A/N: I previously tried to do a sequel to Something Real by Angelica Pierce and failed spectacularly. Therefore I'm starting clean and trying again. Stay tuned.

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Something New

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Falling in love was the easy part. It was as effortless as remembering to take the next breath. What was difficult, however, was deciphering whether the other person loved you back or whether they really were that selfless, that loving, that accepting to the point where kindness was being mistaken for something more. It was selfless what she had done. If anyone put two and two together, the world would shift under her feet and she'd be exposed to the very worst of humanity. A humanity that he'd learned the hard way existed.

Still, despite his generally dismal outlook on life, he loved her. Love was such a strange beast. It had captivated him from the very beginning the complexities of love. After all, love gave you a ringside view of someone's flaws. She was by no means perfect. No matter what so many had proclaimed. Those statements were made out of pure ignorance. It was her flaws that made her who she was. All that selflessness and kindness aside, she had plenty of flaws that were blaringly obvious to those who knew her well.

She was prideful and took any perceived slight to something she took pride in too personally. So personally that said slight caused her to falter in said task. He'd noticed quite early on that comments about her archery or cooking left a lasting impression on those areas. Not that said observation quelled his tongue but that a different issue. Her skills with a bow would magically worsen causing her to miss a target she normally hit spot on. Insulting her cooking would cause her to burn the next thing or overly season in an attempt to improve. She was impulsive which often led her to becoming injured or falling into the enemies hands. That above all others irked him the most. She had a tendency to procrastinate and "wing it" when a deadline came too soon for her liking which caused her great anxiety. She was quick to anger and slow to forgive. Something with which he was all too familiar. But the strange thing about knowing all these flaws was that he loved her all the more for them. Why you may ask?

She was impulsive and quick to anger yes but that impulsivity, that anger - while sometimes so annoying he wanted to claw his face off - also had been the very things that saved him. Besides, that flaw in particular mirrored his own failings in that department. When he lost himself, her impulsive ways had saved him as she threw herself in harms way without a second thought to show him the way. Her temper matched his own and it was that quickness to anger that taught him to choose his battles wisely. Her procrastination and anxiety taught him empathy. Whenever she failed a test or put off taking care of herself, he was thrown into the unexpected role of a shoulder to cry on and he had to learn how to care for another emotionally. When that impulsivity and her tendency to trip over her own too feet manifested during battle, it made him the selfless one and his attempts to save her when they brought unwanted attention her way had drawn blood on more than one occasion. Not to say these flaws were actually virtues in disguise. They were still flaws and there were still a lot of things she could work on but...well...

The thing was that she saw his flaws as well and all those flaws, all those virtues made him a better man. Not putting her on a pedestal as he had done before when he believed he was in love allowed him to be an improved version of himself. She saw the good in everyone and helped him see the good in others instead of seeing only their shortcomings. She had tempered his anger and soothed his soul when he was close to his breaking point. Despite their constant bickering, all that anger came from the fact that she knew he could be better. She saw the hurt inside of him and sought to heal. She had changed him for the better and he hoped he had changed her as well. He knew he had pushed her to be stronger, less soft, less naive about the world. Still, it seemed rather unequal. She had saved him from himself more times than he could count but what had he ever really done to improve her world? He hurt her. Repeatedly and in more ways than one. Why would she love him? Some divine purpose was at work here. Maybe he was destined to fall in love with women he could never have so he could learn how to be better.

Well, that wasn't quite true, was it? That he couldn't have her. His lips parted as a shaky breath escaped and he bit back a moan at the memory of the way she had explored his body that night so many weeks ago. He initially tried to subtly indicate that he wanted more but his advances went completely unnoticed and unappreciated. More than once he'd purposely held her hand as they walked side by side. His thumb running alongside the back of her hand. He made a point to brush tendrils of her hair behind her ear after a battle and sit closer to her during meals than was strictly appropriate. He'd stopped insulting her almost completely and didn't fight her when she wanted to go home. Her behavior, however, hadn't changed. There was absolutely no change in her interactions with him aside from the fact that she did seem pleased at the affection he'd given her. The longer time went on without her acknowledging what they had shared the more it hurt to be in her company. Not just on an emotional level. It felt like his heart was slowly breaking in two, making it difficult to breathe or sleep due to the dull ache in his chest.

Closing his eyes, he tried to ignore Miroku's snoring and Shippo's habit of muttering nonsense in his sleep as he held his hand against his chest and thumbed each bead of the cursed necklace one by one. She'd never offered to remove them. Not even once. In fact, those times the beads had broken she'd always found a way to put them back on. Was she afraid of him after all? That was hard to imagine. Many things could he could believe but that above all others was an impossibility. In any case those actions and the fact that she still used the spell solidified his belief all the more that she didn't love him the way he loved her. After that night, he'd hoped...

Shaking his head, he sighed and opened his eyes to look down at her sleeping form. Like a fool, he'd hoped for a great many things in his life. But there was a deep valley called disappointment in between the mountains of expectations and reality. He had set his expectations too high and conflated it with reality. Perhaps it was time to put aside childish hopes and face the hard, cold truth. Dreams and fantasies were all he had. One night did not reality make.

