It was ironic that only a day after making up with Inuyasha, they were attacked.

They had been trapped while walking through the forest, a good ways from the village. The only reason they were that far away from the rest of the pack was because there had been some potential wolf sightings reported in that general area by a couple of the villagers who had an orchard out there, and Inuyasha had been obligated to go check it out. The risk had seemed mild, since the rival demon wolf-pack had never come this far into their territory. Most likely they figured it was maybe a few normal wolves that had wandered in.

The only reason Inuyasha had let her tag along was because she had petitioned Kaede to let her go, and the Alpha had felt it would be a good training exercise. Kagome knew good and well that the only reason she was allowed to go was because none of them had expected there to actually be any danger.

Oh how wrong they'd been.

It had indeed been the enemy demons, who had managed to sneak into their territory further than they ever had before, and they had set traps. The traps were of very high quality, and even Inuyasha hadn't sensed them until it was too late. They had both been scooped up into a net, and shot with darts that instantly made them both feel slightly weak. Somehow, Kagome could sense that the poison that had been in those darts would prevent them from transforming, but it didn't prevent Inuyasha from ripping the net open with his claws and fighting with his sword.

Unfortunately they had been outnumbered and unprepared, and Inuyasha had been slashed a good number of times with some weapons that looked like metal claws attached to the hands of the humanoid wolf-demons who had surrounded them. Kagome seriously held her own with her bow, taking down an impressive number of them before they got too close for the long distance weapon. Once they were too close to use her bow she slashed at them with her claws, but she still wasn't a good short-range fighter yet and when they got inside her bubble she was toast.

Inuyasha took out more than she did, and yet somehow there were still enough left to take them down. The only reason they could though, was because it quickly became apparent that the claw weapons were coated in some sort of toxin, one which almost entirely paralyzed Inuyasha and seemed to cause him a great deal of pain.

Kagome hadn't been poisoned because they hadn't needed to use weapons to take her down once they had gotten past her arrows. But she was still bound as tightly as Inuyasha, and both were picked up by their feet and shoulders and taken to the enemy camp.

The place they were taken to wasn't a permanent village like the one Kagome now almost felt was home, instead it was just a camp, one that could be moved, and the cage they were thrown into was likewise one that could be set up and taken down for transportation. This temporary enemy base was totally within the dog-demon territory, a fact that Kagome found out by listening to Inuyasha snarling to himself about it.

Kagome grunted as she hit the ground rather roughly, the impact so sudden and her head hitting the ground with so much force that she barely heard Inuyasha's yell of protest, filled with many bad words. She peeled herself off the dirt as she heard the creak of the cage door and the thunk of finality as it shut behind her. Sitting up was a feat in and off itself since she didn't have use of her arms. They had been bound tightly behind her back, from elbow to fingers, completely making them useless.

Spitting out a mouthful of dirt tainted with blood from biting her cheek upon impact, her thighs shook as she managed to lever herself upright. Their captors had disappeared of course, leaving them in relatively dim light, utterly alone inside the small cave where their cage was located. It was a shallow cave, the entrance only a few feet from the door of the cage, and grass grew sparsely inside, along with other scrubby plants. But Kagome paid little attention to her surroundings at first; her main concern was Inuyasha.

He had been grievously injured, slashed deeply a good number of times in his torso. It wasn't exactly anything new for the dog-demon apparently, according to him at least. This time though, Kagome could see that the injuries were actually very dangerous for her companion, because the weapons had been laced with that poison, and it had almost immediately sapped Inuyasha's power. It was the only reason he was leaning propped up in the corner of the cage, his arms bound like hers behind his back. Normally, she doubted he would have ever been captured so easily in the first place, and if somehow he had, she suspected he would have easily broken the simple, but tough, ropes wrapped tightly around his arms and hands. Now however, he half-lay, half-sat in the corner of the cage, panting and sweating heavily, his eyes half-lidded with pain. He could barely move.

Kagome managed to shuffle on her knees across the rough ground to him, kneeling at his side. Her anxious and worried look conveyed her concern. She asked with her eyes to the best of her ability if he was alright.

His head tilted back and leaned against the bars of their prison and his yellow eyes slid to the side to meet hers. She was sitting up tall on her knees and her head was higher than his, given his slumped position so he was looking blearily up at her.

