Y'all are going to fucking hate me.

Her apartment was practically empty. Most furniture was gone, pictures off the walls, her rugs rolled up and resting in the corner. The kitchen was sparse, her bathroom completely cleaned out, a few boxes left in the living room, and only a broom propped against the window in her bedroom.

The last time Kagome saw her apartment, it had been bursting with life. Now everything she worked for, everything she collected and bought and made, it was gone.

Not gone gone, she knew. Most of the boxes were at Kouga's house. Her furniture was being unloaded into his garage until they could figure out what to do with it. Her car was waiting down in the parking lot, one of the weres starting to load the remaining boxes in the backseat. But it wasn't here.

And through it all Kouga stood aside, watching quietly as she walked through the empty shell she had once called her home.

"I still have a few months left of my lease," she said softly.

Kouga didn't respond.

"My neighbors," she continued, refusing to look at him. "They'll wonder where I am. And I'll have to figure out how to tell my work I won't be coming back." Her shoulders shifted in an attempt at a shrug. "Not like I can work with all those windows."

The silence in the apartment was deafening.

"Mom helped me find this apartment." The words wouldn't stop. One after the other, Kagome let her mouth wander. "She contacted an old friend of my father's when we started looking. The units here go so quickly that when one opened up, he pulled a favor to keep it on hold until we could look at it."

She moved into the kitchen, needing something to do. All this energy, all these swirling emotions cooped up so tight, she couldn't make sense of any of them. She had to move, had to touch, had to help.

"My brother helped me pick out the furniture." She opened a cabinet and when she found it empty, she went through the rest one by one. "Mom couldn't get over here until the week after I moved in, so Souta spent three days with me. Only thing I had was this awful air mattress we set up in the living room. The next day, we went shopping and the first thing we did when we got my bed was throw the air mattress in the trash."

Nothing in the cabinets, nothing in the pantry, nothing in the fridge. Nothing in her dining room. Nothing on the walls. Nothing. Her apartment, her home, it was bare as it was when she first moved in.

"Kouga."

She could hear his footsteps, but didn't turn around. Couldn't turn around. She knew what she'd see — that same pity and pain she saw the night before when he told her she'd never see the sun again. Only she knew this would be worse. So much worse.

"What am I going to tell anyone?" Dread curled in her stomach, a twisting, poisonous thing that threatened to choke her. "What am I going to say?"

One warm hand gripped her arm and turned her into his chest, the other wrapping around her back to cup her shoulder. "We don't have to talk about this right now."

He was keeping something from her. His tone spoke of more horrors she would have to face. Fear and pain twisted in her stomach. "I dont' have a job anymore. I don't have a home." Kagome let him cradle her face into the curve of his neck. "Do I have anything?"

This close to him, she heard him swallow. Felt his jaw flex. "You have me," he rasped out. "You have the pack."

"My friends? My life?" She fought around the lump in her throat, pushing through the last truth she never wanted to hear. "My family?"

His silence spoke loudly into the apartment. "Kagome," he finally said, oh so soft in her ear.

One hand fisted into his shirt, her muscles tense. A wave of numbness trickled down her spine.

"When Inuyasha turned you, you died." His voice was gentle, his arms around her strong, his body warm. His words were daggers. "You can't go out in sunlight. You can't survive without drinking blood. You're going to stop aging. What you are now is not supposed to exist according to the world, so you can't let anyone know."

A sob tore out of her.

"Right now, the only people you can be around are the people who know what you are."

Her fist tightened, her body jerked against him. "But—"

"Inuyasha should have done a whole lot to prepare turning you, but he didn't. From what you told me, he couldn't."

Tears leaked from her eyes, the numbness spreading through her and turning cold. What Kouga was saying, it couldn't be what she thought it was. It just couldn't.

"Now, we have to make the best of what we have." Kouga's hand moved from her shoulder to her head, stroking softly over her hair. "There are a few options and we'll go over them later."

"What—"

"Kagome." A firm order filtered through his voice, both calming and demanding her attention. "Not here. Not now."

She swallowed, tears still sliding down her cheeks. She didn't know why he couldn't tell her everything now, why he wanted to wait, but she knew he wouldn't budge. Something about what he said, the way he said it, Kagome couldn't bring herself to push. And she found she didn't want to.

