InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ All Things Come Full Circle ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4

"So," Inuyasha said, "What was this youkai that attacked you like? And what happened exactly?" he asked, directing it to Sango and Kagome.

"Well," Sango spoke up, deciding to let Kagome rest, "We were in the spring talking, when the water suddenly started to get cold. Kagome-chan and I decided that it didn't seem right and that we should get out, but we were stopped by a woman, or rather a female youkai. She told us that her name was Koorimizu, and that Naraku sent us his good wishes."

"That must mean that she is his newest incarnation then." Miroku said.

'So he can make incarnations of himself? That must be why I could smell his scent on my way to the hot spring.' Inukigo thought to herself.

"Yeah, that's what we thought too, so we tried to get away, but she had control of the water and dragged us back. Then she made a whirlpool and threw me out, saying that her visit was meant specifically for Kagome-chan. She told Kagome-chan that Naraku wanted her dead, then pulled her underwater. I tried to go back in, but that was when she covered the spring in ice and disappeared. After that Inukigo-chan showed up, and well you know what happened then."

"So, he has another incarnation running around. The coward. He never does anything for himself." Inuyasha growled.

Kagome looked to Inuyasha, whose lap she was still sitting in, and then over to his sister who was being very quiet. She gasped when she noticed the claw marks on her face. Those hadn't been there earlier when they left for the hot-spring. What had happened for her to get those?

"Inukigo-chan?" Kagome questioned, drawing the attention of the distant hanyou.

"Nani, Kagome?"

"Those claw marks on your face, they weren't there earlier. Where did they come from?"

Inuyasha stiffened slightly, but Kagome didn't notice it.

"Oh, Inuyasha and I went to get firewood and something to eat after you went to the hot-spring. We ran into something. No bid deal." Inukigo replied. Sango had asked about them as well, but she hadn't told her the real reason behind them either. She didn't want them to be angry at Inuyasha for something that he had been forgiven for.

"Oh, alright then." Kagome said, turning back to the fire.

Inukigo went back to what she was thinking about before. 'So, Naraku sends his incarnations to do his work for him regularly. He really is the coward Inuyasha says he is. I can't wait 'til I run into the bastard again. I'll tear him apart with my own claws!' She then tilted her head up to the sky, where to her horror she could see the full moon even though the sun hadn't completely set. 'Shit, how did I manage to forget what tonight is in such a short amount of time? It must have been because of everything that happened.'

"Damn it." she swore quietly.

"Inukigo-chan?" Kagome asked, looking at her curiously.

Inuyasha looked at his sister, and then to where she was staring before his eyes widened in recognition. 'We must have both forgotten about it in all the excitement.'

"Do you want to leave?" Inuyasha asked, which confused Kagome even more. They had now drawn the attention of the rest of their group.

Inukigo didn't turn away from the moon, but shook her head.

"No, I'm not going to hide from them." she said quietly.

"Hide from us? What do you mean Inukigo?" Shippou asked as he jumped on her head.

Inukigo didn't answer him, just looked on as the sun completely disappeared behind the horizon.

'It's starting.'

Her breath hitched as she felt the changes in her body. Her claws and fangs shortening into normal nails and teeth. Then her eyesight dulled, and she heard Shippou's surprised shriek as her ears shifted and became human ears on the sides of her head and her hair colour changed from it's normal silvery white to deep coal black. However she felt something very different after this particular transformation. Excruciating pain.

Shippou had jumped down from her head to her lap to observe her, and grew worried when he saw her face contort with pain.

"Inukigo, what's wrong? I've seen Inuyasha transform before, and it never seemed like it hurt him."

Inukigo couldn't answer him. All that would escape her lips were either a whimper or cry of pain. She felt as though her arms would fall off and she could feel a dull throbbing in her cheek. By this time Shippou's observation and the pain filled sounds she was making had caused concern to rise up in the others.

"Inukigo, you alright?" Inuyasha asked with concern. She shook her head no and took deep breathes to try and steady herself. She was slowly adjusting to the pain in her arms, but they still hurt like hell.

"What's wrong?" Shippou asked her again, reaching up to pat her face, thankfully on her uninjured cheek. This time the frightened tone in his voice forced Inukigo to open her eyes and look into his scared ones.

"My arms hurt." she replied painfully

"But your arms weren't hurting you at all before." Kagome said worriedly.

