Disclaimer: I own nothing InuYasha.

Author Note: Thank you ForeverDayDreaming for the review! You're the best! : )

Travelin' Soldier

Chapter Four

"Fly with me, Ayame." Koga's sweet voice whispered. I almost thought it was a dream until I opened my eyes and seen him leaning over my body with a gorgeous grin on his face. I yawned and glanced at the time, which read 4:30. I groaned and pulled the covers over my head.

"Are you crazy? I used to have to get up for work early enough! I still have to get up for school throughout the week! I'll be damned if I'm not sleeping in during my weekends." I declared proudly, although the covers would have muffled my proud voice.

"But I wanna make you fly. Besides, there's no such thing as sleeping in soldier. You need to be wide awake and aware, prepared for anything." He pushed and pulled the covers away from my face. He stroked my cheek with his thumb before gently pushing my hair out of my way. "I have a surprise for you so please get ready."

I sighed and tugged some clothes out of my closet. I walked in the bathroom and took a quick shower to freshen up, applied my makeup, and partially blow dried my hair. I was clad in bootie shorts made of athletic material with the holes that read 'Tapout' on the back in white and a flashy silver. For a top I wore a tight belly shirt. I tugged my hair into a ponytail and slipped on some flip flops.

"Alright, I'm ready for this surprise." I sighed.

"Well I didn't know I had a surprise too." He smirked as he eyed me up and my deliciously small outfit which covered less than enough. I was revealing slender legs and a nice butt, along with a fit stomach that had a small waist, and large breasts. "You're going to give me a heart attack if you keep looking as good as you do every time I see you."

"Okay, so can we leave now?" I asked, ready.

"Nope, I need to do something to you first." He replied as he held an object up and put it on me. I smirked.

"Ooohh, kinky." I teased.

-0-0-0-0-

"Can I take it off now?" I begged, dying to get the black bandana from covering my eyes like a blindfold.

"No." Koga repeated for the ump-teenth time as he picked me up from my seat on the car and carried me. I was dying to rip the blindfold off. I wasn't even quite sure what was stopping me, but some force was.

"You're so brutal to me." I whined.

"I know, I know." He laughed before taking his one hand away from me so that my feet would drop back to the ground. "Now," he reached behind me to undo the knot (which seemed like an excruciating amount of time to me), "you can look."

"We're at nothing but open fields and a large slab of concrete?" I raised an eyebrow as I examined the sight in front of me.

"It's a runway, for my plane. You wanted to know what part of the army I was in. It's the air force. And since you seem to like flying, I want you to fly with me." He smiled down at me. I was pretty sure a little piece of my heart melted inside.

"And you're sure you know how to fly these planes around here? They're not exactly the same as military planes." I pointed out.

"Please, I learn to fly basically every type of plane you can think of, both military and non military related. Don't worry, I can handle this. Have a little faith in me, will you?" he shrugged as we walked to a large shed, which he opened and added. "I asked if I could rent it out today, for a few hours. The guy agreed and gave me the key to unlock it and everything."

"I'm not so sure about this. We're not going to crash are we?" I asked skeptically as he walked inside, flicking on a light switch and examined a shining white plane.

"Like I said, just trust me. I'm doing a couple check and then we should be good, if everything comes out okay." He replied and, after a little bit, he smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. "Everything is perfect, we'll be fine."

I couldn't ignore the fact that my nerves were on end, and my heart was beating as fast as it would had I been running a marathon, as I climbed in the passenger side in the two-person plane. It wasn't that I didn't have faith in Koga; I just didn't want to have the plane blow a motor out or something and end up dead. And, honestly, was it that bad that I valued my life?

He started up the plane and we took off a runaway, starting slow and then picking up speed. I closed my eyes. "I'm guessing you've never been on a plane before, fly girl? Just keep your eyes closed, work on controlling your breathing, and I'll tell you when to open them."

"I wish I had gum." I said, my voice slightly shaky.

"It doesn't help, trust me." He responded easily.

"I could still try. You better not do crazy plane tricks on me, either. No loops or backflips or tailwhips or anything of that sort." I instructed.

"Tailwhips? Does this look like BMX to you?" he laughed. I could feel the wheels bump and the plane pull with the wind. I tried a deep breathing routine, but it wasn't helping me much. When would this torture end?

After what seemed like forever, though, the struggling stopped and there was a gentle glide. Koga's voice spoke up, yet again. "Okay, open your eyes now!"

The sky was still pink and a darkened blue, with some purple. The sun gleamed proudly in the sky and I was mesmerized by the sight. I was pretty sure I gasp at the beautiful scenery. I always knew flying would make me feel free, I never knew it'd be so beautiful, too.

"It's not always beautiful." He pointed out and I thought I saw an emotion flash in his eyes. Fear, sorrow, disgust? He would be in battle with a plane, and he would be killing people with them. The war was bad, it was all over the news, and I was afraid for him.

"Why don't you just get a nice, safe job?" I pushed.

