Summary: Kagome possesses a mystical locket she's had since birth, but is stumped to find a half demon in pursuit of it. Try as she might, she cannot find his purpose for desiring the necklace or why he keeps returning even after rejection. Even after discovering he no longer requires her locket, he keeps returning . . . but for her? Or a hidden motive?

Ok, first things first. This story was as hard as crap to write. I am not even kidding. I wrote six entire chapters of the story, and then scrapped them because I didn't like it, and started over again from scratch. It was HARD. I've never had so much trouble with a story. And it's even shorter than my other stories! Geez. Anyway . . .

I'm not going to explain anything. I'm just going to let you guys read and see what you think so far. Don't ask me things like, "Will Kikyo be in this? Will Shippo be in this? Will the fucking Pope be in this?" Because I'm not gonna give ANYTHING away about this one. :P So just READ.

The only thing I will reveal is that pretty much all of this story except maybe once or twice, is in Inuyasha's Point of View. Too bad, so sad.

Chapter one

Why? Why did it come to this? Where did I go wrong? My grip on the wood of the well tightened, until my claws were biting painfully into the board. I felt my teeth grind together in frustration.

"Remember your promise." I ground out from behind clenched teeth.

There was a low chuckle. "I haven't forgotten, hanyou. Bring what I desire back to me and I will fulfill my end of the bargain."

I glanced over my shoulder, seeing Naraku was indeed standing there, a smirk on his face. I felt overwhelming hatred flow through me. "Remember Naraku . . . if you don't keep your promise, I won't hesitate to kill you."

"A threat I take all too seriously." he replied smoothly.

I growled. "Are you mocking me?"

"I wouldn't dare. I do not make a mockery of you, Inuyasha. I am simply informing you that I do believe, for all intensive purposes, if I fail to keep my promise, you will kill me." Naraku replied, and though the smirk on his face remained, his voice was inscrutable, and ever so pleasant. I couldn't tell if he was mocking me or not, but something gave me a feeling that he was.

I turned back toward the well. "Where do I go?"

"I'm glad to see your compliance." Naraku commented. "The Bone Eater's well will take you to the future, Inuyasha. Once there, you must find a girl. She will have what you seek."
"A girl? That's the vague lead you're giving me?"

"Impatience does not become you, Inuyasha. Allow me to finish. She is a human girl, and I am under the impression you will have no trouble locating her, none at all. This very well should take you close to her, if my visions are correct."

"All right. Does she have a name?"

Naraku smiled. "Kagome."

"Hmph. Well her name makes no difference to me anyway." I climbed up onto the edge of the well, and I was about to jump down, but Naraku's voice stopped me.

"Oh, and Inuyasha?"

"What?"

"When you find Kagome, and you find what you seek . . . kill her."

I whipped my head around to look at him, fury in my eyes. "What! You didn't say anything about killing her!"

"Do it, Inuyasha, or you will suffer the consequences." I was about to snarl at him, when he raised his eyebrows. "You know what I mean. You will bring back what I desire, and you will kill that girl. Am I clear?"

I felt my fists clench, shaking with anger. But there was nothing I could say. Nothing I could do. I had to take these orders, and I had to kill this girl. I didn't want to. But I had to. ". . . Crystal clear." I spat, and jumped through the well.

"Ugh . . . I think I'm gonna be sick . . ." I swayed slightly, putting a clawed hand to my head. I had finished passing through the well, and instead of clear, starry skies above me when I looked up, it was a wooden ceiling. I was definitely in a different place than before. I could hear strange, loud noises from outside, and I could hear people's voices, even though it was nighttime.

I crouched and leapt out of the well, and when I landed, I looked around, seeing I was inside what looked to be an old shrine. I walked up the wooden steps and to the doors, seeing they were sealed with spirit sutras. I reached forward cautiously and peeled one off, and when it didn't hurt me, I tossed it aside and slid the doors open easily.