"Her demon blood was increasing her tolerance for pain," Inuyasha explained and he watched his sister try to gather herself with sympathy, "Up until now her wounds were continually being healed so they wouldn't have hurt her as much. Now that her demon blood is dormant it's not helping her with it anymore."

"I've also never been injured and then turn human before," Inukigo added, now able to speak a little more freely, "I just went to having hardly any pain to having a lot of it as fast as you can blink. It just hit me really quickly."

"I'll go and get some pain killers for you from my pack." Kagome said, getting up from Inuyasha's lap.

"Pain killers?" Inukigo asked.

"It's medicine from her time," Inuyasha explained as he moved over to sit in front of her, "It works the same as the herbs that healers use to ease pain."

"Oh, okay."

"Does this hurt now too?" He asked quietly as he reached out to touch her injured cheek. He frowned when she winced.

"Hai, a little bit."

"I'm sorry."

"I know. You don't need to keep saying it." Inukigo said softly. Inuyasha nodded then saw Kagome coming back with a bottle of water in one hand and the two small pills in the other.

"Here," she said, holding the pills in front of Inukigo's face. When Inukigo looked at her curiously she explained, "These small pills are pain relievers. Don't chew them, I'll give you some water to help swallow them. Now open up."

Inukigo did as she was told, and took the two small pills into her mouth when Kagome gave them to her. She then accepted the mouthful of water that she was offered and swallowed the pills.

"They'll take a little while to start working, and they'll probably make you a little drowsy too."

"Arigatou, Kagome."

"Don't mention it," Kagome said with a smile, "I think I'll help Sango-chan make something for everyone to eat." she added standing up.

"You sure you should Kagome? I think you should take it easy." Inuyasha said.

"I feel ok Inuyasha. I'm just gonna help Sango-chan make some ramen. It's not something stressful anyway, I'll be fine."

"Alright then," he replied, then sat down next to Inukigo. They sat there quietly for some time, watching the others and laughing when Sango hit Miroku over the head with the pot full of water and made him go get more. It was a while before Inuyasha spoke again, "Will you be okay now?"

"Hai, the stuff Kagome gave me is starting to work, and it's not like I've never felt pain before. Why?" Inukigo replied.

"I think we should have something else with that ramen. I'm going to go and catch something to eat."

"Just 'cause I'm human doesn't mean I need you to baby sit me." Inukigo grumbled.

Inuyasha smirked.

"No, I need to baby sit you all the time," he chuckled when she tried to growl at him.

"I'm so going to hurt you later."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be back in a little bit." he said for the whole camp to hear, then took off into the trees.

Inukigo mumbled to herself for a few moments before she heard Kagome come and sit next to her. They were silent before Kagome spoke up.

"Inukigo-chan, is this the reason that you wouldn't come to the hot-spring with me and Sango-chan? Because if it is you haven't got any reason to hide it from us. We've all known about Inuyasha for a long time, we would have understood…"

"Kagome, Kagome, slow down!" Inukigo interrupted, "This being my human night has nothing to do with why I didn't go to the hot spring. I just had something I needed to do," she then lowered her head, "Although now I wish I had waited and gone to the hot spring with you. I might have been able to prevent what happened."

"Don't blame yourself Inukigo-chan. If you had come with us something worse may have ended up happening. As it is you hurt yourself trying to save me. I'm grateful. Arigatou."

"You're welcome, but you don't have to thank me. I wouldn't let anything happen to you, just the same as I wouldn't let anything happen to any of the others. You're the only friends I've ever had, I'm grateful to have all of you. Oh, and I wasn't planning on hiding my human night from you. I figured that you knew about Inuyasha's so there was nothing for me to worry about."

"We would never use this against you, you know that right?" Sango asked.

"Yes, I know." Inukigo replied.

"Inukigo-chan, can I ask you a question?" Kagome said shyly.

"Go ahead."

"Are you like Inuyasha and hate your human night?"

"Hai." Inukigo replied staring straight ahead.

"I see. So does that mean you wish to become full youkai as well?"

"Iie."

"Eh?"

"I do hate my human night, because I'm vulnerable and can't protect myself, but I do not hate what I am. I like being a hanyou, despite what that makes me." Inukigo sighed sadly as she turned to face Kagome, "As I am, people do not accept me. They look down on me, and consider me worthless. They hate me because I represent something that they feel should never have been - love between a human and a demon. I am both, but at the same time neither, so I can never fit in anywhere. I'm alright with that, I will never force myself to change because others do not like what I am."

