Beloved: Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the InuYasha series, only names and characters from my own imagination. The creation of InuYasha and those associated with him by either manga or anime belong to Rumiko Takahashi, VIZ Media, Shogakukan, and others who have either invested in the series of books and episodes, or in the company itself. I do not make a financial profit from writing this fan fiction. Only profit I receive is from knowing that my writing has either touched someone deeply or brought joy to someone's day.

Summary: The group slowly finds love, goes through hardships within their own relationships and friendships, and learns that the greatest thing is to love, and be loved in return.

Chapter 1:

Kagome had given him a journal. She said that it would help him if he would write his thoughts in it. She thought that he would be better if he was able to express himself in some way, even if he couldn't express himself verbally. Hopefully, she was right, right about the fact that this would help. She had understood his pain and suffering, to a certain degree of sorts. Understood that he had a lot of pain, and he needed a way to cope with it. First he had lost his father, before he could ever know him. Then while when he was young, he had lost his mother. Kagome said that this was why he treated her mother and Kaede with a type of kindness that he treated no other. And his brother refused to take him in, which in her belief was why he felt some sort of disdain for Kohaku and Souta. And finally he had lost the only woman that he thought that he had loved. So sure, he had a lot of pain. And he needed to deal with it. So, all in all, she was right. She was always right.

"Dumb wench." He mumbled.

He looked down at the leather bound writing journal. Within it, a 'pen' as she called it, said that he could use it to write his words within the book. He didn't know if it would work, because half the stuff in her time didn't work. But hell, it was worth a try. He looked down onto the camp, everyone was sleeping. Sango on one side of the fire, and Miroku on the other, while the kitsune and the neko slept curled up together. Kagome though, slept in the same place she always did, underneath the same tree that he, himself, claimed for that night. He remembered that the first time the left the village overnight, she had said that she felt safe when she was around him. She said that this was she slept so close to him. And the first time she cried for him, he slowly lowered himself closer and closer to her. Now he perched himself on the lowest possible branch that won't snap under his weight.

Once again he looked down at the book. Carefully he loosened the strap on it and unhooked the pen. Opening it to the first page, he began:

I don't know why I'm listening to this girl. I don't know why I'm writing in this book. She promises that she won't read it. She is always to be trusted. The dumb wench. For some reason I can't help but ca—

He looked down at his book. He couldn't finish his sentence. He couldn't possibly care for this girl. She was young and naive. Still to be known by a man. To feel the gentle touch of a calloused hand. He looked down at his clawed hand. How was he any different? He was still untouched himself. Slowly he closed his book, and retightened its strap and put it into his jacket. Laying back he looked up towards the sky. This is what he gave up for her. The ability to gaze at the stars. The ability to count them until he falls asleep. How he missed it. The quickening of a heart beat pulled him from his thoughts.

InuYasha looked over towards the camp. Sango and Miroku were still sleeping, as well as the young kitsune and the neko. He looked down at Kagome and was surprised to find her looking up at him. Jumping from his limb, he landed on the left side of her. Their gaze never breaking remained intense. Without a word, she lifted her hand, as though she willed him to take a hold of it. As requested, he gripped her waiting appendage and lifted her out of her sleeping bag. Within a few moments of her standing, he lifted her onto his back and ran.

He didn't know what possessed him to do this. She didn't know either. Yet, they both took great pleasure in the presence in one another. Without gazing eyes, and wondering thoughts of others. Relief. Just as quickly as the pair started running, they had finished. InuYasha stopped and gently allowed Kagome off of his back. Her hands never left his haori. As she walked around him to meet his face, she slowly caressed his robe. He felt this. He felt each fingers caress. Even though they were through his robes, he felt fire burn on his skin. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and he realized that he forgot how to breathe. Goosebumps crawled their way over his skin. When she finally finished her agonizing walk, she looked into his eyes. Blue orbs met gold. InuYasha's body took over, and before he knew it, his face slowly inched towards hers. Their lips were mere inches apart. She could feel his breath upon hers. His hands crept around her waist, to pull her closer to his own being. Her hands gripped his harms. They were so close. So close…

Their breathing became uneven, almost frantic. They needed this. They needed this closeness, they needed it more than the air they needed to breath. More than they needed to water to quench their thirst. More than they needed food to satisfy their hunger. Kagome stood on her toes, pushing herself closer to him. She could feel the tenderness of his lips. InuYasha could feel the moisture of her warm breath. They could taste each other. Just mere seconds away from…

"Kagome! InuYasha! Where are you two?" cried a worried Sango. She'd seen everything, and felt as if she had to put a stop to it, before things had gotten out of hand. When she awoke for her shift, she found that both bodies had gone missing. For a second she had thought that maybe Kagome had needed to use the restroom, and InuYasha had left with her to ensure her safety. Yet when neither friend made it back to their campsite, she decided to awake her small companion and fly off to find them. InuYasha growled to himself under his breath. How dare that human mess this up for him? He was so close. For once, both parties were to blame for this. It was not one sided this time. Usually it was one sided, or on accident. But this time, it would have been different.

