InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ All My Little Words ❯ Chapter Two: Your First Reaction ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. If I did, there'd be a whole lot more sex, and possibly a chorus line.

Summary: The darkest places are the places of the heart, and the darkest desires are those we don't know ourselves. The gang faces a new threat from Naraku - one that can destroy the bonds of affection and forever change their relationships.

Chapter Summary: Ginta ponders his aversion to fish, Kagome gets intensely interested in trees, Kouga apparently got into the sake, and evil is still totally afoot.

Spoilers: Very late in the manga. Basically an AU continuation of the series beginning at the end of manga volume 33, chapter 326. Why? I don't like rats. I'm avoiding them.

Warnings: Haha! Darkfic and unresolved sexual tension are like bread and butter to me. This fic deals with some dark themes, and has more pairings, both canon and non-canon, than you'd be wise to shake a stick at. Yes. Lots and lots of pairings, some blatant, some implied. If you're looking for fluffy Inu/Kag action, this is not the place for you.

Credits: The title comes from the song All My Little Words by The Magnetic Fields. It seemed appropriate.

All My Little Words
by
Resmiranda


C hapter Two: Your First Reaction
"And I'll contest, but they won't listen
when the casualty rate's near one hundred percent
and there isn't a pension for second best
of her heart..."
- Death Cab for Cutie, Company Calls Epilogue

***

Ginta peered over the edge of the embankment, hoping hopelessly that Kouga would be relaxing in the sun below. Of course, he would have no such luck - the ground below remained annoyingly free of the familiar shape of his chief. Behind him, Hakkaku's frustrated groan told him he wasn't the only one having problems finding their wayward leader.

It's not that it was unusual for him to go off like this - Kouga had left them before, but usually he would give them a clue as to where he was going. Not that he had to tell them anything, of course - he was the leader, not they - but it still would have eased Ginta's mind, especially after last night.

Ginta shook his head, going over the events in his mind. Even now in the warmth of the sun, he shivered, remembering the bone-chilling cold that had frozen him in place, searing straight down his spine and bypassing all rational thought. There was nothing in his mind but a white storm of fear. Standing back to back with Hakkaku, rooted to the spot, they had both felt something... coming in from all sides, and then suddenly sharpening down, focussing, and then -

There had been no time to do anything. That was the thing he remembered most; whatever it had been, it was fast, streaking across the clearing beyond the river, and then that presence, like a blade of ice, leaping.

There wasn't time for anything, not even thought. Kouga had barely turned his head when the roar in his chest was stillborn, twisted and strangled in his throat, and in the space of a heartbeat he had collapsed to his hands and knees, panting heavily. Ginta and Hakkaku stood dumbly, disbelieving. How can anything be that fast? It's not possible! Ginta thought, and it seemed to take forever just to think. Each moment after witnessing such speed seemed like a lifetime, drawing out forever, an endless span of time...

"Kouga!" Hakkaku had suddenly cried, his legs jerking slightly before bolting into action, and Ginta found that he, too, could move again, that whatever primordial terror had gripped him was now fading into the ghostly tremors of a post-adrenaline rush.

Running toward their fallen pack leader had been like running through thick sap - Ginta thought his bones would break, and the air felt sticky and impossibly viscous, but even though it took an eternity, they finally reached Kouga's side. His eyes were squeezed shut, and his breath came out in heavy spurts as he struggled to fill his lungs with air, almost as if he had been choked. Hakkaku patted him firmly on the back. "Boss? You all right?" he'd asked.

After a few tense moments, Kouga had pushed himself back on his heels and apparently had caught his breath, though his bright blue eyes were distant and unseeing. "I think so..." he'd replied before suddenly twisting and turning in place, inspecting himself suspiciously. "Yes, I think so," he said a second later, with more confidence.

Ginta was relieved, but Hakkaku remained unconvinced. "You sure?"

Kouga patted his hands against his armor and his bare legs, as if looking for injuries he just hadn't noticed yet. Finally, he'd given a firm nod. "Yes, I'm sure."