Kagome looked at her in awe. She had never expected that answer.

"We don't think of you that way. I wish Inuyasha thought more like you. Inuyasha hates being a hanyou, and wants very much to change what he is. I told him that I like him as he is, but I don't think that he really valued my opinion."

"I'm sure he did Kagome. I wish that more people in this world had the same opinions on hanyous as you do."

"Hey, we do!" Shippou yelled, gesturing to himself, Sango, Miroku, and Kirara.

Inukigo smiled warmly at him and the others.

"Yes, I know. Arigatou."

"I assume that since you like being a hanyou that you would never consider becoming human either." Miroku stated.

"No," Inukigo replied shaking her head, "I like what I am. The youkai in me makes me powerful, but the human in me gives me a heart. Most demons have no compassion, kindness or love in them. They are bloodthirsty and power hungry, and viciously dislike humans. Because of my human side I am not like most demons and I like that. Heh, although I have been told that I am like my father, so I guess I am like some demons."

"I remember hearing stories about your father," Sango said thoughtfully, "The taiyoukai of the Western Territories, almost 70 years ago I think. Very powerful demon, very ruthless too. But he was also very compassionate, and protected the humans in his domain from lesser demons. He was respected greatly by the taijyia."

"I wish I had more memories of him," Inukigo said sadly as she looked to the sky, "All I can really remember is his scent. It always made me feel safe and protected."

"Inuyasha doesn't talk much about your mother or father." Kagome stated.

"I don't really remember our father. Inuyasha and I were very young when he died and we never did get to spend much time with him. Our mother was…beautiful. She was so wonderful. She always made us feel loved and let us know we were worth something, even when everyone around us considered us worthless, dirty half breeds. I still miss her very much." Inukigo answered turning away.

"I'm sorry." Kagome said quietly.

"It's okay," Inukigo said turning her head back to look at Kagome, "Kagome, if it's alright, I'd like to have a talk with you soon. Now is not really the best time, considering the condition that the both of us are in, but I'd like to have it as soon as possible, in a day or two maybe. Is that okay?"

"It's alright. What do you need to talk to me about?"

"It concerns Inuyasha, but I would like it to be private."

"Oh, okay," Kagome said, getting a little nervous. 'What in the world would she need to discuss with me about Inuyasha that would need to be private?'

Inukigo noticed her nervousness and moved to calm her.

"Don't worry about it," she said softly, moving to place a hand on Kagome's shoulder before she remembered that it was injured and pulled it away. "Hehe, opps," she said sheepishly, causing Kagome to giggle slightly. Inukigo smiled. 'At least she's not nervous anymore.'

"What I was going to say was, don't worry about it, it's nothing bad. It's just that some of it only you should hear, and you would probably want it to be private anyway." Inukigo explained.

"It's alright Inukigo-chan. I understand."

"Good." Inukigo said, smiling. She then got an idea. "Ne, Kagome, how would you like to hear a little about mine and Inuyasha's childhood?"

"Really?" Kagome asked.

Inukigo nearly laughed at the look of childish curiosity on Kagome's face.

"Yes really. But I think that maybe we should move out of everyone's hearing range. I'm going to have a hard time getting Inuyasha to forgive me for telling just you. I'd hate to think how angry he'd be if I told everyone."

"I see your point." Kagome said with a slight giggle. She turned around to look at Sango, Miroku, Shippou, and Kirara, who had begun to have their own discussion about Naraku and his newest detachment to tune out the two girls that seemed to be having a private conversation.

"Sango-chan, Miroku-sama, Shippou-chan, Inukigo-chan and I are going to the edge of the campsite to talk. Just far enough so that we are out of earshot okay?"

All three nodded and went back to their previous discussion, while Inukigo and Kagome managed to move to the edge of camp, out of earshot and out of sight behind a large tree. After getting settled, they began to have a conversation that had both girls in fits of laughter.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~

A short time later Inuyasha returned to camp carrying a handful of rabbits, only to see that his group was short two members, those two being his sister and Kagome.

"Ooi! Where did Inukigo and Kagome go?" He asked the others none to gently as he tossed the rabbits towards the fire.

"Inuyasha, calm down," Miroku said as he poked at the fire, preparing to roast the rabbits that Inuyasha had brought back, "Inukigo and Kagome-sama went off to have a short conversation."

"About what?"

"Not sure." Miroku replied, "They never really said."

"Why couldn't they have it here?"