Once outside, I looked around carefully, examining my surroundings. I looked straight ahead, and across from me was the Goshinboku, the sacred tree, the same as in my world. I looked to my right, seeing a series of stone steps leading down to some streets that were covered with a strange stone substance that was black, and had yellow markings all along it. There were large, metal boxes on rubber wheels moving swiftly across it, and for some reason, my legs twitched, and I had the overwhelming urge to chase one of them. My eyes followed the movement of one small red box on wheels, before I shook my head, wondering what in the world had come over me. "This world is weird." I muttered, and turned around.

There was a house behind me, but it was by far the strangest house I'd ever seen. The house was a yellowish white color, and it was rather large. Far larger than any huts I'd ever seen. I saw on the second floor, there was a window, and I could see through the glass. I saw a girl standing there, running a comb through long, wavy black hair, her back turned to me. Is that her? But . . . how do I get inside? I don't know what's inside that house or who. She could be a princess. And she could have body guards. It's best if I just hide for now and wait until she's alone It would be best to just observe her from a distance until I can see who's guarding her and who isn't. I thought, and ran over to the Goshinboku, jumping up into the branches and hiding within the leaves. I rested back against a branch, and the waiting began.

I watched the girl throughout the night, and she didn't really do anything of interest. After she finished combing her hair she sat down at a desk and began to write with a strange utensil, turning through the pages of a rather large, thick book. Occasionally she would sigh or tap the pencil against her forehead, or mutter something about "Algebra". I couldn't really see into her room that well, but the furniture she had was also weird. The bed was swathed in pink, and the rest of the room seemed to follow the theme of pink as well.

This might not even be the right girl. I need some kind of confirmation that it's her. Otherwise, I'm wasting my time. I thought. As if answering my prayers, the girl stood up and faced the window for a brief moment, and my eyes drifted down, and then widened. There, between her breasts, hung a golden locket. It was heart-shaped, and embedded into it was a smaller red heart made of garnet, outlined by the gold.

That's got to be her! So . . . this is the girl I have to kill. Hmph. Well, if I make it quick and painless I'll feel a lot less guilty about it later. Now I just have to wait for the perfect opportunity. Naraku said that her name was 'Kagome' . . . I mused, watching carefully as she stepped closer to the window. When she did so, I got a good look at her face.

I nearly fell out of the tree. "Kikyo!" I sputtered out loud. But I took a closer look. No, it wasn't Kikyo. Definitely wasn't Kikyo.

But . . . the resemblance was very close. But there were differences, definite differences. Kagome's face was a lot more gentle, and less sharp. And her eyes were large and rounded, instead of guarded and narrow, and her eyes were deep blue, not brown. Her hair was wavy and black, instead of straight, and her body was less slender and more curvaceous.

Naraku conveniently failed to mention that this girl is the spitting image of Kikyo. I thought furiously. He planned this! He must have known what Kagome looks like, so he knows what it will do to me to have to kill her! That bastard! My claws dug into the bark of the tree, before I relaxed them. I didn't want to slice down the branch and land on my ass. The last thing I needed was to be discovered right now. Or to be on my ass, for that matter.

It's been fifty years, though . . . Naraku made Kikyo and me believe that we had betrayed one another . . . that is, until I sought him out, and learned the truth . . . But Kikyo never did. She died, never knowing the truth. And now, she's . . . I stopped my thought process there, because it would only lead to pain that I didn't want to deal with right now. I had finally learned to let go, and at least try to move on, but . . . thinking about it wasn't going to help.

"I know you're there!" Kagome suddenly said, and my keen ears could pick up her voice from here. I tensed, wondering how in the world she knew.

"You can just stop watching me already! It's creeping me out!" She declared, and I readied to crouch and spring at her if need be, but she suddenly turned around, her hands on her hips, and said, "Sota! If you're going to play a prank on me, next time you might want to be a little bit quieter!"

A little boy, obviously Kagome's little brother, with black hair and brown eyes, appeared, laughing. "I thought I'd be able to get you with the water balloon this time for sure. You looked really concentrated on your studies, but . . . oh well."

"No. I've given up on those. Algebra just isn't making sense to me right now. I'll have to ask Eri to help me out tomorrow. And Miroku can probably give me some tips." Kagome added.

