Authors Note: It's been quite a while since i set foot on FF, and i think it may be the last time, unless i pop in from time to time to post some bit of inspiration. anyway, i went through my inuyasha stage quiet a while ago, and even then my knowledge was choppy. so forgive any grave mistakes committed here. ^o^ also a little off about the characters, perhaps? it'll become more plausible as chapters pass. i hope.

Chapter One

It was the scent that did it. Why hadn't she thought to bathe?

She'd straightened out her hair. She'd scrubbed every thought of a stain out of the material of her skirt. She had slipped under the blankets she used to sleep before anyone, even Inuyasha, was awake.

But he knew. Staring at her, she could tell he knew.

She made an effort to be effortless, playing with Shippo, coddling him, making small talk with Sango as they packed up the camp. But his eyes followed her, narrowed, disbelieving. Can't be. Just can't be.

As they began to walk again, along a faded pathway that ran beside a thin, rocky stream that, where the light hit it, looked like braided silver wire. Scenic. Beautiful. They weren't even frantically searching for a shard; they were in that in-between place, worn out after a short tussle with Sesshoumaru, not quite sure where the next shard would be, moving for the sake of movement.

"Kagome."

"Yeah?"

She glanced at Inuyasha, so casual, easy, smiling lazily. It was overdone. It showed.

"You slept with Sesshoumaru."

Miroku stopped, glancing back with a disturbed expression on his face. Sango raised an eyebrow. It was too ridiculous to be true, just Inuyasha being an overreactive idiot. But Kagome had frozen--surely just for the shame of having such a thing insinuated, to be sure.

"W-What?"

"I smell him on you. I smell his...I smell it on you."

"You two were screaming at each other nearly all day yesterday," she blustered, pushing her voluminous hair back over her ear. "I must've been downwind. I can't beleive you'd--"

"Downwind doesn't make you reek like that!" Inuyasha said aggressively, grabbing her by the shoulders. He inhaled the scent of her hair exaggeratedly--where his fingers had threaded--glancing over her with revulsion, surely smelling him on her breasts--where he'd touched--between her legs--where he had--

"You smell like his sweat," he growled, now saying this just to throw it in her face, make sure Miroku and Sango saw, so that she would have no private shame. "And his skin, and his seed."

Kagome flinched away, he was so angry that his claws were digging into her skin, almost deep enough to draw blood.

"Please, Inuyasha--" she said quietly, but he just shook his head, disgusted, and turned to walk away, after Miroku and Sango. The woman hesitated, holding out a hand in a rare offering of comfort. Kagome shook her head, but walked close beside her, even as Inuyasha increased his speed, beyond Miroku and Shippo, until he was a tiny figure, then a dot on the horizon, then beyond what she could see.

this will all become clear soon. thanks for reading!

love,

vacancy