"We don't know Inuyasha." Sango replied, getting irritated with the impatient hanyou, "All they said was that they were going to talk about something just out of earshot. They're probably just right there." she said, pointing to the spot where Inukigo and Kagome had entered the forest and the far side of the large clearing that their campsite was located in.

Inuyasha just huffed and plopped down in front of the fire and began poking at it angrily. 'What in the world were they thinking! Wandering off after what happened to the both of them earlier.' His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar giggling coming closer to camp. He then herd hushed whispers, but could not determine exactly what the voices were saying. His head perked up when he saw Kagome and his sister coming out of the forest and making their way across the clearing.

"What then, what then?" Kagome whispered as she giggled.

"Well, after that he…oh, hi Inuyasha." Inukigo said, catching herself when she noticed Inuyasha had returned to camp.

Inuyasha's curiosity as to the topic of their conversation was momentarily forgotten as he got up and marched over to the pair of girls.

"What the hell were the two of you thinking!" he bellowed as he stood directly in front of them. Inukigo looked unfazed, while Kagome oddly seemed to have a hard job keeping a straight face as she looked at him.

"Inuyasha, calm down." Inukigo said in a bored tone.

"No I won't calm down! The two of you went out into the forest without anyone to protect you. Inukigo, not only are you injured but you're also human as well. That youkai is still around somewhere and after what happened earlier you should have known not to go out into the forest alone!"

"Inuyasha, how far away do you think we went? I only brought Kagome far enough away so that we could have our conversation in private. If there had been any youkai anywhere near us you would have known it long before they got to us. *sigh* I need to sit down." Inukigo announced in a tired tone as she walked past him and sat down with her back leaned against a tree.

Inuyasha watched her go curiously before turning to Kagome, who was still struggling to contain laughter.

"Ooi, what do you find so funny?" he asked her as he cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing," she replied in a sweet voice that had Inuyasha thinking it had something to do with him, "I'm going to go get something to eat now." she added quickly and took off to sit next to Sango.

Inuyasha shook his head, thinking that he would never understand how women's minds worked, then decided to scold his sister some more. He walked over to her silently and crouched in front of her. She had her eyes closed and appeared to be asleep, but her breathing and heart rate told him otherwise.

"You know better to go off on your own when you can't defend yourself. You do realize how bad it could have turned out if a youkai did show up don't you?"

"Like I said before," Inukigo said, keeping her eyes closed, "We only went as far away as was necessary, which wasn't very far, and I knew that there weren't any youkai in the area because if there were you wouldn't have left camp."

Inuyasha huffed, letting his anger at her drift away.

"I still say it was a stupid decision on your part."

"To each his own opinion, I guess." Inukigo replied, disinterested. She was starting to feel groggy and didn't like it. She guessed that it must have been the medicine that Kagome had given her. 'I should have just dealt with the pain on my own. I don't want to fall asleep.' Inuyasha, who seemed oblivious to her discomfort, got up and walked away only to return a few moments later with a dish of rabbit, which he stuck directly under Inukigo's nose. She cracked open one eye to look at the food in front of her then at the face of her brother.

"Nani?"

"Open up."

"Why?"

"Why do you think? I'm giving you something to eat."

"As in feed me?"

"Keh! It's kinda obvious that you can't do it yourself."

"I don't think so. I'm not hungry." Of course at that moment her stomach decided to betray her.

"Heh, I think this disagrees with you," Inuyasha teased, poking her in the stomach with the chopsticks, "Now, open your mouth!"

Inukigo rolled her eyes and sighed, but when he did not remove the rabbit filled chopsticks from in front of her face she complied and began eating.

"That was so degrading." Inukigo pouted once she had finished.

"Oh, c'mon. It wasn't that bad. You're not hungry now are you?"

"No, but you wait until you have somebody feed you and then tell me how it feels. Damn embarrassing. Making me feel like a helpless, little child." she mumbled to herself.

"I wasn't going to let you stay hungry until your hands healed, you know that. And as for me, I'm not gonna let both of my hands get broken so I won't need anyone to feed me." He answered cockily.

"Yeah, whatever." Inukigo replied in a disinterested tone.

"Is something wrong?" Inuyasha asked concerned. She would normally have given him a better retort than that.

"No, nothing's wrong." she answered tiredly.

"Yes there is. You're not acting like yourself. Something's wrong."

"The drowsy part of that stuff Kagome gave me is started. I'm just a little tired, that's all."

"If you're tired then just go to sleep."