"My family?" she asked instead and regretted her words the moment his body stilled. "Kouga. What about my family?"

"Kagome." This time, instead of the command her name held earlier, it held grief. "Your family knows you best, don't they?"

She nodded.

"Then they would know something was wrong as soon as they saw you, wouldn't they?"

No nod this time, just more tears as her shoulders trembled.

"Kagome."

She pressed her face into his neck, twisted his shirt in her grip. "I can't see my family again," she choked out, finishing the picture he was painting for her. "I can't—my family—Kouga. No. I can't—"

Her shoulders shook as her words cut off. Never see her family again? Never listen to her mom's advice or Grandpa's crazy stories? Never tease Souta again or watch him grow into the wonderful man he's becoming? Never have another dinner, another movie night, another holiday spent with them?

"No," she begged. "Please, Kouga. Please tell me I'm wrong. Please tell me I can see them. That I won't lose them."

His arms tightened around her, but he said nothing. Her knees buckled and he took her weight, lowering them both to the floor.

"Please Kouga," she cried, her voice hoarse with tears. "This can't be happening. I can't—I have to see them again. I have to."

Her words fell on deaf ears. Kouga said nothing, simply held her against his chest and rocked her right there on the floor of her empty kitchen.

"Say something, Kouga." Kagome had to hear something. She needed to. "Please."

His hand brushed through her hair, resting against her nape. "There's nothing I can say that's going to make this easier, Kagome."

"Please."

He adjusted her against his body and she let him. Let him get them both as comfortable as possible. Let him do whatever he wanted. 'You're not alone," he murmured. "You have us. You have the pack. We don't replace your family and I would never want to, but you're not going to be alone."

Kagome already didn't know what she would do without him, without the pack, without their strength to stand on. "Inuyasha knew."

The rocking stilled. "Knew what would happen to you?"

She nodded.

His sigh ruffled through her hair. "Yeah."

"How could he?"

"I don't know, Kagome," Kouga murmured. His tone was soothing, even through the thick of her pain. "I wasn't there. I have no idea what he was thinking." Another movement of his hand, another beat of his pulse. "You were close friends, right?"

She nodded. They were close friends. Still were. He was the first person she met when she moved to the city, the first friend she made away from home. He knew her better than almost any other friend she'd ever had.

"Then I imagine he panicked." He rocked her again. "An elevator crash isn't a pretty scene, especially if there was someone in it."

She knew this. She could remember the fear, the sounds, the pain. "But my family," she rasped out.

At that, Kouga had no response and Kagome could find nothing else to say. Nothing she wanted to say. Saying anything would hurt. Hearing him speak would hurt. Everything…everything hurt.

Kagome lost her friends, her family, the very life she lived, and for what? To continue existing as a shell permanently locked away from everything she loved? What did this new life have to offer?

She didn't know how long she sat there crying. Long enough for her tears to run dry and her legs turn numb, but not once did Kouga complain. He simply held her, only breaking the silence to keep the other weres out of the kitchen. She would have to thank him later for that. Privacy seemed like such a ridiculously small thing in this new world of horror, but she treasured the small moments Kouga saved for her.

Shouts came from the hallway, finally drawing her attention. She couldn't find it in her to move, but was grateful for the distraction from her thoughts. Maybe something else would help her stand on her own feet.

The shouting got closer, followed by loud thuds and bangs along the way. An angry "What are you doing here?" came from her front door and Kagome couldn't help but wonder just who could infuriate the gentle-mannered were so easily.

"Get outta my way!" came a shockingly familiar voice before the door slammed open. "Kagome?! Kagome!"

She froze, not believing what she was hearing. More fights, more shouting while a rumbling growl filled her ears, growing louder and louder until a blur of red drew her gaze to the edge of the kitchen.

"Hey!" Inuyasha stood there wearing robes she'd never seen him wear before, his silver hair a tousled mess over his shoulders, and his face a demanding glare sent toward the werewolf holding her.

The growl rose to a terrifying snarl and Kagome realized it was Kouga making the sound. Her gaze darted to him and found his eyes narrowed and fangs bared as he returned Inuyasha's glare.

"What are you doing here, you mangy wolf?! Get your hands off Kagome!"