'I figured it out.'

He had started talking as soon as she had approached him, with her usual 'hey.'

'How much?'

'Akuma want's me back in that place. Why, though? I haven't done anything to him.'

'Because you are valuable.' Kikyou said.

'In what way?'

''Linklaters. With your brother the new head of the company, what happens if he dies?'

InuYasha snorted. 'I highly doubt that.' Because of the jewel, he's almost indestructible.

Kikyou gave him an odd look before continuing. 'Suppose he did. Who would get the company?'

He paused. 'Someone he lines up?'

'Would he do that?'

'He would, to make sure that I didn't get it.' InuYasha stated, rolling his eyes.

'Yet you are still important and influential to the company.'

He paused, then shrugged. 'I guess so. I didn't really associate myself with those snobs.'

'And yet every christmas you go to those petty dinners your father holds.'

'Held. I don't think mom's gonna be doing them anymore, if she can help it. Sesshomaru might, depends on whether that assistant of his can persuade him.'

'I had heard he had died. My sympathies.' She paused. 'That still gives you more power, nonetheless.'

'But then, why would he want me back? What good would that do?'

She was silent. 'I think you should do some more research.'

She turned to leave, but he grabbed her wrist as it went past.

'Wait. I can tell you're not telling me everything.'

'No, I'm not.'

'Why?' He questioned, and they stopped walking.

'I haven't figured it all out myself. This seems deeper then what is first thought.'

They walked in silence for a few beats.

She smiled, turned and left.

InuYasha cracked his knuckles, and sat down almost menacingly.

'Right.'

He inserted a few coins, and started tapping away at the library computer, glancing around at the diagonal line of them, him being the only one occupied in his row.

He could remember just how much Akuma had known about what he was up to, so was conscious of being watched.

Akuma Naraku.

About 116,000 results in 0.20 seconds.

Shit.

An old woman approached him then, he spotted her on the reflection of the monitor.

'Everything alright, dear?'

'Fine.'

'Just let me know if you've got any problems, okay?'

'Sure.'

She wandered off, and he pulled back up the page.

He scrolled through the results, his wikipedia page not saying a lot.

He pulled up a few pages and started reading.

Aparently, he'd wanted to be a lawyer after a brief dabbling in magic, or whatever.

InuYasha couldn't really see the similarity.

His mom had died of something or another, so he lived with his dad until he had died in a car accident, when Akuma was about twenty.

It was then he'd wanted to be a lawyer, to solve his fathers case.

It was weird to suddenly know so much about someone InuYasha didn't associate with.

He leant back, gazing around the small library, where others sat at similar coin-timed computers.

He had figured that since Akuma seemed to know so much about him, it would be better to try to be untraceable.

After another beat, he returned his gaze back to the screen, suddenly loosing interest.

What does it matter about this guy I barely know? He got out of all the windows, deleted the history, and refunded the spare coins. He's too, unimportant.

Shoving them in his pocket, he stood up and wandered out.

His thoughts turned back to a bubble of seriousness in the lake of someone else's happiness.

Those few choice words before the wedding, it didn't seem nearly enough.

Kagome… He wasn't surprised she hadn't forgiven him, he would be if she ever did.

The terrible stuff he had said, he hadn't even given her a chance to tell the truth.

Hell, he hadn't even given her the chance to defend herself, it was his ignorance and cowardice that had stopped her from trying to convince him otherwise.

He shouldn't have assumed the worst, he should have known it would have never happened.

Kagome was sitting in her room under a window, when the door burst open.

Slowly, she shifted her blank gaze from the book she was partly reading to the newcomer.

'Yes?'

He turned and shut the door behind him carefully, then span to face her.

His nerve wavered for a split second, but he clenched his teeth and started talking.

'Kagome? I am so very sorry for what I said to you. I can't believe I would let my own stupidity and ignorance break what we had. I should've listened to you, I should have known you would have never done something like that, no matter what. I didn't trust you enough to not to assume the worst, I only made an ass of myself. I'm really, truly sorry for everything I said, I'm sorry for causing you such pain, I'm sorry for giving you a bad memory.'

He had started pacing, folding his hands behind his back. 'I'm sorry, I know that if I'm here, even now, it hurts you, but,' he said turning to face her, 'I'm not here to beg for your forgiveness. I know I could never ask for that, that which I know you would never truly give.' He looked at her again, and again his nerve wavered. 'I-I'm not going to give excuses, it's entirely my fault. I should never have let you go alone, I should have saved you from that bastard's friend, so I'm sorry.

'I guess, before, I didn't love you enough, so I didn't see that you were already mine, as much as I was yours. But, if you would let me,' he paused, 'I still want to be your friend. I'd help you with the jewel, I want to take your burdens so you don't have to bear them, Kagome I'm in love with you, but I wouldn't risk your trust and companionship for the world. I'd do anything for you and would protect you with my life.' He waited, watching her face fill with tangled emotions. 'But I'm still causing you pain, so I'll go. You won't ever have to see me again if you don't want.'

He turned away, before there was a noise behind him.

'Wait!'

He span back immediately, not wanting to make the same mistake twice.

Tears were running down her face, and the book she had been holding was currently dumped onto the floor, as she had half leapt to her feet, she now stood up carefully and looked back down at her feet.

'I know now that you didn't mean what you said, I understand what you're saying now, but I think you're right. I don't think I could forgive you so easily.' She paused. 'Yes, I still love you, but I still feel like I need time, like I need space. I need a moment to breathe.' She shifted her gaze up to him. 'I'm glad that you could apologise like that, but I'm sorry,-'

'You shouldn't be apologising,' he corrected under his breath-

'I can't accept your love. What you said hurt, and I need a while to recover. However, I'll take your friendship, nothing more, until if I should ever feel ready to forgive, but then by that point, I may not want to loose our friendship. I can't predict the future, InuYasha, I can't tell how long or how much, but for now I'll just wait, and breathe, and see what path the future,' She paused, tyring to think of a way to end it, 'takes.'