Inukigo gave him a half hearted glare.

"You know why I don't want to go to sleep Inuyasha."

"Yeah, because you're human right now," Inukigo didn't need to answer him so instead focused her energy on staying awake. Inuyasha watched her as she fought to keep her eyes open, "This is pointless Inukigo. You're barely awake so why don't you just go to sleep. You've got me here, along with Kagome and the others, so you don't have to worry about not being protected while you sleep."

Inukigo looked at him sceptically.

"Tell me something Inuyasha. You have the others to watch over you, but do you ever fall asleep while you're human?"

"Ahhh…well, no." he replied sheepishly.

"Then why do you expect me to?"

"You're injured, and Kagome gave you that medicine that made you sleepy. You're going to fall asleep anyway so why don't you just give in now and get some rest."

"No. I've never slept on my human night, and I'm not going to now."

"Gods, you are such a fucking stubborn bitch!" Inuyasha bit out, catching the attention of their companions that were sitting around the camp fire. He startled Inukigo by abruptly standing and then grabbing her by the waist so he could lift her away from the tree she was sitting against.

"Inuyasha! What are you doing?!" Inukigo yelled at him. She tried to fight her way out of his hold when he positioned her in his lap with her back to his chest, but her injuries and fatigue prevented her from making too much of a fuss. She realized then what he was going to do, "Inuyasha, put me down right now! Put me down!"

Inuyasha kept his hold on her as he waited for her to stop thrashing about. Seeing the distress of his friend, Shippou ran over to them with the intention of telling Inuyasha off.

"Inuyasha! Let Inukigo go! She wants you to let her go you moron!" he yelled as he ran over to the brother and sister.

Before Shippou could come to a complete stop, Inuyasha sent him a glare and snarled menacingly at the kit who froze in his tracks just a few feet in front of the angry hanyou. Even Shippou knew when to not push his luck. He didn't go any closer, but he didn't move either so Inuyasha kept up the intimidation act.

"Shippou-chan, come back over here please." Kagome said softly. Shippou didn't take his eyes off Inuyasha as he backed up slowly. Inuyasha gave a bark for good measure which sent the kit scampering back to the safety of Kagome's lap, "Inuyasha?" she asked in a concerned voice.

Inuyasha gave her a look that told her everything was fine, and she nodded in understanding. She then made an effort to get everyone's attention away from the siblings.

Inuyasha turned his attention back to Inukigo, who was still struggling slightly, but quickly wearing herself out. He decided that enough was enough and swiftly moved her hair aside so he could place a strong hold on the back of her neck with his mouth. He made sure to apply just enough pressure to get his point across, being careful not to bite hard enough to leave a mark.

The disciplinary hold did it's job, and Inukigo instantly went slack, making small whimpers of submission, or coming as close to making them as she could with her human vocal cords. Inuyasha had to fight back a smirk. 'Stare downs may be her specialty, but when it comes to submission by force there's not a thing she can do against me.' When he did not release her immediately, Inukigo's whimpers grew more distressed. Inuyasha figured that she had had enough and let go of her neck. Inukigo sighed in relief, but did not start struggling again. She was too exhausted.

"Ready to go to sleep now?" Inuyasha asked quietly.

"Just because I'm too tired to move doesn't mean I'm going to go to sleep." she answered stubbornly.

He rolled his eyes at her stubbornness.

"We'll see about that." Inuyasha replied. He wrapped his arms around her midsection, being careful to avoid her arms, pulling her to him tightly and tucked her head under his chin. He then began to growl softly, the sound being inaudible to human ears, but the vibrations from his chest could be felt through her back and they had a calming effect that caused her to relax into his embrace.

"Cheater." she ground out half heartedly.

"You remember right?" he whispered, "When we were little, and I had to do this when you were afraid to go to sleep because of the nightmares you had about ofukuro's death?"

She didn't answer him but nodded slightly.

"It was months before they stopped happening regularly, and even after that you still had them from time to time."

"Umhmm," Inukigo agreed as she turned in to him as much as she could without putting too much pressure on her arm, "I still have them now sometimes." she said quietly.

"Nani? I thought they stopped altogether a few years before we were sealed." Inuyasha said as he shifted so he could look at her. Inukigo shook her head before answering.

"No, they didn't stop. They just didn't happen very often, and I stopped running to you when they did."

"Has it happened since you've been back?"

"No." Inukigo replied, snuggling deeper into the warmth he was giving off.