He gave her a weak scowl. "I'm gonna be just fine. I'll bust us outa here and pound those assholes into the ground." He paused on a subtle wince. "…shit…" He growled on a groan. "… I'll kill them all, as soon as I can fucking move."

The last bit was said very softly under his breath, but Kagome still heard it.

Whatever poison they had used must have been some pretty awful stuff to have him on his back like this, or almost on his back. She knew she'd have to do something, and fast, because they had made it clear that he'd be dying soon. That was why they were just letting them sit here all by themselves after all. The enemy was undoubtedly confident that Inuyasha would be dead soon and had just thrown him in here to let him rot. Once he was dead, who knows what they'd do with Kagome.

She had to give it to them though, they were sneaky. They'd hit them when their backs were turned, had used poison, and now were just waiting the more dangerous opponent out.

And Kagome could tell he was absolutely furious.

Inuyasha was quiet, his gleaming golden eyes fixed on the door and burning with fire. Somehow, even without ever having fought beside him before, she could sense that it was when he stopped yelling obscenities and started up with that calculating enraged glare that Inuyasha was most dangerous. She had never seen him this eerily quiet before, his normally loud mouth almost never stopping for any lengthy amount of time.

Kagome didn't really have any time to ponder his silence or their situation or a possible escape plan, because contrary to what she had figured they would do, someone did come to the cage. Only a few minutes had passed since they had arrived at this enemy camp. She'd thought they would just wait till Inuyasha was dead, but instead the leader approached, standing at the cage door, his long brown ponytail gleaming from the faint light of the fire somewhere outside behind him. His hip cocked, a bushy brown tail swishing behind him, and a grin spread across his thin lips as he stared at them huddled in the corner of the prison. He would have been attractive, if he hadn't been so damn evil looking. Then again, Kagome wasn't sure she was a huge fan of his short fur tunic and furry leg warmers. In fact, he was just wearing too much fur altogether.

Not that Kagome really had eyes for anyone other than Inuyasha.

Given how in love she was with Inuyasha; she wasn't at all fazed by the attractiveness of their captor. She simply felt rage towards the man. She glared at him and moved her body subtly in front of Inuyasha's, ignoring the soft growl that came from behind her, a sound that said he wasn't too pleased about her protective stance.

The man in front of them chuckled. "Oh, how sweet, your little girlfriend is trying to protect you Inuyasha."

He got no response from the white haired man behind Kagome, but she could practically feel the way his eyes were burning a hole through the back of her skull, aimed right at the enemy. If looks could kill she was sure the enemy would be dead and her head would be a donut.

"What do you want, you bastard?!" She mouthed, trying to get his attention off Inuyasha. She wasn't one to cuss normally, but this was an exception. Of course he probably didn't know what she had said.

His blue grey eyes shifted and speared her, giving her goosebumps. He grinned wider, showing some fang.

"So you're the new little priestess dog. What a cute spitfire." He licked his lips. "I like that. Although it seems you have no voice. What a shame. I won't be able to hear any adorable screams from you or anything."

She shuddered and mouthed some more, sure he wouldn't be able to understand, but without her hands it was all she could do. "Gross, that's just nasty. What the hell did you capture us for, Pervert?!"

"Pervert am I?" He laughed, shocking her that he had been able to read her lips that well. "Well darling Kagome, I'm assuming you just asked what I am planning to do with you to. First of all, I want to kill Inuyasha. Second, I want information about the dog-pack. And third…maybe I want you for a little fun."

"None of those things are going to happen. Fuck off." Inuyasha finally growled from behind Kagome.

The demon raised an eyebrow, and then suddenly he reached inside the relatively small cage and managed to wrap his fingers around Kagome's neck before she could back out of the way or dodge. She gasped and choked as he squeezed and dragged her mercilessly to the door, slamming her right up against the bars in front of him.

Inuyasha shouted, "KAGOME!" and then made a terrifying growl that even had her skin crawling with unease.

She couldn't say anything at all, her windpipe utterly shut by the creep's strong hand wrapped around it.

"Now, you hush back there, Mutt, unless you have some useful information on your pack." The demon said almost pleasantly before turning to Kagome and utterly ignoring Inuyasha. Normally that would have been a very dumb move, but since even Kagome could hear the way he was scrambling to just sit up a little, there was no way he could get to the cage door to help.

