InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Shades of Gray ❯ Accidentally in Love ( Chapter 22 )

~<>~ Shades of Gray ~<>~

 

~<>~Chapter 22 ~<>~ Accidentally in Love

 

*- before the start of this, I might suggest for you to go back and reread the end of chapter 18 to understand why InuYasha draws the conclusions that he does.

 

*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X**X*X*X*X*X*X*X

 

InuYasha was still stammering over the prepared `talk' that he was going to have with Kagome as he entered the lobby of Birch hall. His plan was to explain to her his laundry list of reasons that they couldn't be together, yet at the same time, sound her out to see just how she felt about him. If he wasn't alone on this desolate idea, then maybe they could make it work together. Granted there would be a lot of sneaky and rather dirty underhanded tricks they'd have to play on all of their friends, but hell, if she was willing to try…. `No, stop entertaining any ideas that this might work out. This is over, and she needs to get that!' He wanted Kagome to understand more than anything, though, that she wasn't some type of fling, or a one night stand that he indulged in for a one time trial. He wanted her to understand that he had feelings but he couldn't…he wanted to, by God he wanted to, but couldn't act on them at the moment. In three months, after he graduated and was able to control his life, there was a lot more of a chance for him and her without the bullshit, but currently, everything seemed so grim for any chance between them. The stakes that they would be busted were high enough for the six foot tall boy to drown in and he wasn't quite sure if he was willing to jeopardize it all.

 

`I can do this,' he reassured himself for the hundredth time since he stepped out of his Hummer, `I can go up there and explain this to her rationally. It's not that I'm asking her to wait, or blowing her off, and she can't be pissed, she knew that I was currently seeing someone.' He knew his decision was based off selfish motives and desires, but he couldn't take that big of a risk. If his dad retracted his tuition right now, InuYasha would be royally fucked. His thoughts of running to Sesshoumaru for help seemed slim to none, and no one else could afford the Monmouth tuition that he would be forced to pay, if his father canceled his payment plan. All together, it was a shitty situation that they had to deal with. When he was done, though, when he was over all the bull shit and had his diploma, he'd give his father the one finger salute, tell him where to shove it, and kick his brother in the ass for good measure. Then he would find something to do with his degree. Maybe. At least he'd be rid of his father's rule. Maybe he'd look up Kagejiro and pay his long lost older brother a visit and get in some quality time with the psychopath.

 

Walking past the reception desk, he should have been ready for the hand that grabbed his bicep. Turning to his left nearly ready to exchange blows with his assailant, he looked down to find Rin at his side. Dropping his hands, he raised an eyebrow. “'sup, shorty?” His words were gloomy and filled with trepidation, he was barely ready to deal with anything besides for Kagome at the moment, but at least this might be a welcomed distraction. Anything that kept him from pushing Kagome away was highly welcomed.

 

Rin blinked once, then again slowly before sighing loudly. “Hard dicks and airplanes, apparently,” she answered with a mock frown. Glancing once over her shoulder towards the elevators, she grimaced. Kikyo had dragged Kagome away not more than ten minutes prior and she knew that InuYasha would only complicate things upstairs. The girls had to have their time to talk, and if that meant that she had to run interference, then so be it. `It's a good time to finish our conversation,' she surmised. `And maybe he can help with all of this,' she thought in a stoke of pure genius. “Hey, let's go get a pizza.”

 

InuYasha's frown morphed into an inquisitive glare at Rin's last direction. With a soft snort, he rubbed his head and muttered under his breath, “God it's hard being sexy.” With the attitude of a condescending parent, he placed a hand on Rin's arm and slowly denoted; “honey, I'm sure that you know I'm in enough trouble as is. As much as I would love to take you up on your…offer…I don't think now is a very appropriate time. It's not you, baby girl, it's me, but trust me, when I get this shit settled, if you still want that pizza…”

 

“—are you really still talking?” Rin smacked the boy in the shoulder, her eyes ridiculously wide. “I am not hitting on you, you pervert! I'm politely redirecting your attention from getting in the middle of a girl moment upstairs. Now shut up, get your keys and take me to Papa Johns. It would be a good peace offering to bring back with you for the kiddies upstairs at least, and we still need to talk.” Looking him over with a glimmer of mischief in her eye, she put her index finger to her cheek and threw his words back at him. “Sorry honey, it's not you, baby, it's me. You're just not my type.”

 

InuYasha's mouth was efficiently hanging open, his eyes slowly narrowing in indignation. He knew she was playing around, just as he had been, but somehow she still managed to get under his skin. `Like my god damned brother,' he noted as he finally gave in to her request. Crossing his arms with a `you're not telling me something' glower, he pinned her with a bemused smirk. “All right, I'll bite. What's going on upstairs?”

 

Rin grabbed her purse and then latched her arm through his, forcing him to escort her from the building. “Kikyo just got back and saw the bruises on Kagome's face.” The corners of her mouth twitched into a frown as she replayed the conversation her and Kagome exchanged. Somehow she had to go about sneaking her way in to help Kagome without disclosing any information to InuYasha. Her plan to call Sesshoumaru had its major faults; the first and foremost being that she would have to talk to him. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to him; she was just horrified at the thought. It had been nearly three years since she had spoken with the father of her child; she hadn't the faintest idea what to say to him. `Hey, remember me? I need your help with a friend and oh yes, by the way, you have a son. Sorry.' Somehow, she just knew he would crawl through the phone like some shit out of The Ring on that one. So she would need to utilize her art of persuasion.

 

InuYasha pushed open the door for Rin and followed her out of the building. “Yeah, about that…” Looking down at Rin as they walked, he tightened his grip on the arm that was linked through his. “Care to share what she's told you? And don't pull none of that `she didn't tell me shit' business. I know you know a hell of a lot more than I do.”

 

Rin held her poker face well. With a short incline of her head, she neither confirmed nor denied his statement. “She has said enough for me to make my own conclusions from. She hasn't exactly told me everything, and therefore I am not at liberty to discuss any of the revelations. But, I digress, we do need to speak about other…relevant…issues.”

 

“You mean we need to finish our discussion from the other day.”

 

Rin cringed; why did it just not seem like such a great idea right now? She knew that she needed that damn power limiter for Kenren and regardless that her friend was in trouble, she needed to settle this issue anyway. If she wished for her son to have any real shot at a normal life, she would have to play into InuYasha's game to get the answers she needed. But if InuYasha had any suspicion that she knew anything about Kagome, more so than he already figured, he could hold it over her head and that wouldn't bode well. Her relationship with Kagome was important to her, but she would lie down and die for her child. In the end, Kenren came first, and Rin was sure Kagome would understand.

 

Watching InuYasha carefully fidget with all of the situations weighing on his shoulders, she could see past his normal confidence. He was worried to shit over Kagome and was nearly falling apart at the seams, or at least that was what Rin saw. `Contrary to Kagome's belief, this boy has it bad for her. I think he'd do anything to help her, and I know he wouldn't judge her. If he found out the truth, I don't think he'd be as repulsed as she thinks he would. I don't know what is so awful that Bankotsu knows about her, but InuYasha isn't going to scare too easy, that is, if he's anything like his brother.'

 

Reaching the side of the Hummer, she paused from her train of thought and stared at the beast. “Are you kidding me? How the hell am I supposed to get into it?” The door was a good foot above her knee and the task was nearly synonymous to the idea of scaling a mountain.

 

InuYasha reached the drivers side and unlocked the doors. Grabbing onto the bar he had installed on the side, he hauled himself into the truck with a smirk. “Jump, short stuff, I'm sure you'll make it. And if you don't, it's not like you'll break your neck.”

 

Rin extended her middle finger up at the man before taking a few attempts at getting into the mega SUV. Finally settling into the seat next to him, she took a gander around at what he called his baby. “This thing is decked the hell out! Should I even ask how much money you've put into it? I think it's nicer than my entire apartment.”

 

InuYasha smirked and started up the engine. His smile widened as the machine purred to life, drowning out all conversation for a moment while the hemi warmed up. “A good amount, we'll leave it at that. I got enough power in this god damned beast to pull a wheelie at a light if I wanted to.”

 

Rin rolled her eyes and buckled her seat belt. “Boys and their toys,” she mumbled under her breath. The hell she was going to trust his driving skills; the boy hardly could operate a dish washer from what Kagome had told her. It was a miracle he wasn't dead yet. Driving onto Route 71, the two made it to the first light in distilled silence.

 

“Kenren's dad—“

 

Rin jumped at the sound of his voice, her eyes shifting slowly to look at InuYasha. So he was going to push this subject. And here she really thought he'd go after any leads on Kagome first. Nice to know he gave a damn. Clearing her throat, she wondered exactly how to word this without slandering anyone involved. “It was a while ago, and I can't have you thinking anything less of him…but…”

 

“His father; it's my brother, isn't it?”

 

Rin's words lodged in her throat and for a moment she choked on air. Forcing herself to calm down at the correct acclimation, she took a deep breath. “Yes.” It was good to know she didn't need to bring Sesshoumaru to point by name. At least InuYasha understood enough to incriminate his brother without any hostility.

 

InuYasha snorted, his eyes widening a fraction of an inch. A thousand thoughts poured through his mind as he considered the weight of the assessment. That meant that Rin's child was hanyou, like he was. Another wandering thought dared to wonder if the child looked anything like he did when he was young. The attributes of life would have been the same for Kenren as they had been for InuYasha; a father with long white hair and golden eyes, a mother with silky black hair and coal colored orbs. A million other thoughts passed through his mind but the only one to be audible was, “wow.”

 

Rin clucked her tongue, obviously humored by his choice in words. “I guess you could say that.”

 

“So…I'm an uncle?”

 

Rin pursed her lips and nodded, “but weren't you one before?” She couldn't help the slight down note in her normally chipper personality. Sesshoumaru was always a rough subject for her, and to be speaking about him to his half brother made the situation ten times harder.

 

InuYasha shrugged. “Yeah, but I never see the kid.” Glancing at Rin, he eyed her for a moment. “I'm sorry but I just can't see it. I mean…my brother's a trip. I just can't see you two…how did you meet him?”