"That's good," Inuyasha said. He noticed that her breathing was starting to even out and her heartbeat was slowing, telling that she was close to giving in to sleep, "Inukigo, what was it you were telling Kagome earlier that was making her laugh so much?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, I was telling her about one of the happier moments of our childhood." she answered sleepily.

"Oh, and what did that happen to be?"

"I think we were about six," Inukigo started and Inuyasha froze. No, she wouldn't have told Kagome that. She couldn't have, "You had this nudist phase going on, and declared to ofukuro that you were a big boy and didn't need to wear clothes if you didn't want to," Inuyasha just stared at her horrified. She had! "Of course you then had to run out of the hut without any clothes on, and straight into the one type of plant that we happened to be allergic to when we were little," Inukigo giggled tiredly. Her sleepiness was making her more tactless than usual so she made no effort to lie about what she had told, "You had a rash everywhere for almost a full week. I was about to tell her all the different ways you tried to scratch it but I saw that you were back at camp so I stopped talking," she looked up for a moment when Inuyasha didn't answer her and regarded his shocked look with sleepy curiosity, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Why did you tell her about that! That had to be one of the most embarrassing moments of my childhood!"

"Calm down Inuyasha," Inukigo said while yawning and snuggling into him to get comfortable, "Get mad at me later, like when I'm awake enough to fight back."

"Ooi!" Inuyasha said. He was about to get mad at her but stopped himself. Inukigo had fallen asleep. Inuyasha sighed as he looked at her sleeping face. No matter, he'd get her back later. He smirked at the thought, he wasn't the only one who had had embarrassing childhood experiences. He was brought out of his thoughts when he noticed Kagome walking over towards them. She crouched down in front of him and looked from him to Inukigo quizzically.

"Is she asleep?" she asked quietly, not wanting to wake up the hanyou turned human in case she was indeed sleeping.

"Aa," Inuyasha replied in the same quiet tone. He then remembered what Inukigo had told her earlier and began to blush slightly, "Heh, and she said she wasn't going to go to sleep."

Kagome nodded, "What was it that you did to her? One minute she was thrashing around and then you bit her and she was really calm and leaning into you."

"I didn't bite her," Inuyasha explained, "It was a hold used to discipline unruly pups or pack members. After that I just made a low growl in my chest to calm her down. It's something that inu-youkai do to give comfort. It's too low for human ears to pick up. It's not really that hard." 'Especially since I've had a lot of practice with it in the past.' he added silently. Kagome didn't need to know that about Inukigo's childhood.

"Pack members?" Kagome asked curiously, never having heard him refer to having a pack before.

"Well, yeah. She is part of my pack, my family," he stopped for a moment before deciding to continue, "Just like you and the others are part of my pack."

"Really?" Kagome asked, eyes wide. She had never even considered Inuyasha thinking of them as his family, and here he was actually admitting to it.

He didn't reply, but did nod his head, a little embarrassed by his admission. Kagome looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before asking him another question.

"So, if you thought I was being unruly, you would do that to me?"

Inuyasha's head popped up, his eyes wide and a slight blush on his cheeks.

"N-no," he answered, shaking his head.

"Why not?" she asked, confused. Hadn't he just said that she was a pack member?

"N-not supposed to," Inuyasha stuttered, turning his head away slightly, "It's reserved for direct family members and…"

"And what?"

"M-mates," he answered quietly.

It took a moment for what he said to sink in, and when it did, Kagome's face turned red with embarrassment, and she stared down at her hands. She was not a direct family member, which meant that if he did that to her, it would mean that she was his mate. 'Ahh…me and my big mouth! How embarrassing!'

"O-oh, umm yeah, well…i-it's good that she's getting some rest, after what happened," Kagome managed to get out, trying to change the subject.

"You should be getting some rest too. You were under that water longer, and you were the one that stopped breathing. You should have went to sleep as soon as it was safe for you to," Inuyasha said, the previous topic forgotten.

Kagome smiled at his poorly veiled concern, "I'm fine Inuyasha. I'm going to bed now actually. Thank you for being worried about me."

"I-It's no big deal." Inuyasha said, blushing slightly for a third time.

"Goodnight Inuyasha." Kagome said as she smiled and got up to walk away.

"Goodnight Kagome." He responded. He watched her walk away, and then looked back to his sister as he breathed a sigh of relief. He had come so close to losing them both and he vowed right there that Naraku would pay dearly for trying to bring harm to his family.