'Sota' cocked his head curiously at Kagome. "What are you thinking about, sis? You seem kind of sad."

"No, I'm fine." She waved her hand dismissively, and looked out the window once more, in my direction. I was sweating, because I was afraid she would see me. She was looking right at me, and I knew the branches concealed me to a certain degree, but if she kept looking so intently, she was going to see me, sticking out like a sore thumb in my bright red kimono. "I'm just thinking about some-" She suddenly cut off, and her eyes widened as she slid open her window, her eyes widening at me.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit- I backed as far into the tree as I could muster, and I was really sweating now. She could definitely see me. Oh shit.

"What is it Kagome?" Sota moved to the window to see what she was gawking at.

Kagome's eyes finally returned to their normal size, and she shook her head. "It's nothing. I just thought I . . . I thought I saw something."
"What kind of something?" Sota persisted.

"The kind of something that's going to eat you if you don't get out of my room and go to bed." Kagome chided, giving him a push toward the door. "Good-night, Sota."

He pouted at her. "Fine. Good-night sis." He closed the door after him.

I let out a sigh of relief when Kagome slid her window closed, and a minute later, the light in her room clicked off. I guess she just thinks she imagined it. Well, that'll buy me some time. But I'm going to have to find a better hiding place. She'll probably be suspicious from now on. So, I've learned this. She has a little brother. From the strange way both of them are dressed, they definitely don't seem like royalty. And it doesn't seem like they have any servants, so I think I can rule out guards. So I've just got to sniff out the remainder of the humans in the house and learn when they leave and when they don't. Then I can eliminate Kagome. This thought bothered me, for three factors. One, she was a human. Two, she was an innocent girl. And three, she looked almost exactly like Kikyo. It was going to be a hard test for me. I wondered if I would pass?

I learned the next day Kagome also lived with her mother and her grandfather. During the day, her grandfather bustled about cleaning the shrine and fixing up this and that, and he was the one responsible for placing the spirit sutras onto everything. I smacked myself in the forehead when he noticed a few of his spirit sutras had been removed, and the doors leading to the Bone Eater's well were open. He was suspicious for a moment, before he replaced the sutras and slid the door closed, seeming to dismiss it.

Kagome's mother, on the other hand, busied herself with cleaning and cooking. When the smells of her cooking wafted through the air and to my sensitive nose, my stomach growled, and I sighed. I was going to have to do something about that. But what? I was in a strange world where people dressed in bizarre manners, but to them, I would probably look even more bizarre. I was at an impasse. How to get food?

I could hunt for it. But then I'd have to eat it raw, and I only did that in the worst case scenarios. I was half dog demon after all, so it wasn't like my body wasn't built to take in that sort of stuff, but I still didn't prefer it. I swore I wouldn't resort to that unless necessary.

Kagome herself, along with her brother, left the house for what I overheard was called 'school'. I had no idea what this 'school' was, but if both Kagome and her brother were going, I was going to check it out and see what it was.

Following Kagome through her world was a task in itself. There were so many things going on in her village, and it was so massive. There were huge, box shaped buildings everywhere with thousands of windows, not to mention the fast, metal boxes that were zooming around everywhere. People walked up and down the streets, talking and laughing, and my head was whirling from all the scents in the air. I could barely follow Kagome by her scent, which, I'd memorized, was that of a sweet citrus. It permeated the air, and I was able to track it because it was one of the only scents that wasn't foul to my nose, but actually pretty pleasant.

Kagome's 'school' was another large building that nothing but kids and teenagers were entering. All the girls wore the same outfit, a short green skirt, white socks, and a strange white shirt, and all of the males also wore the same outfit, which was a black shirt and black pants. So in a crowd full of girls, I was not only overwhelmed by all the sweet scents, but also all the outfits. It was hard to track Kagome through the crowd, darting through the trees, but I managed. I didn't enter the building, however, because it was far too large and there was no way for me to hide.

Naraku had also failed to mention that there were no demons in this world. There wasn't a single one. I couldn't sniff out any, so I knew it wasn't going to be a good idea to walk out in broad daylight with my claws, fangs, and dog ears. I wasn't ashamed of them, but at the same time, I had no idea how the people of this world would react to my appearance.

