Hi, guys!

Whew…it feels like it's been forever!

This may be a weird thing to do, but I wrote a different version of Photographs. The original one was what I wrote first, and I wrote it to strictly go with the canon of the manga/anime at the time. I'll explain more after you read.

Anyway, the second version is different in terms of the part where Kagome and Inuyasha are in Kagome's room. I'm a sucker for romantic scenes, which you guys already know, and I feel like I haven't written a legit one in a while. I didn't want to post the entire fic again with only one scene that was changed, so it's kind of an excerpt with a little bit of the original content before so you guys can have some context on what's happening. It'll replace the part in the original fic that took place in Kagome's room.

Hopefully that made sense…alright, so enjoy!

Photographs—Kagome's Room

Once Inuyasha seemed distracted enough, I quickly headed to the well.

It was really late, so I quietly made my way out of the well and to the front door of my house. Just before I opened the door, I felt a hand set on my shoulder.

I jumped about ten feet in the air.

Doing my best to stifle a scream, I turned around ready to fight.

Instead, I was face-to-face with Inuyasha.

I took a breath of relief. "Oh, it's you," I said. "Thank goodness."

Inuyasha smirked. "Glad to see you're happy to see me," he replied. "But I'm ticked off that you thought you could come home right before we head out." His smirk died off. "We have to leave tomorrow, Kagome. This crap can't wait too much longer." I rolled my eyes and frowned.

"Not that you can decide what I do," I began, "but I was going to come home within the hour. I just needed to grab something from my room." Inuyasha hesitated, and I knew he was still annoyed.

"Fine," he replied. "But we're going in through your window. No sense in waking up your family if we're not staying." I nodded and we headed toward the back of the house.

I climbed on Inuyasha's back and he jumped onto the roof. The window was unlocked as usual. I never knew when Inuyasha would turn up.

Once we were safely inside my room, I went over to my closet and started looking through some of the storage boxes I kept in there.

"Aha," I said when I found what I was looking for. When I turned around to show Inuyasha, he was sitting on my bed with his eyes glued to his lap. Something about him seemed completely different than his attitude when we first got here; I was immediately filled with curiosity.

"You alright?" I asked as I peered at him. Inuyasha looked up to face me and blinked.

"Oh," he replied. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just…thinking." I smiled. "Well, it's a relief that you know how to do that," I teased. Inuyasha smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Something was off.

"Inuyasha," I ventured. "What is it that you're thinking about?" He sighed and gently took my hand so he could pull me down to sit next to him on the bed.

"Do you remember what happened the last time we were here?" he asked. I nodded. As if I could forget, I thought to myself. Inuyasha paused.

"Well, we never got to really finish that conversation," he continued. "Sota, uh, came in at a…bad time." I frowned. Sota had interrupted our near kiss, and by that time, my whole family had gotten home. Inuyasha was right: we never finished talking or, to my disappointment, that kiss.

"I know," I agreed. "Did you have something else you wanted to say about it?" Inuyasha lightly squeezed my hand.

"I just…I want you to know that I meant it," he said. He looked deeply into my eyes, and I knew he was as sincere as he could be.

"About protecting you with my life, that is," he continued. "After everything that's happened, all the battles and fear and stupid crap that we've had to deal with, my desire to protect you has been the only constant thing throughout this whole mess. At least to me it has."

By that point, my heart was steady. While it was usually racing when Inuyasha actually opened up to me, something was different this time. I wasn't afraid. I truly, wholeheartedly trusted him.

Before I could stop myself, I let go of his hands and leaned forward to hug him. Inuyasha didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around me and hold me close.

"Thank you," I murmured. "For saying that…and for everything else that you've done."

With him so near, I was surrounded by his scent. I closed my eyes as I focused on the smell of the forest. I let it carry me back to the day we met, to where I found him pinned to a tree.

It carried me back to the most important day of my life.

I was so lost in his scent that I didn't realize his arms were absent from my body. I opened my eyes and quickly tried to orient myself. Man, it was so easy to get lost in him.