 

The smile that graced her face scared InuYasha. It was something he had seen on his mother's face a thousand times over, normally while she held a bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand and a tissue in the other. Within that second, he became imperatively worried about the girl next to him. Was she suffering as his mother had at the demand to abandon the family? Had his brother seriously cast her, with child, to the side to continue his years gallivanting around the world? “I worked for him for the summer of 2004 in the office.”

 

InuYasha tilted his head as he came to a stop at the next red light. “The office? He's working out of an office now?” Seeing his brother in an office setting was equivalent to the idea of seeing Sesshoumaru in a night club, getting his groove on. Chills shot up his spine and that image was firmly cast from his mind. Sesshoumaru did not have a groove to get on, as far as he was concerned, Kagura contracted his niece like some people contract diseases. Defiantly an image to ban from his thoughts, InuYasha noted.

 

Rin shifted her eyes to stare at InuYasha out of the corner of her left eye, her eyebrows creasing to a confused stare. “What?” How could InuYasha say that Sesshoumaru was not an office person, was he that retarded? Sesshoumaru's element was in that said building. He was a mogul at the conference tables and a shark in the business meetings.

 

InuYasha shook his head once. “I don't see him as the typical office kind of guy. I mean…” A horn behind them interrupted the conversation, and InuYasha only then noticed that the light was green. Sticking his middle finger out the window, he stepped on the gas. “Impatient little fucks!”

 

Rin snorted and smiled wistfully. “It's New Jersey. You fuck up on the roads, you'll get a horn and a finger and you'd better be okay with it. You should know this.” Seeing that InuYasha had dropped, or managed to forget, his prior inquisition, Rin settled back. She hated talking about the past, especially when it was with someone related to Sesshoumaru. This was far from easy, and InuYasha's idiocy wasn't making it all too much easier. How could InuYasha not see Sesshoumaru working in an office? Were they talking about the same person?

 

InuYasha smirked as they continued down route 71. “Yeah well…” clearing his throat, he shook his head. “So how long has it been since you've seen him?”

 

Rin closed her eyes and dragged her two hands through her black tresses. “Too long?” She was honestly shocked at how well InuYasha was taking the news. She had expected him to flip out and yell, maybe holler even, with a lot of remarks about how Sesshoumaru had fallen from being perfect and how Sesshoumaru had rejected InuYasha for the mistake his father made, and yet made the exact same one himself. Hell, it was practically identical; Toga had fallen in love with his secretary, had the affair when Launia was pregnant with Sesshoumaru and cut off all ties with Izayio as Sesshoumaru and she had a tryst, with she was playing the role of his attaché, while Kagura was pregnant. Not that they had known that at the time, but as shit rolls down hill, her and Izayio had both gotten the crap shoot at the end. Sesshoumaru had remarked numerous times when they were together that he now understood his father's error and was remorseful that he had taken it out on InuYasha. He had actually talked a lot about his younger brother and the lack there of their relationship. `Maybe it's gotten better over the past three years,' Rin thought hopefully. It was a shame, in reflection, that Sesshoumaru had never mentioned to Rin that he had an older brother who was still alive, or to the fact that neither Rin nor InuYasha had specified by name what brother they were speaking of. That may have avoided the fiasco that was about to become their lives.

 

InuYasha snorted, losing himself in his thoughts. When was the last time he had talked to Kagejiro? The disinherited brother had been at his graduation, but had quickly left the scene before InuYasha could get a chance to speak with him. Before that…the only time he could remember his older brother having anything to do with his life was at his mother's funeral. InuYasha was sure Sesshoumaru would remember that as well. “I can't believe this shit. Does he even know? I mean, damn, he can be a bastard but I can't see him abandoning you with this child in good conscience.”

 

Rin nearly leapt out of her seat. “No, and I really want you to keep it that way right now. I understand that it seems like I'm keeping this from him…”

 

“Are you fuckin' kidding me? He doesn't know? He don't know that you were pregnant? Jesus Rin, that's his kid! You're damn well keeping that shit from him!”

 

“I'm not telling him because I don't want to fuck up his life!” Rin felt her ears turning red with the impending knowledge that this could explode. If InuYasha and Sesshoumaru had fixed their relationship, then this was about to turn nasty.

 

InuYasha scoffed. “Something makes me doubt that you'd fuck up his life with this news.” Kagejiro had fucked up his life on his own, nearly three hundred years prior. A child would be the least of his problems.

 

Rin took her turn to make a guttural laugh. “Are you nuts? He'd be mortified, not to mention, it would wreak havoc on his--”

 

“--whatever, but he ain't as stuck up as the rest of the family. You never met my dad.” InuYasha shook his head, missing yet another vital piece to the jumbled puzzle.

 

With a sad soft smile, Rin nodded towards the plaza that held the Papa Johns. “I kind of never really want to, to be honest. He sounds like one scary son of a bitch.”

 

With a drooping smirk, InuYasha shrugged. “I guess the old man would after what he's probably told you.” InuYasha knew vicariously just how scary his father could be. The man had slashed his own son's eye out with a sword, for Christ's sake! The hell InuYasha was going to mess with that.

 

“I guess.” Rin waited for InuYasha to come to a stop before seeing through her plan. She grabbed InuYasha's bicep and stopped him from exiting the vehicle. Lowering her voice, she prayed he wouldn't ask too many question or fight her on this. “And I need to know where I can get my hands on a concealment ring.”

 

InuYasha raised an eyebrow and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. That was a very tricky subject; for any youkai to obtain such a thing, they had to go through his father, the once proud tai-youkai of the west. For Rin to get one without alerting dear old daddy to his estranged grandson…the feat was nearly impossible unless she knew one hell of a powerful priestess. And he told her just that.

 

“So you're saying that either I tell your father and give up your brother, or let my child suffer?”

 

InuYasha bristled under the insinuation. “You know, I'd love to live free of this damned thing. It's not suffering, Rin, it's just not having the same luxuries that everyone else does.”

 

“Are you serious? He'd be ridiculed his entire life and would be horribly discriminated against. I'm not putting that onto my child. You have no idea how hard it was for me to get him into a youkai run daycare program. I can't take him out for fear of linking him back to your family but I can't keep him encaged for his entire life. I need something, InuYasha, anything. I want him to have a normal life; I want him to be free.”

 

“You want him to be human.”

 

Rin gawked for a moment, her eyes narrowing at the hanyou next to her. “First and foremost, no, I don't. I want my son to be proud of whom he is and what he is, but in society, they won't allow it. He'll be ridiculed, tormented and be an outcast his entire life. I can't do that to my child, I love him too much. So I want something—anything--that will let him be able to grow up as a child that sees the world as a place of opportunity, not suppression. When he's old enough to decide if he wants to let people know about his true nature, then so be it. Right now, I need to protect him.”

 

InuYasha ran a hand over his face, grunting and muttering in the process. “All right, all right. I'll see what I can do, but there's no promises. Concealment charms can be very costly, and to get a good one off the market is nearly impossible. Let me see if I can talk to my mom, maybe she'll be sober enough to give me an idea.”

 

“Promise that you won't mention Kenren to them?”

 

InuYasha glanced at Rin and immediately wished he hadn't. Her brown eyes burned through him with a vindication of a mother's love for her son. `Now if only my mom had been this determined to see me grow up,' he thought with the bitter taste of the years past coming to rest in his mouth. With a slow nod, he agreed to her terms.

 

Mashing her hands together into a deformed lump of skin, she finished her pleads. “There's one other thing, InuYasha. I need you to get a hold of him for me.”

 

InuYasha glanced back at Rin, his eyebrows arching. The concealment charm was hard enough to ask for, but to get him to find his elusive brother, that was nearly asking him to turn water to wine. “Why? Are you planning on fessing up?”

 

Rin wrinkled her nose, not liking the insinuation behind his words. “I have nothing to confess to, InuYasha.” Taking a moment to control her anger, she had to ration with herself not to lash out at him. Maybe she had been in the wrong not to alert Sesshoumaru to her pregnancy, but the man had a wife and a child of his own. She was no one come between that, and it irked her that InuYasha couldn't get that. After a moment, she continued in a much more pleasant voice. “I want to enlist his help on…helping…someone else.”

 

Warning bells slowly began to signal in InuYasha's mind. Crossing his arms slowly, he turned to glare at Rin. If she needed Kagejiro for something, ten to one it was physical job that would require blood shed. It was what his brother did, after all. “What do you need his help for that I can't do for you? I mean, unless you plan on telling him he's a dad, I'm sure I can help you just as much as that dufus can.”

 

Rin grimaced; this is where it was going to get nasty. Placing her hand over his arms to convey her sincerity, she pleaded with him. “I can't tell you. Please don't hate me, but I have my reasons. I can't call him because, well, it would be too difficult and I'd have a shit load of explaining to do. But if you call him to meet up with you for lunch, and I happen to be with you…” her voice trailed off as she was sure that InuYasha saw her logic.

 

InuYasha nearly barked out a terse laugh. “I haven't seen that bastard in nearly…”

 

Rin grimaced and put her hand up to his lips, resting one finger against those two belligerent muscles. “Don't, InuYasha. He's your brother, and I know you two don't get along so well, but just listen. He feels as though he failed you, and he knows how bad he's fucked up, but he doesn't know how to make it up to you.”

 

InuYasha rolled his eyes and shifted back his neck to escape her finger. To be honest, he never blamed `Jiro for not being around. His father saw to that dismissal nearly three centuries before InuYasha was a glimmer in his mother's eye. If he hated anyone from his childhood, it was Sesshiles. “Stop making excuses for him. If he really wanted to make it up to me, he could, but I still haven't seen him in—“

 

“--InuYasha! It doesn't matter how long it's been. If you can forgive him…if you can at least give him a chance—“

 

“Forever!” InuYasha paused and considered Rin's words. “Look, shorty, it's not that I hate him. I really don't, and in all reality, I actually respect the guy.”

 

Rin smiled softly and put her hand to his cheek. “Then call him and have lunch with him. If you honestly respect him, then you wouldn't care. My business would be completely separate from that. Who knows, maybe you can start a relationship with him again. Family is all your going to have one day, InuYasha.”