The demon's fingers relaxed their grip around her throat a little, and then he reached through the bars with his other hand and grabbed Kagome by the hair, holding her in place. He tightened his hand painfully in her hair, getting a little wince from her and then leaned in close, saying, "We can do this one of two ways. You can nicely tell me, in your own way, what you know of the dog pack, any weaknesses, when they have a guard shift and when they don't, where their provisions are kept, stuff like that. Or, we can do this the hard way."

She gritted her teeth and very clearly mouthed the words, "Go to hell."

"I almost hoped you would say that." He grinned, and yanked hard on her hair, slamming her head forward into the bars.

Kagome gasped and then air-cried out in surprise and pain as her face was smashed into the bar, her forehead, eyebrow, and right cheek bone all blooming with bright pain. She felt warmth and something drip down from her eyebrow and knew the skin must have split under the assault. The sudden impact also had her head feeling a little weird for a second and it took a moment for her to refocus her eyes on the enemy, who was broadly grinning and showing full fang now.

Inuyasha was downright beside himself behind her, spitting and snarling and growling and sounding positively rabid. But he still couldn't move.

Kagome grimaced and glared at the enemy. He just grinned and said, "Now! Would you like to taste more pain or will you simply tell me what I want to know?"

She spat in his face in response. In retrospect it wasn't the smartest move.

"Oh! So you want to play do you?" He barked, and accompanied the exclamation with his hand wrapping more firmly around her neck. He jerked her to the side while opening the door and then yanked her out. He swiftly closed the door behind her, before slamming her back against it.

She coughed as her back and bound arms hit the bars behind her. She used what little mobility she had in her tied up fingers and tried to grip the bar directly behind her, not about to be hauled off to some feudal torture room. It was hard to ignore Inuyasha, who was now yelling obscenities and still growling, trying to get the guy's attention, but she forced herself to focus on the enemy in front of her.

"Tell me what you know, Bitch!" The demon in front of her snarled, seeming to have a rapid mood switch and turning furious. His fist slammed into her solar plexus, hard enough to send her to her knees. She groaned silently as the thudding agony spread through her body, her head pounding, her eyebrow still dripping blood, her shoulders wrenched, her throat sore, and now her chest and stomach throbbing with a tight misery that made it hard to breathe for a few seconds.

She sputtered weakly into the ground, staying on her knees with her head nearly touching the dirt and her ears slicked back in submission, not really wanting to be beaten.

She felt him kneel in front of her, and his hand patted her head almost tenderly, seeming to have yet another abrupt mood swing. "That's right…good girl. Nice and submissive. Now, I want you to start with the Alpha. Do you know who the Alpha of the dog pack is?"

Heeding the frantic commands of Inuyasha to just tell him what he wanted to know, she mouthed the word, "Kaede." It took him a while to get that one, and then he asked what she looked like. He followed that with more questions, which she also answered, to the best of her ability. This didn't last very long, because soon she had run out of things to say. She didn't know any more about the dog pack since she was new, and he quickly grew frustrated.

"That's IT?! That's ALL you know!?" He barked, and the soft hand on her head suddenly shoved her face roughly into the dirt and grass under it.

Kagome sputtered and then choked as she tried to breathe through her face-full of earth. Her eyes were shut tightly, but she couldn't prevent the dirt from being ground into her open cuts, and she winced at the gritty feeling.

"Useless Girl!" His hand stopped shoving her down, only to grab onto her bound wrists. He stood, hauled her to her feet, practically lifting her by her tightly wrapped arms, which stressed her shoulders, and Kagome yelled silently as he yanked cruelly at her. He spun her around so her back was to his front and then snapped his hand back over her throat. He then proceeded to question Inuyasha, using her to get him to talk. It didn't take much to get him to open his mouth, all this guy, Koga according to the many loud yells directed at him by Inuyasha, had to do was hold her still with the one hand on her throat, while the other traveled over her body, switching between inappropriate groping and poking his claws through her clothes, drawing beads of blood. He always stopped doing whatever he was doing when Inuyasha answered the question, but then started up again at the next question.

Once he was satisfied that he had gotten all the information he needed, he dragged her back to the cage. The cage door was opened and she was thrown inside brutally, swung by her hands, and she felt her shoulders make several ominous popping sounds, and burning pain cracked across her entire expanse of shoulder and collarbone area. She fully expected her body to impact the ground once again, but to her surprise she landed rather harshly against something warm, softer than the ground, firm, and a little damp.