"What was that?" Ginta blurted.

Kouga shook his head. "I don't know," he'd said, "but I think it's gone."

Ginta glanced around the clearing, his heightened senses straining to pick up some clue as to the whereabouts of the thing, but it appeared Kouga had been right - there was nothing out of the ordinary; where before even the landscape had seemed sinister, the world was oddly back to normal - almost as if the incident had never happened. A cricket had even started chirping, as if to say the danger had passed. He still hadn't slept very well.

Unfortunately, even though whatever that thing had been was no longer with them, the memory had burned itself into Ginta's head, and try as he might he couldn't shake it. He still felt cold, even now, and Kouga wasn't around to reassure him with a smack across the head, or a well-placed insult to his intelligence. Kouga's absence was beginning to worry him, especially because his trail was so faint. He would be nearly impossible to track with such a light scent.

Below him, the river flowed peacefully by. Ginta envied it - it must be nice to just float along without a care in the world, without having to worry about vengeance or food or missing pack leaders. He could get used to a life like that. On the other hand, if he were a river, he'd probably be full of fish, and that didn't sound very pleasant at all. Ginta sighed, shoulders slumping. He just couldn't win.

"Oi, Ginta!"

Hakkaku's voice cut through his reverie, and Ginta turned to see if his companion had found something that would help them find Kouga.

He hadn't. Instead, Hakkaku pushed him into the river. Ginta surfaced with an earful of both mud and Hakkaku's hysterical laughter on the embankment above him.

"Oi, what was that for?" he shouted angrily, scooping a minnow out of the crevices of his cochlea. He definitely didn't want to be a river, he decided. Fish were all well and good to eat, but live ones were just cold and wriggly and wholly unpleasant to have in one's private space.

Hakkaku was crying with laughter. "Just... just to see... the look... on your face!" he gasped, wiping his nose on his arm.

Ginta remained unimpressed. "Geez, and I didn't even do anything to deserve it," he whined, sloshing his way up the embankment.

"I... know..." Hakkaku wheezed. "I just... needed to let off... some steam..." Ginta was disappointed that his comrade was regaining his breath. It would have been nice if he'd passed out from lack of oxygen and Ginta could have carried out a suitable revenge in peace. Still, he could sympathize - it had taken his mind off their troubles for a little bit, except now his troubles were compounded because he was both without a leader and cold and wet.

He contented himself with shaking himself dry and getting Hakkaku damp in the bargain.

"Well," he said, sitting down. "What do we do now?"

Hakkaku shook his head. He was unused to doing the thinking - that was what Kouga was for, after all. "I dunno," he supplied.

They sat in silence for a moment before Hakkaku was struck with near-genius inspiration.

"Hey," he said, his tone of voice endeavoring to suggest that thinking of things was something he did all the time and not just on alternate Tuesdays, "what if we find Kagome-san? She might know where Kouga is!"

Ginta blinked. "Good idea!" he replied. "I wish I'd thought of that."

Hakkaku shrugged as he clambered to his feet. "It was nothing," he said modestly.

* * *

The ground was bouncing by underneath Kouga's feet, but Kagome was not enjoying the view very much, even though the wolf prince did have disturbingly shapely legs. It was probably her own fault that he had thrown her over his shoulder rather than just carrying her in his arms like usual - who knew he would actually carry out his threat if she continued to struggle? - but that didn't make her feel any better about it. Her elbow was rubbed raw where she had propped it against his armor, but she didn't dare move it for fear that her nose would be the next thing to meet the thick metal. In front of her, where they'd been kept rapidly fading over the horizon. It was a thoroughly depressing sight, and she was getting an extreme case of deja vu. Why wasn't Sango ever kidnapped? Why did it have to be her? It seemed she was getting abducted every other week. Possibly she should think of having a secretarial service instated, so every time some dumb youkai wanted to snatch her away he had to make an appointment first.

