the words, they stubbornly wouldn’t come.  Again and again he thrust his hips modestly upwards, praying she’d get the message.  But either his pleas were going ignored or she didn’t understand because she made no move to quell the throbbing ardor between his legs.
 
He was ready to reach down and tend to the issue himself.  Perhaps she was nervous and didn’t know…  Now granted his mind wasn’t thinking quite that clearly, but that is what it broke down to – she wasn’t doing it, so he would.  His body was coming apart at the seams and if she didn’t hurry…
 
That was when she finally touched the part of him that needed her attention the most.  It was so different to have someone else – to have Kagome – stroking him.  Her touch was little more than feathery brushes with the pads of her fingers.  Still, it was better than anything he had ever done to himself.  His ears took in the sounds of his own moaning, instigating him to wonder just when that had started.  He was barely lucid, but he managed to spread his legs wider in the hopes of encouraging her new actions.
 
It must have worked because Kagome’s hand now circled around his shaft.  Much to his frustration she had yet to make contact with the head, and it throbbed in startling need.  He noticed for the first time just how much it had changed color, the blood rushing beneath the skin tinting him almost purple.  He threw back his head once more in an attempt to tell her what he needed.  If she didn’t touch the tip soon, he was going to go insane with unfulfilled craving.
 
“Ka – Kago – me... So…  Need… Ah fuck!”
 
The hanyou knew that this was not his finest hour word-wise.  The vibration of the miko’s responding giggle only served to bring him closer to the edge.  His eyes found her face, desperately hoping that she’d see in them what he wanted.  However, Kagome wasn’t looking at his face at the moment.  She was preoccupied with laving the surface of that apex.  Her tender lips, still swollen from their earlier kisses moved carefully back up his thigh and her hand slid up and down his shaft without putting any real pressure into it.  Her eyes finally met his, and he begged her with them and a pathetically raw whimper to understand, his own hands flexing and re-fisting in the blankets.
 
Responding to his unspoken plea, she never broke eye contact with him.  She moved her hand upward dramatically so that he could clearly view it in the peripheral and gave his tip a sudden, firm pinch.
 
He screamed.  He released.  His neck heaved back his head as he spilled his desire out through the place that she still held in her finger tips.  He was scalding, his body roaring – heart raging with satisfaction of the peak.  He briefly wondered if she had known this would happen but couldn’t bring himself to concentrate on any one thought.  His mind was full of Kagome.  Sweet little Kagome riding his back, sucking his thigh, asleep in her bed, on that bicycle, cooking him ramen, and gasping his name in ecstasy.  That was it.  She was his undoing.  They both knew this now.  A simple squeeze had proven it beyond any shadow of doubt.
 
Finally, he came down from his orgasm and he tended to his lungs, providing them with much needed oxygen.  The warmth of Kagome left his lower body and his eyes slit open to locate her.  She was hunched over her bag, digging within its depths.  He allowed his head to crash back on the pillows once more, deciding that he didn’t care what she was doing at the moment.
 
Indeed, Kagome had been surprised when Inuyasha came but not for the motives he assumed.  She hadn’t even finished what she had been building to.  She had often heard the insults thrown around about premature ejaculation. At this moment she realized how stupid the barbs truly were.  Inuyasha had been consumed by a torrent of passion.  She managed to excite him to such heights that he reached his orgasm with relative ease on her part.  The thought was thrilling, not disappointing, that she could drive him to the brink of sanity by mere touch alone – exciting him in ways no one had done before.  She was sure that her predecessor would have never performed such an act even if she knew it existed.  She would see it as lowering herself or demeaning to do such a thing for a tainted hanyou.
 
But Kagome couldn’t see it that way even if she tried.  She had done what she could to prove to him that he was important.  And she didn’t regret a second of it.  Hell she was proud of herself for bringing him over the edge as quickly as she did.  Gazing upwards, she couldn’t stifle a grin.  The most beautiful boy she had ever laid eyes upon was stretched out before her naked and glistening, his head rolling from side to side as he refilled his lungs with air and attempted to find the ground beneath him.  Kagome determined herself to be deliciously satisfied that she had done this and that no one else in the world had ever seen the normally callous and guarded hanyou so openly vulnerable.
 