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Yet another morning came all too soon. Another week had gone by and still Kagome hadn't found the courage to ask him the question that plagued her ever waking moment. What had that night meant to him, if anything? Sure, he'd acted uncharacteristically affectionate but she'd taken it as him attempting to segway into a repeat of that night. Men were very physical beings after all and he'd never experienced anything like that before. It only made sense that he'd be eager for more. That didn't mean he loved her or even that he wanted a more permanent relationship. He was attracted to her - he'd admitted as much - but being attracted to someone and wanting a relationship did not go hand in hand. Nothing was more humiliating than to know she'd only be a blip on his timeline when she'd already made him her eternity. How would any other man ever compare? Still, she didn't regret what had transpired that night. Not at all. She'd soothed his soul and body of its unceasingly psychological torment if only for a moment. It was...

"Kagome?" Inuyasha's voice filtered through her distracting thoughts making her gasp and start like a skittish deer as her head whipped towards the unexpected intruder whose face was a strange mixture of amusement and offense, "What was that about?"

"Startled me is all. Didn't realize you were there," Kagome replied with a soft laugh as she rolled her eyes and gave him a sheepish grin, "What's up?"

"I wanted to..." InuYasha began in a slightly flustered tone before huffing once and squaring his shoulders with a strange look on his face, "Just get a move on. Rest of us are ready to keep moving and you're sitting here useless."

"I beg your pardon?" Kagome replied hotly as she scoffed and quickly got to her feet, "Since when are you the boss of me?"

"Since forever stupid" InuYasha clipped back in a sarcastic tone as he sneered and narrowed his eyes, "Hurry up, will ya? We're burning daylight."

"Where exactly are we going in such a hurry? And you're not the boss of me!" Kagome snarled as ferociously as someone like her could manage - her insecurities that had been building over the past few weeks getting the best of her, "You know, I'm getting really tired of you acting like I'm dispensable and worthless! Maybe if you treated people right your life wouldn't be so..."

Eyes widening in horror, Kagome clapped her hand across her mouth and stared up at the hanyou whose face looked rather angry but whose slight flinch and suddenly pale façade didn't escape her notice. The haunted look in those amber eyes screamed at her even as he snarled back, "That so? Well excuse me for trying to defeat the guy who's going around killing everyone instead of daydreaming and acting like the world revolves around me!"

"InuYasha...I...I...didn't mean..." Kagome muttered miserably as she glanced at her friends who looked as shocked by her utterance as when she had yelled "sex" that morning after, "I'm sorry. Give me a minute and l'll be ready."

"Keh," InuYasha huffed before he whipped his head towards the trio staring at the spectacle with wide eyes, "The hell you looking at?"

"Nothing. Nothing," Miroku answered a little too quickly with an awkward chuckle as he gently tugged at the slayers arm, "We'll move ahead while Lady Kagome collects her things. Take your time."

And with that, the four beings began quickly walking away leaving a steaming hanyou and flustered miko behind. It was an unusual turn of events. Kagome had backed down from a fight and nearly said something they all knew was slightly insensitive. How insensitive the hastily thrown comment had been was lost upon them - of course - but they recognized that their hasty departure was necessary unless they wanted a long painful day of tension ahead of them. The pair needed to work it out and their presence would only delay the inevitable gestures of forgiveness the pair engaged in when they believed no one was watching.

"Hurry up," InuYasha barked awkwardly as he folded his arms across and glared, "We ain't got all day."

"I...I...I really didn't mean it," Kagome muttered with a resigned sigh as she adjusted the ten ton backpack on her shoulders, "InuYasha, you...you know I didn't mean it, right?"

"You do a lot of shit you don't mean," InuYasha snapped back before he could stop himself - his own insecurities and pent up frustration rolling to a boil, "Why should this be any different?"

"Seriously?" Kagome groaned - the subtle message in his statement going right over her head as she placed one hand on her hip, "I said I was sorry, alright?"

"Keh. Whatever," InuYasha huffed in frustration as he waved one hand dismissively. After a moment though, he sighed heavily and his defensive stance visibly deflated into one of resignation, "Just get a move on. I...I know you didn't mean it, okay?"

That admission in and of itself gave the miko pause. It had been like this for weeks now. One of them would start and fight but instead of arguing until he was blue in the face, he'd been the one to back down. Not apologize per se but he was uncharacteristically letting her have her way over and over and over and...

"You've been acting weird since that night," Kagome blurted out before trailing off with a soft sigh as her cheeks turned bright red. Regardless she carried on,"You've been...well, nicer but almost like...like you're afraid to really piss me off. You don't have to walk on eggshells around me. I don't want what...what happened to come between us. I really didn't mean what I said, okay? It was a stupid thing to say and I didn't mean to imply that people being awful is your fault. And I don't want you to change either. That's not why I did...that. Can we move on and...and go back to how it used to be?"

Swallowing thickly, InuYasha quickly glanced to make sure their friends were a fair distance away before speaking in a slightly nervous tone, "I...maybe I don't want things to be the way they were."

