There is no excuse for my lateness on updating except for my complete lack of writing skills. It took me a good fourteen tries on this chapter, and it's still imperfect /sigh/ ah well, I'm in shame of how long this took, but we all have flaws.

Here we are: chappie 4! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: shakes head sadly I do not own the famous and talented Inuyasha…

Chapter 4: Failed Apologizes and Breakfast

Inuyasha…

He was standing there, his eyes red and shinning with hunger. His body was shaking with anticipation as his arm shot out to my throat.

Why…?

I went limp in his arms. It was like he was sucking out my soul through my blood. Was I dead? Did he kill me in an act of madness? No… it wasn't madness. It was natural. He could kill me at anytime just as easily as I eat really gooey chocolate chip cookies. It was natural.

I shot up in bed and rushed to the bathroom. These thoughts had been haunting me day and night. I splashed freezing water on my face and blinked at my reflection. "He's not dangerous. It's safe here," I muttered under my breath, feeling my heart rate slow.

But then I saw it. Sitting on my neck, the skin around it a healthy pink from healing. A bite mark. I could feel the pain welling back up in my body, my muscles screaming as the blood was sucked out through a hole. I could feel myself dying.

I fell to the floor, my breathing raged and harsh. He didn't mean it. He was just tempted. I won't fall again. I won't be careless. It's safe here. It's safe. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my body to go back to normal. For the scar to disappear and for these wounds to heal.

"Inuyasha? What are you doing?"

"Sleeping, like any normal vampire."

"The moon's been out for an hour already!"

"Are you getting somewhere with this argument?"

"GET UP!"

"No, thanks."

Mari left a bruise large enough to jolt me awake quite sufficiently. "Kagome's having bad dreams again," she informed me.

I ran my fingers through my unbelievably tangled hair and grunted. "Yeah. So?"

Mari let out one of the longest sighs known to earth kind. "A bad dream about you! Since you love her you have to comfort her."

"What? I don't love her! Besides, she could be dreaming about anything. Math. Her father. Football field sized spiders," I reasoned.

Mari rolled her startlingly blue eyes and sighed, "Come on, Inuyasha. Stop this denial crap and go tell her she's not about to be murdered in her sleep."

I shook my head. Why should I do something so stupid? Kagome's a big girl. I would have told Mari that, only she looked ready to break my kneecaps in four different places. "I'll go… jeez…" I pouted, walking out the door.

She huffed a sigh and vanished somewhere. I zipped down to Kagome's room and gave two short, rather quiet knocks. I could hear a gasp, something that sounded like a nuclear explosion, some footsteps, and she opened the door. Her hair looked like she tried to brush it with a pitchfork and her pajamas resembled something that came out of the wrong end of an elephant. It occurred to me this was the first time we've see each other face to face after…

"Er… Kagome," I greeted roughly, examining her socks with interest.

"In-…" she cleared her throat and started again, "Inuyasha."

She was also staring at her socks, her eyebrows furrowed together with concentration. There was a pause in which we both stared determinedly at her socks. "Kagome-" I tried again, but couldn't get past her name.

My stomach hurt like crazy and I couldn't talk past her name. That must mean:

1.) I'm in love

2.) My lack of food was making me delusional and prone to memory loss

"Inuyasha," she began, but, like me, stopped and glared at her socks as though they let her down.

"Kagome…" I whispered, not sure where I was going with my sentence until a voice behind me boomed.

"YOU TWO LOVEBIRDS ARE SOUNDING SUSPITIOUSLY LIKE BROKEN RECORDS! DON'T MAKE ME START INTERFERING LIKE NOBODY'S BUISNESS!"

I lost ten years of my life. Mari appeared behind Inuyasha with a wide grin and a look of true evil. "Did I scare ya?" she asked sweetly, poking Inuyasha's arm.

I sat down on the floor. Hell if my legs were going to hold up the weigh of the emotions flowing through my body. Inuyasha let out a growl so loud it hurt my ears and tackled Mari. Or… tried to. He ended up upside-down by me with a swollen eye. "Just checkin up on you two," chimed Mari, that diabolical grin still planted on her lips.

"Mari!" I cried.

She seemed to pick up my total devastation, ecstasy, and confusion and swooped down to me. "God, Inuyasha! I send you to cheer her up and she bursts into tears. What the hell did you do?" she bellowed at him.

He tried to talk, but I think his elbow was muffling his words. "Nnd mee fffflt!"

It was funny, so I had every right to laugh. Though, his glare pierced my heart harder than I would like to admit. "Sorry," I whispered, hotly blaming my socks for all this.

Mari wrapped her arms around me and pouted, "Awwww is the angwy vampie picking on my wittle Kagome?"

I gave a weak smile and watched Inuyasha do some quick acrobatic moves that deserved a round of applause. Or aspirin. I was just about to congratulate him when Mari left my side and announced, "The real reason I came down here was to tell Inuyasha that Sesshormaru is gonna start making man-sided holes in your wall if you don't 'sort this thing out with the human'. And Kagome, you need some real food. Soooo, Inuyasha, you will take Kagome to food and Sango will meet up with you guys later!"