She reluctantly made her way to her pack, searching for the washcloth she carried with her to cleanse her face.  Inuyasha’s gasps and small grunts of satisfaction still rang in her ears.  Several times he had tried to form words, mostly syllables that resembled her name.  It made the ever-raging pool in her abdomen tighten, and she could feel the dampness between her legs.  She recalled that his knuckles had turned all but white and even took pleasure in the way he had driven his hips upward in primal instinctive necessity.  She swallowed a groan of her own remembering the vision he had made, spreading himself wide in complete trust and devastating need as she had moved her tongue across his sensitive flesh.
 
Finding the cloth relatively quick, she returned to her position between Inuyasha’s legs.  She wiped the sticky fluid from her fingers before going to work on him.  He stirred when he felt her touch, her hands causing his sex to spasm once.  She was surprised to find him still hard.  Then again, the poor boy had been driven to the brink without release just a short time ago.  It was little wonder that his body would be left hungry for more.
 
She wet the edge of the washcloth with her tongue before sweeping it over his tip.  Dizzy eyes met her gaze and she smiled reassuringly, if not a bit shy.  It was one thing to touch him in the throes of passion, but this was different.  They were both (more) coherent, and her movements were that of necessity rather than that of seduction.  She could feel the blush on her cheeks as she rubbed the surface and went back to avoiding eye contact and focusing on the task before her.
 
To think that she’d be shy after doing what she did was a bit of a contradiction, but she couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking at the moment.  She moved the cloth over and down his shaft, collecting the rest of his release.
 
Inuyasha’s body was slack, despite the fact that he could still feel strong desire burning within.  He could never remember coming quite that powerfully.  He had certainly given his priestess quite a show, that was for damn sure.  He wasn’t good with manners, but he knew he should say something along the lines of thanks.  However, how do you phrase such a thing?  He tried his luck.  “Damn…  Kagome…  That was…  You’re…”
 
“Not done,” she completed for him.  At this, half-mast eyes popped to attention.
 
‘More!?  What more is there…?’  “What?   You’re…  Ahh!”
 
He never got to finish whatever sentence he was trying to start.  Kagome had returned her now more confident fingers to his shaft and was tugging with more force than before.
 
Whatever ache had waned in the wake of his orgasm, now returned to his body.  He stiffened and lengthened beneath her hands, feeling hot and parched.  His skin hummed, and he couldn’t stifle a sex-induced groan from escaping his lips – not that he bothered to try to keep it in.  Finding that he was in a bit more control this time, he watched with rapt attention as Kagome pleasured him.  Dear Kami, the sight of one of those small hands wrapped around him, squeezing and pulling, and drifting over him…  Her other hand came down between his legs as well, but bypassed his shaft to cup and knead the tender sacs below.  There was a place behind them as well that Kagome sought and found, pressing a knuckle firmly to it.  “Holy shit, Woman!” the hanyou exclaimed, wondering where on Earth she learned to do this.  She was doing things that he had never even done to himself!

 
A pang of jealousy ran untamed in his heart and mind as he thought of her having done this to another male.  Sure, it would have been in the past, but he still didn’t like the idea…
 
His envy of his unknown predecessor was instantaneously forgotten when he felt her tongue on his head.  He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, much less feeling.  Her searing, wet mouth encased the top of him, her tongue lapping at the tip, pressing into the tiny opening at the center.  The movements of her tongue were fast and firm.  If that wasn’t enough, she began to suck back simultaneously, forcing his hips to lift towards her.
 
The hand that had been fondling him lower came to hold him down as she continued.  She maneuvered her body so that she was sitting sideways to him, knowing he was watching and she wished to grant him a better view.  Men were very visual creatures, and Inuyasha would be no different despite his demon blood.
 
