It hit her suddenly, the need. Kagome had never felt it quite so strongly before, and it was embarrassing to know that he was right there. If he were awake, he would know it immediately. Kagome desperately tried not to fidget under the covers. His hearing was as sensitive as always and he had been on high alert to her needs since all of this started. Not this need! she mentally sobbed. He would wake up and try to find out why she was so restless and then he'd smell it! Her left shoulder tingled while she lay as still as she could, almost holding her breath to keep the blankets from brushing her skin. Even the tiniest movement was causing zips of electricity through her nerves. She finally had to roll onto her left side to make it more bearable, pressing the offending joint into the mattress, cringing when she heard Inuyasha shift on the opposite side of the futon.

The tingle in her shoulder intensified.

"Kagome, you alright?" he whispered after a tortuous moment. She nodded jerkily, unable to respond verbally. "Hey, Kag…" He froze and an audible sniff sliced through the air. Kagome felt like weeping. Why! Why was her traitorous body responding like this right now?!

They had been kissing off and on, but nothing as heavy as that day Koga interrupted them. Both of them had been skittish about it, mostly avoiding touching as if fearing what it might lead to.

"You're feeling it, aren't you?" he rumbled. "The heat?" She gasped in shock and embarrassment. "I… I can help you, if you want?" he murmured, finally close enough that she could feel the warmth of his breath against her ear. His movements were slow, careful. Kagome flinched at his touch, not because of fear, but because the sensation that shot through her on contact was so intense. There was a faint whimper in his throat as he hesitated. Kagome knew that there were probably equal parts fear and lust in her scent, throwing his poor nose for a loop. "Kagome," he murmured brokenly, "I want to help you, but not if you can't stand me touching you."

"No!" she cried, turning over and grabbing his cheeks. His ears laid back, nonplussed. "No, I want you to. It's just… we haven't really... " Their lips drifted closer, his nose bumping hers. "Inuyasha?" she questioned, her voice hushed.

He didn't answer her except to press his mouth to hers a little hungrily, a breath in through his nose as he slipped his fingers into her hair. Kagome couldn't help the whine that left her when he ran his other hand down her side before cupping her bottom and dragging her into him. "I want you, Kagome," he growled, leaning further into her to slowly drag his tongue over her mark.

The way she nearly sobbed, arching into him, lit a fire in his veins. His youkai knew what it wanted to do. Complete the mating bond with the physical connection. Ingrain his scent into her very being. Make it clear to everyone that she was his. Inuyasha blinked, taking a shuddering breath and swallowing hard. His youkai was trying to force the issue, push him further, faster than he was prepared for. Than Kagome was prepared for. "Inuyasha?"

"O-only what you want," he rasped out, teeth lightly pressing her mark to assuage both of their immediate needs. She wordlessly begged him for more pressure, a soft high noise in the back of her throat that he couldn't ignore. "Fuck," he hissed into her skin. Her yukata had loosened with all of her shifting and he could feel the warmth of her skin against his chest. His hakama were tied off in front, keeping her heat from his. "Kagome," he pleaded. She seemed to be reading him fairly easily tonight, minimal words necessary to direct her small hands to the red knot at his waist. She fumbled with it a little, but loosened it enough so he could wiggle out of both the hakama and his fundoshi with a little help from her. Inuyasha was too caught by the heat of her scent and the heat of her skin to feel embarrassment. His hand slid under her yukata to feel her bare hip against his palm, his claws lightly tracing the edge of her underwear.

She shuddered at his cautious touches, light tickling caresses. His teeth periodically pressing into her mark had her gasping, kept stealing her capacity for thought. She felt like each time he did it, their souls tried to link like the couplings on train cars, but kept just barely missing. It was all too much and yet not enough. Kagome felt his fingers find the cloth tie of her yukata, yanking it abruptly, but gentling his touch as he found her skin underneath. She both regretted and rejoiced in having adjusted to their new danger-free lifestyle by no longer wearing a bra to bed. Knowing they could have been attacked at any time had kept her cautious about being prepared. That was no longer an issue. Inuyasha's fingertips lightly brushed the underside of her breast, goosebumps rising on her skin when his thumb cradled the flesh against his forefinger.