And plus, I needed to stay hidden. My clothes compared to their clothes were completely opposite, and somehow, Kagome would notice me. So I had to stick to the trees and to the shadows.

I wasn't aware of how long I sat there, in the trees, once Kagome had gone outside. My hunger grew, and as my hunger grew, my patience wore thin. And as my patience wore thin, so did my mood. I was ticked, hungry, and bored out of my mind, waiting in this tree. It was growing later and later in the afternoon, and I glanced up at the sky, to see what time it was.

It was around three in the afternoon, and I was about to say fuck it, but a loud, shrill bell pierced the air, and I clamped my hands over my ears until the noise was over. My ears were still ringing, and throbbing a bit from the loud noise, and I grumbled and cursed under my breath as kids filed out from the building like a big herd of sheep. I scoped out for Kagome, and when I spotted her, I stretched, and began to follow her as she trekked her way home.

And, just like that, the day was over. Kagome returned home to her mother and grandfather, and her brother Sota also returned. It was a simple as that. She spent the day at 'school', while the rest of them spent their time doing other meaningless things. This was going to be a lot easier than I'd initially suspected.

Simple enough. I'll just grab her when she leaves for this 'school' tomorrow, and I'll make it quick. I'll have that locket and then I can leave. Easy enough. I thought, and grinned to myself.

Unfortunately, my hunger also continued to grow into the night, and I grumbled along with my stomach. The scents that were wafting up from the house were enticing, and my mouth watered, and my stomach pleaded. I ignored it, knowing I could wait another day. I would kill Kagome, get that damned locket, and return to my own time and give Naraku what he wanted, so I could have what I wanted. And then I could go find something decent to eat. I was a half demon. I could go a lot longer without eating than any human could. But the problem was that I was usually a lot hungrier than humans, despite the fact I could survive a lot longer without food.

"Hmph. I'm not a baby. I'll tough this out, no problem." I muttered. I had been through a lot worse case scenarios than this. My childhood was a prime example of that.

"Ahh . . . that was wonderful." Kagome walked into her room, clicked on the light, and sighed contentedly as she put a hand to her stomach. "Nothing like mom's cooking."

"That's right. Rub it in my face, bitch." I muttered.

Almost as if she heard me, Kagome looked to her window, and once again, she was looking right at me, in the Goshinboku tree, and I got the feeling she could see me. I became even more wary as she closed the door to her room, locked it, and then went to grab a tall, thick wooden stick with a curved end covered in a black material. She held the stick up defensively, slid open her window, and very carefully, she climbed up onto her window sill, and then set foot on the roof, and moved as close to the tree as she could get. I knew now, for a fact, that she had seen me, and there was no sense in hiding.

"All right. Come out. I can see you. You stick out like a sore thumb. Next time you want to spy on someone, you might not want to wear bright red." she said.

"Hmph." I stood up and walked nimbly along the thin branch, until I was out in the open, where she could see me. When she could see me fully, her eyes widened, and the smell of her fear vanished. She wasn't scared of me? I felt a rush of confusion. All humans were scared of me. They always had been.

"Are those dog ears?" She asked, looking curious more than anything else. "Are they real?"

"Huh?" That wasn't the first question I had been expecting. I felt a rush of annoyance. I wanted her to be intimidated by me, not find me something to gawk at in fascination.

"They're cute!" She cooed, and I felt a traitorous blush spread across my face. I looked away from her, and I was highly annoyed now. She thought they were cute? No one had ever found my ears cute. People had often made fun of my ears, or yanked on them to bully me. No one had ever liked them. It was . . . different.

"What are you babblin' on about, anyway?" I demanded, irritated.

"So, are you going to tell me why you've been spying on me?" she demanded, and she seemed like she was back to business, as she held the wooden weapon out threateningly toward me.

I snorted. "If I was goin' to tell you, why would I spy on you? It's called spying for a reason."

She blushed a little at that. "Hmph! Well, aren't you rude? Obviously you want something, or you wouldn't be spying on me."