The door was slammed shut and the enemy turned and left, leaving Kagome and Inuyasha alone once again. But only after saying, "I'll come back later for you, sweet Kagome." The words prompted a deep rumble to come up from under her.

After the initial impact, Kagome had slumped and tumbled down to lie across what she now realized were Inuyasha's thighs. He had somehow managed to drag himself sort of upright, and was in the process of crawling on his knees towards the door when she had been tossed in. He had apparently lunged with the last little bit of his strength to let Kagome land on him instead of the ground. Kagome had been too busy at the time to notice any of this however.

But now she noticed, and she also noticed the way her shoulders and arms felt moist now, presumably with his blood.

"Inuyasha! What are you doing! Moving around is only going to speed up the poison's progress!" She mouthed silently, trying to get back to her knees.

Inuyasha just grumbled something incomprehensible under his breath, the only bit that she could understand being, "…shut up idiot…" Undoubtedly he heard her sputters but was unable to understand them.

He started hauling them both back, eventually settling back in his corner, the furthest point from the cage door as possible. As she was basically dragged across the floor, a little plant caught her eye as she passed by it, and her head popped up. She looked around in growing glee and wiggled her way off Inuyasha's lap.

She quickly shuffled over to investigate. To her glee, it was indeed the herb that Kaede had shown her.

"What are you doin'?" Inuyasha grunted from his spot, sullenly slumping back against the wall.

She mouthed, "medicine" and then, "antidote" and pointed with her eyes and head at the plants.

He perked up behind her and she turned her head to see his golden eyes watching her intently, his ears trained hard in her direction. "You sure? How are you gonna use it? Your hands are tied."

She shrugged, and figured the only way she was going to be able to do it was to use her mouth, which she could just demonstrate. So, she widened her stance and wasting no time in ducking her upper body down to the ground, curling up almost in a fetal position, and attempting to chomp down on the little low-to-the-ground plants. But to her utter frustration, the red ribbon that she had tied around her neck as an accessory this morning kept swinging forward and blocking her mouth. She was so eager that she repeatedly received mouthfuls of the red fabric, and simply couldn't seem to work around it. It had been loosened by that damn Koga nearly strangling her, and was now up loosely swinging instead of tied securely around her throat. It kept sliding up her neck and nearly gagging her.

She sat up with a huff, and looked down at the offending article of fabric, and started silently grumbling at it under her breath.

"What's wrong?" Inuyasha asked from his place in the corner.

She turned and demonstrated the problem for him by bending over and getting the ribbon in her mouth, and then spat it out disgustedly.

Then she glanced up to see his eyebrows raised, he looked a tad incredulous. After a short pause he said, "Why don't you just bite it off?"

She gaped at him in some consternation. "How?!" she mouthed at him.

"Well you said it's getting in your mouth. Just gnaw through it."

Frowning she decided to give it a try, despite already knowing it wouldn't work. She bent forwards and managed to get it in her mouth and then sat up again and started chewing. After a good few minutes she spat it back out. She simply didn't have the right angle on it to pull it off. It would be much easier if it was in front of her and she could bite onto it and pull and tear at it, but as it was, it nearly worked as a gag and pulled her jaw back too far for her to properly chew on it.

Inuyasha heaved a sigh. "Come'ere then. I'll get it off for ya."

She blinked, confused, and shuffled over on her knees, trying to ignore the way the stone and dirt and grass ground into her skin. She gave him a questioning look to ask, "how?" once she sat in front of him.

He jerked his head wearily. "Get over here. Jeez."

Blinking even more, she scooted closer, and at his slightly exasperated glare she inched closer. She wasn't sure what he was planning, and she didn't really want to know. She was getting a feeling of foreboding, and if her suspicion was correct she didn't think she'd be able to handle his plan.

At his huffing sound of frustration, she snapped, mouthing "what do you want?" She had both her knees pressed tightly to his thigh and she was leaning over him as much as she dared, keeping a good two foot distance between their chests. It was still too close for her though.

"If you want me to bite the damn thing off, then get your ass over here so I can reach it!" He practically barked at her, sounding irritable and tired. There was also a note of pain in his voice.