"Kagome," he huffed against her neck, his knee sliding between hers. She could feel him against her right hip. Hot. Insistent. The feeling in her mark intensified, forcing a sharp breath into her lungs as the tingling became a pulse. "Are you alright?" he murmured, concern only just outweighing the heat in his tone. She nodded quickly, hands weaving their way into his long hair and pulling him in so she could kiss him. Inuyasha groaned, hips slowly rolling into her with barely contained passion. Kagome felt that groan through her entire being. "Kagome," he pleaded.

"Yes," she gasped, rolling toward her back. She was startled by his strength lifting her onto her front and pulling her hips into the air. He repeated the roll of his hips into hers, shocking her system with the instant response of her slick folds. She wanted him, now, and it didn't seem to matter that she'd been a bit afraid at first. "Inuyasha, please…"

"I'm trying to go slow, Kagome, careful," he muttered. She could hear the strain in his voice as he obviously reined in some strong instincts. He peeled her yukata off of her, her underwear following shortly after. "Kami. You…" Statement unfinished, she shivered when his fingers traced the swell of her hips, the dip of her spine. He paused another moment and took a breath. "Are you sure, Kagome?"

"Yes!" she barely kept herself from crying. "Inuyasha, please! I need you."

Inuyasha bit back a snarl as he finally gave in, sliding into her slowly but with more confidence than he would have thought he had. The wet heat sliding over him sent a wave of lightning through his veins. The inuhanyou whimpered, biting his lip to hold in the guttural growl that rose in his chest. Not wanting to scare Kagome, he tried to control his youkai instincts. The unfinished bond was tugging at him, but he knew that he could seriously hurt her if he didn't keep control of himself. She grew impatient with him, the need of the bond driving her to be bolder than either one of them would have anticipated. With a short cry, she pushed back against him until he could move no further.

"Shit," he hissed. He had to take a moment to shove back his beast. "You alright?" he squeaked out. Kagome only shifted in response, pushing him to initiate movement. Slowly at first, he pulled back, then slipped back in as far as he could. Both of them shuddered in unison, Kagome letting out a whine.

"Faster," she breathed into the futon. He held her hips so he could pull her into his, the feeling of their thighs impacting sending a thrill through him. He watched Kagome contort for a moment to reach down and brush her fingers over herself. He paused, unsure of what she was doing. "Don't stop!" she scolded him in unfulfilled frustration. He didn't hesitate again. He kept his pace steady until Kagome demanded more, her voice gaining in pitch and volume. Inuyasha felt his eyelids flutter when she tightened around him, a gasp torn from his throat. The temperature of their hut seemed to increase until Inuyasha thought he might melt.

His eyes shot to her mark when she tossed her head, her dark hair falling to the futon. Inuyasha couldn't tear his eyes away, the slightly silver tone flashing in the moonlight. He was unwaveringly drawn to it. Kagome screaming into the futon when his fangs sank into the mark almost startled him back, but he could suddenly feel her and he couldn't hold back his release as his mind was swamped by the pleasure she was feeling.

"Oh gods," she whimpered, "Inuyasha!" The reverberating pleasure circled their souls and Kagome finally felt the connection that they had been just barely missing earlier. She could feel Inuyasha in more ways than she ever thought possible. It was beautiful. It was astounding.

It was entirely overwhelming.

Kagome struggled to breathe for a minute, the combination of emotions and her very heavy inuhanyou mate draped over her making it difficult to draw a full breath. "Inu… I can't… Off," she gasped.

He took a moment to respond, then scrambled backward so he wasn't crushing her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he muttered frantically. They both groaned when he pulled his hips back to extricate himself from her warmth. "Are you alright?"