InuYasha pulled away from Kagome. "Your friend is on her way," he half choked out. "Maybe we should head back." All Kagome could do was nod. Disappointment rose from deep within her. She could have sworn that they were about to take what relationship that they had to the next level. Pulling her fingers through her hair, she let go of an exasperated sigh. When was she to be allowed to have a single moment with this man? It felt like never. InuYasha pulled an arm around his unspoken beloved, and gave her a small, tender kiss on the top of her head. One day. One day real soon, they will be able to share a moment together. It was just not in the hands of the gods today.

As soon as InuYasha dropped his arm from around Kagome, and she instantly missed his warmth that it had provided to her bare arms and neck, her friend, Sango, had appeared out of the bushes. Sango looked at both of her friend with great concern. "I was worried about you. At first I had thought that you had needed to relieve yourself, and InuYasha had escorted you to a proper place. Then I had thought that Kikyo had summoned him, and you had followed. I did not know what to think. I'm just happy that you are okay."

Kagome gave an exhausted smile. "I just needed to use the restroom for a minute. You can head back to camp. It feels good out here; I'll think that I will have a walk back."

"Nonsense," her friend laughed out, "I need to use the restroom myself, you and I can walk back together, and we have Kirara." Kagome looked over towards InuYasha. Pain was in his heart, she could see it through his amber colored eyes. He knew he didn't need to be told twice, it was foolish of him to think for a second that Kagome had wanted him. With this in his mind, he took off into the trees. Tears slowly crept out of Kagome's eyes and down her cheeks. She could hear the sigh from her beloved friend, Sango, of gratitude.

Kagome tuned around swiftly and instantly frightened Sango. "How dare you?" she spit out. "How dare you not listen to me and decide to stay, and basically send InuYasha off!"

"What are you talking about?" she answered in a wary voice.

"You ruined the whole thing! InuYasha was about to kiss me! Do you know how long I have waited for that moment, and you absolutely ruined it! I told you to go! It took him three years, three, and now I bet he won't do it for another three!"

"I-I'm sorry Kagome."

"You're always sorry!"

"Kagome, you're mistaken, I would never intenti—"

"Intentionally do what? Every time I turn around, you are always fucking something UP!"

"Kagome, n-no, I-I would never—"

"LOOK, Sango, just because YOU are too afraid to fuck, does not mean I am!" Kagome turned around and screamed out, "InuYasha!" She was so mad at her supposed friend. Every time. Every damned time.

Within heartbeats, InuYasha was seen breaking through the opening of the forest. "InuYasha, take me from here, take me back to camp. Without a word, InuYasha grasped Kagome underneath her arm and hoisted her onto his back.

Before he made it to camp, he stopped to ask Kagome, "Do you want to talk about it?" Yet she stayed silent. No, she didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to talk about anything. All she had wanted to do was lay back down and go back to bed. With her silence as an answer of no, he figured he would press more on the subject later, as he continued his run.

He hadn't known what happened, all he had heard was Kagome scream his name, and fearing that perhaps, she was in trouble, decided to run to her. Why had she wanted to leave Sango behind so suddenly? By the time he came to the small, makeshift camp, Kagome had fallen asleep, and Sango was already at the camp, it looked as she had been crying, taking a smell of the air, he had decided that what he feared had been a fact. Had the demon slayer and the miko gotten into a fight?

There was no need, within InuYasha's mind, to console the young woman, because the monk was already doing so. Maybe it was wise to have Kagome sleep in the tree with him tonight. He just wouldn't sleep tonight. He was used to it by now, and with that, InuYasha jumped into the highest branch in the tree, settled Kagome in his lap, and looked up at the stars that he longed to see once again.

o.O O.o

The next day, it seemed that the camp had broken into two separate alliances. Miroku and Sango refused to look at either Kagome or InuYasha, and vice versa. When Kagome awoke, Sango had already went hunting for breakfast, and only brought back enough to feed Miroku, Kirara, Shippou and herself, while Kagome had fixed enough breakfast from her large backpack for she, InuYasha and Shippou. The poor little kitsune knew not what to do.

He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't want to find out. Even Kirara stayed out of the way of the fuming adults. Everyone quickly put away camp, and left. They were so busy not paying attention or communicating, that they left Shippou behind. If it wasn't for his nose, he would have never found his friends when they settled for lunch. Kagome left for water, and Sango left to hunt, leaving the men alone.

"This is ridiculous my friend," cried Miroku, "It's just like a woman to force us to break off our happiness with everyone else."

"Do you even know what happened between them? All I know is that I left Kagome with Sango, and she began screaming for me half way here. Once I got to them, she fucking demanded that I take her back to camp! Waste of my damn time, if I would have known that she wanted to go back, I would have taken her the first time!" fumed InuYasha.

"My friend, they are women, and for all we know, they could have gotten into an argument. When I woke up to relive myself, I found a crying Sango, and all I could get out of her was broken nonsense."

"You think Sango did something?"

"Impossible. Maybe Kagome did something!"

"Sango was the one who interrupted us monk!"

"Perhaps, you shouldn't focus yourself on deflowering the girl and focus more on helping those less fortunate than us!"