Don't go, Mari…

Mari! Don't you dare!

And yet, even though I KNOW she heard me, she left. I stood there, more awkward than ever, and directed my eyes to Kagome's socks. The left one had a little whole where the big toe was. It's their entire fault this is so fucked up. Their entire fault.

"Well, are you hungry?" I asked, still staring intently at her left sock.

"Y-yeah, actually. I am. But aren't you, too? After all you haven't eaten since…" she murmured but stopped suddenly.

I mentally put that sock through the shredder. Maybe I should name it…

"It's cool, I'm fine," I shrugged, immediately wishing I didn't. I wasn't fine. I was god damn hungry.

Kagome's eyes seemed to notice this factor too, and shuffled to the door. I followed her out and before I knew it we were strolling to the kitchen. It took me a while (meaning the whole trip) but I finally realized she knew where she was going. "Hey, you remembered where the kitchen is!"

She looked back, and for the first time since… then, she gave me one of her real smiles. The one that makes her eyes turn up and her nose make the cutest wrinkles. I was almost too hasty to smile back and that made her laugh. A real, honest to god laugh. I forgot how light and merry her voice was.

Five minutes later and we walked into the kitchen. I hadn't been inside here in years! I looked around and gave a little laugh. "Sorry about the poor selection of food… we don't really eat here…" I apologized.

She gave a nod, and opened a cabinet to take out a snack food. "Is there anything here that isn't in an intermediate relationship with mold?" she asked as she opened the box, sniffed, and dropped it in utter horror.

I laughed and yanked the refrigerator open. I swear to god the pasta growled at me. I shut it quickly and waved my hand in an airy motion. "I'm sure Sango knows something editable in here. After all, she eats here daily!"

Kagome seemed surprised by this… though why I don't know. "I thought she ate with you guys. Like berries and stuff while you're hunting."

"Oh, she used to. But it got to be a hassle, so we stocked up on… man-eating pasta and crates full of indigestible Fruit loops," I joked.

Kagome's mouth curled into a smile, but her eyes didn't fully crackle with laughter. I sighed loudly. "Listen, Kagome. Just listen to me, okay?" I pleaded.

Instead of her going into a bubble of darkness like I thought she would she took another box out of a cabinet and sat down. "Go ahead," she waved her hand like a conductor.

I was dumbfounded. Several seconds when in silence before I cleared my throat and started, "Kagome… er, I dunno what to say…"

She blinked down at her sock. The left one. I really need to name it. Jerry. That's a strong name for a sock with a hole created by years of use and single handedly ruining everything. Thanks a bunch, Jerry.

"I bet you think I'm scum right now. A monster, but y-"

And then the tornado hit. I've never met someone with worse timing habits than him.

I don't think my body can deal with vampires. I mean, good lord! Miroku comes galloping in here, his robes flying and his eyes wide. Then he flings Sango at us, winks at Inuyasha, whirlwinds his way out, and vanishes. Tell me that wouldn't leave you on the ground, wondering about your sanity.

"MIROKU! WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO HERE!" cried Sango at the top of her lungs, which is surprisingly loud.

"H-hey, Sango?" I greeted shakily, still comfortably sitting on the floor.

"Miroku told me- oh, Inuyasha!- tell me something. Miroku said I had to STAY HERE! That I was supposed to eat with Kagome and not go hunting! What kind of bullshit is this?"

"Sango, calm down," Inuyasha sighed, looking like he was about to strangle her.

And I didn't blame him. Sango had just butted into his apology speech. I looked apologetically up at him and… he glared at my foot! Right at my left foot! I thought only I was allowed to wish hell on my socks!

Sango burst into my thoughts then with, "Well, Inuyasha? Tell Miroku I've been hunting with you guys for YEARS and I'm not about to stop!"

Inuyasha walked to the door, his face red from embarrassment and anger. "You're gonna stay here with Kagome. Try to run away and I'll kill you."

I held onto Sango's ankle to keep her from kicking Inuyasha's forehead. Such violence in his household…

"You're all mad! The lot of you merciless psychos!" she screeched, and Inuyasha said in a bored voice, "Who's the psycho one? The killers or the one deciding on her own free will to live with the killers?"

Sango stood, her jaw open, as Inuyasha turn and left us. Silence filled the kitchen. "S-Sango?" I ventured and she came crashing down on my arm, muttering, "God damn undead…"

She looked over at me and groaned. "Aw Kags! I didn't mean to seem like I hated you or anything! I just… always hunt with them, ya know?"

I nodded, understanding. Sango brightened and stood up (she never realized she had been transforming my arm into a jelly) and cheered, "Let's make some pancakes!"

I blinked up at her. That's the last thing I thought this kitchen could provide… "Pancakes?" I asked, making her I heard right.

"Or French toast, if you prefer. No one can be sad while eating French toast! It's scientifically proven!" sang Sango, walking over to the useless refrigerator and opening it merrily.

Either she was about to say some magic words and food would magically appear, or I'm not going in a ten-mile radius of these so-called pancakes. Sango looked disappointed, but shrugged and said, "I guess we'll have to go downstairs."