He watched more of his shaft disappear past her lips, only to be brought out again.  Her tongue continued its sweet torture, and one of his legs kicked forward in reply, his heel digging into the futon for sanity.  His head was thrashing from side to side, wanting to watch, but not able to physically summon the strength to keep his eyes trained on any one thing.  A hand made its way to the top of her head.  He knew better than to force it down, but he had to have some contact with the girl!  He settled for fondling her scalp, his moans telling her the rest.
 
“Ungh.  Kagome…  Oh Kami, yes,.” his voice barely above a whimper.  The girl between his thighs stroked one of his legs in an assuring manner as she continued to pleasure him.
 
Suddenly a thought occurred to him that hadn’t before.  ‘Is this what I haven’t been able to imagine us doing?  Is this what it is?’
 
He wanted to ponder the question more, he truly did.  But the feeling of her mouth wrapped around him…  Her tongue.  Her breath.  Her hands alternating between thighs, shaft, and sacs…  He was consumed and bewildered.  He had never imagined anything this powerful.  He felt vulnerable and commanding simultaneously, despite the irony.  She was his and she was servicing him; but he was utterly at her mercy.
 
“So fucking good.  Kagome…  Oh!”
 
Her fingers came up above his length to tease the dark patch of hair that started somewhat below his navel.  She had been surprised by the color at first, realizing for the first time that she had unconsciously assumed it would be silver like his mane of hair.  However upon further thought, his eyebrows were black, so it did in fact make sense.  She wanted to giggle, but her mouth was quite full at the moment.  Such strange thoughts to have at a time like this…
 
Her hands seemed to be everywhere at once.  Cupping his sacs, massaging his thighs, and wrapping around the exposed portion of his shaft.  All the while, the girl’s anguish-inflicting tongue swirled around and pressed firmly into him.  It did not take terribly long under this treatment for Inuyasha to approach his next peak.  She slid her lips up and down his length, sucking back hard and then not at all.  She took a breath through her mouth, allowing chilled air to rush over him before engulfing him in sweet warmth once more.  He called her name and tried to tell her with his hand that she needed to stop.  He was about to explode, and he didn’t think she’d appreciate him doing so in this position.
 
But Kagome’s only response was to look him dead in the eye, letting him know that she heard and understood.  With another swirl of her tongue and suck back, she fondled him lower and on his thighs once more.  He screamed for her a second time that night.  His body shook and burned as he released into her mouth.  His eyes burst wide when he realized that she was drinking him.  Her eyes gleamed with feral satisfaction before she closed them again to focus on her current undertaking.
 
His form went slack, no longer bucking wildly beneath her.  The stiffness between her lips declined as he finished.  She removed him from her mouth and coughed lightly, rubbing her chest with her hand.  She hadn’t expected the flavor to be good, but she didn’t know it would burn going down.  She wiped her lips as she caught her breath, glancing up to the now very sated hanyou.  She smiled to herself in spite of the bitter flavor – this was the second ‘duty’ she had never done before today.  And this turned out to be ever so much better than the first.
 
She crawled up beside Inuyasha, and pushed his bangs from his sweaty brow.  His eyes took in her change in position before shutting once more, a grin splaying over his features.  His arm pulled the girl close and onto his chest and he placed a lengthy kiss on her forehead before indicating that she should settle herself against him.
 
She didn’t want to argue, taking joy in his afterglow, loving the feel of his arm wrapped securely around her.  She threw one leg between his, mindful of where her knee landed, and nuzzled into his chest.  Her fingers traced invisible designs across his skin and he sighed with ease.  His unoccupied hand came up to pull her into a complete embrace and used it to begin stroking her hair.  He studied his claws for a moment as they passed through the raven tresses.  Kagome’s eyes had closed, and she cooed softly clueing him into the fact that she enjoyed his attention to her hair.
 
