Woo! Sorry for this update taking waaaaaaaayyyyy to long but I had lost the disk that this chapter was saved on. -.-; Found it tough! ^_^ Turns out my sister had hid it from me. *Le sigh* Anyway on with the story.

                                                A Single Red Rose

                                         Love Blooms In Odd Places

            The ground had traveled for another month that felt like a year to all of them. As they went on more and more youkai attacked them, demanding for the Shikon. And each time the same thing happened. Kagome would kill them with her unknown powers, which were slowly becoming known. Both Inuyasha and Shippo had made it a point to try and train Kagome on how to control her newfound power. Needless to say since they didn't know much about the jewel and its strengths the training wasn't that easy. But what they did tell her helped her to control it and stay conscious while doing so. One of these training sessions was going on right that moment, only Shippo was the only teacher. Inuyasha had gotten fed up and gone back to the hut the group was staying in.

            "Good Kagome that was a lot stronger than last time and your still awake! But how do you feel?"

            "Erm, a bit woozy but other wise okay." Placing her hand on her forehead she blew out a slow breath, closing her eyes so the dizziness passed. While Kagome took deep breaths Shippo sat down where he was standing, watching her with out really realizing how intently he was staring at her. When Kagome opened her eyes she was staring right into the deep green of Shippo's and she felt a slight blush start to crawl up her next when he didn't look away. "Um, so what now Shippo-kun?"

Shippo blinked, as if her saying his name snapped him from whatever trance he was in, and rubbed the back of his head finally breaking eye contact with her. "I guess we can stop for tonight. We have been out here for almost three hours and if Inuyasha was still out here we'd probably still be going." He chuckled and stood up, dusting grass off of his pants as well as flicking it out of his tail. "So we can do whatever you want to do Kagome."

She smiled and walked to where he was standing and hugged him. "Thank you Shippo-kun. For not getting frustrated with me and helping me with this." She gave him an extra squeeze and kissed his cheek.

His cheeks turned a light pink color as he returned the squeeze. "No problem Kagome." 'She smells good.'  Closing his eyes he inhaled the sent of her through his nose. 'Like flowers and rain.'  They stood there a moment longer before both realized that the embrace had lasted longer then had been planned. With blushes on both of their cheeks they stepped back suddenly finding the ground fascinating.

"Uh, well, maybe we should turn in. It has gotten late." Kagome clasped her hands behind her back, her eyes flickering upwards as she spoke.

Lifting his gaze to lock on to the she youkai in front of him Shippo gave her a small smile. "You go on ahead, Kagome. I think I'll stay out for a while longer."

"Alright. Good night Shippo-kun." With the goodnight repeated back to her she walked back towards the hut, Shippo watching her until she vanished inside.

Shippo heaved a sigh and let himself fall back onto the ground, his arms folding behind his head to cradle it as he looked to the stars. Thinking back to when he first met Kagome and the others he let his vision blur with the memories. He remembered one night after their first shared kiss, the one that had been rudely interrupted by another demon out for Shikon no Tama, when they had been alone again and things had gotten a little, well, heated between them.

~*~*~*~*~Flashback~*~*~*~

            "Come on Shippo! You've got to be able to move faster than that!" Kagome's laughter rang through the small campsite as the kitsune chased the inu-youkai. Running around the fire and the others sitting around it they were playing a small game of tag, Sango had suggested it for a type of training to keep them in shape which Inuyasha had scoffed at denied to play while saying it was a child's game. But after running around the other three everyone had gotten a little annoyed at their antics.

            "Enough!" Sango jumped to her feet after Shippo had tripped yet again while trying to lung for Kagome, landing on the exterminator. At the tone in the older woman's voice both, playing, youkai froze. "Go play out in the woods or something before you rip up the whole camp!" Nether youkai dared say anything to upset Sango further so they crept out, tails between their legs.

            Once they were away from the camp they had started to play again while commenting on Sango's change of attitude toward the game she had suggested. But soon even that was forgotten as they were once again caught up in their game, Kagome taunting the Kit. Kagome had leapt into the trees and started leaping from one to another, Shippo close behind her.

            "I'm catching up to you Kagome!" Shippo had indeed gotten closer to her as the distance between the trees gradually grew. With a laugh the kit jumped from his tree to Kagomes, grapping her around the waist before she could jump. "Got you."

            She had been squirming against his hold until she felt his warm breath at her ear and his low voice. Swallowing she turned her head to look at him, a sly grin creeping onto her features. "So you have."  She had lowered her voice to a sexy little purr, which instantly affected the youkai behind her. She felt his arm tense and tighten only slightly around her waist. Pushing back against him she hoped to knock him off the tree so she could run again. Well it worked, she made him fall from the tree only he took her with her. With a yelps from both they hit the ground, Shippo having made sure he hit the ground first to keep Kagome from getting hurt. When she landed on him he made an off sound.

            "What was that for?!" Kagome screeched, lifting her head from his chest to look down at him.

            Blinking he tilted his head to the side. "What do you mean what was that for? You're the one that made us fall."

            "Yeah but you…you were supposed to let me go!" She huffed and started to scramble off of him only to be stopped as him arm circled her waist again.

            It was Shippo's turn to smirk when her eyes widened when he started to stroke the small of her back, his fingers creeping to the base of her tail which she had kept hidden until the game (She used the fluffy whiteness to try and distract him).  "But then you would have gotten away again and that wouldn't have been fair, considering now you're it." The way her body tensed then relaxed under his petting made his smirk widen. "Something wrong Kagome? You've gone quiet." Well, not completely quiet. She was purring and the vibration from that against his chest made him want to purr as well.

            Turning glazed golden blue eyes to him she blinked lazily and opened her mouth to speak, only nothing came out so she closed it again. This action brought Shippo's eyes down to her full lips, her full kissable lips. Closing his eyes tightly he tried to force the image of their last kiss from his mind. He couldn't do that again. It was then he realized that her purring had stopped and his little tail petting session had stopped as well. Opening his eyes he looked to Kagome who continued to stare at him, only her gaze was directed to where his had been, at his lips. "Kagome?" He never got his full question out before her lips lightly grazed his, as if she were asking if it was okay to kiss him.  To answer her question he lifted his head to press his lips to hers.

            At first the kiss started like every kiss does, slow as if it were an experiment, then it became more. Instead of the light pressure of lips against lips it increased as Shippo threaded his fingers through her hair and Kagome cupped his cheeks in her palms. Unknown to them heir tails had entwined and were swaying together as if dancing. Cradling her head in his palm he rolled so he was pinning her to the ground instead of the other way around. Soon the touching of only their lips wasn't enough and Shippo lightly danced his fingers down along her sides while tracing the outline of her lips with his tongue. Kagome responded by parting her lips as well as sliding her hands down along her back.

            If it hadn't been for the sharp caw of a raven things might have gone further but the sharp interruption of the bid had them jerking their heads back to look to where the caw came from then back to each other. Their cheeks colored and Shippo scrambled up off of her, pulling her up by taking her hand. "Uh, we should get back to camp." They avoided eye contact and, when Kagome nodded, started back to camp.

~*~*~*~*~End Flashback~*~*~*~*~

            With a sigh Shippo blinked and his vision cleared as he pulled himself from the memory. Shaking his head he sat up, rubbing his temples lightly to try and put the memory back into the corner of his mind. It was then that he found out something shocking, something that had him jerking his head up to look back to the sky. "I'm in love with Kagome." 

********************************************************************************************

Wowzers! Hope that chapter made up for me not posting in moths, if so leave meh a review! Pwease?