"What's downsta-"

I was dragged to a door where what looked like a cellar lay. Sango stomped down and I was pulled along helplessly. She sat me down on the bottom step as she rummaged around crates and mini fridges. I couldn't believe what was down here! Thousands of acres of delectable food!

I skipped over to Sango, who was rummaging around an entire field of cornstarch and asked, "How in the world did I not know about this place?"

She looked up from her search and shrugged. "You haven't been here very long and when you were, you were half delusional from lack of blood. I wouldn't put it against you to miss this place."

Words of comfort from the cornstarch harvester. I helped collect a few ingredients, then we trudged back upstairs to create… pancakes?

"Sango, that's not a pancake."

She was covered head to foot in flour and batter, her hair sticky on the ends with raw eggs. "It's… my creation!" she cried.

"It is at that," I agreed, picking the blob out of the pan and frowning down at it. It moved. On it's own. Like Jell-O.

She sighed and put another spoon full of batter on the pan and immediately a shower of flour exploded in her face. "God damn it!" she cursed, spinning away from the onslaught of eye-watering white cooking ingredients.

"If you'd just let me-" I tried, but she pushed me aside to flip the "pancake."

"I'm making these and they'll be something out of this world!" she exclaimed.

Too true.

Another poof and yell of frustration later, and Sango was defeated. "I will call them… FOODS."

I looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. "Will you? That's bold."

"No, F.O.O.D.S. Failed Operation Of the Desired Substance."

I rolled my eyes and looked up at the ceiling. It's impressive the places Sango managed to get the batter, really…

"Here, get some cereal while I clean up," she groaned, getting a mop and ramming it against the ceiling.

I nodded and headed downstairs, leaving Sango to grumpily dispose of the FOODS.

"Inuyasha, you've been off."

"Yeah, well, whatever."

I wasn't in the mood to talk. I dashed through the trees and quickly came upon a deer. Normally I didn't go for them, their blood was too tough, but I was starving. I jumped down and attacked savagely. Mari came up behind me and shook her head. "Manners, Yash. Honestly, someone would think you were a monster."

I looked up at her with gleaming red eyes and snarled, "You got a problem?"

She backed off, her hands in the air and her eyebrows raised. "Hey, chill. What's gotten into you?"

I finished drinking and jumped back up into a tree. Mari asked from the ground, "Did something happen in the kitchen?"

Oh nothing really. Just almost making up with Kagome and having that halfwit barging at exactly the wrong time. No really, why would I be upset that things between Kagome and me are probably at the breaking point? Really?

Mari snuck up behind me (a hard task) and hugged me. I jumped and shook her off, my expression of confusion making her laugh. "Inuyasha, you're worried about her, aren't you?"

Damn it! "Of course not! She's with Sango!"

Why do I even bother arguing with Mari?

"Hon, you care. Go get something else to drink then go back and apologize properly, okay? I'll tie down the entire team if I have to. Miroku will get duct tape. Can't go wrong with duct tape."

I blinked at her, and felt a small smile creeping up my face. "Miroku told you, huh?" I asked.

"Only in the sense of running to me in a state of fear after you chasing him out of the house with insults that would make the strongest of men faint. He said he thought he interrupted something, and from the look on your face it looks like you tried to make things right."

Well, shit.

"Yeah," I said, not bothering to argue.

"Go. Eat, and then talk to her. I'll take care of everything here."

And I was off.

This was going to be perfect. Nothing was going wrong now.

"Hey Sango, how'd you get the batter all the way-?" I started to ask, but Sango threw a spoon to quiet me.

"I'm… just… talented," she wheezed as her arm bent to reach a place underneath the refrigerator.

I shrugged and washed my cereal bowl. "Hey, what's going on with you and Miroku?" I inquired.

I heard a thud and "fuck" then Sango's head appearing from the corner of the fridge, her hair matted with dust bunnies.

"What? Nothing! Why? Did he say something? Huh? That bastard!"

I laughed and picked out a piece of tape that was clinging desperately to her cheek. "I was just wondering about the fight. Calm. Breath."

She took a breath and entered the underside of the fridge again. "Nothin, he just told me some news I didn't like. Nothing's going on," she said with an echoing voice.

I smiled and stood up, picking up a knife that had been used to chop the bananas for the FOODS (don't ask) and started cleaning it.

"Kagome?" came Sango's far off voice.

"Hm?" I asked, running water over the guts of massacred banana insides.

"What's up with you and Inuyasha? I mean besides the bite… it seems like he loves you or something."

The knife fell from my hands and clattered to the sink's bottom.

Sango grunted out from the fridge and shook off a mountain load of dust. "Woah, you cut yourself! Here, let's get that washed."

I didn't notice my bleeding finger until someone at the door gasped. "Kagome? You're hurt."

Sango moved between the person and me and said in a calm voice, "Get out. You can't handle this yet, Kouga."

DUH DUH DUH! Cliffhanger!

Yes, you all forgot about Kouga, didn't you? WELL REMEMBER! Next chappie we have some unexpected confessions from Kouga, Miroku/gasp/ Inuyasha, and /le gasp/ Bankotsu!

If you find it in your hearts, reviews would be loved! I'M NOT WORTHY!