Silly musings about such things were only mildly comforting though, and Kagome found herself wishing that Inuyasha would find her; there was something very, very wrong with Kouga, and she was getting more and more worried by the minute. Normally, Kouga would never, ever have clamped his hand over her mouth and carried her off without even an explanation, but that was exactly what had happened. She had been so surprised that she hadn't even had the presence of mind to cry out - it was unthinkable that he would do such a thing, and so she had travelled for the first few moments in a state of shock and denial. It wasn't until they were well away from her friends that she realized something was really and truly out of place, and she'd started to get scared.

Wresting his hand away from her mouth, she'd demanded, quite loudly, to know just what did he think he was doing?

"We're getting away from that damn hanyou," he'd said. "I'm sick of having to deal with him every time I want some time with you."

"Then why didn't you just ask me?" she'd wanted to know.

"Ha!" he'd replied. "Would you have said yes?"

"Of course!"

He'd simply shot her a look.

"Well," she'd amended, "maybe."

"See?" he'd said, as if that admission had proved his point and absolved him of basically abducting her.

Kagome did not appreciate that. "Please put me down," she'd asked.

"Keh," he'd retorted, sounding remarkably like Inuyasha when he was being difficult.

"Kouga, put me down!"

"No!"

It was at that point that she'd started struggling. Kouga wasn't acting strangely - aside from the whole kidnapping part - but she still had a cold feeling of dread pooling in her stomach. She wanted to get away, and fear was starting to take over.

"If you don't stop that, I'm throwing you over my shoulder," he'd bitten out angrily.

"Fine!" she'd shot back, not letting up.

So he had. Kagome was extremely put out.

Honestly, she thought, watching trees bounce by with no sign of Inuyasha or the others in the distance, he didn't have to be so rough! Why couldn't every boy come with a subduing rosary? She was also feeling quite exposed - she wished that she'd worn something a little longer than her school uniform, which was currently threatening to aerate her nether regions and give Kouga more of an eyeful than he'd bargained for. Not that she thought he'd mind much - the point is that she would mind. A lot.

Which seemed to be the fundamental problem of their relationship, she mused, the sight of the rapidly retreating landscape making her more contemplative than usual for some reason. This was the problem with all their interactions. Kouga just did things regardless of what she wanted, and it was a little irritating. His insistence that Kagome be with him rather than Inuyasha was upsetting, not least because she didn't want to hurt his feelings. If only he didn't seem to genuinely care about her, it would make her life a lot easier; she'd just turn him down flat and would let Inuyasha beat him up when he persisted, but she just couldn't when he displayed such concern and rescued her almost as often as Inuyasha did. Besides, it wasn't as if she had any other stellar offers on the table. Inuyasha may care for her, but he was always partially preoccupied with Kikyou. Still, at least he was jealous enough to rescue her from other suitors. Kagome scanned the horizon, looking for the familiar red of his haori. The horizon remained haori-free.

Inuyasha, where are you? she thought despondently. There wasn't much she could do from this position except watch the increasingly tedious landscape with glazed eyes and try to forget the pain in her stomach where the youkai's well-muscled shoulder was pressing insistently. The skirt problem was one that she simply didn't have time to deal with, so she ignored it for the time being. Kagome started to count trees.

She was up to two hundred and seventy-three trees when Kouga suddenly slowed and veered off the main path and into the thicket itself, narrowly avoiding a bramble bush that nevertheless caught her sleeve and ripped a small hole in it.

"Hey!" she squealed indignantly as he swung her off his shoulder and placed her lightly on the ground. "These uniforms are expensive!" She held up her ruined sleeve.

"I'm sorry, Kagome," Kouga said, not sparing her clothes a glance, but instead gazing down into her face. To her surprise, he really did sound sorry. She subsided a little bit, but she was still highly irritated by the entire situation.

"Kouga, why did you drag me out here?" she demanded, trying to busy herself with dusting off her clothes; she didn't really want to look him in the eye. "Surely whatever you had to say could have been said back..." Kagome paused. To tell the truth, she was somewhat confused as to where she had been before, so she settled for waving a hand vaguely in the direction she thought they'd come from. He'd get the point.

