A/N: More smut. I know these past few chapters have been slow but it's going to speed up very quickly very soon.

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Memoirs of a Miko

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Dawn came far too early for his liking as he sighed and pulled Kagome's naked body closer to his own. Today was going to be too busy to indulge in anything more than what they had shared last night, but to be honest, he'd be content lying about doing nothing all day. After all, they were going to have to leave to escort a neighboring tribe tomorrow and as much as he was against it, Kagome had insisted on accompanying him.

Sighing once more, he gently buried his nose in her ebony locks and inhaled deeply as his eyes fluttered closed. She was his in every sense of the word now. The only thing left to do would be to bestow her with an impress but that could wait until they were out of danger. There was still her crazy undead sister running around doing god knows what and there was a war waging in the distance just begging to start the fight anew here. Still, this moment in the early morning light, with her tucked securely against him and the scent of their union permeating the air, he felt perfectly content.

"I don't care if I imprinted on you or not," he murmured quietly to himself – being careful to speak softly enough not to wake her as his grip incrementally tightened around her waist, "You're everything I ever wanted but never knew I needed and now you're mine. Truly mine and no one else's."

"Well someone is being possessive," came a groggy, amusement laced whisper as Kagome yawned and snuggled deeper into his embrace, "I'm nobody's property. I'm my own woman."

"I know," Inuyasha chuckled lightly as he buried his face into her shoulder and placed a loving kiss at the nape of her neck, "But you're mine though. My Kagome."

"Your Kagome," the former miko affirmed sleepily happily as she drifted off once more, "My Inuyasha."

"Your Inuyasha," he chuckled affectionately as he allowed himself to drift off with her before his eyes shot wide open when she next spoke.

"I still don't understand why you love me," Kagome admitted shyly as she maneuvered out of his hold and turned to face him, "I mean, you've been so kind to me. A friend when I had none and…and you've helped me so much. I understand why I love you but I don't understand why you love me. Is it just instinct?"

"Not this again," Inuyasha chuckled good naturedly as he reached over to gently move some hair out of her face and tucked it securely behind her ear before admitting thoughtfully, "At first it was but as time went on, it became so much more than that. If anything, my love for you got stronger."

"But you never saw me," Kagome sighed wearily as she bit her lip for a moment before continuing, "And…and we weren't together very long."

"And you took care of me when I was dying. You saved me too you know," Inuyasha pointed out as he gave her a warm affectionate smile, "You don't think any differently of me or any of the other half-demons even though you have every reason to hate demons. You have a large, forgiving heart. You are able to look past what bad demons did to you and persevere."

"Yeah, I locked myself in a room for almost a year," Kagome snorted as she rolled her eyes and huffed, "That's preserving alright."

"You're not in that room anymore. You came back to me with a whole stack of paper in which you responded to each and every one of my letters," Inuyasha countered as his eyes sparkled happily, "You protected people when I wasn't able to do so and you didn't even think twice about it. You're so strong and so brave. I love that about you."

"A lot of them still died," Kagome sighed sadly as she furrowed her brow in pain, "I couldn't protect them all."

"No one expected you to but you tried your best," Inuyasha countered with a heavy sigh, "And what's one woman against an entire army and a crazed angry spirit hell bent on revenge?"

"I guess," Kagome murmured as she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, "Just worry about it. You loving me I mean. I just want something to be real for once."

"It is real," Inuyasha soothed as he drew her to his chest and buried his nose in her hair, "I love you for you. I love that you want to fight by my side. That you are able to forgive and look past appearances. That you're a survivor. That you have a temper to rival mine. That you're strong and brave. That you have a wicked, dry sense of humor. I love the way you want to help everyone. That you're so selfless that you would gladly give up your life to save another's. Not that I'd ever let you do that but I admire the fact that you would. I love all of you."

"So why did you imprint on me? Maybe we would've fallen in love without that," Kagome's muffled voice reached his ears, "What about me made you imprint?"

"The world may never know," he teased playfully as he moved to nibble on her ear, "You know, it's still early. We could….you know…."

