A/N: Hello all! Thank you all once again for the wonderful reviews and such for the last chapter of my fan fiction! Now see? I'm much more willing to update quickly, hah. (And with longer updates!) All your wonderful reviews made me smile and I'm glad that you all took the time to write them! Right now, I'm going to try and get the romance a-cooking, hah. And without further a due, chapter 11, one of my lucky numbers!

kagomesbutterflyfeeling: Hey girly, I hope your week's a little better. This one's for you. :)

DISCLAIMER: I do not now, nor will I EVER own Inu-Yasha… If I have come to accept this fact, unfortunately you all must as well.

Remembering What Was Never There

Chapter 11

A knot tied its way very tightly into my stomach as I walked on my way to work that night. I hadn't even thought about speaking to Inu-Yasha since he had stormed out this morning let alone having to come face to face with him. I supposed that the only way to get past it would be to grin and bear it and if he brought anything up just apologize and get it over with.

Today, I managed to walk outside without a jacket on, a rare treat for this time of year and was trying to enjoy the newly coming spring air. Sadly, my mind kept reminding me it was one of those random warm days that would fall back to the icy clutches of winter sooner rather than later… However I was glad to know that warm weather would be on the way. A few children were playing in front of the apartment buildings as mothers met to talk about their husbands and complain of how little they got to enjoy the Osaka night life ever since the children became more mischievous. The banters created a calming soundtrack as I made my way down the oh-too-familiar path to work.

The sounds of their voices faded in the background as the store faded slowly into my view. Inside I could see Sango slumped over the counter. My smile grew as I reached the door, the bell on top of it nearly startling her into a jump as she rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"Kagome, hey!" She said a bit too happily. Her face was pale and her eyes were red.

"I would say 'good evening' but it's more like 'good morning' for you," I said leaning my left arm on the counter top. "You look like you haven't slept for a few days."

"Yeah, I know. I had a late night last night. Miroku finally showed up to my house really late last night. He didn't give me details but he nearly begged me to let him stay the night, so like an idiot I let the pervert in."

"I see."

"Yeah, we talked things out and I guess you could say that things are back to the norm. He was so shaken when he came in last night but he wouldn't tell me why… That was the only thing that we didn't talk about."

'Well, I don't suppose he would be very open about telling you that he was involved with a sort of gang deal before he came there, now would he?' I thought to myself while merely shaking my head.

"I'm sure he was just missing you, Sango. And it's great that you two made up."

"Well, don't make it sound as if we're a married couple." Sango grumbled under her breath before walking past me as I tied my apron around my waist tightly. "But yeah, I'm glad he finally came back too."

"Oh, that reminds me, did Inu-Yasha swing by at all today?" I attempted to make the question sound as innocent and carefree as possible.

"Yeah, he's been sitting in the storage room ever since this morning. Kaede didn't know what to think and just let him be. She said he walked in muttering and didn't even look at her. He must be mad about something, what'd you do?" She said in a joke.

"I-I didn't do a thing!"

"Uh-huh." She traveled down an aisle of potato chips to the back supply room and kicked the door open slightly. A string of curse words flew out of the door as she shook her head. "Calm down, Kagome's here."

"That's just fuckin' dandy." I heard come out of the room which made me wince a little. Following Sango's footsteps, I found my way to the door and waved before looking in. Inu-Yasha's face was turned to the side and was not looking at us as he sat on a stack of crates.

"Well, would you mind terribly moving your butt so I can re-stock the shelves with what you're sitting on?" Sango said with an attitude, shifting her weight to the left as she passed the question. There was no response from the other party as Inu-Yasha stood up in one swift motion, kicking the box towards her with a grunt. "Thank you kind sir, your graciousness is unmatched by any human… Or well in your case… Whatever." She laughed a bit while walking over a few aisles to where her back was turned to me before setting the box down on the ground. I turned back to Inu-Yasha by walking into the store room and shutting the door behind me. He looked up with a scowl before his boots began to make a shuffling noise as he kicked his toes into the floor.

"How'd you cut yourself?" He muttered not looking at me.

"What?" That caught me off guard before I remembered I had cut my feet. "How did you…"

"I smelt the blood the second you walked into the store. What'd you do to yourself?"

"I broke something and got a few pieces of glass in my feet, it's no big deal, really."

"Clumsy," Inu-Yasha looked up at me with his brows still arched down. "What did you break?" I swallowed.

"It was nothing, just an old glass is all." I felt my cheeks flushing and clasped my hands behind my back. "I'm sorry." Inu-Yasha looked at me with a face of surprise. He took a step closer to me and uncrossed his arms.

"What the hell do you got to be sorry about?"

"I'm not quite sure, I just can't stand it when you're mad at me." I hid my eyes behind my hair. There was an extended pause.