She looked up in time to see him slump his shoulders. "Don't you want to be with me?" he asked.

Taken aback, she leaned in closer to him. "I didn't say that," she replied, somewhat flustered.

Kouga, looking down at her, smiled as he took her hands in his own. She cast her eyes downward to see his fingers entwining with hers. Kagome could feel a flush start to thunder up her neck and advance across her face - his hands were burning hot, and even though she was trying to forget, she could still feel their imprint on her legs where he'd held her in place on his shoulder. She glanced up and gulped. He was looking at her strangely.

"Kouga?" she asked.

He leaned in closer. "Kagome..." he breathed.

She took a quick step backwards. "Kouga, are you all right?" she demanded. He was staring at her intently. More so than usual, even, and his eyes shone brightly. She wondered if he was feverish, which would explain his strange behavior and burning hands, and so her concern for him was jockeying for dominance with her unease. After a few tense moments her concern for him won out, and she reached out to put a hand on his forehead, trying to take his temperature.

Kouga had other ideas. Instead of welcoming her voluntary touch like he normally would, he recaptured her hand and closed them both in one of his own. A yelp escaped from her throat as she took another step backwards and nearly tripped over a tree root, which turned out to be a tactical error as his other arm suddenly snaked out and pulled her close.

"Oh!" she cried, stumbling into him, her hands coming up to brace herself on his chest, a move which mortified her further.

"Kouga! What's wrong with you?" she cried. She twisted a little, trying to reclaim her hands, but all her tugging was futile. Kouga's grip was like a vise.

A grin appeared on his face, exposing his sharp teeth. Kagome squirmed. "Nothing's wrong with me, Kagome! I feel fine."

"You aren't acting fine," she snapped. Distantly, she wondered if his fingers would leave bruises where they gripped her wrists.

"But I am fine. I feel great! Better than I ever have before!" He was grinning so wide that it looked like a grimace. Even his voice was beginning to sound strange, sending tiny sparks of fear dancing along the back of her neck.

She stared up into his face, so close she could see the tiny imperfections of his skin and feel his feral breath on her cheek, and her heart began to beat faster. A tiny voice in the back of her head was screaming, telling her to run, but she fought the rising panic, stuffing it down inside, trying to hold back the fear that would blank her mind and cause her to do something stupid.

"Kouga - "

Releasing her wrists, he brought his fingers to her lips, silencing her. His skin was so hot, it seemed he might leave blisters where he touched her. Kagome forced her hands to stay still where they were.

"Kagome, I have to ask you something important."

She looked up into his eyes.

He leaned inward.

* * *

"Why should we believe you?" Inuyasha was shouting as he punched Ginta in the stomach. Hakkaku already lay several feet away, face down in the dust and emitting strange sounds that sounded distinctly like whimpers. Sango was kneeling beside him.

"Inuyasha!" she shouted. "Stop that! Act your age!"

Inuyasha whirled around. "Hey!" he said, clearly affronted. "I'm not the one who's boss just kidnapped Kagome, am I? They should be the ones explaining themselves to us, right?"

Miroku sighed, and then hit the hanyou over the head with his staff in as dignified a manner as possible. "Perhaps they could, Inuyasha, if you would stop beating them long enough to get a word out," he added reproachfully.

Raising a hand to the bump on his head, Inuyasha refused to answer. In front of him, Ginta wheezed for air.

"R-really!" he gasped. "We thought nee-san would know where he is!"

"Well, she does, because she's with him!" Inuyasha snapped, balling his hand into a fist as he prepared to punch Ginta across the face. Shippou, getting fed up with the whole thing, leapt from Miroku's shoulder and sank his teeth into the hanyou's hand.

"OOOOOW!"

Sango stepped neatly around the ensuing kerfluffle, pointedly ignoring the words spilling from Inuyasha's mouth and turning the air blue, and addressed Ginta. "Are you saying he just disappeared and didn't tell you where he was going?"