"Could we now?" Kagome giggled before moaning softly as he raked his claws lightly up her body and continued his assault on her ear, "We're supposed to meet Sota at daybreak. We're probably already late."

"Nah, I can smell the sake coming from that hut. We've got until noon at least," he responded playfully as he pulled back and captured her lips before she had a chance to follow that statement up with some type of curse, "Besides, it's snowing outside. Don't you want me to warm you up?"

"I can't believe he drank sake. He's not….he's not old enough. Besides, you could just light a fire," Kagome whispered against his lips as she slid her hand down his bare chest, "Or we could just put on clothes."

"Don't worry about him and we've got about five blankets in here. We don't need a fire," Inuyasha teased as he began to pant lightly and his kisses became more primal before he murmured playfully against her lips, "I mean, there's all sorts of…"

Giggling slightly, Kagome cut him off by sealing his mouth with a passionate kiss, her hips moving against him, knowing in her heart that this was how love was supposed to be and that no harm of that kind would ever befall her again.

"Just shut up," Kagome panted as she pulled back, "We've got a years' worth of lost time to make up, don't we? The fire can wait."

Smirking slightly, Inuyasha pulled back and nuzzled her nose before gently guiding her onto her back and settling between her legs, "Couldn't agree more. I thought I was going to have to beg."

"The mighty Inuyasha begging. What has the world come to?" Kagome teased back as she beamed up at him with unmistakable love shining through her eyes, "And here I was thinking you held all the power."

"Nah, you've got me wrapped around your little finger," Inuyasha murmured playfully as he lay flush against her – knowing how powerless she had felt and how the agency had been stripped from her. He wanted her to feel powerful. To feel loved. And, of course, for her to relax dammit she was going to kill him. As he rocked his hips against her and they became one, he managed to whisper shakily, "You're the one in complete control and I love that."

The lingering pain from that day now just a distant memory, the scars that had prevented her from taking further fading she had once endured, and nothing, absolutely nothing in this world, felt as good as the sensation of him slowly sliding into her.

"'Are you all right?' he asked quietly as he lowered himself almost flush against her and rested his forehead against hers. He sounded as if he was holding himself in check, as if it took all of his will to do so.

"I'm perfect," Kagome responded happily as she captured his lips once more and sighed, "Absolutely perfect."

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"Oh god, what happened?" Sota groaned from his place on the cold dirt floor – the ashes from the fire only inches from his face and the smell of rot gut permeated the room. Sitting up, he winced as the wind hissed through a few open slits in the doorway making his head feel like it was going to split open. The light outside literally felt like an inferno of death against his eyes and every part of his body ached. Glancing around, he noted several other warm bodies in the hut with him – all cuddled against each other for warmth. For a moment, he felt a pang of jealously before quickly shaking it off and turning his attention back to the beads….which were currently with one of the others.

"Oh god, what did we do?" Sota groaned again as he staggered to his feet and made his way towards the beads being held securely in the translucent haired demon's hand. Gently prying her fingers open, he took them from her before snorting when her only response was a slightly furrowing of her brow and a slight groan. Sighing heavily, he turned the beads this way and that before his shoulders sagged in defeat.

"God, I can't remember what we landed on," Sota moaned as he plopped down on the ground and buried his face in one hand, "For all I know this'll turn him into a frog."

"I think it does something we all agreed was a hilarious idea," Miroku suddenly groaned as he pushed himself up and blinked lazily at the boy, "Which probably is not good. Is there any way to remove the spell?"

"If we want to go back to square one," Sota groaned as he cringed and held up the beads, "Doesn't anyone remember what we did?"

"Not a clue," Ginta murmured wearily as he reached blindly for Shiori who had rolled away from him sometime in the night before finding her and pulling her gently towards him, "Just let me sleep and you guys figure it out."

"This isn't good," Sango suddenly gasped as she turned guilty eyes towards the door, "Inuyasha is headed this way and his aura is mad as hell."

"Can't be that mad," Miroku chuckled lecherously as he sent Sango a wicked grin, "I can smell what you can't. Someone has been…"

"Finish that sentence and I'll kick your ass," Inuyaha huffed from just outside the door, "Ain't none of your business."