That was true too. "I don't have time to play games with you, you stupid human." I snapped. "Now, that locket of yours . . . you're going to hand it over."

"What? My locket?" she looked down at said locket in surprise. "You can't be serious! I'm not handing this over! It's mine!"

"You can either give it to me willingly, or I'm gonna take it by force." I threatened, and I lifted my hand, flexing my claws, making sure she could see how long and sharp they were. I saw her eyes widen a little, and I could now smell a hint of fear. Good. She needed to be scared.

"Then you're going to have to take it by force. Because it's my locket, and I won't give it to you." she said boldly, and her body tensed. I had to give the little brat credit for having the balls to stand up to me.

"I'm gonna give you one more chance. I don't like to hurt girls. Give me the locket. Now." I ordered, taking another step in her direction. She tensed further. On the one hand, I was ordered to kill her anyway. I knew I was going to have to. But if she gave me the locket willingly, she would never see it coming. It would be a whole lot more peaceful for her. I could kill her quickly and get it over with. But if she resisted, she would know she was going to die. And it was an awful thing, to die in fear. I suppose it was sort of a kind gesture on my part. I didn't want her to die terrified.

"There's no way! If you take one more step closer I'll hurt you!" she warned, holding out the stick, but it shook slightly in her grip.

I laughed softly, and when I calmed, I bared my fangs at her and took another step in her direction. "Who do you think you're dealing with, girl? I can tear you to shreds with my claws, and trust me, I won't have any second thoughts about it."

"You're a monster." she said, and I smirked at her.

"You talk awful big for such a measly human." Suddenly I jumped in front of her, and I smacked the wooden stick from her hands before she could react. She gasped as I grabbed her shoulders and slammed her back against the wall of the house. I could hear her heart pounding, and the smell of her fear was now intense, though she was trying hard not to show it.

"I'll be taking this now." I reached forward, to take the locket, but I was caught off guard when she twisted in her grip, and her knee came to slam up into my groin. Pain exploded through me, and I went down to my knees with a grunt, my grip loosening on her.

Kagome ran over and snatched up the wooden stick, and when I whirled around to face her, she hit me right across the face with it. I let out a cry of pain as stars exploded before my vision, and before I could stop myself, I went rolling across the roof and I hit the ground below hard. My entire body was fine from the impact from the fall, but my head was aching dully. I growled and put a hand to my head, and I was pissed now. That little brat honestly had to nerve to hit me like that . . .

"I told you I would hurt you! I'm not helpless!" she yelled at me from above.

With a snarl, I rolled to my feet and leapt onto the roof easily in one bound, and as she pulled the stick back to hit me with it again, I met it in midair with my claws, easily slicing the black end of the stick off. Kagome stared at the end of it in horror, and she only had a split second to register what I had done before I seized her by her collar and slammed her back up against the house for good measure. She struggled in my grip, and managed to wriggle around in my arms, so she was facing the house.

"Stupid . . . bitch!" I ground out, and I grabbed her hands, and slammed them up against the house.

"That blow with my hockey stick should have knocked you out! It would have, any normal human. What are you?" she demanded.

"Not a human. We'll leave it at that." I snapped, and used one of my hands to hold both of her wrists together. My other hand reached around, searching for the locket. Instead of finding the locket right away, though, my hand cupped something very soft, very pliable, and very round.

"Ahn!" A strange, cute sound escaped Kagome's lips, and I felt a flush go over my own face, and a strange, unfamiliar pang of desire down below. Growling, I quickly released her breast and found the locket, and yanked sharply on it, breaking the chain from her neck.

I backed up away from her once I had the locket in my grip, and she whirled around to face me, and her face was bright red. I could smell a faint hint of what I suspected to be arousal, and I pretended I didn't notice it, and that it wasn't a sweet, addictive scent. "Hentai!" Kagome shrieked at me, and came at me with her fists, obviously enraged.

"It was an accident!" I said defensively, and fended her off with some difficultly, as she was trying to hit me and kick me in the groin at the same time.