 

InuYasha sighed heavily, not wishing to embark on this debate. Sesshoumaru and his father were hardly what he considered family, and he never really got a chance to know anything about Kagejiro, besides for the fact that he could pin a Ten-year old Sesshoumaru to the wall of the funeral home calling him a `pertinacious little shit' who was `three seconds away from being buried along side of Izayio' if he dared to speak `one more wretched word about the dead'. Needless to say, Kagejiro was on his hero list for about three years, until he realized that he was never really going to see his half brother again. The blood between Toga and Kagejiro was thick and ran at the slightest provocation. His father had always seen to the oldest son never having anything to do with the younger two, which InuYasha was sure had to do with the death of brother number three, Taizo, back in 1654. The seven inch scar that extended from two inched under Kagejiro's right eye up through his hair line and around the side of his head said a lot more about the father/son relationship then InuYasha could ever attempt to. His father had literally split his son's head open. That, however, was a story for another day.

 

With a grunt, InuYasha never realized his misconception. Had he of known that Rin was speaking of Sesshoumaru, life would have been more humorous for the moment. With all due sincerity, InuYasha agreed to help. “Look, I can't promise anything. I'll see if I can find a number to get a hold of him with.”

 

Rin recoiled and made a face. “I wouldn't think he would be that hard to locate.”

 

InuYasha met her look with a returned one of his own. “Apparently you don't know the vanishing acts my brother can pull when he doesn't want to be found.” InuYasha made a face and sat back against his chair. `Hell, `Jiro vanished for nearly two hundred and ninety years; his disappearing act could rival the ninja vanish bullshit any day.'

 

Rin shrugged, never realizing that they were talking about two different people entirely, only because of the similarities between the boys that existed without either's knowledge. When Sesshoumaru and Rin were three months into their affair, he had whisked her away for a long weekend to the Bahamas, just so they could be alone. `I guess if Sesshoumaru really doesn't want InuYasha to find him…' she sighed once and ran her hands over her eyes. “Look, just promise me you'll try. I really need his help in a few things.”

 

“Why can't I help you again?”

 

Rin measured her words carefully. “You'd probably get yourself killed.”

 

InuYasha nearly choked. “Excuse me?” Casting one of the most offended glowers Rin had ever been fixed with, the hanyou next to her seethed. “I think I can handle myself in a situation, thanks. Not to mention that anything you have to deal with can't be overtly dangerous. You're not James Bond, remember, I am. So get your shit right and talk to me. What do you need help with; an unruly neighbor, someone pestering my nephew? I'm telling you Rin, I can…”

 

His words slowly trickled off and Rin knew that she should jump from the car to avoid any further communication with the hanyou. Regardless of how dense InuYasha could be, she saw the wheels finally starting to turn. Apparently he could read her mind at that moment, as he locked the doors before she could grab the handle.

 

“This isn't about you, is it? You're trying to get help for Kagome.”

 

Rin cringed and attempted to keep her poker face up. To bad this time she failed. “No.”

 

Slamming his hand in to the steering wheel he wasn't shocked at how high Rin jumped. “Wrong fucking answer, Rin! What the fuck is goin' on?”

 

Rin shut her eyes and swore a hundred times over in her mind. “Look, InuYasha, I'm sorry but I can't tell you.”

 

“Bull shit. Fuck little girl promises right now Rin. If Kagome's in so much trouble that you want my brother involved, then you need to tell me right now what the hell is happening. Stop playing; you saw what the bastard did to her last time. Imagine what he could do to her if he gets her again. Now I want some fuckin' answers, and I want them now. Who the hell is hurting her?” Turning to glower at Rin, he backed the girl up against the door, separated only by the consol in the middle of his car.

 

Rin knew that trying to offset his questions would only infuriate the man next to her more so, but she couldn't give Kagome up, not to InuYasha. “Look, I may or may not know who's hurting her…but what I can say is that she doesn't want help from people who know her. She's too afraid about what it would say about her, and something about her family not getting involved. I think she just doesn't want Kikyo or her father involved. But…InuYasha….what I can say is that she's in deep and needs someone who has more power than me and you combined. I figured…”

 

“Wouldn't my dad then be the logical choice?” Turning to glare out the windshield, InuYasha pondered over just who Kagome could mix herself up with to get in enough trouble that it needed the work of a mercenary to get her out of. Was she in trouble with the mob? `No, not Kagome. That's impossible! She's not stupid, but who the hell could she get wrapped up with?' There were few names that made it to his mind that would need the power of his brother to be dealt with, and the thought made his blood turn to ice.

 

Rin made a face and looked out the window as well. “I figured your brother would have the skills to…deal…with the competition, and besides, he owes me when you really think about it. This way it doesn't get messy, it doesn't get out of hand, and everything goes back to being okay.”

 

InuYasha couldn't argue there. Though he would probably go to Sesshoumaru first for negotiation tactics, Kagejiro had fought in nearly every major war since the break of the nineteenth century, at least that's what he was told. Yeah, he was the baby of the family in comparison to his brother, who was turning three hundred and thirty in March. The man knew how to talk sense into people; but then again, that was probably aided by the fact that his arms were bigger then most guys' necks. “You're missing the point, Rin. How did Kagome get messed up in this?”

Rin shrugged noncommittally and shifted weight in the seat. “I don't know for sure. She just got involved with the wrong crowd, from what I gather. Please, Yash, I can't say much more. If you want to know, get it out of her.”

 

“She won't tell me. I don't know why but she has this fuckin' idea that I'd go postal on the mother fucker!”

 

“Do you blame her?”

 

With a sigh, InuYasha sat back in his seat with enough force to shake the car. Fisting his hair, he sighed dejectedly, “not at all.”

 

Rin turned to look at InuYasha in something akin to shock. She had expected him, by this point, to be making a scene. Instead he seemed to almost understand bringing in support. That worried her. “She won't tell you because she doesn't want to see anyone hurt. She doesn't want me to be involved and she begged me not to call him, but I figure your brother would be the best option. He can keep it professional, deal with the issue, and help give Kagome her life back.”

 

InuYasha defiantly didn't like that statement. “Is this assfuck seriously that dangerous that he has the power to threaten her life?” He'd kill the bitch before he knew what hit him. The bastard was in enough shit for laying a hand on Kagome, let alone threatening her. InuYasha had thought that Kagome was being slightly dramatic when she said that she feared for her life, but if Rin was seriously talking about having the guy `dealt with', then this might be more then he was ready to stick his foot into. It didn't mean that InuYasha wasn't going to lay into the bastard, when he found out who did this to her, but if he would need back up, he'd rather do it right rather then to risk anything happening to Kagome. If this ass hat had that much power, then InuYasha could stoop to ask his estranged brother for some back up.

 

Rin weighed the question in her mind. “I think he has about as much power as your brother does, but the Taisho name will always beat out his.”

 

InuYasha tilted his head to the right, not quite getting the drastic hint left for him to dwell over for the next few hours. “Look, I'll do it on two conditions. The first is that you tell him about Kenren. The second is that he understands that I'm with him on all of this. I want to be in the same room as this bitch when he gets his balls put in a vice grip.”

 

Rin nodded once. “Look, that's all something we can talk about later. Promise me you'll call him?” So maybe she could just say that she'd tell Sesshoumaru about the child and get away with skipping out on it when push came to shove. Right now, all that mattered was getting the powerful youkai to come to town and knock Bankotsu down a few thousand pegs. Little did she know what kind of knock around guy she was really ordering as they entered the tiny pizzeria.

 

 

 

*X*X*X*X*XX*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*XX*X*X*X*X*X**X*X

 

Kikyo led Kagome to her bed, non-verbally directing her cousin to take a seat on the mattress. It was odd, Kagome rationed, that they were here now in the same spots they had been on the first day of the semester, about to have another `cousin' moment and yet so much had changed. Six weeks ago, the conversation had been about Kagome's disdain for InuYasha and her abhorrence to the idea of the two marrying. Now it was Kagome's turn to take the seat in the spot light and come up with some fictitious story about why she had a ring of black under one eye and the gashes on her lips, of which still bled when outside in the fresh February air too long.

 

Kikyo took a seat next to Kagome, resting her back against the cold cement wall and fixing Kagome with a gaze that held neither sympathy nor anger. Her eyes were blank as she looked onto her cousin, trying to keep her mind open. She had no idea as to what might have happened to Kagome, or what her friend had neglected to tell her, but she would go into the conversation with no precursors set. With a silent nod, she forced Kagome to recant.

 

“Look, Kikyo, I know this looks bad…”

 

Kikyo clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “That is exactly how it looks, Kagome. It's bad, and I know that something is wrong, and I have tried to get you to talk to me about all of this in the past, but you wanted me to have no part in it.”

 

Kagome blushed and looked down. “Honestly, Kikyo, I still don't want you involved. I don't want anybody involved.”

 

Kikyo shrugged, not at all fazed by her request. “Sorry. You're beat on that one. I am involved, just like anyone who gives a damn about you is going to be.” Turning her gaze to a hardened stone that Kagome couldn't break, she dared her cousin to lie. “Where were you this weekend?” Before her cousin could open her mouth, Kikyo added, “and I know you weren't home. I called there looking for you and your mother said you weren't home all weekend.”

 

Kagome attempted to avert her eyes, yet couldn't gather the courage. “I was at Jak's.”

 

“Now I know you didn't spend five days at a bar. You were at Jakotsu's house?”

 

Kagome nodded and swallowed hard. “He helped me out.”

 

A slender eyebrow disappeared under her perfect bangs. “How did he help you out?”

 

“He just did.”

 

Kikyo reclined her head to look critically over her cousin, inventorying the bruises that marred her face. “Who did this to you?”

 

Kagome weighed her options. “I got into a fight at Jak's bar. It was stupid and honestly pointless.”

 

“Of which you lost?” Kikyo studied her cousin's face.

 

“You should see the other girl.”

 

Kikyo's eyes darkened. “You expect me to believe that a girl did this to you?”

 

Kagome held her cousin's gaze, praying to seem as impartial as she could. “You shouldn't underestimate a girl when she's in a fit of jealous rage.”

 

“You're full of shit.”

