Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or money, so suing would be

pointless.

As it Should Be

The group had been walking for two and a half weeks now, and got

along no better than when they started.

"Get your hand off my ass, dammit!" Sango yelled at Miroku, who had a

satisfied look on his face. Shippou was riding on Kagome's shoulder

and Inuyasha was walking beside them, but not participating in the

conversation. He was deep in thought when a question Shippou asked

Kagome sparked his interest.

"How'd you know what to do to kill that demon? Did you wait for

Inuyasha to get toasted before you got him? Or did that just happen?"

Shippou looked at her expectantly. She fidgeted, knowing that

Inuyasha was within hearing distance.

"Well, it was pretty obvious when he dodged the scroll instead of

burning it to spite me, like he was doing with everyone else."

Shippou nodded. "My arrows weren't easily dodged by him, but didn't

seem to get lodged in there very well, so I tied a scroll to my

arrow. You helped me a lot, Shippou, I would have never gotten that

close if you hadn't of concealed my presence from the youkai." She

tried to divert his attention with the praise.

"But you would have been just fine because Inuyasha had distracted

him by almost dying, so you could've probably gotten close anyway,

right?" Kagome smiled. What's lost is lost.

"Probably, Shippou." She nodded her head. Inuyasha was a bit troubled

by this. He had almost died? Kagome had saved everyone? Maybe she was

tougher than he had thought. Or maybe just lucky… He would like to

think so anyway. How did he recover so fast if he had almost died?

The question that really nagged at his mind wasn't any one of those,

though. His mind flashed back to her bloodied kimono and her scar he

had glimpsed when she pulled her kimono on before they left their

recovery spot by the water. How did she get hurt?

They set up camp that evening and Miroku and Sango were whispering

about something while the kitsune slept in Sango's lap. Kagome had

just started the fire and walked over to sit beside Inuyasha.

"So what did you and Kouga talk about behind the trees for so long

about?" Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at the Priestess who smiled

innocently.

"I don't know what you're talking about, when was this?" Kagome

blinked up at him with a vacuous expression playing across her face.

The firelight highlighted her long hair and made her skin appear

almost golden. She looked like an angel with her kimono flowing over

her small frame and onto the log the two had chosen to reside upon.

His heart ached, and he didn't know why.

"You know what I mean," Inuyasha huffed "and don't play stupid. What

did you two talk about?" Kagome wondered whether or not she should

tell him or play with him a bit more. She looked up into his amber

eyes that were made golden by the firelight and his hair held a

silver hew by the pale moonlight and decided to go ahead and tell

him.

"We broke up." Kagome busied herself poking into the fire. She didn't

want him to see her face. The hope and love was just too hard to

hide. In the three weeks she had known him, something had risen up on

the inside that she had never known existed. It felt like she had

come home for the first time, though she had never been farther from

it.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said softy and raised up her chin with a single

finger, he could have sworn that he smelled the salty waft of a tear

escaping her eye "how did you get hurt if you killed the demon while

it was killing me?" Kagome looked down at the ground.

"Naosu Kokan, she said "it's a healing scroll that is a media for

transferring wounds from one person to another. The scroll also takes

on some of the wounds itself."

"Why did you do it?" Inuyasha asked, looking deep into her brown eyes

that watered slightly as she pulled away.

"Because I thought you--were going to die." Kagome got up and started

walking over to the trees. She was about to cry and she didn't want

Inuyasha or anyone else seeing her do it. Miroku and Sango were

pretending not to notice when Kagome left and Inuyasha got up to

follow her. They giggled and whispered loudly.

Kagome had sat down on a rotting log and put her head in her hands.

The tears flowed freely down her cheeks and spotted the ground at her

feet, though still no sobs escaped from her throat. Inuyasha stood

behind her and smelled the tears and heard them drop on the ground.

He spoke softly to her after watching for a little while.

"Kagome, thank you for saving me. I can only hope that I can do the

same for you someday." He put his hand on her back and she turned

around and hugged him. Inuyasha was stunned, but after a moment,

hugged back. This felt so right. He didn't understand why or how he

could fall in love again, but somehow he had. He pushed her back

slightly with is hands and tilted his head down and sideways. When

she looked up to see why he had stopped the embrace, he touched her

lips with his in a soft kiss of a hanyou in love.



Kagome was in a daze all the next day. Was it just her, or was

everyone getting along a little better?

"Kagome," Shippou asked "why isn't everyone killing each other?"

Kagome sighed.

"Because, we're all tierd. Except you I guess, huh Shippou?" She

mumbled. He was bouncing up and down on her shoulder and she was

dragging her feet on the ground. She and Inuyasha had stayed up last

night talking about just normal stuff. She didn't get much sleep

either. They had both come to the conclusion that one of the reasons

that Miroku and Sango were so weird was that they were trying to get

them to fess up their feelings to one another. Kagome couldn't wait

to tell Sango.

"Why don't you ride on Inuyasha for awhile while I go talk to Sango

for a second, okay?"

"Okay" Shippou chirped. These damn kids didn't realize exactly how

much he knew did they? Oh well, the dumb kid questions yesterday had

gotten these weirdoes to fess up to one another the night before. It

was about goddamn time.

Kagome walked over to Sango and she sent Miroku away to go talk to

Inuyasha.

"Oh, Sango! I'm in love, I admit, you were right. And he kissed me

last night! It was incredible, I never knew love could feel like

this!" Sango looked on appreciatively.

"Yeah, it was obvious to everyone but yourselves. You should thank

Miroku, Shippou, and me for our careful plotting." Sango grinned.

"Shippou?" Kagome asked quizzically.

"Yeah, he came up with most of the plan himself, kind of a wily

little thing isn't he?" Sango smiled fondly at the memory and the

look on Kagome's face.

"I love you girl, and I'm very happy for you."

"Thanks Sango, I never could have done it without you." Kagome could

have never been happier, except that just then she fell down an

enormous hole and barely managed to grab onto a vine about six feet

down. Sango jumped to the side and barely managed to miss it.

"Kirara, go get her!" Sango yelled and Kirara transformed and

retrieved Kagome in an instant. Inuyasha was instantly at her side.

"What the fuck just happened?" he asked angrily. A soft but

unsettling laugh rumbled up from inside the hole. The whole group

tensed. Inuyasha cracked his knuckles.

"You messed with Kagome, so prepare to die, asshole."

"Inuyasha…" Kagome breathed.

(A/n: Wow, I think that was the longest chapter I've ever managed!

Yay… I love romance…Wow… anywho, review because it's nice to review

what you read. Like cows review what they eat because of their

multiple stomachs. And they love it. You should, too. Kisses!)

*Mwah*

mumu