"Stop asking me that," she huffed a laugh, collapsing onto her side and beckoning him toward her. Inuyasha hesitated, then curled her into his embrace so he could keep her warm and gently lick the punctures he'd left in her mark. "Mmm. That feels nice," she told him sleepily. He paused, trying to catch a glimpse of her face in the dark. "Don't stop," Kagome whined, pulling at his ribs until he leaned down again. His tongue softly slipped over the skin until there was no sign of the previous injury, just the silver mark shining in the light of the moon through their tiny window.

"I'm glad you feel better, Kagome," he whispered into her hair.

"Much better," she slurred. "We should do that again." He froze, looking down at her in awe. "Just not right now." She let out a giggle. "Ow."

"What hurts?" She popped one eye open to give him a look. "Oh. A lot?"

"No." She let out a sigh. "Night, 'Yasha."

"Yea. Night."

The inuhanyou lay with his mate cradled in his arms through the night, periodically sniffing her hair until he too fell asleep. The comforting embrace of their souls, the scent of them filling their hut, the connection and contentment he felt… Inuyasha couldn't have stayed awake even if he wanted to.

The building itself was coming along slowly, seeing as Inuyasha didn't want to leave Kagome alone for long. She was healed for the most part, aside from the occasional twinge from protesting muscles or slight fatigue when she'd been up and about more than usual. Still, the inuhanyou wasn't willing to take any chances. It had been almost two and a half months since the battle and in his opinion there was no reason his mate should still be anything less than normal. At the same time, he had to remind himself that had he not shared his blood with her at the right moment, she would be dead and therefore he should be grateful she was even breathing.

Sango had mentioned to Miroku, who then told him, that there might be something slightly wrong with Kagome. She seemed depressed and yet she acted as though nothing was wrong when she was with him. Inuyasha couldn't understand it. They had discussed going home to see her family, but she was the one who was afraid that something would happen to keep her there so she refused to try it.

"Inuyasha, did you want more?" he heard her ask him, holding up the ladle from the stew pot a little hopefully. He smirked and nodded. One thing he couldn't complain about was Kagome's dramatic improvement in her cooking. She hadn't been bad before, but she'd been unfamiliar with common recipes in this time period and so there had always been something a little off about them. But with not much else to do aside from meditation, reading the occasional book she had left from her time, and some study with herbs the old miko had her doing, she'd taken to trying to perfect her cooking. Damn, his woman could cook!

"Thanks," he murmured, flashing her a small smile. She flushed happily and he couldn't help grinning a little wider. She was so beautiful when she smiled and blushed like that. He couldn't quite see how she could look like that, smile at him like that, make the delicious meals she'd been making, and be depressed. "It's really good," he said instead of asking what he really wanted to.

Kagome tried not to fumble as she put away her dishes and took the cooking pot over to the doorway to cool so she could clean that as well. She was shaking and she couldn't let her mate see it. He would know something was wrong and she had been struggling for days to keep him from knowing it. He seemed like he was suspicious, but was trying to hide it, and the pair of them were likely to drive each other crazy shortly. She was scared to tell him the truth, but she knew he'd start to ask questions soon.

"Kagome..." he murmured, causing her to drop the spoon she'd been holding as he came up behind her. He frowned, leaning down to pick it up. Without warning, he caught the emotion she had been hiding from him. He hadn't noticed it before and the inuhanyou had to assume she'd been doing some very intense work with her aura to hide it. She was terrified. "Kagome?" he questioned in a hurt tone, stepping away from her. Was she afraid of him? Since when?

Only last week they had finally consummated their mating. It had been a bit… rushed, sure, but he hadn't hurt her. She'd seemed satisfied afterward, had even told him she wanted them to do it again. There was no reason for her to be acting this way.

"What's wrong," he whispered, "Why are you..."