 

Inhaling slowly, Kagome pursed her lips. “I'm not…”

 

“You are.” Kikyo shot forward off the bed and slowly began to pace in front of her younger cousin. “Kagome, we've been best friends since we were little. You've told me everything you ever did with a boy, everything you've ever said to make your parents angry, and you've always come to me when you need help. I've done the same! I mean, Christ, you're like my sister more than my cousin!” Turning to face Kagome, a pang of self righteous injury passed through her eyes. “It seems that since the start of this semester, though, you've only pulled away from me. I feel like we're strangers living with each other, Kagome. Yeah, I know you've gotten a lot more friends this semester…and friendlier with some you never were…”

 

Kagome blanched for a moment, sure that her pupils dilated at that statement. Was it possible that Kikyo knew about her and InuYasha? Was her cousin actually alluding to their tryst the other night? “Kikyo…”

 

Kikyo's smile offset Kagome; it was bittersweet almost and nearly impossible to swallow. “Its okay, Kagome. I really don't mind that you've become closer with InuYasha. It's nice, actually. I was always so afraid that you would never warm up to him and would resent me for wanting to marry him.”

 

Was it possible to be perfectly fine one moment, plagued with maybe a little bit of worry, and then be violently ill the next? Kagome wanted to retch. “I thought you didn't want to marry him?”

 

Kikyo's smile lightened for a moment, her eyes suddenly taking on such compassion, Kagome was nearly blown away. “I didn't…until I started to really think about life. I always looked at my relationship with InuYasha as something of convenience. I knew when we started dating that there weren't any real emotions between us. But, I guess as arranged marriages go, as time went on, we grew on each other.” Seeing Kagome's doubt, Kikyo fell onto the bed next to her and tucked her legs to the side. “Do you know that InuYasha and I didn't have sex for the first year and a half of our relationship?”

 

The feeling to barf was increasing ten fold with each revelation. Why was Kikyo telling her this? Why was she being tortured by hearing this? She didn't want to know about Kikyo's relationship with the man whose seed she had swallowed the previous morning. She didn't want to know about those warm and fuzzy feelings that Kikyo had for the man Kagome was starting to find herself… `What?' Her conscience mused, `in love with?' Yeah, that was it.

 

Kagome struggled for a voice, despite her utter horror. “Oh?”

 

The blush that adorned her cousin's cheeks made Kagome even more ill. “We told everyone we were having sex from about five months on, just to make the relationship seem more real. We had decided it together and also had decided in those first few months that we could see other people, if we never told anyone. So we did…for a while.” Seeing Kagome's interest peaked, she made a confession. “During this time, I actually dated Bankotsu.”

 

All feelings of upset set aside, Kagome was dumbfounded. Kikyo had been with Bankotsu? Was it possible that she knew how Bankotsu really was? Why hadn't anyone ever told her of this? “Are you kidding me?”

 

Kikyo shrugged again, licking her lips at the memories. “That's why I was so upset when you started dating him after graduation. When I was with him, he was just getting his career started. He treated me like a princess, always kind and courteous. But we couldn't see each other because of my supposed relationship with InuYasha. If my father or InuYasha's ever found out…” Kikyo trialed off and wrapped her arms around her torso, hugging herself. “Bankotsu was a great guy and it hurt to give him up, but I realized that while I was with him, that I wanted to be with InuYasha. I watched InuYasha grow and become so different than Bankotsu. I got the taste of being the cooperate wife with Bankotsu, and I hated it. So we broke off our tryst and I went back to InuYasha. At that point, we decided that our fathers weren't going to allow us to change anything, so we agreed to become more…committed. No more open relationships, no more lies. We became everything we boasted that we were, and we were happy with it.”

Kagome was nearly sure she was going to be sick. Sliding off the bed, she slowly walked to the window, trying to displace her nausea. “That's so odd that Bankotsu never mentioned this.”

 

Kikyo shrugged. “We have had our secrets, Kagome, but they are always for the best. I never told you about me and Bankotsu because I didn't want you to think I was trying to pawn you off to an old flame. I just knew how Bankotsu was and knew that you would have been great for each other.” Hesitation burdened Kikyo's words, and weighed heavily upon Kagome's sanity. “I never got why you two didn't work out. You were fine, and I swear he was going to ask you to marry him and then suddenly, you two broke up.” She stared at Kagome for a moment, trying to read her countenance before offering her thoughts. “I was so sure that you were back with him.”

 

Kagome snapped her head around to gawk at her cousin, her eyes wide. “What…what are you talking about? You thought I was…”

 

Kikyo slowly slid off the bed to join Kagome by the window. “You've been going up to New York almost once a week for the last two years, haven't you? I was so sure that you were going up there to see Bankotsu, but I was never sure as to why.”

 

Kagome felt her throat closing up on itself, her entire world slowly coming to a halt. “I…I haven't been…”

 

Kikyo smiled apologetically. “I'm sorry for intruding and getting involved, Kagome, but about a year ago I noticed you had a NJ transit ticket in your wallet and when I happened to go into your drawer looking for your stapler, I found the stack you kept of receipts. I could only assume that you were going in to see him, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why you wouldn't tell me! But then you came back with bruises on you and I just knew Bankotsu could never do that to you.”

 

And there it was; an acclimation that Kikyo believed which disproved her theory. “I wanted to help you, but you kept pushing me away. I tried to get InuYasha to talk to you but you hated him. I still don't know what's going on, but Kagome, you have to stop, and you have to see that this isn't okay anymore! When I thought you were with Bankotsu, I left it alone. I figured you two maybe were on a break, or that you didn't want to draw more attention to your family because of Uncle. But now you're coming home bruised, and hurt and…” tears flooded Kikyo's eyes as she grabbed Kagome's shoulders and turned her to face her, “and one of these days, I'm worried that you're not going to come home at all.”

 

Kagome couldn't help the tears that welled up in her eyes as well. Hugging her cousin, Kagome buried her face in her hair. “I'm okay, Kikyo. I go into the city to hang out with some friends I met through Bankotsu. We can get a little out of control at times, and that's what happened this time. We were at a club, a few things were said that shouldn't have been, and I couldn't move fast enough. What matters is that I'm not going back there with them again. I'm probably not even going back up to the city again.”

 

Kikyo pulled away from Kagome, slightly embarrassed by her dramatics. Wiping her eyes, she sniffled. “Promise me you won't do anything stupid.”

 

Kagome nodded once, with all due sincerity. “I won't. I'm not seeing that group anymore and I plan on keeping it that way.”

 

Kikyo studied Kagome's eyes for a moment, trying to find a slight glimmer of a fallacy in any of her statements. Seeing none, she nodded, pleased with the results of this talk. “Tell me that you'll always be honest with me from this point on. I mean, no more telling me that you're at your mother's when you're really partying and no more random bruising, okay?”

 

Kagome nodded, regardless of how her body shook. She couldn't make those promises to her cousin, as much as she wished she could. She wished she could offer her own soul that kind of solace or sincerity. She wished she could say that nothing bad would happen again, but that phone call left much doubt to cloud her mind. “I can promise that I'm not going to lie anymore,” Kagome said—and wasn't that the lie of the century. Somehow Kagome didn't think that `by the way, I slept in your boyfriend's bed and got him off the other day. Hope you can forgive me,' would go over so well. “And I'll let you know where I'm going.”

 

Kikyo smiled and hugged her cousin with a tight embrace. “Good.”

 

Kagome pulled back from Kikyo, a shadow of a doubt beginning to creep across her face. “And you'll do the same?”

 

Kikyo nodded again. “Hai, of course I will.”

 

“Can I ask you an honest question then, with no bull shit for my answer?”

 

Kikyo hesitated, and Kagome knew she had her pinned. “Umm…Okay?”

 

Kagome took a step back and slowly crossed her arms. “Are you cheating on InuYasha?”

 

Kikyo's mouth fell open, her eyes widening before a look of impending disaster took its place. Kagome fought down the urge to seek shelter. “We've had this discussion before, Kagome! No, I am not cheating on InuYasha.”

 

Kagome couldn't help the terse laugh that ripped from her chest. In a sudden fit of fury, she threw her hands up and stalked across the dorm. “I can't believe this. After that whole bonding moment, after you made me promise not to lie to you, the first thing you do next is lie to me. I see how square we are, Kikyo.”

 

Kikyo moved her mouth twice before letting her shoulders slump. “Okay, okay…listen to me and don't say another word until I'm done.” Watching Kagome cross her arms, Kikyo grimaced and sat down on the radiator. “I was cheating on him for the last few months. I know he's been cheating on me for the last two years, and I was sick of it. I ran into this guy on campus that was nice, friendly, and had known me for a few years. We had a lot in common and we decided to see where life would take us. The answer to that…” Kikyo's grimace dipped into a frown “was in his bed. It became solely based on sex. He started wanting to get risky; like taking photos and videos of our…exploits. I kept telling him no and he didn't like it. He wanted to be more boisterous about our relationship…”

 

Kagome sat down in the chair at her desk, resting her arms against the back of her chair. The guy sounded like a mini-Bank. “Why would he do that? Didn't he get the memo that InuYasha would have ripped him a new asshole for that?”

 

Kikyo made a face and shrugged. “I kept telling him that InuYasha had proven in the past to be quite violent with his jealously. I mean, look at what he did to Naraku Itogowa for just flirting with me two years ago.”

 

Kagome's smile flattered. “So it's not Naraku that you've been sleeping with?”

 

Her expression said it all. “No! Not at all, and I told you that. Naraku's yummy in the dark, brooding evil type of way, but he's not…no.”

 

“So then, who is it?”

 

Kikyo leveled Kagome a dark glare. “Who have you been hanging out with in the city?”

 

“Touché.”

 

“Anyway, I realized last night, while I was with Yash, that I really do love him and it wouldn't be so awful to marry him. So I told him that I wanted to work on us. He'd have to stop cheating on me…”

 

Kagome blanched again. “What makes you so sure he's cheating on you?”

 

Kikyo rolled her eyes. “Please, with that lecher as his roommate, I don't doubt that they're always at the club getting some sort of head. It hasn't really bothered me lately because of me being with the boy, but I want us to be more serious and I told him that too.”

 

Kagome closed her eyes, wondering if it was really wrong that she was feeling so angry. Her cousin had all the right to want to be with her boyfriend, and Kagome had no place in that. She knew that when she stuck InuYasha's hand down her pants and she would continue to understand that for the rest of her life; therefore she had no reason to be so angry. But she was. She was livid. “Oh.”

