Back to the T-rated pieces to round out the event.

"We need to talk," Inuyasha said to the human as they left Kaede's hut. Kagome had insisted that they come to the village to visit that weekend, and it had become a whole thing. She'd brought food, card games, and wanted a full day of no responsibilities that were connected to her schoolwork. He couldn't blame her for that, having had to witness her pour over those books until the really late hours of the night. His counterparts had also noticed that the stress was getting to her, for even their attempts to talk her into relaxing ended up with them getting shoved out of the room.

The first time he'd seen both versions of himself sulk had been when they sat on either side of Souta in the living room playing games. It had not been a flattering look knowing what his sour expression looked like.

Human Inuyasha paused, grabbing the hanyou's arm. "You're breaking up with me, aren't you?"

"You have spent too much damn time with those girls –"

"They're no weirder than having yourself split into parts for an unknown amount of time, and we're a delight."

"You're something alright," Inuyasha grumbled, starting to walk down the path again. When the human matched his pace, he tried again. "I know this is stupid asking myself this, but I need to know if you've seen a change in the youkai."

"I could make a list of things I've noticed, but you're gonna have to be more specific."

Inuyasha grunted, tucking his hands in his sleeves. Up ahead of them and well out of earshot were the youkai and Kagome. He was carrying the bag of items Kagome had wanted to bring, slung over his left shoulder. His right had was being tugged by her as they walked. Or rather, he walked. Kagome looked to be laughing and trying to pull him along faster. Mama was due to have supper done and Kagome didn't want to keep her family waiting on them. Plus the sun was setting, and he'd always told her that she shouldn't travel to the well after dark if she could help it. She didn't listen half the time, of course.

She was also with the youkai. There was nothing to worry about, and that's something he could trust about that side of himself. Her life was perfectly safe from anyone that would do her harm.

"He's different. More…calmer? I don't know if that's even the right way to describe it."

Human Inuyasha shrugged. "The only time he's threatened to kill me is when we're playing those games with Souta."

"That too. He's just…different. If I didn't know he was a part of me I probably wouldn't think he's the side of me that I wanted to avoid letting out at all costs."

The human looked over, concern filling his features. "You wanna explain?"

Inuyasha sighed. "When he really took control of my body for the first time, I felt…hot. On edge. Terrified. Of all the fights that I've been in, no matter how badly I've been hurt, I'd never felt that close to death as I did that day. He took over, and…" He hated the reminder of what he'd done in that state. It hadn't been him. There had been so much anger when he'd broken loose, and he hadn't been able to control the urge to exact revenge on the people – humans even – that had been following a youkai in disguise. Even if they weren't the best people, they had been human, and it went against everything than he felt.

"I thought for so long that I wanted to become a full youkai," he continued. "And that day made me hate that part of myself. Even more than when I hated becoming human."

"Rude."

Inuyasha shot his human side a look. "At least as a human I knew I could count on being able to protect Kagome, even if it meant I died saving her. That day though? I couldn't trust myself to not hurt Kagome. I was terrified that if I continued to let this side of me take over, that I wouldn't be able to tell her apart from those bandits I slaughtered."

"And this fear…this is why you fought against acknowledging the mating fever for so long, wasn't it?" At the hanyou's nod, the human sighed. "That turned out great, didn't it?" he asked sarcastically.

"I don't know why the fuck I even bothered –"

"Because I'm the best you're gonna get in this situation," Human Inuyasha interjected. "If you went to anyone else and asked, they'd bullshit their answer to keep from upsetting you. Since I'm you, you don't have to worry about the answer getting run through a filter."

Inuyasha let out a slow breath through his nose. 'That still means I have to deal with bullshit.'

The human either didn't notice that the hanyou was approaching his limit, or he didn't care as he pressed on. "I will say…once we got past that point of him wanting to slaughter me the first time…there has definitely been a change. I think Kagome might be the reason for it, too."

"If you start in on that whole chosen mate thing I swear –"

"Wrong, ding a ling! Kagome was changing us for the better for years!" Human Inuyasha started to count off on his fingers all of the instances where Kagome proved that his life wouldn't continue to be the same dark patterns. He highlighted even moments that the hanyou hadn't thought of, and the more that he looked back on it the more obvious it became. Kagome really had done a number on him; she'd healed him without meaning to early on. "Odds are that you didn't notice that the youkai side of you has been changed for the better until we split apart, because you were so set on trying to suppress him. You literally said that you feared letting him take over because of that one time."

There were other times, but that one was the worst. Inuyasha hated that his human side had made good points. He had been so set on keeping the youkai contained that he never thought to consider that maybe the bloodlust wasn't really him. Whenever the youkai had come out and had taken control, it hadn't been to destroy, but to protect. He was driven by the need to protect not only his own person, but also those he cared most about. And when rage clouded judgement, it wasn't always easy to tell friend from foe. Somehow, Kagome had gotten through to him each time. She brought him back from that dark spiral the youkai could feed into because it was so easy to fall into it.

"Do you see what I mean?" the human asked. "The youkai is a horny bastard. He has no sense of shame. He has no filter. But then neither do either of us. He just…doesn't give a shit and it's obvious. You know what else?"

Inuyasha sighed. "What?" He was still attempting to process being called a horny bastard. He wasn't! He…didn't think he was…but then, there was that time in the woods when he'd watched –

"All of those things are what Kagome loves about us."

They'd reached the Bone Eater's well right as Youkai Inuyasha scooped Kagome up under the knees and leaping into the well. Both the human and hanyou could see her peek around his shoulder and wave at them before letting out a squeal as she disappeared from view. There was a time that that would have made Inuyasha mad – the youkai swinging Kagome around like that – but…not anymore.