"I'm fine," Kagome tried to respond as calmly as she could. He obviously thought she was afraid of him, which was only partly true. Where her true fear lay was in his reaction to the news. "Sit down, we need to talk." He scowled nervously but did as asked. Kagome took a few steps toward him but did not sit herself.

Inuyasha couldn't help frowning at his mate. She had been keeping something from him and he couldn't discern what it was through their connection. When he'd realized that they were fully mated and the consequences of that, he hadn't anticipated Kagome being able to shield herself from him. She wasn't supposed to know how to do that. "You aren't sick are you?" he asked.

"No. You would probably know that before I did," she said distractedly as she paced in front of him. It took her several minutes before she turned to face him and sat down. He tensed as she took a deep breath. "The jewel is gone."

Inuyasha blinked several times, opened his mouth to say something, shut it, opened it once more and then let his shoulders sag as a confused frown settled over his face. Finally he tried again. "Huh?"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Gone. Disappeared. No one took it, it's just... gone."

Inuyasha's brow furrowed as he tried to connect the dots. "Well, where is it?" Kagome wiped a tired hand across her face then, looking up at her mate, shrugged. "How can you not know? You're the only one who can really sense the damned thing!"

"That's what I'm saying. I can't sense it at all. I always had this sort of... vague sense that it was out there, even when we weren't close enough for me to pinpoint the shards. I mean, it was inside me before, I know what it feels like when it's that close and when it's far away. Now there's nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing at all." Inuyasha continued to frown as he stared at her. He wasn't... angry really, and he wasn't as surprised as he felt he should be. Somehow he'd known that this would happen, that there would be something that would keep him from using the Shikon no Tama to become a full youkai. Not that becoming full-blooded youkai had been his desire for a long time now. Still, the fact that Kagome had been more afraid of his response than of what it could mean for the well upset him more. "I don't want to risk it," she said before he even got the words out. He gaped. "I know what you're thinking. I can't bear the thought of going through the well and not being able to get back to you. But I don't know if I could stand trying it and knowing for sure that it doesn't work. I feel better not knowing." Inuyasha didn't entirely believe her, but he let the idea drop.

"How long has it been missing?"

Kagome blushed and twisted her mouth. "Since last week."

Inuyasha frowned as he caught a strange mix of embarrassment and heat from his mate. "When last week?" he asked, not understanding her reticence. Kagome gave him one of her looks. He raised his eyebrows at her, making it clear he didn't comprehend her silence. She then pointedly glanced at where the futon was rolled up, then back at him. "Oh... So... the day after that?" She shook her head. "That night?" She nodded. He sighed. "Keh."

The pair sat in awkward silence for several minutes before Kagome got up to finish washing the dishes. Then something struck him.

"Are you sure it's gone? I mean we... were together. Your powers..." Kagome raised an eyebrow. She picked up the wooden spoon she'd been using to stir the stew. With hardly a flinch from her, the spoon popped once, glowing a soft pink. The food had sizzled off, leaving the spoon clean as it faded back to normal. Inuyasha stared at her but couldn't find anything to say. Somehow 'oh' just hadn't felt appropriate. "Never mind."

Kagome gave him a wan smile before finishing cleaning the stew pot and putting the utensils in their proper places. "It's starting to get chillier at night," she broke the only slightly less awkward silence. "Do you... do you think the new house will be done soon?" she asked softly. Inuyasha mused for several moments.

"Will you be alright if I leave you alone?" he responded. The look he got for that made his ears lay back. "Keh. I can't have you falling over and hurting yourself or something." Her glare deepened. "Sango could use some company while she trains during the day. She gets tired of the monk," he supplied.

Kagome seemed to accept this compromise, much happier at the thought of female company. It wasn't that she wasn't allowed to spend time with Sango, it was just that the slayer was so often out running through her drills, or doing patrols around the village, that the young miko didn't often get the chance to sit and chat with her. Sango wisely chose to go further from the village to practice with Hiraikotsu and Inuyasha wouldn't let Kagome that far out of his sense range. Perhaps her little show of her powers had helped him feel more confident that she could protect herself. Or maybe he was afraid she'd use them on him if he didn't let her go.