 

Kikyo was oblivious to her cousin's rage. “So I think we're going to work on it. I'm actually going out with him tonight, and we're going to talk more about it.” Walking over to Kagome, Kikyo fell to her knees to look Kagome in the eyes. “I want to make sure that you're okay though. I mean, I really want to know that you're not going to wander off and have this happen again. Those bruises keep getting worse…”

 

Kagome waved her hand, dissolving the conversation. “It's gravy, Kikyo. Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm not running off to the city again, I'm not hanging with the crowd again, and everything is going to be…okay.” Inside she was screaming; things would never be okay. She could never stand to see Kikyo and InuYasha without a strong feeling of resentment being attached to her sentiment. The thought of seeing anyone but herself in his arms was…. `Childish, petty, and oh I don't know, pretentious?' Her conscience needed to take the moment to bother her. `They have been dating for a long time, Kagome, and they deserve their happiness. How can you honestly hold it against your cousin that you decided to mess around with her boyfriend? It's your fault and you need to get over it.'

 

Kikyo stood up and rubbed Kagome's shoulder. “Good, because I'd have to hurt you if you did something stupid.” Patting her cousin on the head with the affection one would show a pet, she grabbed her coat from the closet. “I'll probably spend the night at his place again.” Hesitating as she slipped into the coat, she cast a small frown at her cousin. “Are you sure you're okay? I'm just getting this feeling…”

 

“I'm fine, Kikyo, don't worry. You just go have a good time. I'm going to do some studying for midterms.” Casting a smile at her cousin, she honestly wished that Kikyo would just leave. Kagome couldn't listen to another story about Kikyo and InuYasha without vomiting all over her cousin, she was sure of it. When these feelings had developed left Kagome speechless, but she was becoming more and more hateful towards the idea of Kikyo with InuYasha.

 

Returning to the window, she slumped down to wonder exactly what all of this meant, or if it could be contributed to some strange illness that would affect her reception about the world. That was the only thing that would define exactly why she was in love with the man she was supposed to hate.

 

*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*

 

Kagome wasn't sure how much time had past since she had fallen asleep against the windowsill, but the shrill echo of someone pounding on the door awoke Kagome from the treacherous sleep with a start. Sweat was slowly beading off her forehead and her heart was hammering against her ribs in a feeble attempt to lunge from her chest and escape from some unknown terror. Standing wearily, Kagome was disconcerted to her surroundings. Whatever her dreams had been, they were one hell of a trip. Wiping her brow, she walked uneasily to the door. She could feel, minutes after waking from that slumber, the hair on the back of her neck standing at end. She attributed it to the cool air of the tiny dorm and the perspiration now rolling off her but somewhere within her mind, she knew the truth. The dreams…they were getting worse, and those that she could remember, she begged to forget. Bankotsu and his cronies were always appearing in the most random of places, pulling at her, bullying her…smothering her. Swiping a piece of onyx hair from her face, she shook off those disturbing emotions. It was going to be another long night in the dorm by herself. The last thing she wanted to do was to curl up in a ball somewhere and worry about the repercussions of telling Bankotsu to go to hell. Dreams be damned, she was going to make it out of this with her sanity!

 

The pounding echoed again, the resonance of a closed fist being banged sideward's against the splintering wood. Kagome reached for the door handle and paused, her fingers resting against the cold metal. Her eyes widened a fraction of an inch as the ration for her hesitation made itself known. `What if it is Bankotsu on the other side? What if he's come to force me back to New York? What if he's come to finish the job he started?'

 

A part of her was disgusted at the fact that she had hesitated. Would this be the rest of her life; waiting for something to happen, waiting for destiny to take a grip on her life? If Bankotsu was meant to kill her, then so be it. She would not hide from the world in hopes to live just another day longer. No, she would not grant him that power over her. But…the fear still lingered in her mind and delayed her actions, proving that his sway was relevant. With the bitterness of a woman scorned, Kagome nearly ripped the door off its hinge. If Bankotsu was on the other side, may hell have mercy on his soul, because no one else would.

 

InuYasha jumped back a step, nearly tumbling backwards when the door swung open with enough force to echo down the hallway. Balancing the pizza in his hands, he gawked for a moment at the girl before him. He wasn't expecting it to be Kagome who answered the door, but seeing her made his entire world quake. His mouth moved once, twice, three times, but no sound came from it. He was completely off set from his normal disposition by Kagome's abrasive greeting. So he stood there, a pizza in one hand, with his mouth gaping open like a common idiot.

 

Kagome balked the moment her eyes met lavender, and she instantly regretted her streak of panic. What had she been thinking? Was she even thinking anymore? And why was he here? Wasn't Kikyo supposed to be…. Kagome fought back the urge to scream in frustration. Her cousin had lied to her again, and Kagome had been none the wiser. Meeting InuYasha's eyes once more, she knew that she would inevitably cover for Kikyo again. It was, after all, what family did. “Hey.”

 

InuYasha blinked then recovered as coolly as a man void of words could. “'Sup?” Oh, he was racking in those cool points by the bucket load!

 

Kagome blinked very slowly, her eyes softening while her mouth twitched into a smile. Gone were any of her thoughts of Bankotsu and instead, the whirlwind of wanton emotions that all focused around this beautiful man with hands that could make her sing. Ignoring the quickening of her heart beat, Kagome swallowed thickly and took notice to the food in his hands. “Oh. You got…”

 

“Pizza!” InuYasha was beginning to reconsider the thoughts of Seppuku. Clearing his throat and inhaling sharply, he finished the sentence with as much pride as he could. “I got pizza, yeah. I figured you two would be hungry.” Seeing her eyes widen slightly, he quickly covered his tracks. “I mean, Rin told me that you two had…been talking…so I, well we, figured that I could get us some pizza. If you two are done, that is, because I don't want to intrude and…if you're hungry, anyway…” He knew his was rambling but it was like vomit, he couldn't stop it.

 

Kagome blinked and glanced down the hallway, trying to locate the missing Rin. “We?” She looked back at InuYasha, “where's Rin?”

 

InuYasha shook his head, shifting his weight on his feet. “Oh, well, she had to go home. But I got it for us.” Seeing Kagome blink at his pronoun, he quickly blurted out, “I mean, you and Kikyo and me. You know, I figured you two didn't eat…”

 

Kagome opened her mouth and then shut it. It was wrong for her to not tell InuYasha the truth. But then again, she had forgotten her role this week; she was the pot whereas her cousin was the kettle. Maybe it was reversed…Kagome had lost count of the hypocrisy count. She couldn't rat on Kikyo and not on InuYasha, it just wouldn't' be right. it wasn't as if InuYasha was playing the role of the innocent victim here, he was just as guilty as Kikyo was, and Kagome was a collaborator to the crime. “Kikyo went out…with friends.” Seeing InuYasha's smile wane, she felt horrible for lying. But then again, she should have felt just as awful for lying to Kikyo. `The world was one fucked up place,' she reckoned, `when you're sleeping with your cousin's boyfriend.' Kagome sighed; this was going to be a long night.

 

InuYasha raised his eyebrows and let his eyes travel to the pizza in his hands. “Oh.” Why did he keep saying that infernal word? It looked as if Miroku would be having leftovers again. Looking up slowly, he decided to propose a potentially dangerous question. “Did you eat?”

 

It was as if the thought hadn't even occurred to Kagome; for with a gasp and a side step, she motioned for the boy to come in from the hallway with a half apologetic, half embarrassed mutter of, “I'm sorry, come in.”

 

InuYasha entered the dorm, hesitant as if entering for the first time, and put the pizza down on Kagome's desk. With a brief smile that was overtly forced, he nodded to the food. “I figured we could all just sit back and watch a movie…or something. I didn't know that Kikyo had plans. Do you know when she'll be back?”

 

Kagome had to bite her tongue to keep from tattling on her cousin. “What can I say; it feels as if I never know where she is anymore.”

 

InuYasha had gone into Kikyo's closet and pulled out a set of paper plates and two beers from their stash in the cooler while Kagome finished up her half correct statement. Handing one to Kagome, he closed the door to the dorm to keep the RA's out. Dry campus be damned, pizza and beer was the best dinner ever. “So.” Nodding to the pizza, he cocked an eyebrow. “You up for eating?”

 

Kagome smiled and accepted the beer. Opening the top, she took a sip before slowly approaching the pizza. “This is nice; you didn't have to do it.” Inside she was wheeling; what was he doing here? Now they were alone, in a closed room, together again. Was this going to spiral out of control just as the last time had?

 

“I know. I just though…well…Rin thought…” he paused and considered the notion that maybe Rin knew that Kikyo would be going out and therefore wanted to force him into spending time alone with Kagome. Had Kagome said something to Rin about them? Could this all be some elaborate scheme to get the two of them together? Stealing a glance at Kagome, he highly doubted it. She seemed as nervous as he was. “So…movies?” Changing the topic was defiantly the best idea for the time being.

 

Kagome nodded once and walked over to their tiny wall unit. Kneeling down, she looked through their DVD's for one that was the least sexually charged as could be. Being that Kikyo was not with InuYasha, it was a possibility that she could come home at any moment. The last thing that Kagome wanted to do was watch something with sexual situations, get aroused, end up under InuYasha… `Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down there girl! Why are you having thoughts of having sex with this man? He just bought pizza, that's it! Cool down or I'll throw you into the shower!' Kagome shivered once at the thought of her and him, being together in that fashion again. Sure, it was nice and felt wonderful and she had never slept better than she had by his side, but it just wasn't feasible. The illicit affair had no room to grow, and therefore should have been smote. This wasn't just going to be a long night; it was going to be one hell of a night. To bad she didn't know how accurate that assumption was.

 

InuYasha cut two pieces and dropped them onto a plate before sitting down on the small area rug and looking over Kagome's shoulder. “I'd say go for The Departed.”

 

Kagome wrinkled her nose and kept searching. “Nah, I was watching that with Rin earlier.”

 

InuYasha made a face and continued to read the titles over her shoulder. “Stranger Than Fiction?”

 

Kagome glanced back at him and raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding me?”

 

InuYasha held up a hand, a smirk residing on his face. “All right, I get it.” It never dawned on either party, while they sat looking through the movies together on the floor, that they were hardly more than two feet apart. If Kagome had shifted a few inches backwards, she would have been just about sitting in his lap.

 

Nodding his chin towards another title, a gesture that was completely missed by Kagome, he called out, “what about Knock Around Guys? That's a great movie.”