"There's no such thing as a nice, safe job… especially if we don't have enough men for our military. Everybody thinks it's so great to live in the United States, but not enough people are willing to go to war for it. When they have problems in their countries, they come to ours. But do they fight for it? You bet your ass not. Not most of them, anyway." He said spitefully.

"But I'm sure there are plenty of others out there willing to fight." I offered.

"I don't want a kid out there dying."

"Koga, you joined only two days after your eighteenth birthday. You're one of those kids out there fighting that you're suggesting shouldn't fight and risk their lives!" I pointed out, quite passionately I might add.

"Can we just stop talking about the war? It's all I hear about anymore. I don't want you to worry about it and, quite frankly, I don't want to worry about it yet either." He suggested and I agreed, laying my head on his muscular arm.

The Friends

"So how's Ayame taking it?" InuYasha asked as he sipped on his soda and popped from fries into his mouth. Kagome couldn't get over how he looked with his hair missing, or the fact that she was still dating a soldier boy.

"Taking what?" Kagome asked, confused.

"You guys don't know? She didn't tell you?" Miroku raised an eyebrow and exchanged looks with InuYasha of shock. "I knew Koga kept his job from her but I was sure he wouldn't hold back this much of it."

"Ayame tells us everything, now what are you talking about?" Sango egged.

"Koga's being thrown right into the bloodiest part of the battle. He's amazing with his plane; he maneuvers like an expert so they're giving him the brutal end of the war. As soon as he goes back he'll be in the mix of all the trouble and deaths." Miroku continued to explain. "Most people don't even live past two weeks out there, and that's if you're amazing."

"And he didn't tell Ayame?" Kagome gasped.

"Maybe he doesn't want to hurt or something but, if you ask me, I think she has a right to know. It's probably better if she doesn't, though, so she can keep concentrating on school and everything. People have enough stress these days." InuYasha pointed out.

"That'll kill her to know…" Kagome whispered sadly.

"She hasn't so much as glanced at another boy since she's met Koga. In fact, the boy barely leaves her mind as it is." Sango added.

"Yeah… and he's the youngest boy you'll find in our military base. It must have killed him to wait that year after graduation to join. He was smart enough to skip a grade so he graduated earlier than he was supposed to and ended up entering boot camp to prepare himself for the army. I don't think he knew what section he wanted to be in yet but he already had experience to planes and everything came natural to him." InuYasha shrugged.

"Look," Miroku spoke up, "Koga's not your average person. I'm sure he'll be okay for a while. Maybe he won't even die. Maybe they'll back off or something because more of them are getting killed than us."

"She still has a right to know." Sango said sternly.

"Do you want to ruin her chance of school and life right now? Do you want her depressed? Wouldn't you rather keep her healthy and okay then spiral her into a wasteland of life? If you were really her friend you wouldn't tell her, so she could be happy longer." InuYasha growled with annoyance as he stood up and raised his voice to a yell.

"Yash, man, calm down." Miroku promptly jumped up and put a hand on his enraged friends shoulder. InuYasha looked around, shook his head, and pulled away from the group. Everybody was staring at the group, and the yelling soldier.

"We're all gonna die anyway, why let her know that?" was his bitter words before he left the place and stormed away.

Ayame

"So, I really have to know, why don't you write to your parents or friends or something rather than me, who was a complete stranger?" I questioned as I leaned against him. We were, once again, sitting down at the edge of the pier.

"My dad died, in war, and my mother just kind of wasted away after that." Koga said. It sounded so familiar to my life that I could actually know how he felt through the whole thing. But then he took me off guard. "When I told her I planned on joining she… she pulled out a gun. She shot me twice and herself once before she dropped… we went to the ER… struggled for hours. I made it out and mom didn't."

"Your own mother shot you?" I asked, horrified.

"She wasn't my mother anymore. She was a shell of a person. My mother didn't exist when my father failed to return home. I always knew it would destroy her life, I didn't know it would be the death of her. Your mom was in love with a soldier, too, wasn't she?" he asked.

"Yeah." I replied and wanted to add: And so am I.

"I don't want to pull you into all of this but I didn't want to be alone out there and I really didn't think we'd get as close as we did." He explained. "I figured a stranger would have no emotional ties to me and I could just get my experience out there but now we know each other and I care about you and it's just nothing like I planned."

"If everything went as planned, life wouldn't be worth living." I whispered in his ear and pressed my lips against his earlobe for a small kiss before taking it between my lips and sucking it gently, nipping at it, and licking it before pulling away.

"You're such a tease." He pouted and I giggled.

"I'm not teasing you at all. C'mon." I urged as I stood up and grabbed his hands. He gave me a suspicious look but couldn't stop his smile before following me. I stopped and dropped his hands before peeling off my clothes and stripping down to my bra and thong, lacey and white. Koga's eyes bulged.

"Are you crazy?" Koga questioned.

"Maybe," I giggled, "jump with me?"