Looking distinctly relieved to be talking to someone who didn't seem homicidally insane, Ginta nodded. "We woke up this morning, and he was gone. We can't follow his trail because it's really faint - "

Inuyasha, who had subdued the mighty kitsune with a knock to the head, snorted. "That's impossible. He reeks."

Ginta continued as if he hadn't heard the remark. " - so we followed Inuyasha's scent instead."

Miroku snickered into the back of his hand as discreetly as possible. Inuyasha glared at him.

Sango looked thoughtful. "We're following Kagome-chan's scent as well. Wherever she is, Kouga can't be far away, right?"

Inuyasha didn't look as though he liked the sound of that.

"Hmm," Ginta said. "We hadn't thought of that." Next to him, Hakkaku was climbing to his feet and trying in vain to dust himself off. Ginta looked at his partner, then appeared to reach a decision.

"Right! We'll come with you!" he announced.

"Hey! No one invited you!" Inuyasha snarled.

"Inuyasha! Who cares if they come along!" snapped Shippou, rubbing his head where Inuyasha had left an enormous bump. This would never have happened if Kagome were here, he thought, fighting down the tears that had sprung to his eyes. His scalp smarted, and he made a mental note to tell Kagome what Inuyasha had done - he could wait for his revenge.

Miroku nodded sagely in agreement. "It would probably be good to have some of Kouga's companions along with us when we find him," he said, as if imparting great wisdom. He secretly hoped that Ginta and Hakkaku could diffuse the situation between Inuyasha and Kouga when they finally found him - both of them were far more level-headed than either their leader or the hanyou. "We had better get going. Kouga is far ahead of us now."

Inuyasha appeared to remember that Kagome was being carried off even as they spoke. "Shit!" he cried, suddenly galvanized into action, and the rest of his party followed suit, the two wolf youkai falling in beside them.

Inuyasha smiled. He could smell Kagome's scent, and it was getting stronger.

* * *

It was perched on a tree branch, and below it the demon was sprawled out, unconscious, on the forest floor.

It hadn't lived very long, and so it was experiencing a sensation altogether new to it - severe annoyance. The miko had resisted, and was far stronger than expected. Even now, it could tell that she was rapidly retreating into the forest - her aura shone like the sun; it would have to be blind not to see it - and it wondered, not for the first time in the past few minutes, why it had thought its task would be easy.

Looking down in disgust at the wolf, it was even more annoyed. Its chosen vessel hadn't been as good as it thought it would be. It seemed the miko already knew about his desire for her, and it hadn't had the impact it had hoped, not to mention the wolf was a fairly simple creature, with supremely simple desires. It simply hadn't been good enough for its purpose. And now it had to wait for another vessel, since following the miko while she was on her own would be pointless - it couldn't touch such power.

Off to the side, a twig snapped. Then another, and another, until it sounded as though a herd of water buffalo was taking a stroll through the forest. The thing perked up a bit and started to feel less annoyed - it could sense the approaching group, and they were very receptive.

Languidly, it stretched out a tendril of consciousness, seeking them out; they weren't hard to find. Their thoughts floated along the surface of their minds, like leaves on the water, and beneath them pulled currents of emotion, dipping and converging and strong, strong, strong. Even better, they had a direct connection to its target, and there were... powerful feelings toward her, and toward each other.

They were perfect.

* * *

Sango looked down at the figure of Kouga and raised an eyebrow. He didn't seem injured, but he was definitely unconscious, almost certainly knocked out by something.

"Did Kagome-sama do this?" Miroku asked behind her. Instinctively, she stepped to the side in order to avoid any wandering hands that might accidentally make their way to her backside. Miroku made an almost imperceptible, but definitely disappointed, noise.

Hakkaku shook his head. "We should wake him up," he said. He elbowed Ginta in the ribs. "Give him a poke."

"What?" Ginta sounded horrified. "I'm not going to poke him! You poke him!"