"Keh, don't worry about it. I've been listening to Sango and all the stuff she's been saying about Miroku and I guess he really can't be trusted. I just… I don't know, it's hard to trust anyone here."

"I understand that."

"Yeah, so um, forget everything I said before." Was this his attempt at an apology? It sure did seem like it. I nodded with a smile as he reached up and played with the light string.

"Well, let's get to work." Grabbing his hand, we were dragged to the door as the light turned out. Opening the heavy concrete slab, Sango stood with a smug look on her face with the empty box in her hands.

"You two know Koga's policy on employee mingling." Sango pointed to our hands with a slender finger. Inu-Yasha yanked his hand back to himself before tucking it back into his pocket. I sent a glare towards her as she laughed and continued into the store room and turned the light back on, spilling more light on the tile floor.

XxXxXxX

"I say we all take off one day and go into town, I've heard the inner city is so fun this time of year." Sango exclaimed as we were getting ready for our shift to end.

"That'd be great except Koga took all my sick days away."

"Just say you passed out in the bathroom and woke up the next morning." Sango smiled.

"Knowing that idiot he'd want copies of the hospital bills." Inu-Yasha piped in.

"Maybe one day we'll go deeper into the city. I haven't been there since I moved; I miss it, especially all the food." As we continued on mopping the floors and washing the counter, the front door opening made us stop. We all figured that it was just Miroku coming in for work until a deep clearing of a throat made me lift my head.

My heart stopped and I'm pretty sure the color drained from my face.

"Would you know where Koga might be?" The man at the door asked. I mentally slapped myself.

"He's upstairs." I pointed.

"Thank you." He said simply before excusing himself up the stairs.

'Sesshomaru.' My mind was racing as Sango looked from him to me.

"You know, I never knew just how many demons were in this area until I met you, Inu-Yasha." She said in a sigh.

"Guess you should have listened to that old hag, Kaede." He shrugged. I kept my ears open, hearing the conversation upstairs getting loud. Sesshomaru remained upstairs far past when we finished our chores and Sango had her light pink jacket and was holding her car keys in her hand.

"You sure you don't want a ride home?"

"Yeah, thanks Sango. I'll see you in class tomorrow." Sango waved to both of us before heading out, her head lights shining brightly in the windows of the store. I tried to make more work for myself to wait for Sesshomaru to come down and it didn't take much longer before footsteps were heard on the stairwell. There was more than just one set of feet as Koga and Sesshomaru both came down.

"Kagome, we'd like to talk to you for a minute." Koga said plainly before pulling me by the arm outside, leaving Inu-Yasha's stares unanswered.

"What're you doing? I could have walked out here on my own!" I said to Koga while yanking my arm back. I saw Sesshomaru was following Koga still as a sharp pain in my cheek forced my face to the left. He had just slapped me.

"We know you were spying on us last night you little bitch." Koga spat at me while I held my burning cheek. My stomach flipped as I looked to both of them, unable to say anything. "And to think I thought you we actually worth a damn. You can't even keep your nose out of other people's business!" He brought a quick hand up to slap me across the other cheek, his demonic claws managing to scratch my face. I felt the warm liquid of spill over my cheek bone and down my chin, a small whimper escaping my lips.

"Don't knock her out, we still have to see if she knows anything about what transpired last night." Sesshomaru said, crossing his arms with some difficulty in his dress jacket.

"I-I didn't hear anything last night." I said unsure of whether I should run or not. Sesshomaru kept looking at the door, no doubt to make sure Inu-Yasha wasn't coming. "I was just walking past." Seeing Koga's eyes travel to Sesshomaru, I attempted to run to the side of him only to be pulled back by the arm and pushed up against the side of the building. The rough surface of the bricks scraped against the exposed arm out of my tee shirt as I hissed a bit and looked back at Koga.

"I doubt if you didn't hear anything that you would be running." Koga glared.

"It's plainly obvious that you don't understand what we're capable of, Miss." Sesshomaru said stepping forward. "Just tell us what you heard and we won't have to do away with you here. You'll be safe, you have my word." I looked at him and back to Koga, feeling a sting in the cut on my cheek as a tear spilt over.

"I know what you did to Sango." I figured I could still get away with something. "That's all I heard, I swear."

"Then she really is useless." The silver haired man backed back up.

"Well then there's no use of keeping her around!" Koga who was still in front of my punched me rather hard in the face, only managing to graze my nose. I felt my body drop from underneath me as I screamed out and suddenly felt as if I was going to black out. It took a moment as I sat dazed on the ground with my hand over my nose to realize I was bleeding and started to panic. Before I could move my body, I felt his hard boot toe kick into my side, barely missing my rib cage. He repeated the action before I heard a car door slamming and footsteps that sounded as if they were running.