"Liar! I knew there was some other reason why you were spying on me, you peeping tom!" she managed to free one of her fists and hit me squarely in the chest, and while it didn't hurt, her words annoyed me.

"I wasn't spying on you for you! Don't flatter yourself, stupid!" I snapped. "I got no interest in you! I just need this locket!" And now that I have it . . . I have to kill her. I may as well do it now. I thought, and I really didn't want to kill her. She was a human. She was innocent. And it wasn't fair to her. Not that I would ever admit anything like that, but it was true. I didn't like killing humans. Seeing as how my other half was human.

"Oh, is that so?" She glared at me, obviously insulted. "Well if you have that locket, aren't you going to take off now? You've got what you want."

I felt my expression become grim. I tucked the locket safely into the folds of my shirt, before I turned my gaze back to her. I didn't move from the roof, and after a moment, realization came over Kagome's features.

"You're going to . . . kill me?" she whispered. "But why?"

"Orders." I muttered. "Listen, don't struggle. I can make it quick. I don't want to draw it out anymore than you do."

"Like hell I won't struggle! But I thought if you got the locket you would leave me alone! You acted like you wouldn't hurt me if you got it!" Kagome clenched her fists angrily, and I could smell fear and distress mixed in with the anger.

And then, for the first time in my life, I felt guilty. Looking at her, a young innocent human girl, and knowing I was going to take her life, made me feel horrible. I didn't want to take her life. It was not only ending her life, but to me, it looked like I was ending Kikyo's life as well, because Kikyo so resembled this Kagome girl.

"Damn you Naraku." I whispered, and I stepped forward, and took Kagome's wrist. She began to struggle, but I said, "Look! Do you want this to be quick and painless or not? I don't want to do this anymore than you want me to." I admitted. "So can you just not be complicated about it?"

And then, the thing I feared most, happened. Those big, bright blue eyes suddenly became very, very shiny, and very, very watery. My eyes widened.

"What . . . what are you doing?" I demanded. "Are you crying!"
"Well, what do you expect me to do? Some dog boy shows up at my house, spies on me, takes my locket that I've had ever since I was a child, gropes me, and then says he's going to kill me! Am I supposed to laugh?" she demanded, as tears began to spill over.

I would not, and could not, deal with a woman's tears. I'd only ever had to deal with them once, from my mother, when the humans had called me a "halfbreed". But this girl? This girl who so resembled Kikyo? Whose scent was enticing? I was shocked by the desire within me to comfort her, and make those tears go away. I didn't know how to deal with tears. I just couldn't. They tore me up.

"Look, just . . . just stop cryin', all right?" I requested frantically. "It's not that bad . . . I mean, you've lived what? Eighteen years?"

"Fifteen." She sniffled, and that seemed to make her more upset. I hastened to explain.

"Look, in my era, there are thousands of people who live less than that! So, you had fifteen years, right? So quit blubberin'! It could be worse!" I felt my ears lower guiltily as she smacked my hand off her wrist and put her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking.

"But I don't want to die." she sobbed. "I didn't do anything wrong."

"I . . ." I felt completely helpless in that moment, and I truly felt like a monster. This wasn't fair. I hated Naraku so much in that moment, that if he had been in front of me, I would have killed him on the spot, promise or not.

I stood there in awkward silence for a few more moments as Kagome composed herself, scrubbing her tears away. "Listen," She started, and her voice was shaky, "before you . . . do it, can I just . . . can I have one thing?"

"What is it?" I asked, more than a little suspicious of her request.

"Can I . . ." she swallowed, and she was nervous. I could tell that without having to smell. "Can I hug you?"

I was stumped. It was such a strange request, and as to why she wanted it was beyond me. And why did she want to hug me? Where did she get off on that? I was a half demon. I was appalling to humans, all humans. Even Kikyo had been wary of me initially, and even at other points in our relationship. So what was different about this girl? Why did she want me to hug her? Of all the last requests . . . it was by far that last one I'd been expecting.

"Hug you?" I demanded. "Are you crazy? What the hell kind of last request is that? Who said I wanted to hug you?" In truth, I was frustrated. I didn't understand why she wanted to hug the scary half demon, and I didn't understand why my body didn't seem to have a problem with hugging her at all. But I did. I didn't want to hug her. It was . . . it was weird.