It was that pain that snapped her to attention. She got over her insecurities and got herself as close as she could, leaning down so she could try and get the ribbon to his mouth. The angle was way too awkward though, and she lost her balance, almost tipping over on top of him. She managed to lung back fast enough to prevent herself from slamming into his injured chest, although she fell off her knees and hit her elbow on the ground as she tried to correct herself from falling backwards from the overcorrection.

"Kagome! What the hell are you doing? Are you okay?" Inuyasha sputtered, sounding concerned, irritated, and amused, all at the same time.

She nodded with an exasperated sigh, dragging herself upright again and giving up on having any sort of propriety.

She got up close again, still trying to avoid the inevitable, but when her balance nearly tipped over again, she huffed and was forced to put a knee up on his thighs for balance. She refused to straddle him, and ended up in a rather strange sideways position, almost half-way on his lap with one knee on the ground pressed up against his hip and the other propped up on both his legs. She leaned her shoulder very lightly against his and tossed her hair over her other shoulder to present the side of her neck to him, finally getting close enough that his mouth could latch on.

This was so incredibly awkward for Kagome, and she did her best to try not to blush… and failed spectacularly. Even so, it helped that Inuyasha was being so business-like about it, although she couldn't have any way of knowing that his cheeks were also just a tad pink, since her face was turned away from his. She tensed as she felt a tug on the ribbon and his hot breath on her jaw and cheek. The ribbon turned and he started to work on the knot of the bow, snarling as he did. She had made it nearly impossible to untie by gnawing on it herself.

After several minutes of that he paused and let her go. "I don't think I can untie this, Kagome. I'm gonna have to bite it off. But I might get you too."

She nodded to show that she understood, her ears twitching with discomfort and anxiety. The faster they could get this done the better, because Koga had said he'd be coming back for her.

After a pause she felt another tug on her ribbon, this one quite a bit stronger. His nose pressed into the skin under her jaw as he got a firmer grip and his head jerked back sharply as he bit on the cloth. She heard a rip, but it didn't tear all the way. He growled and went in again, and this time she jerked as first she felt his lips contact her neck, and then a sharp fang scratched harshly across her skin. She braced herself as his head jerked side to side, like a dog, and the fabric ripped, finally coming off.

She sighed and made to lean back.

"Damn…I'm sorry Kagome. Looks like one of my fangs drew blood." Inuyasha grumbled, sounding remorseful and frustrated and tired.

Kagome started trying to breathe, "it's okay" since he was close enough to hear her, and then stopped to air-squeak as she felt a warm wet swipe on the slight sting on her neck.

She lunged back, falling on her backside and scooting a few feet away, mouthing, "did you just lick me?!"

This time she did see the flush bloom on his cheeks and his eyes widened in shock. "Uh…I-I-I, I'm sorry! It was instinct!"

It was so rare to hear him stutter that she was soothed somewhat with a shock of amusement. He seemed nearly as startled as she was herself, and she figured it made sense, if what he said was true. After all, he was a dog-demon. Maybe it truly had just been an instinct to lick the scratch he had inflicted on her. Still, the warmth and wetness still lingered on her skin and tingled pleasantly, making her intensely aware of it. And that was very uncomfortable for Kagome. Of course, having feelings for him meant she often thought about kissing him and stuff, but it typically made her so flustered that she tried not to do it too much in his presence, or at all if she could.

She nodded awkwardly, and turned to hide her red face. She had other things she needed to be doing now, like gathering those herbs to help Inuyasha heal. She shuffled back over to the patch of green and bowed down to them, getting her face down close to the ground to finally bite on the really terrible tasting herbs. She nearly threw up at the exceptionally bitter taste that exploded on her tongue and did heave a few times, rather violently in fact, but forced herself to gnaw off as much as she could and then chew it down to a pulp she could store in her cheek so she could collect more.

Inuyasha watched in silence, and Kagome was unaware of the way he was silently amazed by the lengths to which she would go to care for him.

Once her mouth was at full capacity, she heaved herself back up and shuffled awkwardly over to Inuyasha, before halting and squinting in some consternation at the problem that suddenly presented itself. She really needed to plan ahead, because now she was just realizing that to do this, Inuyasha's red fire-rat robe had to come off, along with his white kosode. And how was she supposed to do that with her hands tied? Obviously she'd have to somehow unclothe him with her teeth, which was a shockingly embarrassing prospect in and of itself. But what was worse, was that it was an impossible feat since her mouth was full of the herb.

