Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Inuyasha.

Author's Note: This story starts off on the dramatic/fluff side, and leads to a lemony sequence in later chapters, but it won't end there.

Knowing that Kagome was angry with him, and not being able to stop thinking about Kikyou, Inuyasha snuck out into the night. It was a cool evening and he slowly made his way to the river, where he had found her hair ribbon that time.

There was no lie in my kiss… Inuyasha over and over again remembered her words. And he felt the same… The hanyou reached his fingers up to his lips, recalling the pleasant sensation. There was no lie in mine either, Kikyou. It had been, it seemed, so long… Fifty years in fact, since Inuyasha had felt that kind of touch. His first physical contact had been with Kikyou.

Inuyasha didn't have any real purpose; he was just walking to the river to clear his thoughts. "Kagome sure got to see a different side of me tonight," he thought with a wry smile. Only a few times before had Inuyasha said such things. Can we just stop time like this… I could never find you disgusting or horrible… Kikyou, I think about you every single day!

Had he really said those things? Yes. And felt them in his heart as well. The pain tore at him that she was now just a clay body brought back from the dead. They could never really be together anymore, never raise a family.

He was torn between loving Kikyou and wanting Kagome. Although he had just kissed Kikyou moments before, could there be other physical contact? And would he desire it?

"Her lips were colder than before, but her heart was on fire," he said determinedly. "I'll have to see," he mused, "How human-like she still is."

And then he hated himself for saying that!

It shouldn't matter. That was Kikyou's spirit I saw tonight. I should want to move mountains to be with her. "Perhaps I still can," Inuyasha said to himself. "I can still travel as a companion with Kagome and the others, but be with Kikyou as well."

He didn't even seem to care that she was trying to kill him. After all they'd been through, he could understand her pain and frustration. But the hanyou was glad he hadn't died, glad that Kagome's voice had shocked him into waking.

"But that just shows how much I love Kikyou," he said, not realizing that he was walking faster and faster towards the river. "If it hadn't been for Kagome's voice waking me up, I was willingly going to die with her. I had even told her that as long as I could be with her, I would gladly stop time… Forever." The hanyou blushed. I can't believe I said all those things.

He heard the slow current of the river before he saw it, and slowed down before finally reaching the bank. He leaned down at the water's edge. "Here's where I found her hair ribbon," he looked down only to see his reflection in the ripples of moonlit water.

Inuyasha sniffed the air, as if trying to catch her scent. It came to him softly, slowly, carried in by the water. It must be lingering here from before, he reasoned. Then, as it came to him in stronger and stronger waves, his eyes widened. She must be near! Her lovely scent came closer and closer to him. Without even thinking, he hopped behind some trees and watched the river, waiting… For what? Kikyou…

Kikyou could hear her sister Kaede's voice in her head. She knew what the elderly woman was thinking. That I shouldn't be here. I should return to the land of the dead. But it was so hard, when Kikyou felt so alive.

The miko was on a raft going down the river, her Soul Collectors on all sides of her. She was lost in thought about her recent encounter with Inuyasha. How vulnerable she had become when faced with him. Her heart pounded when she recalled the feel of his lips on hers. He had been slightly aroused, she knew. Kikyou remembered the feeling from all those years ago when he had embraced her on the dock.

"How much has changed," the miko said softly. "My whole destiny, and Inyasha's as well." She hated her reincarnation. Kikyou knew that it was wrong to despise Kagome, that it wouldn't solve anything, but she couldn't stop the bitter resentment from overflowing inside of her. Kikyou's fists clenched as she thought of the irritating voice that had stopped Inuyasha from following her to the underworld.

She didn't know how to feel. And it was so hard. Kikyou was used to always being in control, always being the one to lead and to hide her feelings behind the façade of an emotionless miko. It was Inuyasha that had melted the ice around her heart. It was his fault that these strange mixed feelings were twisting and turning inside her. Also her own sense of purpose pervaded the situation.

Kikyou knew she was not meant to be on this earth, but that she was also powerful and could help many people if she continued to walk amongst the living. "That will satisfy me for now. Seeing Inuyasha is just something I need to stop wishing for." Tears fell down her pale face as she sailed farther up the river.