I'm so glad this story was well received! I'm writing this during a -really- boring seminar on note-taking and studying. Augh, -boring-!! So, I'm gonna spice up my time spent here with another chapter in the realm of fluffiness. So, here's the fire-side talk Kagome was looking forward to...

I didn't mention it in the first chapter, but I DO NOT OWN Inuyasha.

~•~

The fire crackled in front of them, warming their faces and wrapping their bodies in the warmth that radiated around the small hut. Kagome smiled, mirroring the warmth she felt taking over her whole body.

They'd just finished eating, and Kagome fidgeted, unsure of whether to begin asking questions, or to just keep to herself. She decided after a moment of Sango's lingering worried glance and Miroku's equally concerned expression that she would go ahead and voice her queries. If they went unanswered, fine by her, but Kagome felt it would be unwise to simply not ask.

Running her hand through Shippou's tail for the comforting presence his contentment offered, Kagome took a deep breath and fixed Miroku with a serious expression.

"Teach me about demon culture," her words were less of a request than her tone was, and the sudden conversation startled Inuyasha.

"What d'ya mean, wench?" came his reflexive -though surprised- retort.

Kagome leveled him with a pointed glare, "I mean that I don't want a repeat of today just because I don't understand the culture I've been thrown into the midst of." She trailed off, "It's too dangerous."

Her blue eyes watched the monk across the fire as he straightened, "Depending upon which species you are referring to, we may be less able to help you understand." His tone was gentle and modest as he admitted to the limits of their knowledge.

It was expected, but Kagome felt more at ease knowing they'd at least try to answer her questions.

Sango's voice bubbled up slyly, "I bet you wanna know about Dog demons first, don't you?" The taijia lifted an eyebrow and her gaze slipped from Kagome to rest momentarily on Inuyasha before swiftly returning to Kagome's flushing cheeks.

The young miko seriously hoped everyone would write off her flushing cheeks for the heat of the fire, instead of the warmth that burned beneath her skin at her friend's comment. Silently, Kagome nodded, unwilling to trust her sure-to-be-wavery-voice in that moment.

Inuyasha scoffed defensively, "I'm only half dog-demon, and I wasn't even raised in that environment. Why would you care about dog-demons?"

Kagome swore she heard hurt beneath his words, but she was completely puzzled by the presence of such an unintended emotion. She frowned, but before she could counter, the young kit in her lap bristled and shot off a retort.

"Yeah, but you still have the instincts that rule our kind, dummy," Shippou's half-snarled rebuttal of Inuyasha came as a surprise to Kagome and her breath caught in her throat.

Even after her meager training in the modern world, and the many stories of Jii-chan, Kagome hadn't considered that instinct would be the main ruling element behind demonic 'culture'. She nibbled on her lip a little. How could she possibly expect anyone to explain instincts to her, they were inborn things that were too complicated to explain and teach. 'I've asked to much, it can't possibly be easy enough to explain.'

Luckily for her, Miroku and Sango did not share her surprise, and instead seemed to be responding to her own surprise. 'Could it be possible that everyone else already knew it was instinct that guided demons to do what they did?' Kagome tried to write it off as her completely shielded life from all things demon, and her relatively recent thrust into their world. But the nagging feeling of somehow missing something very important and obvious stuck with her, and her pride suffered a bit for it.

In her moment of internal retreat, she'd missed a few exchanged phrases between Shippou and Inuyasha, but when she caught one of Inuyasha's replies, she decided that she really regretted missing the conversation.

"How could that possibly still apply to a half-demon?" Inuyasha's biting tone did nothing to hide the thorns Kagome saw in his eyes which wrenched her heart right along with his, and raised her ire.

She rose to her knees, scooted over to him and slapped his cheek.

The sound resounded in the hut and his wide golden eyes were almost worth the result she'd been after: his silence.

"I don't care what anyone just said," mostly because she hadn't heard it, "but I certainly don't want to hear that from you again!" Her blazing blue glaze was pinned on him in an obvious effort to subdue him without the use of the prayer beads around his neck, and his surprise kept him in the state of silence she'd acquired.