He waited, as if checking to see if she had anything else to add.

'Thank you, that's all I wanted. I would understand if you hated me, I would have understood if you had sent me away, never wishing to see me again, so now you're giving me what I needed. Thank you.'

They stood there for a second, before suddenly InuYasha's nerve sputtered out, and he turned bright, flaming red.

Kagome sat back down, and reached for her book, and he took it as his chance to flee, and ponder.

She stared at the book blankly, not taking in a single word.

A small part of her was still shocked, that he would come out and say so much. It couldn't believe that, for one, he would actually apologise, she had known he wouldn't do that for just anything. For another, it couldn't believe that he had said he had loved her, as in loved her, and that she had said the same about him.

There was something about the way he spoke that said plainly to her that he had spoken entirely the truth, everything that had been sitting on his heart, whether he had meant to or not, and judging by his sudden flee when they had finished, he obviously hadn't meant to say quite so much. She knew he had meant it when he had talked about them being friends, and his statement about protecting her. With his life. That meant all the power that the jewel, and the sword had given him, all the strength he had held, and everything else in his being.

She shut the book, and wrapped her arms around herself, staring blankly at a point on the cream coloured carpet.

She also knew that he had grown up, grown beyond the petty assumptions and jealously that had riddled him before, and she was pleased with that.

Her previously shattered heart had come together. Held together with sticky tape and blu-tack, with every crack still showing, but she felt better.

Not great, certainly not back to normal, just manageable.

The door opened again, and she looked up, almost expecting InuYasha again, but no.

Sango wandered over and sat next to her.

'How much did you hear?'

Sango looked round at her innocently. 'What do you mean?'

'I know that if you hadn't actually heard anything, the first thing you would have said to me would have been; 'What did InuYasha want?' as soon as you had walked in. So how much did you hear?'

Sango almost laughed. 'You've got it wrong.' She tapped the wall next to the window. 'It's this house, the walls are too thin.'

Kagome very nearly rolled her eyes. 'I'll bet your were leaning against your bedroom wall-' she nodded towards one of the adjacent walls, 'with the empty glass, am I right?'

Sango turned slightly red, and broke her eye contact.

'So, how much did you hear?'

'Well, most of InuYasha's big speech. I never thought he had it in him. But I'm impressed, Kagome, I would have floored him, called him some every name I could think of, kicked him where it hurts and left him to rot.'

'We are talking about InuYasha here.'

Sango looked back around at her. 'So, you're just friends now?'

'Yes.'

'Despite the fact that he told you he loves you, and vis versa, that's all?'

Kagome nodded.

'Even after all that stuff he said, you still love him?'

'In essence, I guess so.'

'Huh.' Sango was quiet, then looked around, suddenly sensing Kagome wanted to be alone.

She threw her arms around her quickly. 'Don't worry, Kagome, it'll be alright.'

She grasped her briefly. 'Thank you.'

They stayed like that for a few moments, then Sango got up and left.

Hey guys, short chapter I know, and it's been a while since an update, but I figured the content made up for everything.

So what do you think? *starts laughing evilly* I love the complexity of their relationship at the moment, it's my speciality. :)

Reviews. (If I forget someones, my apologies, I'm reading them off of two seperate computers :( ).

Little25victor. Yeah, I think she's learning something, or she's figures something out, or something. I hope this chapter is to your liking! And yup, we're learning that Inuyasha isn't quite the knight in shining armour he's made out to be. And we learn a little more about him today! Bankotsuz, thank you, thank you, hope this one is just as good. Kirt, yeah, sorry about that, I'm borrowing a friends at the moment, I don't officially get back into internet access until tonight, but I love you guys too much to leave updating until then! Anyway, we've seen what inuyasha did (in not so many words, you'll find out about that later), and yep, Kouga can go die in a hole. I'd be happy to dig it for him. Yultiguilunforever, do you know how hard it is to spell your username? Especially when I can't use copy/paste? :( anyway, thanks!Rin is amazing, she's a great character in this :P . (unknown), yeah, I didn't think that anyone would pick up that her name is a lie, but it's relevent to the plot, as you'll see later. Kanna get's mentioned later, I think you'll laugh at her mention :P . hahahahaha I know, I laughed at that comment too :P and it's sort of relevent to the series, so it makes it twice as funny :D . I know that Kaede is supposeded to be Kikyou's little sister, but it didn't work into the plot, and I needed a Kaede-like character to be looking after her, and being InuYasha and Miroku's boss, so, yeah. It pained me to do it, but that's just how it worked. NaLu SeiReo, I've said it before and i'll say it again; you concern me. My favourite mad reviewer, yes, concerning, yes. Btw, the cake is a lie :P . (unknown #2), Miroku didn't know inuyasha while he went to that place, so they didn't know about it. Kagome was just responding for him, because she wanted to keep the conversation moving, as well as not delving into InuYasha's secrets amoung his friends, because she didn't know whether he wanted them to know or not. Maggie, yes yes, I'm working on it. Thanks for the review. Aaaaaand Anonymous-Reviewer-T. hahahahaha yeah, I laughed at that. Yeah, he's a little touchy about Rin, but who wouldn't hate being called a pedo? It's a horrible name. Wow, you're clever too. You'll have to figure out the 'truth within the truth', now that you've got this far, but you won't until I tell you later when I give out more information... mwahahaha... anyway thanks for the majorly long reviews, it anlways makes me feel special :) . Also I hope this chapte is to your liking as well :).

Thanks for all your amazing reviews, I might update later on in the week :).

Later :)

InuKag