He lay there taken aback - she truly didn’t mind that he was a hanyou and could rip her to shreds.  In fact, she was taking little pleasures in his normally deadly claws combing through her silky locks.  He allowed his second hand to drop to hers, halting her patterns on his chest.  He brought the delicate digits to his lips and began to kiss each one, followed by her palm and wrist.
 
Still paying his respects to her fingers, he decided this was as good a time as any to voice his questions.  Although he didn’t want to spoil the peace that had fallen over them, he wouldn’t be able to get the image of Kagome with someone else out of his head until he knew for a fact what had occurred to make her so damn good at all this. 
 
He continued his small loving upon her hair and hand.  “Umm, Kagome…”
 
“Hmm?” he heard a quiet hum signaling that he had her attention but that she did not presently have any intention of moving from her current arrangement.
 
“What is his name?”
 
Kagome made a sound of confusion in her throat.  “Huh?  Whose name?”
 
“The name of the guy I’m gonna have to kill.”  He popped one of her digits in his mouth and licked the tip, emulating her previous actions on a very different part of his body.
 
She sighed in an almost whimpering fashion at the attention he was giving her fingers.  “We killin’ someone?” she questioned him lazily. 
 
Inuyasha realized that his ministrations were hopelessly relaxing the girl in his arms.  He couldn’t help but smile at this newfound power.  Now he knew what to do whenever she was ready to ‘osuwari’ his face into the ground.
 
“Yes.  I have to kill the one who taught you all of this.  I don’t want some other guy walkin’ around with the same memories I got.”
 
At this, Kagome did stir and laughed outright.  She turned over so that she was on her side facing him, his arm now resting across her stomach and his mouth no longer pleasuring her fingers.  He decided it was worth the sacrifice to get the name, but didn’t take too kindly to the fact that she thought it was funny.  His hand began to rub her belly possessively, a slight scowl adorning his countenance.  “Well, then you’re going to be killing a lot of people, Inuyasha,” she informed him with a broad toothy smile.
 
Inuyasha’s eyes nearly popped from his head before narrowing as he growled, “What!?  How many?”
 
She giggled again.  This whole laughing thing was starting to irritate him.  “Well, I learned some of this stuff from watching TV and movies, other things I read in books, some I had to learn in school, and the rest came from talking to my friends.  So that’s quite the list…”
 
“You’ve done this with those people in the box!?  I thought you said you didn’t know any of them!  And this is what you go to school for!?  That’s what’s in those books you’re always reading!?  I knew I shouldn’t be letting you go back to that world of yours!” he declared.  She was staring at him in shock, her mouth attempting to form words.  Then a horrifying realization hit him.  “Is this what those ‘test’ things are that you’re always taking!?”
 
Confusion and anger adorned him.  She didn’t quite know what to say to all of this.  On one hand it was endearing that he was being possessive.  On the other, he was calling her a slut.  However, she couldn’t stay angry with him for being upset by her possible promiscuity and she smiled tenderly before stroking the sputtering hanyou’s cheek.  His incoherent ranting dulled at her touch.  “Inuyasha, I’ve never done this with anyone before.  I just know a lot about it.  In my era, it’s kind of hard not to know about these things.”
 
He regarded the girl suspiciously, finding a tiny inner-calm.  “You mean, you did all that with no practice?  I’m the only one?”  He had to confirm it bluntly – the girl was far too confusing in her answers.
 
She nodded her head, still resting on his torso.  “Yes.  You’re the only one, Inuyasha.  You’re the only one I would do this type of thing with.”
 
He grinned conceitedly, satisfied that he was without opponents.  As usual, however, his heart and mouth conveyed two differing emotions.  He turned up his nose and closed his eyes.  “Feh.  I better be.”  Now for the question that had been nagging at him.  ‘Is this what it is?’  His face grew serious and his eyes reopened as a sigh escaped him, but he did not stop caressing her stomach.  He returned his other hand to her hair, marveling at the content exhale and the way her whole being surrendered to the simple touch. 
 