 

Kagome hesitated, her eyes skimming over to the older DVD and considered it for a moment. There was plenty of action to keep her mind preoccupied, no sexual exploits to make the situation any more uncomfortable than it already was, and some yummy eye candy for her to watch in the mean time, and InuYasha could easily be included into that assumption. With a smirk, she grabbed the DVD and popped it into her PS2. “That one works just fine.”

 

InuYasha watched Kagome from behind, his eyes drifting down her back to the swell of her ass. He sat with his gaze fixed for nothing but a moment, yet that moment was long enough to leave a lasting impression in his pants. `Jesus,' he thought with a growl, as he found his jeans becoming rather restrictive, `if I want to be alive by the end of this, than I better quit it with this shit.' Somehow, though, his eyes just wouldn't leave those two beautifully shaped round globes. With a small chuckle, he suddenly understood why Miroku had such a fascination with groping; the thought had never sounded more golden. Yet, playing the role of the good boyfriend, he kept his hands off the girl of his dreams before him.

 

The previous morning had not escaped his mind. It was exactly the opposite, actually. Watching Kagome in the throes of an orgasm had been on his mind for the past two days, and had kept him hard nearly for almost all forty-eight hours. The image had been burned into his retinas of her swallowing his cum. There wasn't way that he couldn't think sexually about her. Nothing seemed better than the idea of lifting her into his arms, depositing her on her bed and shagging her rotten. But at the current moment, he knew that the idea was completely infeasible.

 

“Are you done gawking?”

 

And then he remembered how easy it was to be annoyed with her. Narrowing his eyes, he recoiled away from her, sliding backwards about five feet, before addressing Kagome. It was as if he had just realized their proximity to each other, as did she when she also happened to notice his eye direction. So she hadn't been so oblivious to his attention. `Damnit,' he thought with surmounting anxiety, `what did she catch?' Forcing a scoff from his mouth, he shoveled more pizza into his orifice so that his retort could sound snooty.

 

Kagome hadn't been expecting his eyes to be locked onto her ass, but turning around she had found herself at odds with how to gauge her reaction. So they had been semi-intimate in past situation, and more than anything, she would have loved to replay those times at the drop of the remote. But they couldn't, she shouldn't…he wouldn't! Instead she took to the taunting method, which had driven him away from her for the previous six years, maybe it would still work. She couldn't fall for him, she couldn't let this continue! Yes, she cared about him and would have dated him in a heart beat, but her cousin was all that was really left of her family. Could she really do that to Kikyo? `She is doing it to him, don't forget,' her mind reminded her. With a grunt, she found that she was completely at ends with this debate. Instead, she tried to focus her attention on his retort. “What was that?”

 

InuYasha wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and sighed, running his other hand through his hair. “I said are you gonna keep running that mouth, wench, or are you going to turn on the God damned movie?”

 

Kagome rocked back to stare at him, a smile slowly creeping its way across her face. “Meow,” she said with a purr of sarcasm, “someone woke up on the wrong side of the cave.”

 

InuYasha leaned forward, more humor in his eyes than anything else. “Care to come over here and say that?” How was it that she was able to make him forget all of his inner turmoil with a smile and a witty remark?

 

Kagome's gulp was nearly audible. Something feral was lingering in his eyes, like the beast in the jungle ready to pounce. Turning away her attention, she busied herself with turning on the movie, skipping through the menu and grabbing a piece of pizza. By time she settled down, she was sure that her heart rate had decreased. `Does he even know how fucking sexy he is?'

 

InuYasha's eyes never left her as she skirted about his question. He could tell the instant he had crossed the line with her, and now he was wondering if he was pushing to far. He didn't want her to feel that he was backing her into any corners, but hot damn, he wanted her. He wanted to taste her, he wanted to feel her from the inside, he wanted to touch her in a way she had never been touched; he wanted to consume her and understand all of those mysteries that she had hidden away in that broken soul of hers. Reverting back to his prior declarations that day, he vaguely recalled a time when he was convinced he was going to end all of this nonsense with her. Why had he been so hyped on such a stupid idea? He needed Kagome, he wanted Kagome…and by God, he would have her.

 

Kagome settled down on the floor a few feet from InuYasha and dug into the pizza without taking her eyes off the screen. Trying to ignore the bastard the way she had six weeks prior was proving impossible. She wondered how she had done it for six years.

 

The movie was drawn out and had actually lost InuYasha's attention after the bar fight. Though it was one of Vin Diesel's greatest moments, he couldn't help but defer his attention to the raven haired beauty by his side. Her chocolate eyes were boring into the television with the utmost concentration. However it seemed to InuYasha that she was almost seeing through the set. `Could she be trying to avoid me? It would make sense,' he thought with a smirk. Sliding closer to the girl, he decided to test his theory. She didn't move an inch, even as he closed the distance gap between them. Leaning in to her from the left, he brought his right hand up and poked her once in the side, just under her ribs.

 

Kagome nearly screamed. She had been so busy zoning herself out of any conscious thought, that when InuYasha had touched her, she nearly crawled out of her skin. Leaping to the side, she turned with gusto to face her assailant. “Are you nuts?” she asked him with her heart hammering in her chest. He was going to give her a coronary by the end of the day. Placing a hand to her chest, she gazed at him in something akin to horror.

 

InuYasha's lazy smirk nearly turned her legs to jelly. “For a girl who just sat through a pretty nasty bar fight without blinking, you shouldn't be so wound up. What's got your coils in a knot, princess?”

 

Kagome narrowed her eyes. Gone was all shock and was quickly being replaced by certain ire. “My coils…” closing her mouth, she looked to her right shoulder to gather her train of thought. How dare he assume… “My coils, InuYasha, are not in a knot, more so than my patience for you.”

 

His eyebrow hike seemed to infuriate the girl further. “Right…is it common for you to jump then, at any given stimuli?”

 

Narrowing her eyes, Kagome poked at InuYasha's side in retaliation. “How do you like it? You can't go around poking people, ya know?”

 

InuYasha twitched, more out of the fact that Kagome was touching him than for the actual action itself. Poking her back immediately, he could sense that he was crossing some sort of invisible line. They shouldn't have had any physical contact; physical contact would only lead down dark and seductive alleys that InuYasha wasn't all too sure he could resist. Yet, as he stared into her brown eyes and witnessed the birth of a smile that could light up a room, he knew that he didn't want anything else. He never wanted to miss one of those smiles; he never wanted to miss a day of her life. In a world where it seemed that everything was made to be broken or tainted, he wanted to hold onto this fragile moment and cherish it forever.

 

`I sound like a love sick bitch,' he thought as he retaliated against Kagome's invasive poke. `What the hell is wrong with me? I have never been like this with a girl before. Hell, when I'm at the clubs, this would be the last thing I'd ever do. What kind of spell has Kagome cast on me?' Ignoring the butterflies in his stomach, he chuckled as Kagome scooted away from him and attempted to poke at his leg. `This is something I would have done in second grade,' he rationed as both parties forgot the movie and became solely interested in the other. The churning of his stomach, the sweat beginning to form a light coating across his forehead, all of it pointed to the fact that he was actually afraid to travel this path with Kagome. It was all games now…but…it wouldn't stay that way. Could he really continue with this? The whispers from that alley were getting louder, his desire growing…he wanted Kagome like he wanted nothing else in life.

 

Kagome giggled loudly as InuYasha recoiled from her last attack. Kicking lightly at him to get away, she jumped to her feet to avoid his next swipe. They were harmlessly flirting, and it couldn't be more fun. Her rational thought had fled the scene as she lost herself in the childish moment. So what if they were acting like they did in elementary school; it took away the stressful remembrance of just why they had been avoiding each other. It took away Kagome's indecisiveness and all of her worries.

 

Kagome wasn't quite sure just why she had leapt to her feet, there was really no where else to go. Trying to back away from InuYasha, she hardly was able to move three feet before two strong arms wrapped around her kneecaps and pulled her to the floor. Twisting in mid air seemed like a great idea at the time, but as she gently landed on the ground on her ass, and instantly fell backwards onto her back, she realized her mistake. She had left herself completely open for an all out assault, and seeing that gleam in InuYasha's eyes, he knew it.

 

He was on her in a heart beat. His attack was relentless, his smile ruthless; the more Kagome squealed from the tickling, the more it seemed to encourage InuYasha. For a moment InuYasha had forgotten his troubles. For a moment, InuYasha completely overlooked the fact that he had a girlfriend, of who was not under him, and the fact that he was supposed to distance himself from Kagome. For a moment, he wasn't ruled by his father, his brother or his demon blood. He was a guy, tickling a girl that he was madly in love with, and everything was okay. So what…maybe he had fallen in love with Kagome, accidentally of course; right now, this was about them.

 

Kagome continued to writhe under InuYasha, her twisting and turning growing in velocity as he pushed his fingers into her sides without mercy. It was odd, in reflection; Kagome had always hated being tickled. She had actually, by way of chance, managed to kick her father in the testicles when she was eight when he had tried to tickle her with half the gusto that InuYasha was going at her with. Why she wasn't attacking InuYasha for this assault was lost to her, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she didn't want him to stop.

 

It only took a matter of seconds for all of the interactions to turn from completely innocent to scandalous. InuYasha was straddling Kagome, his left knee firmly planted between her legs, the right pinning her left leg to her side, one of his hands intertwined in the fabric of her shirt, the other planted for support by her right shoulder. His pelvis was inches above hers, his ass in the air and his face about a foot above hers. His lavender eyes were smirking at Kagome one moment, and within a second, the light had shifted. The shift begot a primal desire that burned from within their souls, fueled by the repressed emotions that had tormented both parties. It was as if the world inhaled and their lives were swept up in the interim and transformed into something different.

 

InuYasha's eyes darkened to a color Kagome had seen once before. His breath became ragged, jagged and hot against the soft skin of her neck. He looked pained for a moment, his movements slowing to a pace that was languid. His hand rested against her side, his fingers slipping under the material of her shirt. His eyes searched hers for permission, begging Kagome to open her soul to him.

 

Kagome was lost instantly in those fathomless violet orbs. Like drowning in a sea of purple, Kagome's eyes became half lidded and all too quickly became aware of the wetness dampening her underwear and the pressure being exerted against her crotch by his knee. She couldn't help it as her hips gyrated against his knee cap, rocking her mound against the hard callous bone. Her eyes snapped shut as her lips parted, her breath catching in her throat. This had gone from playful to completely dangerous in less than two seconds.

