Prompt: "What do I have to do to make you mine?", requested by Bunny W.K./bunny-wk-fanfic
Warning: Dark implications

"What do I have to do to make you mine?"

Kagome bit her lips, her nails digging into the insides of her arms. She ran, of course. How could she possibly answer that question?

She just didn't love Hojo.

He was certainly every girl's dream husband material—wealthy, intelligent, gentleman, and quite especially handsome. To normal girls, of course. Higurashi Kagome hadn't been normal in years, not since the downfall of the cursed jewel, Shikon no Tama. If she had a choice, she would have stayed in the past, with the man she chose in her heart. InuYasha.

It hurts even now, but that pain dulled a little.

She hadn't planned on ever opening her heart to another—not so soon. Perhaps not for a decade. Perhaps not ever. Her mother was a little disappointed, knowing her decision, but accepted it without a word. After all that she went through, her expectations from men were much too high for any ordinary man to meet.

And Kagome didn't have a heart to not love the lucky one, if any, as fully as she did with her first love.

Hojo didn't deserve that. He deserved someone who can love him completely.

He is a…good man, she acknowledged, but not for her.

Watching a white fog of warm air departing from her lips into a thin wisp Kagome slowed her fast walking. She was a coward for doing this to Hojo, she really was. Tightening her scarf around her neck almost like a noose, she stopped and admired the falling flecks of snow twirling their ways to the sleepy earth.

It was cold and barren, much like the romance in her heart.

She still could love, of course, but she couldn't find strength to move on from such a fantastical adventure she had—from InuYasha. It was pathetic. That adventure nearly destroyed her life and it even destroyed her sense of normalcy, but she missed it just the same.

Was she mad in the head?

Perhaps.

Tightening her fingers around the seam of her coat, she rose her head at the sound of crunching snow.

Cripes, hadn't she gone fast enough to lose him?

"Kagome!" There was a certain roughness in his voice that stilled her desire to run. It wasn't right.

It was wrong.

The kind of wrong that shouldn't exist in a sweet man's voice.

Kagome felt like she was glued to the ground, her heart thudding its way out of her rib-cage. She'd wonder why she hadn't later, but she stiffened like a statue, when Hojo lunged after her and took her shoulders. "Kagome!" He wheezed, his fingers digging deep into the cushions of her coat, "Why did you run!?"

The fact that she could outrun him, an athletic, was appalling. How could a frail girl like his darling outrun him in this weather? Regardless, Hojo didn't intend to let her to run from him again.

"Get off of me!" Kagome ripped his hands off of her, after seeing how resistant he was being, "I don't need to tell you anything." She retorted.

Hojo blustered, but kept his hands close just the same,"Then tell me what I have to do! What is it that you don't like about me!?"

"There is nothing you can do…just," she sighed a long sigh, scuffling her feet backward away from the boy she knew since childhood, "move on to someone else, okay? You deserves better."

She couldn't really say Hojo was her friend—even though she grew up with him from childhood. She didn't volunteer to go with him on outings with her other friends—Hojo was the one who went with. She didn't willingly invite him over either—he invited himself in and/or charmed her mother to. There had been countless of times where Hojo more or less butt in moments in her life.

In some ways, Kagome realized that she just wasn't interested into knowing the boy.

She did felt bad, but she couldn't quite force herself to bother. Having a big heart doesn't mean she had room for everyone, or that she have to love everyone. It mostly enabled her to have empathy, understandings, and to not to judge upon the appearance alone. Kagome couldn't save the entire planet of people, and she knew this well.

"Why?" Hojo insisted, his fingers snagging onto her sleeves and ignored a flash of annoyance from her pretty face, "I have a right to know why you think that! I loved you since…" he withheld a breath, "I don't know, we first met!?"

Shooting him a pitying look she jerked her hands back, "I'm sorry—I truly am, but I…just don't like you like that." Kagome nervously glanced at the path behind her—her escape route. "I…really should get going. My, um, mother is expecting me." It was a lie, but a very convincing one that left in between her teeth. She didn't wish to see the heartbroken expression on Hojo's face, so without a second thought, Kagome darted away, her boots sinking into the unpaved snow.

"Um, take care!" She blurted out, never once looking back.

As the crunching of snows faded away into the distance, Hojo's hands curled into tight balls and his teeth clenched.

What does it take for her to see him?

"Kagome…" he glared into the direction she took off into, "I'm not going to give up." Hojo vowed. Even if it will take a lifetime, he won't give up.

"If I have to, I will make you to love me."