She could just spit it out and start over again, but she had managed to pack a good amount into her mouth, and she didn't know how much she would need. Inuyasha noted her pause, saw the way she was eyeballing his red clothing, and figured out what the problem was. He attempted to reach down and undo the string holding the top together with his teeth, but simply couldn't reach, and the effort exhausted him.

"Just spit it out and get more." He panted, leaning his head back against the bars and closing his eyes.

She met his eyes, looked back at the green herbs to try and judge if there was enough left, and then she looked back at his chest, trying to judge how serious his injuries were by the blood stains. Her looking back and forth apparently clued Inuyasha into the problem she was trying to figure out, because he frowned and looked around her towards the diminished patch of herbs.

"Huh. You did a pretty good amount of damage," he sighed, closing his eyes again. For a long time he remained silent, presumably thinking.

She was also thinking, trying to figure out where she could temporarily store the contents of her mouth. It had to be a place she was fine with licking to get the chewed mass of herbs back into her mouth. In other words, not the ground. If only she could spit it into her hand…but then she would have access to her hands and that would solve the problem entirely. Thinking of wild alternatives…she supposed she could maybe place it temporarily on Inuyasha…but he only really had the skin on his face or his neck…and she wasn't comfortable with licking any of Inuyasha's skin. She could put it on her leg, but she was pretty sure it would slide off and onto the ground, especially if she had to move around to pull off his upper clothing. She glanced around to see if there were any relatively flat stones she could spit it on, but unfortunately the few rocks in their cage consisted of small useless pebbles. She looked back to the patch of herbs, hoping that maybe they would be thick enough to hold the mashed green stuff in her mouth above the dirt, but with her chewing and gnawing she had thinned them out to the point that the herbs would just fall to the earth in between the sparse stalks.

There wasn't anywhere else in the cage she could put it that wouldn't get dirt mixed into the herb. It wasn't eating the dirt that bothered Kagome, it was the fact that the dirt would then be smeared into Inuyasha's wounds along with the poultice, and she had no idea what sorts of chemicals or poisons might be in this dirt from the dripped blood of previous inhabitants. It might infect his wounds even worse and that wasn't something she wanted to risk.

Inuyasha heaved a great sigh, distracting her from her depressing train of thoughts. He grimaced, which didn't make Kagome feel very confident about what was about to come out of his mouth. "Well…since I can't think of any other option, I'll just hold it while you take care of this…" He nodded down at his red clothing.

She blinked, not really understanding.

One of his golden eyes slitted open at the long questioning pause, correctly interpreting it as her asking him, "how?" and he pinned her with a mildly irritated look. "The same way that you're holding it, Dummy. In my mouth."

Her eyes popped open with shock, trying to absorb the implications of that statement. That would mean she'd have to … essentially do mouth to mouth. And not just one time, but twice. Once to place the stuff there and again to get it back from him. That meant kissing him…which was not something she thought she could do. She looked over her shoulder and eyeballed the remaining herbs, once again critically analyzing what was left and then shifted her gaze back to Inuyasha to do the same to the amount of blood on his front and the size and number of tears in his shirt, trying her best to convince herself there would be enough if she just spat the current stuff in her mouth onto the ground.

But everything Kaede had taught her said "no." There simply wasn't enough, and even if there was, it would be risky. And this was one thing she couldn't risk, because if Inuyasha didn't heal, they would both die. With these stakes, she'd just have to do what she had to do.

She winced, hung her head, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath before shuffling over to him, avoiding looking him in the eye. It wasn't that she didn't want to kiss him, she did, very much in fact, but she didn't know if he wanted to kiss her. That made this incredibly awkward. Then again, even if she knew he did want to kiss her, she probably would have still been shy and embarrassed.

Once she was right next to him, close enough that she could lean over and do the deed, she stalled, flushing and wondering how the heck to go about this.

He flushed too when he felt her breath on his face and cracked open his once again closed eyes at her pause, quickly losing his patience and saying, "Just put it in my mouth! It's not that difficult a concept, Kagome. You don't have to plan a fucking battle strategy for it or anything."

Kagome scowled at him in admonishment and once again propped one knee on his leg to get closer.

His yellow eyes watched her as she approached, and she stalled once again, her eyes finding it impossible to rest on his face with his eyes staring at her like that.

