Author's Note: Dec 17/18

Hey guys, i saw this sitting in my files and thought I'd share it. It started out as me thinking about how Kouga felt the first time he encountered Kagome (it's initially written from the perspective of my Wind & Snow Kouga, but could probably go off into it's own story if it wanted too).

Here's the first part of it. I'll post the next part tomorrow, i'm way too tired tonight, lol :)

Thanks for reading and/or reviewing!

~ lady p.


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-ooOooOooOoo-

"Kouga! Are you alright?"

"His skin is changing color. The poison from the counterfeit shard is spreading."

"What should we do? We've gotta act fast or he'll die."

"You can't touch him. The barrier around his arm is so strong that it deflected your hand."

"We have to do something, fast!"The anxiety and terror turns the miko's scent sour.

Surely he's hallucinating, delirious from the poison. What else can explain Kagome's scent so full of fear, fear for him, even though he'd tried to kill the stupid mutt?

"Let me be, Kagome," A shockwave of pain suddenly spreads through his body. Grunting, Kouga bites back on his molars, clenching his jaw, not wanting to cry out in front of Kagome any more than he has been. Like some kind of fucking weakling.

"I tried to murder . . . InuYasha," barely able to push out the last few words, but needing to know before he dies why she would do this. Why try and save him? After everything he's done, why fight and defend him as fiercely as she had done with the kit that day on the mountain? The day that had shattered Kouga's expectations of everything he had ever planned for his life.

"It wasn't your fault! Naraku tricked you, Kouga!" her voice rings loud and clear like a soul deep howl reverberating in the chasms of his soul; Kagome's ready forgiveness and concern for his wellbeing, a soothing balm to the jagged pieces of his broken world.

Heavy footsteps get steadily closer.

"It seems we were both deceived by Naraku's scheme. If you can hang onto life, there is a way to save you."

He isn't surprised by the half-demon's suggestion of hacking off his arm, Kouga can feel the dark taint of the fake jewel seeping into his blood, killing him slowly, painfully, from the inside out. And all because he hadn't listened to Kagome when she'd told him, screamed at him, begged him to hear her, to believe her! And what had he done? Like an arrogant whelp that had rutted for the first time and suddenly thinks he knows everything there is to know about females, he'd scoffed at her – scoffed at her! And told her to shut up!

Kouga moans. The cold night winds blow over his half broken body, teasing the flesh open at the gash in his arm as the voices around him fade in and out.

"No! There has to be another way! Don't just hack the guy's arm off!"

Voices debate his life as it slowly seeps from him, but he deserves this, doesn't he? Kagome's words give him the strength to hold onto consciousness, even as the dusty shadows of bat wings flap over his vision, obscuring almost everything from his dimming gaze except her; lustrous dark raven hair that looks almost blue under the light of the partial moon. Her wide soulful eyes drive deep into Kouga's heart, wrapping around him, consuming him, saving him . . . again.

"But, Kagome, isn't the sacred arrow able to break the barrier?"

Someone give that kitsune a chest of fucking gold for his brilliant fucking observations! And if he somehow manages to get out of this with both arms intact, by the kami of fortunes, Kouga's gonna drop that fucking gold, or whatever the hell else he wants, in the little kit's lap himself!

Kouga's heart hammers like a jack rabbit when Kagome raises the arrow above his wounded arm. The glow of power that begins to burn white at the tip is both mesmerizing and terrifying. Then again . . . maybe this isn't a good idea. The arrow descends and the glow of power intensifies, Kouga grunts, squeezing his eyes shut as a strange crackling sensation tears through him, a feeling of being burned from the inside out.

He can see the power behind his eyelids, burning through his retinas, but Kouga refuses to cry out. This… this is it. Damn it, if he's going to die, better it be by her hands than anyone else's!

The flash of light growing behind his eyes grows overwhelmingly and exceedingly bright, and suddenly Kouga's flying – soaring – through images of his life like he's running through his territory, fueled with the power of the sacred jewels. Visions of forests and streams, hunts, and sexual exploits stream by in a blur. Chestnut colored eyes tremble with fear, flashing at him through the cacophony of images like lightning flashing across a dark sky. Faster and brighter the sounds and images churn and swirl, rushing past, until everything begins to mesh into an incomprehensible collage of impossible colors and overwhelming sensations that supernova at the back of Kouga's mind, obliterating light and consciousness from his world, before everything goes blissfully, and utterly, black.