Sango cowered guiltily as Inuyasha entered the hut and sent her a disappointed glance before walking straight up to Sota and smacking him none to gently upside the head, "You dumbass. What were you thinking? That was demon grade sake kid! Could've killed you."

"That hurt!" Sota grumbled as he rubbed the sore spot on his already sore head that now felt like it'd ben split open, "Why the hell did you have to hit so hard?"

"Wasn't all that hard," Inuyasha huffed before lolling his head towards Sango with an accusatory glare, "Now you have some explaining to do."

"Me?! What about everyone else?!" Sango snapped back defensively, "It wasn't even my idea!"

"You're supposed to be the responsible one," Inuyasha growled as he marched over and towered over the baku, "Instead, I find you out here getting just as drunk as the rest of them and with a child no less!"

"Fuck you! Don't put this on me!" Sango quipped back angrily, "He's old enough and has seen enough to make his own decisions!"

"Fuck you right back! You're usually the one who keeps everyone in line and here I find you all hungover," Inuyasha groaned exasperatedly, "Talk about irresponsible! There's a shit ton of priests out there waiting to kill us and some crazy bitch spirit thing! Not to mention…"

"Now, now Inuyasha," Miroku suddenly interjected with a wicked grin, "Let's talk about responsibility in times such as these. Not exactly a world to bring a child into, now is it?"

Blushing a deep shade of crimson, Inuyasha opened his mouth to retort when Sango suddenly gasped and devolved into a fit of giggles, "And you're lecturing us about responsibility and you…oh my god."

"Hey! It's not like she's in heat right now!" Inuyasha protested, "Fuck you Sango! I didn't knock her up! I was being responsible! Besides you know how long I've been wanting…"

"Lalalala," Sota suddenly interjected loudly as he slammed his hands over his ears, "I don't want to know! Please stop talking about this!"

"Oh grow up," Inuyasha snapped in general at everyone, "You guys can try to turn this around on me all you want but in the end, you're the ones who were dumbasses."

"Can you all stop yelling?" Ginta groaned lazily as he pulled the still sleeping Shiori against his chest and settled down, "Some of us are trying to sleep."

"I'm sorry," Inuyasha snarled sarcastically as he set his jaw and gave the exhausted wolf a side-eyed glare, "Were we being too loud for your hungover ass?"

"You know, whatever spell is on those beads," Ginta mumbled tiredly as he cracked open one eye and gave Inuyasha a wicked grin, "I hope it kicks your ass."

"What do you mean whatever spell?!" Inuyasha bellowed incredulously before his mouth popped open and he glared at Sota, "You told them?!"

"Okay, to be fair," Sota began awkwardly as he held the beads up, "They all were very helpful in, um, being test subjects for different spells. I'm not…"

Blanching slightly as Sango shook her head and made a shut up movement with her hands, Sota cleared his throat and changed gears, "I'm not sure that Kagome will want to put them on you given the, uh, new circumstances of your relationship."

"Nice try but I know that's bullshit," Inuyasha snapped as he narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Tell me what they do."

"Um, so here's the thing," Sota began slowly as his mind raced a mile a minute to come up with a plausible excuse, "The beads effect everyone differently. We'll see their effect on you when we put them on."

"That so?" Inuyasha responded blithely, "I thought you'd said it'd give Kagome control. Is that not true?"

"It is," Sota responded deliberately as his eyes met Sango's with a silent plea for backup, "But the reaction for everyone is different."

"It's true," Sango piped up before elbowing Miroku in the ribs to get him to nod his head and hum affirmatively, "It did different things to all of us."

"Fuck you Sango. You've always been a terrible liar," Inuyasha snorted as he glanced over his shoulder and rolled his eyes, "Obviously you guys did something when you were wasted and now you don't know what the hell they do."

"Fuck you right back! How do you know I'm lying?" Sango countered with a faint blush on her cheeks, "I'm an excellent liar."

"Bullshit," Inuyasha responded blithely before turning back to Sota and folding his arms across his chest, "Well come on. Let's see what your drunk ass minds came up with and we'll go from there."