 

It was instantaneous, like some love story from those movies that Kagome had desperately attempted to avoid. His eyes burned into hers with emotions that Kagome never knew existed, and hesitation only played its part for a moment. Lowering his head, InuYasha never broke eye contact as his lips covered hers. The first kiss was timid, the two surfaces barely touching, their eyes never closing. InuYasha pulled back, gazing down at Kagome with such admiration that Kagome could feel the pinprick of tears in the corner of her eyes. Her breath barely had time to escape her lips before his lips captured hers again. This time her hands came up, as if possessed by a force that deemed that this pair of star crossed lovers should begin their plight, and wrapped around his back and pulled him into her embrace. Her eyes closed and she surrendered to the man before her.

 

Kagome had never been kissed with such veracity. She knew that here and now, InuYasha was laying out his emotions, baring his soul for her to accept or reject. She knew that she should have pushed him away; she should have yelled at him that he was with her cousin and this just wasn't a good idea, but the ideas melted from her brain by the molten kiss bestowed upon her. His kiss was scalding, her soul being systematically shattered and instantly rebuilt around the man above her. Within this moment, she knew that she would never be able to walk away from this man, this God.

 

It was almost too soon when he pulled his lips from hers, and she instantly missed the warmth. Opening her eyes slowly, she was met by a smile that could have melted the heavens. Her lips were parted; enflamed from his attention, and to InuYasha, the vixen beneath him was never more beautiful. Rocking forward slightly with his knee, her eyes screwed shut and her head jolted back from the unexpected pleasure that coursed through her body.

 

Lips descended, her throat became the victim of lavishing attention, and the hand that rested against the bare flesh of her hip held her down. He ran his knee backwards on the carpet, slightly enough to make her cry out at the loss, and then gently he brought it back to her. He watched, mesmerized, as Kagome's hips sought out that hardened bone, rubbing against it without shame like a bitch in heat. In that minute, he knew he had to have her. Kikyo, Sesshoumaru and Toga be damned, this was his life now.

 

Scooping Kagome up in his arms, he moved her gently to the first thing that came into sight: Kikyo's bed. Dropping her on the bottom of the bunk beds, he climbed on top of her and slid both hands under her tank top. Kagome opened her mouth, whether to protest or to moan, InuYasha was never sure. Filling that open cavity with his tongue and lips, he ravished her mouth much in the same way he would soon ravish her body. Tenderly, lovingly, and fastidiously he tortured her lips, letting his tongue swab the deepest regions of her mouth before tasting those beautiful and tempting lips that adorned her face. His mouth moved against hers with such a passion, it drove them both over the edge.

 

The two hands on a mission dragged the material top over her head and cast it to the side. His mouth slipped from hers and began planting a trail of wet, soulful kisses down her neck. His hands instantly slid under her bra straps and removed the hindrance from her body. He didn't dare ask the question if this is what she wanted, he could tell by the way her fingers laced through his long tresses that she was just as caught up in the moment as he was. And he feared, by God he feared, that if he stopped now to let any rational thought into the process, they would never have this chance again.

 

His callous hands slowly came to hold the forbidden flesh that he had set free. Her breasts were just about the right size for his large hands to cover, her nipples hardened by his prior ministrations. His hands gently teased the exposed skin, his thumb capturing the hard bud between it and his middle finger and he pulled at the skin with a skillful combination of pleasure and pain.

 

Kagome's head rolled back, her lips parting to let out a breathy sigh. She couldn't deny how amazing the combination of his hands and his lips were, or how devastating they could be. Her entire body quaked with need, her thighs sodden with her own juices. She wanted him, she needed him…and she knew by the end of the night, she would have him.

 

InuYasha traced over her collar bone with his mouth, teasing the tender flesh of her neck with all due sincerity of an experienced lover. He abandoned her breast with one hand as it gently traced down her naval, his fingertips dancing across her skin softly. He ran the pads of his fingers over her belly button, his intent obvious to the girl beneath him.

 

Kagome lifted her head from the pillow to gaze down at InuYasha, and was granted full access to watching his one hand kneading her breast and the other dancing across the buttons of her jeans. Mocha eyes collided with lavender, and the proverbial fireworks illuminated the darkened dorm room.

 

Letting his tongue dart out, he traced the tiny bud of nerves that resided on Kagome's chest, indulging in the way that her head rocked back against the pillows and her back arched, offering her breast as a sacrifice for his pleasure. She was submitting to him not only her body, but her soul as well. Wrapping his lips around her nipple, he sucked at her with the passion of a lover. His other hand continued to massage her breast, his fingers rigorously torturing her distended bud. Her moans grew more audible, sounding off like a bittersweet sympathy to his ears. Finally pulling the button free of her jeans, he toyed with the zipper yet was very quick to shed those infernal things from her body.

 

Kagome slowly opened her eyes, the pleasure being inflicted upon her nearly insurmountable. How long had it been since she had ever made love to someone? The answer was so vague, she wasn't at all sure that it was even discernable. Sliding her hands under the material of his shirt, she allowed herself to indulge in the feel of his skin against hers. He pulled back for a moment as she removed the shirt from his body and smiled as her eyes slowly drifted down his torso. He was beautiful, but she had always known that. Running her hands up his gleaming six-pack and across his sculpted pecks, she was nearly sure she creamed herself. He was the perfect personification of Adonis. Sculpted from the Gods to be their gift to women, Kagome considered herself blessed to be at his mercy. Now she knew why his ego was so big and it wasn't in overcompensation for anything.

 

InuYasha wasted no time; the minute her hands were away from his chest, he had returned to hers. Shifting his attention to her other breast, his left hand held his weight from her fragile frame as his right hand slipped her panties from her hips. The scent that was her essence washed across his nose and broke him, like a wave against jagged cliffs. He removed his mouth from her breast and instantly sought out her lips, as his hips collided against hers, rocking his jean clad hard on against her exposed core. He dry humped her once more, before pulling back and whispering in a voice that took him a moment to find; “Kagome…I want you…” His tone was feral, raging with emotions that Kagome never knew he could possess. He looked nearly demonic in the dimmed lighting.

 

Kagome gazed up at InuYasha, one of her hands rising from his back to swipe some of his hair from his eyes. “I want you too.” She blinked once, the softest of smiles coming to her face as she stared up at him. Why had this taken six years to happen? How was she ever angry with this almighty being?

 

InuYasha needed no further confirmation. Straddling her waist, he sat up and began working his jeans from his body. Only when her hands covered his did he hesitate. Had she changed her mind? His eyes met hers in a rush of confusion which quickly changed to passion as one of her hands began working at his zipper whilst the other latched onto his hard on through the material and gave him a couple gentle yet seductive squeezes. Pulling the jeans down the contour of his hips, Kagome couldn't help but marvel at the definition of his muscles around his pelvis. Two slender lines adorned each side of his body, tracing down beneath the rim of his boxers, offering her the secrets of the world if only she was to uncover them.

 

InuYasha allowed her to push his jeans to his thighs before he kicked them off himself. Turning back to Kagome, he found that her hands came to rest on his bare thighs, awaiting his approval to remove his boxers. This was it, wasn't it? The only thing that stood between them was a pair of Calvin Klein shorts. His eyes sought hers, just to be absolutely sure that this is what she wanted. She was the closest to heaven that he would ever be, the closest to perfection that he would ever taste, and he wanted to be sure that he didn't screw this up.

 

Kagome laced one hand through the hole in the front of his boxers, her small hand coming to rest against his hardened cock. His eyes snapped shut, a throaty moan escaping his lips as she removed the last obstacle in their path to copulation. Wrapping her hand around his length, she was a little shocked to find that her fingers wouldn't touch at the base of the beast he packed. Licking her lips, she was half tempted to rise up and take his penis in her mouth, and worship him the way he deserved. Yet when she met his eyes, she knew that the primal need that raged between the two was much more demanding. There would be plenty of time for foreplay another day; today this was about feeling him inside of her. It was about him taking what he had always wanted, and her offering it to him.

 

InuYasha slid his legs down hers, lowering his chest to rest against hers. The only distribution of weight that settled his body off of hers was that of one hand to the right of her head and his left knee. Positioning his cock at her dripping entrance, he hardly took into consideration that they had indulged in very limited foreplay. Using his free hand, he ran his index finger over her clit, flicking the bud once to watch the reverberating effect. Kagome's back arched off the bed, her mouth dropping open with a moan and he took that moment to slide his member into her, sheathing his cock to the base within her body. The moan that escaped her mouth was mingled with a scream, her chest rising and falling madly against his as her body attempted to reconfigure itself for such a wide addition. It felt as if he had shifted a number of her internal muscles to the side to make room for his wide girth. Her forehead came to rest on his left shoulder as he stilled within her, the sweat that poured off the two parties mixing just as their bodies had a moment prior.

 

Kagome laid back, her eyes hesitant to open. She had been filled like this before and was no armature to the game of sex, but never had she felt so alive during the act. It was as if the world was standing still, everything else that had ever mattered to her held no place in their existence. In this universe, in this time frame, it was just her and InuYasha. As she gained the courage to open her eyes, she met the gaze of her lover.

 

InuYasha stared down at Kagome, the patient smile and the sparkle in his eyes lighting up the room. Bringing his lips to her cheek, he kissed her gently, dragging those two dangerous muscles over her jaw bone and down to her chin. Kissing his way up her to her mouth, he hesitated before claiming her lips. “Are you okay?”

 

Kagome smiled her eyes half lidded, and nodded weakly. Instead of vocally answering him, she bucked her hips gently. The small amount of pain that had shocked Kagome had long ago subsided to give way to a burning desire that was consuming her body. Those coils were beginning to wind themselves within her stomach, and she wasn't all too sure how long she would last. “Please,” she whispered against his lips. She needed him to finish this, she needed that sweet release. As much as she wanted to savor this moment, her body was demanding its payment for all the stress being inflicted.

 

InuYasha needed no further assistance. Bracing his weight on his left arm, he began rocking his hips against hers. Withdrawing his cock from her sopping wet cavern, he drove back into her with wild abandon. Her cry was overpowered by the guttural moans that escaped his lips. Snapping his head to stare down at Kagome, he watched her as he fucked her. His motions increased with his breathing, his pelvis crashing against hers at a nearly bruising speed. “Look at me, Kagome.”