"At least I don't lie to villagers to force them to expel a demon that does not exist!"

By the time Kagome returned to camp she had found InuYasha bound by ofudas that Miroku had placed him under. InuYasha had been swearing that he was going to kill him. This angered the young girl, and she began to threaten him herself. When Sango came back, she found Kagome pointing an arrow at the man she loved, yet never committed to, and InuYasha was still under the ofudas. With one look at the monk, he had finally decided to release InuYasha. When InuYasha had been stood, he grabbed the yellow back pack and Kagome's wrist and pulled them both off into the forest.

Sango turned around to her friend, and asked him if he was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine. InuYasha had accused you of things that I knew that you would never do, so I had to defend you, even if you had done the things that he claimed, I would have defended you. Instead of focusing on making love, he needed to focus on our tasks of helping those who cannot help themselves."

Upon hearing this, she began to once again tear up. He was a good man. He walked over to her and held her closely. He didn't know if their small group was going to be okay after the last few arguments that have been happening, but he knew that their relationship would last. That's all that they had going right now, and he would be damned if he let anything happened. He looked down to the woman that he had fallen in love with over the past few years. Her head was hidden from him within his robes. His robes, they were the robes that named him as a monk. Perhaps one day he would give the up for her, when he was able to actually give her a true home. When he could stop his promiscuous ways and be faithful to her. As she deserved.

She looked up at him with questionable eyes, wondering why he had stopped rubbing her back in a reassuring manner. Her eyes were full of hurt and pain. Confusion filled her face in ways that he never wanted them to. Why had she of all people had to go through something like this? She didn't deserve it. As he looked into the orbs that seem to have an eternity of pain within them, he couldn't help but find it desirable. Perhaps if she hadn't been through all that she had, he would not find her to be the beauty that she now was. Her nose was pink from crying, as were her eyes. Her lips were swollen from being nibbled on with worry. Before she knew it, his lips were upon hers.

Sango hadn't known what to do. As she stood there frozen in what seemed like fear, Miroku prayed to the gods that she would not reject him. Not this way at least. He held her close to his body; he could feel her breasts rise and fall against his chest as she took in air. Miroku rubbed her back encouragingly with his thumbs, urging her not to leave him hanging as she had done so many times before. He nibbled on her lower lip in hopes that she would eventually relinquish herself to him. When she didn't, he started to pull away from her. Sango clutched onto him a little tighter, refusing to let him go as she finally opened herself to him. 'YES!' he thought to inwardly, 'she does want me.'

It started slow at first, their tongues idly massaging each other. Bodies pressed together not wanting to let go. She lightly gripped onto his robes, the most feminine thing that she could possibly think of doing at the time. Her hand itched to slap him across his face, but after a while, it passed. For once, he did not try to grope her with his hands, though he did so with his mouth. The tenderness and virgin kiss soon grew fire as it slowly deepened. He held onto her waist for dear life, her arms moved to the back of his neck, begging him not to move away. Even when they could no longer breathe, the kiss endured. He believed in the whole of his hearth, that she tasted of cherries and vanilla extracts. She could have sworn that his kiss quenched her deepest thirsts, like fresh spring water. She was his water nymph, beauty unending, and lips intoxicating. He wanted, no, needed more of her, and in trying to do so, began to push her towards the nearest tree. Yet before he reached his destination, he pulled away. Want burned within her, her eyes and expressions begged him to continue, but he did not. When he refused to me to her, she whimpered.

"Calm yourself, my dear Sango, we mustn't. I would be no better of a man than InuYasha, if I were to take your flower for myself. Especially when we have greater things to do."

"I-I understand," she began, "I believe within myself, that I was wrong for what I did to Kagome." Bewilderment played across the face of her unspoken love. "Please allow me to continue. I caught Kagome and InuYasha doing the same thing that we just did, well, they had yet to start, and I placed a halt to it. I stole from Kagome, what you have given me. I deserve to be punished for it, and I do not deserve for you to defend something that is wrong. Instead of barging in, and ruining her moment, that she greatly needed, I should have just turned my head from it, and came back to camp."

"Come, let us find them, my love, and let us both apologize."

"What if they do not accept it?" she asked them, "What is to become of our friendship then?"

Miroku shook his head in uncertainty. "I do not know my beloved."

So this is the end of Chapter One. This story will be filled to the brim with nice and hot lemonade and limeade. I just hate it though, when all stories just jump into everybody giving up everything all the time. Though our little kitsune will rarely be seen in this story, he is there. Currently he is just too young for my lemons, and it seems like aging the characters to he can get some, is just plain wrong, at least for this story. Now I don't know if I will continue this or not, but I will definitely do it if you guys leave good reviews, if you love it, I'll keep writing…

S/N: I found [major] errors in this story (x.x) {sorry}, and wondered why I never continued it. But I will finish. Please bear with me, for I am writing not only this story, but also Honor. I have other stories that I am working on as well, but seeing that I did not publish them, I will place them on the back burner for now and only work on these two. Thank You for being patient with me.

That's all for now. Until next time,

LRn