Kagome rolled her eyes but didn’t respond in kind resolutely deciding to enjoy the feel of his hand restarting its paths on her scalp rather than argue about his arrogant comment.
 
“Kagome…  I have to ask you something else,” he informed her.
 
She hummed her permission for him to continue.  He wanted her eyes to be open so that he could gage her sincerity but at the same time maybe it was best that she not see his blushing expression.  “Was what we just did…  When I was in your mouth… and I…  Did we…  Was that…?” He couldn’t get the question out and he hated it.
 
Her eyes slid open to consider him.  He sighed.  “Did we just mate, Kagome?”
 
She seemed stunned at the question but he felt some relief that at least she wasn’t laughing.  He decided he best explain.  “No one taught me anything.  About this.  About…  women.  …You…  And I know that I have to be inside when I… release.  And I was…  I thought it would be different, but…”
 
“No.  It wasn’t sex.  Well, I guess it is oral sex…” she muttered the last part more to herself.  She looked into his eyes realizing that she had only confused the poor boy more.  She hadn’t been at all anticipating such a question; up until today she thought that maybe he had even done this sort of thing before…  Perhaps with more than one person.  But this question certainly put that misconception to rest efficiently. 
 
“What we did?  It’s something that people do to pleasure each other.  It’s not done for any other reason.  It’s not ‘mating’, but it’s similar, I guess.”  She paused searching for more words.  “When people are going to have sex, they do this sort of thing to get ready, but they don’t always have sex afterwards.”
 
Kagome knew she wasn’t explaining it well, but she didn’t know how to explain the concept for foreplay.  She hoped she had put his fear to rest, but she could see something in his amber gaze that told her he wasn’t completely satisfied with the new knowledge.  “Inuyasha…  I wouldn’t have had sex with you without talking to you or asking first.  That wouldn’t be right…  Understand?”
 
At that he nodded.  Before her excursion on his lower body, Inuyasha had always figured that he knew enough about sex to get by.  He assumed that it had to do with the areas on her body that always remained hidden by her clothes…  But when she had taken him into her mouth he was frightened that perhaps he was completely wrong or that maybe there was more than one way to mate.  He needed to know one way or the other and as such was satisfied with her answer.  The hand behind her head urged her to move toward him, and he met her mouth with a burning kiss, tasting his own residual flavor.  “Thank you, Kagome.  For doing pleasure on me.”
 
She giggled inwardly at his choice of words, meeting his lips again before resettling on his chest.  She laid against his warmth, listening to the steady thrum of his heart almost as though she was preparing to sleep.  But while she was very comfortable, she knew she wouldn’t be sleeping anytime soon.  After this encounter, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to sleep for a few days, at the very least.
 
With Kagome no longer stimulating his body, Inuyasha’s skin began to feel the cold of the night.  It made him wonder just where his hakama had gotten to but he was reluctant to give up such a nice position.  Perhaps if he made the excuse about her, she would be more likely to come back to him.  “Kagome, do you need to go get some water?  That stuff ain’t exactly ramen,” he offered.
 
Kagome laughed out loud, smiling brightly at him.  “You wouldn’t be offended?  I was worried you’d think I was accusing you of tasting bad.”
 
He smirked even as he growled at the statement before attempting to look extremely affronted.  “Well when you put it that way, fine.  You'll just have to suffer now.”  His arms wrapped tightly around her to emphasize his point, and his forced frown only serving to increase her laughter.
 
He let her go and she rolled up and off of his chest allowing the cold night air to sweep over the warm skin she had been occupying.  Growling softly at the chill, he reached down to the bottom of the futon where he spotted his pants.  Kagome was busy rifling through her ridiculously oversized satchel before at last procuring a water bottle.  He was somewhat relieved that she wouldn’t see him redressing.  His mind was unknowingly mimicking Kagome’s own thoughts from earlier.  It wasn’t as though she hadn’t seen all he had to offer, but there was a clear difference between typical and gratification-induced nudity.
 