Kagome went on and explained her reasoning, "I want to know, because I want to understand the world I'm in. I don't want to spend my time worrying about whether I'm going to insult or compliment or do anything wrong to piss the wrong demon off!" She took a steadying breath. She hadn't quite been yelling, but she desperately wanted to. Resisting the desire, she continued, "What happened today with Kouga was an accident. It was my fault, and I didn't even know I was making the problem worse! I want to avoid that kind of thing again if I ever possibly can."

Inuyasha sobered at this, and she saw something fall before another emotion dropped in front of it: determination. "Alright, fine: I'll teach you what I know. It won't be easy, and it won't be quick, but if you really don't want to do that sort of thing again, I'll teach you so you can avoid sending the wrong sorts of messages," Inuyasha intoned in a defeated manner.

She frowned slightly before realizing he would be teaching her about demon instincts. She couldn't be happier, and in her glee she launched herself into him from her kneeling position. She'd surprised him again and the two of them fell to the floor in a messy tangle.

Her head was resting on his chest, with her arms pinned beneath his back, from when she'd hugged him mid-glomp, and she could just barely see their hair mixing on the floor above his shoulder.

Miroku's snicker bubbled up and was met with Inuyasha's snarl of warning.

When Kagome didn't feel her being moved off of him, she began to worry, when she realized she'd pinned his arms to his side. Her own giggles rose and fell mercilessly, and she soon felt her side beginning to ache from laughing so hard.

The pain in her side sobered her laughter, and she lifted her gaze to meet what she expected to be grumpy twin golden lances. Inuyasha, however, hadn't gotten the memo that he needed to be paying attention, because he'd closed his eyes momentarily, expecting them all to be laughing too hard to pay attention to his lack of snarls. Kagome caught the contented expression on his face, and it shocked her into tensing, which caught his direct attention, snapping his eyes open.

What followed, Kagome was sure she would not forget for a while. A waterfall of emotions spilled over her awareness, beginning with shock, bleeding to recognition, contentment, a slight twinge of fear that fizzled into anticipation which rippled in tension all down his body, then flooding with a guarded expression that covered said anticipation, before flickering into irritation. His expression didn't change after the irritation, but Kagome couldn't convince herself that it was completely accurate irritation, or that it was completely focused on her.

She was dizzy with the expressiveness of his gaze, and was too comfy to convince her mind that moving was a good or bad idea. So she remained nestled in her fog of convenient comfort.

His gruff voice sounded like someone had sweetened it with honey, because when he spoke, it was devoid of all his customary irritation. It caught them all by surprise, but what had Kagome really brightened was his words, "Alright Kagome, I'll teach you and tell you about dog-demon instincts. It might take a while, though, so don't expect everything at once!"

He ended on a gruff and defensive note, and Kagome had to let loose a tiny giggle at the reappearance of the Inuyasha she had come to anticipate. Nodding, she conceeded, "That sounds good, Inuyasha. Thank you," the young Miko added for good measure.

"Do you think you could get off my chest now?" rumbled through his chest into her ear.

Suppressing another chuckle, she bravely shook her head.

"Well, why the hell not?"

Kagome physically restrained herself from tensing by taking very large calming breaths before answering, "You are laying on my arms, I can't really move."

".... crap."

Kagome's mind echoed sardonically, 'My thoughts exactly.'

•~

Wow, it took longer than I thought to write this chapter. I started it during a seminar before work, and had to finish it up after work right before bed. I wanted to hammer out a chapter for a new story (I'm crazy like that) but I decided I needed to print the rest of this chapter like I promised myself I would. I'll debate with myself further on which story gets documented first. It'll probably be a toss-up, but I really want to finish -something- X_X So, expect an update soon for NEQ, DEB, or BnoT. I'm itching for a good YYH ficcie, but I don't have a non-AU and non-xover YYH fic. Maybe I'll rectify that...

One of those four will probably have the next update fairly soon.