 

It had been hard; to say the least, in the throes of passion for the younger girl to keep her eyes open. Yet at his barked command that left no room for question, Kagome forced her eyes open to meet her lovers. The smile on his face only gave a hint of what he was about to do.

 

Dropping his weight forward so that his chest came to pin her to the mattress, his hips never lost motion as his lips sought out her ear. “God, baby,” he cooed into her ear between sucking on her cartilage and tracing the orifice with his tongue, “you feel so fuckin' good.” Grinding his hips against hers, he buried himself to the back of her pussy until the tip of his dick came to rest against the opening of her womb. Buried as deep as his body would allow him to be, he ground his hips against hers, loving the mews and strangled moans that escaped her. “Fuck me, Kagome, come on, you've wanted this for as long as I've known you. You've always been a fuckin' cock tease! Now so me how bad you want this. Fuck me!”

 

Kagome's hands wrapped around InuYasha's back, her nails biting into the flesh of his shoulders. Indecent whispers and promises fled her mouth as she met each thrust of his with a returned one of her own. She was so close to an orgasm, she just needed that extra push to tumble over that precipice. “InuYasha, oh God, I…I'm almost…God, please, fuck me! Don't stop…” she moaned into his ear.

 

InuYasha smirked, his tongue lavishing the side of her neck torturously. “Begging won't get you to cum, baby. Work for it, Damnit Kagome; fuck me like you've wanted to!”

 

Kagome's desperation was surmounting to a crescendo as she lay beneath the man of her dreams. At that moment, she would have done anything he asked of her, simply for the opportunity to orgasm.

 

InuYasha lifted his hips from hers, surprised at the growl that escaped her lips at the thought of losing this wonderful pleasure. Grabbing her right leg with his hand, he pulled it up between them to rest her knee against her chest. Leveling himself to sit more on his knees, he plowed his way back into her.

 

Kagome saw stars the minute he slammed himself back into her pussy. The world exploded in a blinding white light as her entire body tensed. She nearly screamed as that coil snapped, her orgasm tearing through her like a knife through butter. Her head snapped back against the pillows as she yelled her heart out to the world. Clamping her teeth down on her bottom lip, she attempted to quiet herself before neighbors started complaining. It was only when the taste of metallic blood filled her mouth that she realized how hard she had to constrain herself. She was going to need a pack of cigarettes by time this was over.

 

InuYasha slammed his cock in and out of her again and again, riveting in the fact that he was able to produce so much pleasure for the girl beneath him. Knowing he was about to lose himself as well, he quickly debated his options. He could finish inside of her, as he had planned to do, but that would cause a lot of controversy. He knew that it was impossible for him to get Kagome pregnant with his power limiter on, but she didn't. Coming inside of her would more than likely freak her out and was falling from his list of real solutions.

 

Kagome drifted back down to Earth from her mind shattering orgasm with the ease of a feather riding the wind. Lolling her head to the right, she slowly opened her eyes to find the transfixed expression of her lover. Knowing his plight from the fastidious gleam in his eyes, she quickly called up to him, “cum for me, Yash. I want you to fill me to the brim!” She had never gotten the time to tell him that she was in the pill, and had been for more than four years.

 

That was all he needed to hear. Slamming himself into her once more, he dropped his forehead to her shoulder as his balls released their load, depositing it all within the tight confines of his girlfriend's cousin. He panted against her soft skin as his dick shot off about five or six times, filling her completely. He felt her muscles clench around his cock, and he could swear that she got off again, just by the feel of his jism hitting the back of her womb. He could feel some of his sperm leaking out from within her, dripping back down onto his cock and the mattress as he relaxed against her. Letting go of her leg, InuYasha could hardly brace himself up above Kagome for more than a minuet before his strength began to waver.

 

Shifting his weight to the side, he slid his cock from within her cavern with a sigh and rolled to the left. Did he really just fuck Kagome? His eyes widened slightly, realizing how much more complicated he had just made the situation. Exhaling loudly, he realized without a shadow of a doubt that it was well worth it. Lacing his left arm under Kagome's shoulders, he rolled her to the side abruptly to rest against his chest. He ran his left hand through her hair, tangling his fingers within the tresses. Neither spoke for a good ten minutes, both simply living in the moment that had been created by lust and repressed emotions.

 

“What…does this mean?”

 

Indigo eyes slowly drifted downwards to meet chocolate. She looked happy but there was something that made him nervous within her eyes. She looked slightly pained, and that seemed to rip his heart from his chest all at once. Bringing his lips to her forehead, he whispered, “I don't know.” it was an honest answer, in all truth of the matter. He didn't know what to do with the situation; he didn't know what to do with Kikyo. What he did know was that he wanted to do this again, and again, and again with Kagome. After being inside of her, he had learned peace. The hell he was giving that up. Lowering his mouth to hers, he kissed her delicately.

 

Kagome closed her eyes with the kiss, her entire body melting into the man next to her. As he pulled back, her head collapsed against his left shoulder. “You wore me out,” she noted with a wry smile.

 

“So, does that mean that there's no round two?”

 

Kagome cracked a lazy smile, her eyes remaining shut. “Maybe.”

 

InuYasha smirked, his eyes threatening to drift closed as well. Sleep was seemingly a great idea for the time being, however, they had to move their location. The last thing he needed was Kikyo coming in to find them both naked together, on her bed. `Fuck it,' he thought as he closed his eyes and joined Kagome in a light slumber, `I'll move her before I leave for the night. There's no rush. Kikyo's undoubtedly out for the night. I'll deal with her tomorrow.'

 

*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X**X*XX*X*X*X*X*

 

 

^__^; yup, now things get interesting. ^__^

 

--A big thank you to my beta reader Ninja teacher Jen and a big thanks to Heather Kou for the help getting through a rough patch of the chapter.

 

mm.org shout outs!

 

Inukag_obsession: hey, you beat Drake to leaving the first review. Lol! that made me smile. ^__^; what now? That is a good question. Let's say that Bankotsu will make good to his promise. ^__^;;

 

Drake: You're slacking there, buddy. ;-) j/k. you know, I have no idea about this higher power that you speak of. Kagome just is having strokes of bad luck (or in this case, a stroke of Inu…) A kick in the balls…that's a good thought. Don't worry, he'll get what's coming to him. Ever see the bar fight scene in knockaround guys? … I'll leave it at that. ^__^ haha, hentai :;points:: oh wait…@__@

 

Moon_essence1: hmm…when will Inu find out about Kagome. I'm thinking he'll start piecing things together REAL fast in the next three chapters…or when he gets into a confrontation. We'll see. ^__^ I want to see, I wan to see!!! ::whines::

 

 

Peavine85: you know, no one ever comments on the names. LOl. I have a few good ones stocked up for the end, but I have fun with that. good eye! LOL. ^__^ I'm glad someone noticed. ^__^

 

Silveraloria: it's good that she stood up for herself, but pissing off someone with that much power isn't the greatest thing to do….LOL.

 

LeilaChan: see, you agree with him. Everyone is in way to deep, and now it's even deeper. Good call. Yeah, the situation is beat for all involved, but with a little help from outside and someone finally telling the truth, who knows, it could just solve itself. This is all happening, when you really think about it, because people can't tell the simple truth. They have to dress it up, hide behind it and masquerade in it. it someone tells the truth… okay I'll stop now, I'm sounding like an after school special. Thanks for the good luck, I ended the semester with straight B's. YAY! Best I've done in a LONG time. ^__^;;

 

Autumn_the_reviewer: that would require someone telling the truth, the thing that NO ONE in this story is capable of doing. You'll see. It's like a clusterfuck. LOL. Will Bank really show up? …it would make it more fun. Thanks!!

 

Toyas_gurl: Rin is gonna be Kagome's best bud. Don't worry, you'll loathe Bank by time this is over. ^__^; my poor Bankie. :;whines:: I don't know why I did this to him. … the Miroku/Sango story will work out later, but I'll say this, all he had to say to Sango to let him stay was `Kikyo's over there' and it works. Lol.

 

Kagome313: thanks for the long review! LOL. yeah, I'm a huge fan of Shakespeare, which I'm sure you can get out of my stories. LOl. I love adding in twists to the plot to keep people guessing. I never like saying anything out right, hence the circle game for Kenren's father (and how it is still continuing for some). She figured things because she's smart with the help of Sesshiles' training. ^__^; well…at least inu listened to you. @__@ as for Bankie burning, well….that will be a long way down the beaten trail.

 

Loulou4729: wow, that's kind of weird and really amazing that you had a dream about the story. Weird to the fact that you're thinking about the story off the computer (which means that I REALLY did my job as a writer, and that makes me do the snoopy dance!) And awesome in the same retrospect. Wow. Thanks for sharing that, it really did make my day! It's great to know that you're thinking about this beyond what's written. As for Bank going up to the school…welllll…don't doubt your instincts quite yet. ….::huggles for great intuition::

 

TrinityK: I wuff Anthony Hopkins. He's so awesome evil. I can't wait to see Fracture. Lol. Kikyo is my wild card in this fic. You won't figure her out until it slaps you in the face. As for Bankotsu….well…you got to play up a split personality disorder to figure him out. They're a barrel of monkeys, what can I say? Jump on in with us! Does Bankotsu want to hurt her more? Hmm…I think he would soundly argue that it was her that made him hurt her, therefore he is the innocent party in this triad. But…that's just one side. ~_^

 

Chibirin: Kikyo is you're average person. She chooses when she wants to be involved and is so self absorbed, she barely realizes what is going on in the world around her that doesn't have to do with her. She's solipsistic to a fault but not uncaring. When other worlds collide with hers, especially if they are friend, she'll lend an ear when it's convenient for her. I hope this chapter helped sum her up to a better definition but if not, feel free to let me know. ^__^ she's a wild card, as I said above, and she's going to remain teetering on that boarder of ambiguity for the rest of the story.

 

Girl_X_16: oh, someone took interest in that fact. Congrats, you're so far the only person to remember that. What can I say, I love my minor details. ^__^ Bank coming down to Jersey= not good scenarios. Yeah, the shit is starting to pile up, someone's got to take out the garbage….now where did I put Jiro's number? ^__^ thanks for the review girl!!!