Hakama successfully in place and retied, he sat up and stretched his limbs.  Kagome may have driven him to new emotional and physically gratifying heights, but when it came down to it, all he really did was lie there.  His eyes caught sight of the girl replacing the drink in her bag.  The shirt she wore was far too scanty to be worn without a cover.  His lips curled at the memory of her little strip tease – emphasis on tease.  He had long wanted to see what lay under those weird clothes of hers without interruption or fear of being subdued.  After all, now she had explored every last crevice of his body; it was only fair that he be allowed to return the favor in kind.   
She stood and pivoted back to the futon, noticing with slight disappointment that he was once again dressed, at least half way.  Although proper ladies weren’t supposed to revel in the sight of a naked man, she had proudly found a loophole in the argument.  She wasn’t just looking at a naked man.  Inuyasha was a naked hanyou.  Thus, her lustful fascination was entirely justified.  Inwardly her conscience groaned that she would make such an argument in spite of the fact that she had just spent a great deal of time and effort proving that she didn’t think of him as being different.  But she steadfastly told that voice to go screw itself for the time being.
 
She stretched her arms above her head concluding that her body was clearly unaccustomed to being on all fours.  The part of her brain which had been clearly corrupted by Miroku-sama made the argument that it was a feeling she could get used to.  She ran a hand absent mindedly through her hair prompting her to return to her bag and find her brush.  The snarls developing would not be kind in the morning if left unattended and she didn’t fancy having bald spots.
 
Upon grasping the desired object, she stood once more and began to get herself un-matted.   Kagome cried out softly in surprise when an arm caught her own mid-sweep. 
 
Inuyasha was a genuine predator.  He hadn’t made a sound, his new position behind her only made known when she had felt the contact.  She allowed the clawed hand to remove the brush from her grasp.
 
She gave him free access to the back of her head by turning without being told or prompted.  She briefly wondered if he would know how to do this considering she had never seen him care for his own hair.  However, it quickly became clear that her concerns were unfounded, and her eyes closed in contentment.
 
The comb sent shivers down her spine now that it was under the control of the object of her most wanton fantasies.  There was something unmistakably erotic about having someone else stimulating your scalp.  Her body swayed in time with the motions of the brush and she couldn’t stop a gasp from coming when his free hand grazed her back with his claws while securing another section of her hair.
 
Inuyasha had watched the miko do this act hundreds of times.  Kagome’s grooming habits were overly meticulous in his opinion.  The girl’s obsession with being clean, playing in the water in nothing more than a ‘bathing suit’, and scrubbing down at the smallest sign of dirt.  It seemed ridiculous and unreasonable that she should strive for such faultlessness.  It just wasn’t a practical expectation while on a quest such as they were.  More than once he had been irritated by her incessant need to preen and wash as her baths tended to be long and it slowed them down.  And since Sango had joined their little troupe he had an even harder time saying ‘no’.  The girls would always band together and insist.  Not that the monk was much help…  He’d take any opportunity to try to see a naked female.  And though Miroku did on occasion succeed, his victories were short lived thanks be to the equally frequent well-placed Hiraikotsu.
 
As much as he hated to admit it, perhaps Miroku wasn’t so far off the mark after all.  Thoughts of naked Kagome assailed him and his longing to explore her body only grew.  He didn’t fathom that he had become nearly as perverted as the bouzu, but perhaps he could understand the other man’s desire a bit better now.  Of course he would never admit to such thoughts.  His friends would never let him live them down.  Besides, it wasn’t just ‘any random female that past by’s body that he wanted to see; it was Kagome’s.
 
Had she not been standing, it was quite possible that Inuyasha’s brushing could have put her to sleep.  She was languid and pliable and she was fairly certain she’d give up no less than the Shikon no Tama itself to stay in this lazy state.  Her follicles tingled and it sent a ripple effect over her entire being.  Her lips parted to take in breath.  How long had she been holding it? 
 