Inuyasha was still looking at me intently, and despite how hard I tried to keep it still, my heart finally caught up with how close he was to me.

Inuyasha's clawed hand came up to cup my cheek, and I leaned into his calloused palm. What would make me feel uncomfortable with anyone else is what made me feel the most secure with him. Those callouses were created from protection. When he tried to protect himself, and then me, and then finally with all of our friends. A thousand memories surrounded me with that one touch.

Inuyasha's gaze turned similar to our last encounter in my bedroom, and I knew what was to come.

As he came closer, he chuckled quietly. "Here's hoping Sota doesn't walk in this time," he said. "This is so overdue…I don't want it to be ruined again."

I reached up and covered his hand with my own and smiled. "Nothing is ever ruined," I murmured. "Not with you." Inuyasha smiled back at me, and our eyes closed in unison.

The slight brush of his lips against mine set my heart ablaze. It was so gentle, so loving, that I could barely breathe.

Finally.

Inuyasha pulled away too soon, as if to make sure I was okay with this.

"Come back here," I teased lightly. "You said this was overdue. Make it count." Inuyasha laughed and met me again.

This kiss had more passion behind it, and I found myself comfortable enough to wrap my arms around his neck.

He tasted even better than he smelled, and I was nearly intoxicated by him. I was so lost in him, and I could feel that he was the same in me.

Every few seconds, I had to pull away to take a breath. Inuyasha, however, with his hanyo lungs, could go on and on without pausing to breathe. I giggled quietly at his eagerness. As soon as I would pull away, he was immediately leaning toward me to find my mouth again.

He was so close, so perfect, and this was so right that it felt as if I were falling.

Then I realized that I actually was falling.

I toppled off of the bed and would have slammed into the floor if Inuyasha hadn't moved to catch me as quickly as he had.

His arms came around me again, and he had a teasing look on his face. "Nice," he commented. I laughed as he brushed the hair from my face.

His face was full of wonder and contentment as he looked down at me. I couldn't help but smile as he came back to kiss me again.

Not even three seconds into the kiss, I heard a crack from beneath me and I remembered what I had pulled out of my closet.

"Crap," I muttered as I pulled away and picked up the canvas bag. "I hope it's not broken."

"What is that?" Inuyasha asked as he let me go.

I opened the bag and pulled out my digital camera to show him. Luckily, there were no cracks.

He took in the smooth silver of the camera curiously. "It's a camera," I said as I grabbed some extra batteries. "What does it do?" Inuyasha asked.

"It takes pictures," I explained. "You know how people paint pictures in the Feudal Era? This camera does that automatically without any ink or paint." I wasn't sure if it was the aftermath of our nearly full-blown make-out session or true curiosity, but Inuyasha peered at the camera.

"Do you want to try it?" I asked. Inuyasha couldn't help himself; he nodded.

"Okay," I replied. "But we should do it outside because it makes a clicking noise when it takes a picture."

We climbed back out on the roof, and I poised the camera to take a picture of Inuyasha.

"Smile!" I said as I took a picture of him before he had time to protest. "Hey!" Inuyasha argued.

I pulled up the picture of him on the small screen of the camera. I immediately started giggling.

Inuyasha's face was pulled down in a frown and his arms were crossed. "Look," I said as I showed him. Inuyasha's frown deepened. "Huh," he said. I giggled and climbed on his back.

"You think you'd be happier now," I teased. Inuyasha scoffed, but I heard the humor behind it. "Don't get too full of yourself, woman," he retorted. "You're just as pleased by that as I am." I leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

"You've got me there," I admitted. "Now let's get back to Kaede's house. I want to show everyone else the camera." Inuyasha jumped down without another word and we made our way to the well.

I hope that now you guys understand what I meant about it not being canon. Obviously this wouldn't have happened in the manga/anime. Almost all of my fics take place post-canon, so the few that take place during the saga are always completely plausible ones. Like, the stories could have happened and they wouldn't have disrupted the events or ending of the manga. The first version of this fic is like that, but this one isn't.

This was a pretty convoluted A/N but I think you guys should get the idea now!

Much love. :)