"Kagome! Koga, stop it leave her alone!" Miroku's voice came to my ears in a shout as I remained on the ground not moving and crying into my palm. My sobs became gasps for air as I felt it harder to breathe. I must have been hyperventilating. Silently, I sat and listened to the struggle and the door to the store open. "Inu-Yasha! Take Kagome and get out of here!" Miroku pleaded. The only other thing I could place were more urgent footsteps and suddenly I felt weightless. Looking up, I saw Inu-Yasha's concerned face over me and realized he was running with me down a random street.

"We're going home the long way so they don't come after us." He explained as he slowed down and eased me into a wedding style carrying position. "As soon as we get home I'm locking all the doors and windows. Those assholes won't touch you ever again. I don't care what you say, you're not going back to work there."

"B-but-"

"Kagome, that bastard was trying to kill you! Why would you go back there?!" Inu-Yasha looked down at me.

"I'm sorry…" I hid my eyes from his gaze and let my head droop onto his chest. I suddenly felt like my body was useless, I couldn't even bring myself to cry anymore, it was so tired.

"Ugh, don't be sorry." He growled a bit as he looked over his shoulder. "I'm calling the cops."

"No!" I interjected.

"What do you mean 'no?' What the fuck is wrong with you, I told you that they wanted to kill you!"

"If you call the police then they will kill me!" Inu-Yasha glared at me deeply when I said this. "Please, just let it go…"

"I will NOT let it go, Kagome. What if something happens to you? Those idiots obviously have it out for me so they'll keep coming after you to get to me!"

"I'll be fine if you just forget about it!"

"Ignoring this will only make it worse! Damn it you're so stupid, Kagome!" Hearing his voice echo back to him, Inu-Yasha lowered his voice with a sigh. "Just do me one favor and don't go out alone anywhere."

"But scho-"

"One favor, Kagome." He stopped and looked down at me, honey gold that pooled warmly in my chest.

"…All right."

"Then I won't call the cops. But if they ever come after you again, I'll kill them personally." I merely nodded and snuggled my face into his chest and breathed heavily to calm myself down. My arms were caked in the dry blood from my nose and cheek while my arms stung with every slight movement. If I didn't need to be with Inu-Yasha so bad at that moment, I would have begged someone to take me to the hospital. The rest of the way home was nerve racking, I kept looking over Inu-Yasha's shoulder every chance that I had to make sure no one was following us while the approaching sounds of car engines created a knot the size of a tennis ball in my stomach. I never thought I'd live long enough to feel him bringing me up the stairs and gently laying me down on my bed in the apartment. "Now, wait here. I'm going to get some rags or something." He said low as if I actually had the strength to get up and walk out of the room.

Moments later he came back with towels from the bathroom that dripped water into little pools on the floor and began wetting his long sleeved plaid jacket that he had yet to take off. He placed the sopping towels on the night stand beside me and took a washcloth and put it on his hand, his finger poking up to clean my nose.

"This is probably gonna hurt a little." He said bluntly before gingerly wiping the blood that stained my lip and cheek with the towel covered finger. After wiping the main sight of the injuries, he went back to the bathroom and grabbed a bandage and some ointment for my cheek. He took the same finger and rubbed the cream on my face and placed the bandage under my eye, covering it from the world and returned to cleaning the dried blood from my neck and hairline. I cringed a bit as my fingertips lightly touched my nose in slight discomfort. Inu-Yasha placed his hand over mine and pulled it away from my face, shaking his head as he did so. "Don't touch it, you don't know if it's broken yet."

"But I need to see…"

"It looks fine," Inu-Yasha was up close and scanning my face. "It doesn't look misshapen, I think he just hit you hard enough to make you bleed."

"Can't say that's a relief." I sighed, my side giving off shocks of pain as I did so. "I'm sorry for causing so much trouble. Just when I found out about them having connections to you and I came across them talking I couldn't help but listen in… I was so upset about what happened with everything and just, well, I'm just sorry."

"I told you to stop apologizing before, didn't I?" He finished wiping away the last of the blood from my arm. "You shouldn't put yourself in such danger for me, no matter how great of a person you are you're still fragile." That was something I've never thought of myself as. No one had ever said that to me since... Well, since my father passed away. My Mother sat down and explained to me how fragile even my life was and it was a helpless feeling.

"I'm… Fragile?"

"Yes, Kagome, geeze," Inu-Yasha took the dirtied rags to the bathroom and came back quickly. "You're only human and you can't keep thinking that demons are people too. They can seriously hurt you which is why you need to not cross them."

"But I told you why I did it. You're telling me not to apologize then making me feel like I should keep doing it anyway." I said frustrated. He inhaled and calmed himself down.

"I just want you to be careful." He said sitting at the foot of the bed. "I'll protect you as long as I can from them but that means you have to watch what you do and say, okay?" I was taken aback from his words. He'd protect me? Wasn't I the one doing that for him?