"If I can work longer hours, I can have it done by next full moon," he told her. That was just shy of a month away. With how elaborate his planning had been and how particular he was about the construction, she had anticipated at least another two months.

"That soon?" He nodded. "I guess I forget how fast you are when you want to be," she said with a smile. He tried not to blush at the praise. Their agreement arranged, the two felt much better about their situation. Inuyasha was still uneasy about the jewel disappearing, but decided not to mention it again unless something happened to warrant it. He would, however, have no qualms about going to the monk and the old miko to ask their opinion. Maybe Kaede, having followed the legends around the jewel, would know something they didn't.

"Disappeared? As in poof?"

Inuyasha raised one eyebrow at his friend. "That has to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say, Monk... and I've heard a lot of really dumb things come out of your mouth." Miroku glared at the hanyou.

"I am simply trying to ascertain what kind of disappearance we are discussing here," he huffed. "She is positive that no one took it? That it wasn't misplaced?"

"He said that Kagome cannot feel the jewel's presence Miroku-sama. If he is correct, and she still retains her reiki, then there is no reason she wouldn't feel it nearby if it were simply misplaced." Kaede's response was almost as disapproving as Inuyasha's had been, but she seemed to have a clearer idea of what was going on. "I have only ever had the slightest awareness of the Shikon myself, even when my sister carried it and it was much closer more often. I was young then, but I knew what I was feeling." She leaned over to stir the tea in the pot for a moment. "The breaking of the Shikon no Tama made it far more difficult for me to sense, but it was still there. It was somewhat stronger when you returned from your battle, but I no longer feel anything akin to it." She sighed. "It has been so weak a feeling for so long, since Kagome has been purifying it, and I am getting old," she admitted, "I hardly noticed that anything had changed."

"You can confirm that it no longer exists then?" Miroku asked in a serious tone. Inuyasha too leaned forward in anticipation of her answer.

"I cannot. But I can tell you that I do not feel its presence here in this village."

Miroku sighed heavily, looking to his friend and long-time comrade. "I also feel no sign of it. Kagome would have no reason to lie and, between Kaede-sama and myself, we should feel something. I felt more from the jewel after we returned, while Kagome was recovering, than I ever had before. Like Kaede-sama, I feel nothing similar anymore." He rubbed his palms against his knees, obviously intrigued by the sensation of both palms touching a surface, free of his cloth and beads. "Despite my disbelief before, I would have to agree that it must be gone."

With that idea put to rest, the two holy types were left to drink their tea, meditate, and discuss the new development while Inuyasha went out to look for his mate. She was sitting with Shippou in her lap, watching Sango and Kirara go through training drills. Occasionally she would call out encouragement to one or the other of them before becoming distracted by something Shippou was doing. Inuyasha didn't have the heart to disturb her, the look on her face too peaceful and happy. He made his way further into the forest to fell more of the trees he needed for their house. He was looking for a particular type and they didn't grow close together in clumps. With three more to work with, he took his load back to the site of the house and began splitting and shaping logs.

He preferred to work alone, but more often than not, one of the villagers would notice him out there and a whole group of them would come over. They obviously felt some sort of strange obligation to help him build a house for their "young miko-sama." While he didn't like the attention, he had to grudgingly concede that it made the work go faster. The men knew not to get in his way and they knew not to mess up. At the end of the day, Inuyasha would go out to hunt for his and Kagome's dinner, often grabbing a little extra for the men who had helped him that day. He didn't want them to think he was a complete clod.

Kagome huffed for breath, swiping sweat from her brow. "Again," she hissed, fire in her eyes. It was the twelfth time in the last hour that she'd been put off her balance and forced to concede. It was making her angry, which was unusual. Sango studied her friend and quickly evaluated her before refusing. "Again!"

