I was watching some Inuyasha and paused the episode for a moment, and the image of Kagome on Inuyasha's back, with her head bowed and her eyes closed, was frozen on the screen. This is the story that came out of that image.

While this story may be mine, all the characters, of course, belong to Rumiko Takahashi

For Just A Moment

Her groan vibrated against his back and in his ears, and when her forehead settled against the back of his neck he stiffened.

"Kagome?"

"Mm mm," she rocked her head against him. "I'm okay. Just tired."

He tightened his grip around her thighs and ran faster.

oooooo

Why did she have to be so careless? Why did she have to get caught by that demon? She had been too busy trying to get away from Inuyasha's and Shippou's arguing to notice the sound of the branches snapping and leaves rustling, and the next thing she new she was in darkness, with the sound of a body sliding over wet ground next to her.

She never saw the demon. Not from the moment she woke up in its lair to the moment Inuyasha and Miroku had broken through its rock-wall barrier and killed the thing. She still didn't know what it looked like. Sango's venom had evaporated it. Apparently it had still been moving when cut with Inuyasha's claws, and so the demon-slayer's poisons had to do the trick.

She just remembered feeling something slide over her body, settle at her side and press close to her. Its breath brushed over her neck, in her ear, and then its arm wove around her middle as it moved behind her and she was shaking.

"This is what you want," it said, "from him." And then it was still and silent, and all Kagome could feel was a solid body against her back and warm breath on her neck, and the dampness of the cave around them.

And she had been lured to sleep. Of all the stupid things she could have done. She hadn't even tried to break free of the ropes tying her hands and legs. She'd just laid there, with the demon wrapped around her, his breath in her ear and his words weaving a spell on her heart.

"It's him, this warmth. And this body… these words," and his voice had sounded like the hanyou's, and Kagome for a moment allowed herself to think that Inuyasha was behind her, that for just a moment he would hold her close and let his breath linger over her skin.

His cry of outrage came from the darkness, and his soothing voice inside her head faded out. The demon rasped out a hiss and she cringed, her body instinctively going deeper into the body at her back, looking for the protection from the hanyou she thought was there. But then there was light as the rocks of the cave fell, and the sunlight blinded her. The arm slipped from around her middle as she looked up and saw the body she had imagined at her back right before her, and she froze. And her heart hurt.

And then his claws, Sango's poison, and by the time she turned around there was only dust.

oooooo

The abandoned hut would have to do, Miroku said, and Kagome felt Inuyasha slow beneath her. The wind died and her hair settled around her shoulders, creating a curtain that trapped in the heat of her breath as she breathed it into Inuyasha's neck. She waited for his grip to loosen, for her legs to slide down and her feet to touch ground, but Inuyasha didn't stop. He didn't stop until he entered the hut and let a growl echo off the walls. Miroku paused at the door, and when Inuyasha looked back he stepped outside, turning to Sango to exchange a look.

The hut was musty and small, just big enough for the four of them to lay out with Kirara at their feet. There would be no room to roll over, or to stretch out. But it would do. It would heat up quickly with a fire.

Without a word Inuyasha lowered her feet to the ground, turned around to help her sit down and lean against the wall. Kagome's hand brushed over his haori.

Inuyasha froze.

"Kagome?"

She looked up, her head fuzzy and her chest still hurting from that moment of realization in the cave. She stared at her fingers woven into the front of his haori, woven in a pattern over his heart.

She shook her head, but her fingers wouldn't let go.

He dipped his head to look into her face, but she wouldn't glance up. She could see how stiff he was in the slow and measured way he shifted in his bent position.

"Kagome?"

She shook her head again. "I'm tired," was all she said, and after a moment where her heart ached all the more and Inuyasha froze completely, he settled down beside her into a crouch.

He was close, so close she could feel the arch of his warmth at her side, and she bowed her head further, hardly aware of how her forehead fell against his chest.

"What happened, Kagome?" He was angry. She could tell in his sharp tone, in the way his body shook with suppressing his urge to go and fight, to go and challenge. "Tell me."

For answer, she turned and settled her back against his chest, for a moment still caught in a half-waking state. And by the time she registered her blush and her eyes popped open, Inuyasha was already sitting on the ground, his arm by her side.

"Kagome?" and his voice was so quiet, so surprised, all the fight was washed out of him, and she shut her eyes against her tears and settled back against him.

And just for a moment she allowed herself to imagine his arm weaving around her waist, his breath whispering against her skin.