"Oh," Kagome breathed as the color drained from her face and she braced herself for the rejection bomb she knew was oncoming. She knew where his loyalty lay and she needed to be clear about boundaries. She wouldn't become a booty call, no matter what. What they had shared...it wasn't to give him an easy lay. It was more meaningful than that. To her at least. He...he couldn't take advantage of her. She...she would need to make it clear that...that...oh god, what had she done? If she refused she'd probably break him and...

"I...uh..." InuYasha began unwilling to let this opportunity pass but terrified at her answer. Still, he couldn't stop his heart beating out of his chest as he cleared his throat and averted his eyes before replying, "That night...um...what you, uh, did...I don't...I can't go back to the way things were, alright? I need to know where you...where you stand. With me."

"Where I stand?" Kagome answered in a confused and hurt tone, "Like...did I mean what I said?"

Sighing heavily, InuYasha chewed the inside of his cheek as he screamed internally and barreled ahead, "Look I'm not saying that I want us to...to well ya know but...but I'd like to see, uh...ya know, if maybe...maybe we can, uh...would you, uh, ever consider one day..."

He paused and took a deep breath before the words tumbled from his mouth, "Ya know, would you let me build you a house?"

"Wait, what?" Kagome snorted as she tried to wrap her head around the bizarre statement, "Why do I need a house? We're never at the village."

"No...eh..." InuYasha groaned as his blush grew to a shade of crimson to rival the fire rat and he rolled his eyes, "You know what I mean. Like...like would it be something you'd want? In the future."

"I don't need a house here," Kagome replied in a completely bewildered tone - missing what was being implied but not said, "Is everyone getting a house?"

"It's not just about the damn...know what? Fuck it. Never mind!" InuYasha clipped back with no lack of bitterness, "If you don't want me then just say so. I don't need fucking pity! Especially from you! Ain't a honorable woman alive that'd do what you did and have the balls to act like it didn't mean a damn thing! You know, I was actually stupid enough to think maybe - just maybe - you wanted that but I'm just a dumb ass hanyou who..."

"Hold on a minute, I thought we were talking about houses!" Kagome interrupted - ignoring the insult to get to the bottom of this awkward, confusing conversation, "Do you...are you saying you want to date...uh, have a relationship with me? Like romantically?"

"Yeah stupid!" InuYasha bit back angrily before his eyes widened in realization and his mouth hung open as his next words were stolen from his throat. For a long tense moment, the pair stared at each other before a slow grin grew on Kagome's face.

"So...so you'd want to try to be like boyfriend and girlfriend?" Kagome asked warning a slightly confused look from the hanyou. Quickly realizing the problem, Kagome corrected herself, "I mean, you want to, uh, court me?"

"Yeah. Do you...do you want me to court you?" InuYasha asked a little less heatedly as he folded his arms tightly across his chest, "Ya know, it, uh, only seems right. All things considered."

"All things considered," Kagome repeated as the grin slowly faded from her face and a cold feeling settled in her gut, "So...so this is about sex? You...you feel guilty? Like about my honor or..."

"Oh my god. You can be so..." InuYasha huffed as he gave her a withering stare, "I don't give a damn about that shit. I mean, it'd be nice if we...ya know... but if you...if you don't want that then...I mean...know what? This was stupid. Forget..."

"Wait, wait, wait, I'm not saying I don't want that," Kagome interjected with a hint of desperation, "I just didn't realize you felt that way. You never acted like you liked me that way before...before that happened."

"Didn't think it was something...something that could happen," InuYasha replied honestly before his stance softened and he tried to give her a reassuring smile that seemed strained, "So you'd...so you'd want that?"

"Yes," Kagome replied breathlessly - hardly believing that this was happening. Suddenly his behavior made sense. He was...he was trying to start something new. He had been trying to court her. And she was too wrapped up in her own inner demons to realize it.

"Keh," InuYasha replied in a slightly more confident tone as he gave her a smug smirk and took a few steps forward to brush a tendril of hair behind her ear. His hand lingered for a moment before tracing her jaw to tilt her chin up. For but a moment he hesitated. And then he dipped down to place a lingering kiss against those lips that had learned the secrets of his body. With a soft moan, he relished in the feeling of her small frame molding against his body. It was also he could do not to whimper as she held him to her tighter and tighter until there was no space between them at all. Her hips slowly began to grind against him and he was lost as an involuntary shudder racked his body. Gasping, he didn't care when a soft whimper escaped his lips when her hand slipped beneath his robes. A soft cry escaped his lips as he took his nipple between her fingers making his knees grow weak.

Completely forgetting their friends were waiting, Inuyasha took the initiative and gently began a descent to the ground without breaking contact. A feat that was lost on them both as he lay flush atop her and angled his head to deepen the kiss. His hands began to wander - brushing up and under the sides of her shirt to explore the flesh it hid while Kagome panted beneath him. As he reached down to adjust himself, a sudden unexpected voice rang in his overly sensitive ears.

"My, my, my..." came an all too amused voice that had their blood running cold, "This is quite the development."