"No. You're exhausting yourself and it isn't good for you."

"I'm fine."

The slayer bit back a scoff. "No, you're not. I know you're tough, Kagome-chan, you don't have to prove…"

Kagome grunted in frustration, pushing off her hands on her knees and attempting another charge to catch Sango off her guard. The tajiya, with her nearly two decades of experience, was hardly flustered by the sudden movement. She did note that it was only due to her best friend's increasing fatigue that it was so simple to feint out of her reach and catch her hands in a firm but gentle hold to restrain her. The rage she would catch the brunt of from a certain inuhanyou if she left bruises on his mate would be more than she could handle, so she made sure to keep Kagome from hurting either one of them as she struggled. "Sango!"

"Kagome! Stop." After another moment of straining to get out of her hold, Kagome finally gave in, collapsing against her friend. "What is this all about, huh?"

The tension in her smaller frame worried the warrior. This was not her friend's usual attitude. She had never been interested in hand-to-hand combat to this extent and she couldn't help wondering what was driving her to become so obsessive. "Let go already, Sango-chan. I'll stop, I'll stop," she growled. Despite the nugget of doubt that she really would, Sango let her hands go, stepping back a moment. "Don't look at me like that…"

Taking a few breaths to steady her own emotions, Sango watched her friend collect herself. "Kagome-chan? Why do you sound like Inuyasha?"

Kagome immediately opened her mouth to argue, then seemed to realize what she was about to do. Her dark eyes widened and her face became a little pale. Sango sensed her friend was about to go down before she started to sit abruptly, catching her elbow to help lower her to the ground more slowly. She wasn't unconscious, but there was definitely a lack of awareness. She patted Kagome's cheek and tried to get her dazed eyes on hers. "I… I don't know, Sango-chan. I just hate being so weak."

"Kagome-chan," the tajiya scolded lightly. "You are not weak."

"I am, though! I can't protect myself, I can't protect any of you, I can't even protect Shippou."

"You have protected any one of us many times. What is making you feel like you can't?"

"I… When Koga-kun showed up, I just stood there. If Inuyasha had been hurt, there would have been nothing I could do." Sango took a breath to remind her that she could have purified him, but she knew it wasn't in her friend to hurt someone she considered a friend or an ally. "And with… With N-Naraku, I couldn't move fast enough to protect myself, let alone any of you. My weakness forced Inuyasha's hand."

Aha. There it is, Sango thought. The crux of Kagome's insecurity. Her need to become a fighter all of a sudden stemmed from misplaced guilt. "Kagome-chan, Inuyasha may not have planned on this, but that doesn't mean he regrets it." Kagome's head hung, her hair falling in her face.

"He may not regret saving me, but he never meant for us to be locked together like this." About to respond, Sango was interrupted by a shout of the miko's name. Really bad timing, Inuyasha. The inuhanyou landed in the middle of the clearing, an instant frown lowering his dark brows. Kagome was rubbing at her face as if to clear it of sweat, but Sango knew he could tell by the miko's scent that she was upset. He glanced at the slayer with a question in his eyes, but she could only shake her head slightly and motion for him to go to Kagome. She moved off a bit to give them some privacy. Sango could tell by Kagome's tone that she was trying to convince her mate that she was feeling alright and his tone spoke of his skepticism. "I said I'm fine!" she finally snapped, turning away from him and stalking off toward the village.

He immediately followed after her, the pair arguing at least until they were out of Sango's earshot… which was quite a while considering the volume of their voices. She shook her head at the pair. They needed to talk, and soon, or things were going to deteriorate between them and they both would be at risk. Sango had once seen a mated pair who had been kept apart. It was horrible. She shuddered at the memory of the two neko youkai, withered and begging for the other. Reunited, they had regained their strength and color. The strain she was beginning to see around Inuyasha's eyes reminded her of them a little. Oh Kagome-chan… he does want to be tied to you, if only you could see it.