All too soon, Inuyasha was done with her hair, the brush clattering into the bag from which it came.
 
Strong arms snaked around midriff, pulling her back against a hard chest.  She sighed yet again with satisfaction at the feel of him surrounding her.  She hadn’t really hoped for this change.  Under normal circumstances, Inuyasha was not one for physical contact.  And yet here he was going out of his way to create opportunities to touch her.  She dismissed the possibility that this was a lasting change, attributing his shift in habit as remnants of earlier closeness.
 
Hot breath blew over her ear as a hand came up from her torso to run along her shoulder blade.  Masculine fingers started to push aside the relatively loose and skinny silken strap that held her tank top in place.  The small scrap of silky material slid down her arm, stopping where the fabric of the top started.  Clawed fingers danced across her flesh before a kiss took their place.
 
Reflexively, Kagome stretched her neck to the side, exposing her collar to the hanyou behind her.  She felt rooting tension at the initial move of the strap, but was just as quickly relieved when her top remained in its proper place.  Such a soft growl that it was practically a purr rumbled in his chest, conveying his approval of the alteration in her position.  His tongue teased her as he placed scorching kisses up to her jaw-line before stopping to nip at her ear.
 
His hand hadn’t stopped its own appeasing gestures.  He massaged the muscles of that shoulder and continued feathery strokes over the skin.  A single claw drew across her neck and down to where the strap now rest.  It was a test of sorts; he could have sworn he heard the tiniest of moans when his claws had inadvertently grazed her during his attention to her hair.  Not disappointed, Kagome arched toward the claw, encouraging the contact, the same sound as before again gracing his ears.  He wanted to hear her, he realized.  He wanted to hear her cry out and moan and scream for him.
 
His hands then switched positions, the one on her torso remaining in the same basic place, but now crossing her chest to grip her shoulder.  The arm which had been toying with her skin now pulled her back against him having snaked around her lower abdomen once more.  “So now…  How do we do pleasure on you?” he questioned without reservation and with an unmistakable amusement laced in his otherwise husky voice.
 
“W-What?  Me?” Kagome repeated his question in her head as her body stiffened in response.  He wanted to…
 
“Yes, you.  Who the fuck else would I be talking to?” he replied, loosening his hold on her ever so slightly.
 
Kagome’s head spun.  He was really asking to do this?  She didn’t know how she felt about it.  Sure, she had just done it to him, and turn about was fair play and all, but…  Well, she loved him!  He could have been uglier than Jaken and she still would have found him sexy.  ‘Well, okay, maybe not Jaken…’ she corrected herself.
 
Then again, he didn’t know that she loved him.  Well, he might, but she had never said it in so many words.  She thought it was painfully obvious to anyone who cared to look.  But had he cared to?  It wasn’t the same thing.  She was looking for such assurances over the past months without fail and all she found were conflicting reports and mixed signals.
 
He sensed her unease and panicked, thinking he asked too much.  It was one thing to give him pleasure, but to be touched by him was different.  Kagome surely didn’t want a tainted hanyou to know her body that way…
 
Feeling him tense under assumed rejection, the miko turned to face him in his arms so that she might make eye contact.  However, once pivoted, she found she couldn’t meet his gaze and ask her question.  A solitary finger ran itself down the expanse of one side of his chest in contemplation as her other hand came to rest over his heart.  “You’d actually want to?” Kagome asked him quietly.
 
A noise of confusion caught in his throat.  “Eh?  Why wouldn’t I?”
 
He cocked an eyebrow at her skeptically as she actively avoided his gaze.  The gentle blush on her cheeks did not go unnoted, and he wanted to ‘Keh’ at her expense for being so shy after such events.
 
She chewed her lip nervously, trying to find the words.  “Um…  It’s just that…  Well, you’ve always gone out of your way to tell me you didn’t…  like… me… my body and that I – or it… didn’t interest you like that.  An