"Inu-Yasha..." He looked up at me without a word. We both didn't know what to say. I began to sit up with a little difficulty, the pain coming and going as I did. Inu-Yasha traveled back to the bathroom as I heard the faucet turn on before he returned to me with two aspirins and a cup of water. I took the pills and nodded at him gratefully. "I don't want to be a burden."

"You're not. I just don't want to have to worry about you being okay or not. Apparently I'm accused of doing something horrible or else they wouldn't have thrown me in jail. I'm going to prove that I ain't a criminal and that I can take care of people. Maybe then if I go back to my old life I'll get to live it."

"If?"

"Who knows, maybe my old life sucks compared to this." He shrugged simply. We both looked at each other for the longest time before Inu-Yasha got up and walked to the empty side of the bed. He laid down, propping his head up by crossing his arms behind it and urged me to lay back down as well. I followed his suggestion and uncomfortably laid stiff as a board next to him. " It's strange, when those jerks were outside the store hurting you something kinda snapped in me and I felt like I had to stop this from happening to you again. I don't want to see you… Like this anymore. It makes me angry almost." He cleared his throat, no doubt feeling awkward. "I mean… It's because I don't like taking care of things…. Uh…Is there anything else you need?" I smiled at his flustered tone while some strands of his silver hair fell to cradle his face as his eyes fluttered half closed. I couldn't help but stop and admire him for that second before shaking myself out of the thought. We were laying in a bed together for goodness sake!

"No, but thank you for all you've done for me." I answered lightly. He smirked a bit a me which made my heart race; quickly pumping adrenaline through me. A momentary impulse went through my body as I moved a bit closer to him and kissed his cheek. "I don't think I could ever tell you how much what you said means to me." Inu-Yasha seemed as if he was going to simply let me return to my side of the bed; however he lowered his head to where mine was positioned on the pillow and kissed me on the lips for a quick second. My head was fuzzy and I didn't fully understand what he was doing until he pulled back from me and looked at me with innocent eyes.

"…Is something wrong?" He asked almost confused.

"N-no… I just-" He cut me off by putting his finger to my lips.

"Then shut up, stupid." With even more of a smirk, Inu-Yasha gently pulled my head up to his where our lips met in a more passionate kiss. I closed my eyes and followed his lead of his mouth dancing over my own and attempted to recreate the patterns that he chose. After a few moments more, we broke apart silently and I allowed my forehead to rest on his.

"Inu-Yasha, are you sure this okay? I mean what about Kikyo? She might be your girlfriend after all… And if so, I mean…"

"You really do worry about everything, don't you?"

"But this won't be right!" I protested pushing myself away from him. Inu-Yasha shook his head and sat back up.

"Well, fine. You sit in here thinking about stuff that you probably don't have to. My memory is gone, Kagome and everything went along with it. I'd like to get on with life here instead of having the whole 'oh-woe-is-me' crap going on for the rest of my days." He stood up from the bed a shuffled to the door tiredly.

"Where are you going?"

"I'll take the couch tonight. You just stay there and think. Let me know if you come to any conclusions." Inu-Yasha walked out of the door almost angry and I sighed, drawing my knees up to my chest in pain. I had already messed it up hadn't I? After all the months of waiting for something like this happen and I just messed it up…

Something in that moment came over me, something that to this very day I can't say what it was. I felt as if the feeling that Inu-Yasha had described to me mere moments before was being played out right in front of me…

'If Kikyo was his girlfriend who loved him, why isn't she out there looking for him? Asking for him? Putting up flyers? If that's the case, why do I feel bad? Inu-Yasha wants to continue his life, and I won't be in the way of that.' After looking at the door, I slowly kicked my legs over the bed and tried my best to lower myself onto the floor. The pain wasn't as bad as I thought it would be; the aspirin must have taken the edge of it. Crossing to the dresser, I took out a long night gown and stripped off the blood stained clothing onto the floor. Slipping it over my head, I cringed a bit but straightened myself out and walked to my bedroom door to open it. Once I did, I heard the sounds of the television and saw the faint blue glow that surrounded the half-demon on the couch in a heavenly aura. He looked to me confused as I took in a breath.

"I've come to a decision about this."

"And…?" Without saying another word, I sat on the couch with him and rested my head on his shoulder while looking up at him. He looked back with a sort of smile before reaching over to the remote to hit the power button on the top of it. Once the room was black and soundless, the call of rustling fabric came to ear as Inu-Yasha's lips once again lowered to meet mine.

XxXxXxX

A/N: SWEET! I finally got some things cooking in there this chapter! This would have been up even sooner if I hadn't been gone for a week on a trip… But here it is. Please review guys, reviews keep my heart beating and I don't think you want to be responsible for the imaginary heart monitor that I as an author am on! :Points to happy heart on screen with review and sad heart without: Hah, thank you guys for reading.

'Till Next Time!

A Friend In Words,

--KB