She looked off to the side in embarrassment, and then gathered up her courage and pointedly looked at his eyes before squeezing her eyes closed - then did it again when he didn't get the message to, "please close your eyes!" the first time. She flushed even harder as she looked away, not leaning back despite really, really wanting to.

He heaved a sigh, and said eyes rolled in exasperation before closing. He tensed under her as he felt her leaning in, and Kagome could feel it where her knees were touching him. She hovered an inch from his face, hesitating to close that last tiny bit of distance between their lips.

She was trembling now, all her emotions a mess, the stress of the situation making an already intense circumstance even worse on her poor nerves. Having to kiss Inuyasha under these circumstances was…it was terribly difficult. She knew she'd probably remember the feel of his mouth under hers for the rest of her life, whatever was left of it. And what if she failed and this was the only chance she would ever get? How sad, to kiss him for the only time in this setting.

She stalled too long.

"Kagome…." Inuyasha rumbled warningly, apparently getting sick and tired of waiting, his eyes cracking open.

She bit her lip and then mouthed, with her teeth clenched to prevent the herb from escaping, "open your mouth," the request making her burn bright red and feel like she had a fever. This was utterly humiliating.

He flushed, thankfully able to read her mouth even with her teeth clenched, and his lips parted to her surprise without any protest, which meant she didn't actually have to touch him. He even closed his eyes again.

She took one last deep breath, before she lowered to a hairsbreadth from him, until she could only barely feel a feather light brush. Even that barely-there touch of his lips against hers was enough to make her shiver, and she was quick to part her lips and carefully deposit the green muck from her mouth into Inuyasha's, letting gravity do most of the work for her and doing her best to not actually spit or drool into his mouth as she pushed it out with her tongue.

He winced and his golden eyes flew open in shock at the taste. She jerked back, right as he heaved, but thankfully he kept it all in and hopefully hadn't mixed it with bile. His face screwed up and he stared at her with wide, shocked eyes as he heaved again.

"Sorry," she mouthed, wincing.

He gave her an incredulous look.

She hustled to get to business, once again finding herself amazed that she was actually about to do what she was about to do. She simply couldn't believe she was going to undress Inuyasha with her teeth, but that was precisely what she was planning on doing. She eyeballed his outfit, and determined that the string would have to be tackled first up at the top of his crisscrossed collar. She also had to focus on her balance, not wanting to fall into him and hurt his injuries. She stabilized herself firmly, and then leaned in, managing to get the end of the bow-knot with her teeth and undoing it without much trouble. The tight collar loosened considerably and she grabbed a mouthful of the red, disgustingly furry fabric and firmly pulled back with her whole upper body.

She yanked the front open, then went back in and delicately gripped the edges of the red over-coat with her teeth to pull it open further and down his arms a bit as well. She was stymied a bit by the tie around his waist, but she got that undone with a bit off effort, and then the one on the inside as well, though it was exceptionally awkward. To get that one she had to shove her head practically inside his shirt nudging it to the side as much as it would go and grabbed the tie with her teeth before giving a good yank, all while ignoring the warmth of his body and the distinct Inuyasha scent that engulfed her senses.

Occasionally she had to brace her chest against him, which was really humiliating, and she tried to use her sore shoulders or collar bone as much as possible instead of her breasts, but it was inevitable sometimes. He mainly stayed still during the whole process, though he would occasionally twitch or tense under her, and she figured she must be causing him some accidental pain.

Finally, she had his red overcoat completely open and hanging off his shoulders and she set to the next white layer, repeating the whole process while ignoring the touches of her mouth and face on his bare skin. It was easy though in a way, because the smears of blood on her cheeks from his wounds and the stronger scent of his blood constantly reminded her of her purpose. Soon both shirts were open and his chest and stomach were exposed, showing off the depth and gravity of the injuries she was trying to treat. The wounds were a terrible purple color and radiated lines.

She had to hurry.

She leaned back up to get the mush back and Inuyasha's eyes met hers again. She flushed and gritted her teeth. Since he would be passing it up to her instead of down, he wouldn't be able to use gravity the way she had, so they would have to actually have lip contact this time, a fact Kagome had been trying to not think about. But time was of the essence, and if she spent too much time thinking about it she would freeze up like before, so she just went for it, pressing her mouth against his and hoping he would get it over with as quickly as possible.