"No way!" Hakkaku shot back. "I thought up how to find him, you get to wake him up! Now poke Kouga!"

A snort of irritation interrupted them before they could come to blows. "Keh! I'll wake him up." Inuyasha stomped past them.

"Oi!" he yelled, kicking the prince in the leg. "Wake up, wimpy wolf! Where the hell is Kagome?"

The figure on the ground made a little groaning sound before stirring. "Shut up, dog turd," he muttered before waving ineffectually at the foot still kicking him. "How the hell should I know?"

Inuyasha looked fit to kill. He reached down and grabbed the wolf by his armor and hauled him to his feet. "Where is she?" he demanded, low and dangerous.

Kouga opened one eye. "Isn't she with you?"

Inuyasha was incoherent. "NO!"

Kouga was suddenly standing on his own feet, wide awake, and angry. "You let her get kidnapped? I can't believe you would let that happen! She's not safe with you!" he yelled, and took the first swing, which landed neatly across Inuyasha's nose.

Miroku ignored the two fighting rivals and turned to Sango. "It looks like he doesn't remember what he did," he said. "That's very odd."

Sango nodded and shivered. "Houshi-sama? You don't think it could be Naraku, do you?"

The monk just shrugged. "It could be," he replied, his mouth drawing down into a grim line.

"How can you not remember? Her scent is all over you!" Inuyasha howled, slashing at the wolf with his claws. Kouga sidestepped, neatly pivoted on one foot, and kicked him in the ribs.

"Yeah, too bad I don't," he replied snidely, "because it smells like she was excited about something!"

"YOU - "

Sango realized that they weren't going to stop until someone intervened. Usually Kagome-chan would use her subduing spell, but she wasn't around. The exterminator sighed and unhooked Hiraikotsu from its perch on her back.

She stepped in and swung the giant boomerang in between Kouga and Inuyasha. "Break it up, you two," she said, sounding bored. "When we find Kagome-chan, she'll be really upset with both of you for fighting."

That got through to Kouga, at least, who stepped back. He looked around, his gaze finally alighting on Ginta and Hakkaku.

"Hey, where am I, anyway?" he demanded.

They both slumped. "We woke up this morning and you were gone, Kouga!" Hakkaku said. "Why'd you leave?"

Kouga was beginning to look mildly panicked. "I don't remember going anywhere! Except..." he trailed off, looking thoughtful, and then his eyes widened.

"Oh, no!" he suddenly cried. "I do remember! It's a little fuzzy, though." He sat down and rubbed his temples. The group watched him expectantly, except for Inuyasha, who was fuming with his back turned. "I did!" he finally said. "I did take her." He sounded upset.

Miroku stepped forward. "Why?"

Kouga shook his head. "It seemed... it seemed a good idea at the time. I just wanted her away from dog crap, here, to ask her something."

"Keh!"

Kouga ignored Inuyasha's exclamation of disbelief. "And..." he shook his head a little, as though trying to clear it. He appeared to hesitate for a moment. "...it just seemed like the thing to do at the time," he finished lamely.

"Where is she now, Kouga?" Miroku asked him. "Can you remember that?"

The wolf prince rubbed his head ruefully, a small blush coloring his cheeks. "She sort of knocked me out. But her scent goes that way," he pointed.

"What did you do to make her mad?" demanded the hanyou, striding forward.

Kouga was immediately on his feet again. "That's none of your business!" he retorted.

"Like hell it isn't!" It looked as if he was going to punch the wolf in the eye again, but Miroku cleared his throat.

"Shouldn't you be going to find Kagome-sama?" he asked pointedly.

Ears twitched. "I know that!" the hanyou snapped. He turned back to Kouga. "I'll kick your ass later, wimpy wolf," he informed him before taking off through the trees in the direction Kouga had pointed.

"Moron," Kouga shouted after him, but it didn't seem his heart was in it.

* * *

A severely winded Kagome was struggling through the thick underbrush in the direction that her instincts told her was "away." She never thought she would be afraid of Kouga, but he had been so intense that she had snapped, and here she was, lost in the woods. Alone. Without her bow.