"I don't care if you want to or not!" Kagome stamped her foot. "You're going to kill me anyway! So if you just give me what I want then you can kill me and I can't bother you anymore!"

I glared at her. "Feh! You're the weirdest human I've ever met." I muttered.

"So, can I?" she persisted.

"I . . ." I felt a blush spread across my face, and I avoided looking at her out of embarrassment. I wasn't used to this. There had never been a woman in this world who had wanted to be close to me, except for Kikyo. But like I said before, she hadn't been too keen on it all the time. Kikyo wasn't a physical being. She was a spiritual one. So physical intimacy wasn't her thing so much as it was mine. I had wanted to be more physically intimate (and no, I don't necessarily mean laying with her) but . . . Kikyo had set boundaries. She had kept me at arm's length. I'd only kissed her once.

"I . . . I guess." I finally relented, and she stepped forward, and slipped her arms around my waist, and her head rested on my shoulder. I was tense, and my arms hung limply at my sides. I wasn't sure what I wanted. I didn't know whether I wanted to hug her back or not. It was so intimate, hugging someone like this. I hadn't ever been hugged like this before by a woman outside of my mother.

Kagome's body was soft, and she was so warm. Her fragrance, like a sweet citrus, wafted all around me, invading my senses, and my own body heated up in response to hers, and not just with a blush. I felt the foreign pangs of desire, feeling her curves pressing into my body, and her hair tickled my neck as we stood there.

"You don't have to be a limp fish you know." she said softly. "You can hug me back. I won't call you a pervert. I promise."

It was so trivial, so childish. And yet . . . my arms slowly lifted, and I wrapped them around her back, and held her closer to me. I felt my heart soften, against my will, and slowly, my cheek rested against her hair. She fit in my arms like a puzzle piece.

"Why did you . . . want to hug me?" I finally asked. I couldn't resist. Before I ended her life, I had to know. I had to know why this girl was different.

"Well I've . . . I've never been with a boy before. Never even hugged one. And if . . . if I'm going to die . . . I don't want to die never having anything." Kagome whispered.

I didn't really understand it. Before I had met Kikyo, if I had died without falling in love, I was fine with that. I wanted to die in battle, die fighting. Love had never even occurred to me. It had never been an option, and love had been the last thing on my list. But . . . I had fallen for Kikyo, and she for me. So the fact that Kagome expressed this desire showed how she differed from me in that aspect.

But I didn't have regrets when it came to love. I had done all I could for Kikyo, and I had still lost her. Looking back on it, there was no way I could have saved her. Kikyo had been doomed the minute we met. I had sworn, after Kikyo died, I would never love another. And I still held to that.

I suppose, in a way, I could comprehend it. Kagome was a woman, after all. Women had more desires about love than men. And she was young. It was only natural she wanted to have experiences with a man.

Even though it wasn't me specifically she was after, but a man to hold her, it still touched something inside of me, that she wasn't appalled by me. My heart felt strange. I had to kill this girl now. I couldn't linger here any longer. I wasn't sure how long Naraku was willing to wait for my return.

I pushed her back, and she let out a sound of surprise as I shoved her back. She stumbled, and landed on her butt, and looked up at me with wide eyes. "Are you ready?" I asked gruffly, and lifted my hand, my claws at the ready.

Her eyes began to water again, but then she nodded shakily, and closed her eyes, tensing. I watched her for a moment, my gut wrenching, and I reared my claw back to strike.

"Stop right there!"

I looked up, and I had just enough time to register Kagome's grandfather, before he threw a spirit sutra in my direction, and it landed on my chest. I snarled, and I reached up to pull it off, but the old man began to chant, and I howled in agony as bolts of energy and heat seared through my body. A few seconds later, the world began to spin, and I fell unconscious.

All right . . . as you can tell, this story will be a little bit more adult in sexual situations. Trust me, some of you may not like it. But, it fits the story. So, you have been warned. Let me know what you thought in a review! :D