She locked all her muscles in place to prevent herself from running screaming from the feeling of his lips pressed to hers. She slammed her eyes shut and waited, getting the brief impression of Inuyasha's eyes widening in shock. His lips were hard at first since they had pressed together out of shock, but they slowly softened under hers, and she was shocked by how soft they felt. She never would have imagined a pair of lips would feel this way, since technically this was her first kiss. Inuyasha's lips were soft to press against, but she could feel roughness on the surface from them being chapped, and they were amazingly warm. She felt his breath on her cheek, and noted it was rapid, practically matching her own, and this close his scent nearly overpowered her again. She had intimately gotten familiar with that scent through this whole incident, especially with getting her face up close and personal to his sweaty chest.

His mouth twitched under hers and she responded, forcing herself not to give into the wish to actually kiss him. She simply kept her lips pressed to his and opened her mouth to accept the paste. It was nearly impossible to only do that. She burned to press her lips to his, repeatedly and in different ways, to actually move her lips against his, the way she had read about in books, to actually kiss him and feel his lips kiss her back. It was amazing how much concentration she had in her mouth right now, aware of every little muscle in her lips and wanting to use them to rub her lips against his, to feel more of his mouth against hers, to feel every little nuance of his lips with her own, but she held herself back through force of will alone.

She quickly was distracted by the taste of the green stuff and was never so thankful for bitterness in her whole life. Inuyasha had to spit it up out of his mouth, which took several goes to get it all, and Kagome chipmunked it in her cheeks to prevent it from falling back down into his mouth. It was awkward and a bit messy, and some of it was lost and spilled down poor Inuyasha's cheeks and over his chin, but eventually she had most of it back in her mouth and she pulled away.

He rubbed his face on his shoulders to remove the green ooze, grimacing at the foul taste lingering in his mouth.

Now for the next fun part…she had to put this green gunk that was in her mouth onto his wounds.

She went for the first one on his shoulder, using her nose to nudge the shoulder of his shirts aside until they fell down his arm even more and exposed that wound. She carefully spat the paste into the wound and then used her mouth to compress it and make sure it was packed into the deep cut, getting his blood all over her lips, chin, and cheeks as she did so. She grimaced, but continued to do it.

Inuyasha winced and a deep whine crawled out of his chest, but he stayed still for her, all his muscles locking into place. She knew this stuff was supposed to sting like a bitch, so she wasn't surprised at his reaction.

She went to the next, much deeper wound on his chest, and once again spat into it, packing it in tight with her mouth and chin. She almost used up all of it in her mouth on that one and used the rest on another lower down. Now that she had access to her tongue, she went back up to the top one, and packed it in even tighter with her tongue, despite grimacing and really hating herself as she did so. It was disgusting, and she couldn't help but feel horrified that she was essentially sticking her tongue in his open wounds, but it was the only way to make sure the herb was in as tight as it needed to be, especially on the deeper wounds.

She shuffled back over to the patch of herbs and repeated the whole unsavory process, having to return again and again for more herbs. It was incredibly unpleasant. The herbs tasted awful, his blood tasted like blood which wasn't something Kagome liked in the least. In fact, the taste of blood was always the reason she had hated her teeth being pulled as a kid. It was literally one of the least favorite flavors in the world for her. And his blood tasted even worse, because she could taste the poison. At the very least, it didn't seem nearly as repugnant now that she was a demon, which was a blessing because she would have thrown up by now otherwise.

The poison itself was making her lips, tongue, mouth, chin, cheeks, and even her nose begin to burn, and as she inevitable ended up swallowing some of it she could feel herself getting woozy and start to feel poisoned herself. This poison was no joke, it was meant to bring down the most powerful of demons.

And then there was simply the embarrassment, humiliation, and horror of what she was doing. She didn't ever get used to using her tongue as a compress, and it felt so gross. But on the other hand, her lips were touching his skin, and that was a whole different problem in and of itself. Basically she was kissing his entire chest and stomach, or at least a good deal of it, and that was proving to be trying for her in all kinds of ways.

Eventually though she had managed to get the green gunk in all his wounds. Dragging her exhausted aching body to slump against the uncomfortable bars of their prison next to Inuyasha, she sighed, resting alongside him.

Now it was up to him.

Tada! Koga has made an appearance! :D

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Anyone have any predictions on what might happen next?

As always, a big thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far.