She was also feeling incredibly guilty for doing... whatever it was she hand done... to Kouga. Since she'd become more familiar with him, he'd never done anything up to this day to hurt or scare her, and it seemed cruel of her to treat him so badly. He probably wouldn't have hurt her or done something she didn't want...

...no, he would have. But Kagome remained firm in her opinion that he hadn't known what he was doing; he had just been acting too strange, too out-of-character to be himself, and his bright, glassy eyes were still worrying her. Youkai couldn't get sick, could they?

Kagome slowed down a little in her flight, suddenly feeling extremely weary, and a little sad. She wondered briefly if she should turn back and make sure Kouga was all right, but instinct told her to not face him again on her own, since she'd only narrowly avoided some pretty strange manhandling the first time.

A branch she had been pushing away snapped back too soon and scraped across her face. "Ouch!" she exclaimed, raising a hand to her cheek. It came away slightly wet and red, and Kagome wished fervently for her first aid kit - if she didn't clean it out soon it might leave a scar.

Her shoulders slumped gently, and she sighed. It just wasn't her day. Common sense told her to sit down and wait to be found, but since she could be found by any number of extremely unpleasant things, her legs kept moving, even though she was growing increasingly tired, and her muscles and lungs ached.

She didn't even hear the crashing through the thicket behind her until something grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. She bit out a scream.

"Baka!" Inuyasha jumped back. "It's just me!"

Kagome reached her limit. There was only so much a girl could take in one day, and a heart attack was not one of them.

"OSUWARI!" she screamed.

Inuyasha's face met the dirt, but Kagome didn't feel any better; her heart was still thundering and she was still scared witless.

"Osuwari, OSUWARI, OSUWARI!"

"Aaarrgh!"

Kagome stood there, panting, but feeling oddly satisfied. "I hope you learned your lesson!" she snapped. "Don't sneak up on me like that. I've had a very bad day."

He just looked up at her from his place on the ground. "You've had a bad day?" he growled.

"Yes!"

Snorting, he turned his head away, refusing to look at her. "Then I'll just leave you out here, you ingrate," he said.

Oh! She had almost completely forgotten she was lost. Oh! She hastened to apologize.

"I'm sorry," she said, dropping to her knees in front of him. "I'm really sorry."

His ears twitched. "Keh," he said, before turning to look at her. His eyes suddenly became round. "Crap! What did that bastard do to you? I'll kill him!"

Puzzled, Kagome raised a hand to the part of her face he was looking at it, her fingers brushing the cut on her cheek and causing a sharp sting to tingle through her skin. "Ooh," she muttered. "Kouga didn't do that," she informed him. "I cut myself on a branch."

Inuyasha slowly got to his feet. "You're so helpless without me around," he told her, turning his back and kneeling down, inviting her to climb on his back. Slightly hurt by his words but determined not to show him, she took his invitation.

"So what did he do to you?" he asked impatiently as they started back toward the way he had come.

Kagome shook her head. "Nothing," she replied. "Nothing at all."

"Then why'd you knock him out?"

Kagome didn't answer for a long moment. "I'll tell you when we're back with the others," she finally said, and refused to tell him anything further.

* * *

A/N: So! What really did transpire between Kouga and Kagome? And what the hell is that creepy thing that keeps popping up? And when will Sango and Sesshoumaru exchange make-up tips? (Probably never, but it would be cute.) Tune in next time, when things really start getting weird.

If you want to listen to me whine about writing this fic and you have a Live Journal, check out my anime journal, where I announce updates, reccomendations, and post little teasers and silly drabbles. My user name is ash_grey_sky.

Also, a HUGE thanks to my reviewers, who totally kept me going! I love you all so much, I think I just ruptured my abdominal cavity! Proposals of marriage go out to rentfairy (Eee! Thanks for the great ratings!), and Demonchic-K (Glad you like! *blush*). Thank you all! I'll try to get the next chapter up within a week.