Yo. Big thanks to the reviewers! I was actually not planning to make this fic into anything longer, because I was sort of only playing around when I wrote it. Now I guess I have to… I'm not sure if I've got anything to write though. Oh well.

I don't like Kikyo because she is boring. So I think I'll decide that she's dead already. Either Naraku killed her, or Inu-yasha finally saw her for the irritating girl she really is and killed her, or I flew into the world and killed her myself. Anyway, she's dead.

This is not going to be a Kagome/Sesshoumaru fic, unless I get hold of the computer in some delusional state of mind (for instance, after too many cups of coffee).

By the way, text written like this: "…." is speech, and like this: '…..' it's thought. Just in case you were wondering.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-yasha. Or any of the other characters. Damn.

Chapter Two

"She is going to be alright, isn't she?" Inu-yasha sat restlessly outside Kaede's hut as she and Sango tended to Kagome. He wanted to help out, but he wasn't sure if he could stand the sight of seeing her in so much pain, knowing that he could do nothing to help her. "What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing that I can see," answered Kaede in a very strained voice. "I've been trying to look into her mind to see what it is that ails her, but I can't get through. She's blocking her mind completely. She must have been desperate to be able to keep a barrier as strong as this up even when she is unconscious. So until she wakes up I really don't know how to help her. She has no sickness, no fever, no serious wounds what I can see. Although she has a small wound that I don't really understand. It's not poisonous, and it's not deep. It's almost as if it's only some kind of mark."

"WHAT??!" Inu-yasha flew up and burst into the hut, banging his head on the doorframe as he did so. "The bastard marked her??!!"

Both Kaede and Sango looked up in alarm and the latter quickly got to her feet, grabbing a hold of him and stopping him going near Kagome.

"Inu-yasha, whatever you do, don't wake her!" she cried.

"Inu-yasha, you must calm down!" Kaede agreed, earning herself a furious glare from the half-demon. Wrenching himself out of Sango's grasp he took two steps towards Kagome –  and jumped back as if stung.

"And just what…do you think you are doing?" he growled, staring at Kaede.

"Until you calm down, there is no way I'm letting you go near her," the old woman answered calmly, although her face was shining with the effort of keeping the shield around her and Kagome. "If you wake her up, there's no knowing the damage that might be done."

Inu-yasha glared at her for few minutes, then tried – unsuccessfully – to get through the shield again. Then he glared some more, and then, realizing all his efforts were wasted, he bent his head back and let out his anger, impatience and fear in an ear-splitting howl. He kicked a table into the wall and stormed out of the house, into the forest. They could hear a distant "creeeeaak" that sounded as if Inu-yasha had ripped a tree out of the ground.

Kaede sighed and let the shield down.

"Is he always like that when he's in a temper?"

"No," answered Sango, smiling slightly despite her worry. "He's usually much worse."

A few minutes passed. Then they could hear him coming back, moving much more slowly and much calmer than when he left. Kaede quickly put the shield around her and Kagome again.

Inu-yasha stepped into the hut, looking as if he was keeping his anger in check. Sango, a bit wary of this weird development, started inching closer to him in case he suddenly went crazy. She had never seen him in control of his temper before.

"Alright, hag. I won't do anything," he said through clenched teeth. "I'm not going to do anything that might hurt Kagome. Please, you have to let me look at the mark." Kaede hesitated visibly, but then she gave in and let the shield down. Inu-yasha was by Kagome's side in a second, searching her neck carefully. He sighed, barely audibly.

"Alright, it's a claim mark. But it's not a mate mark, luckily. Mate marks are made by grazing the skin to form long stripes. This is a puncture of the flesh."

"So what does it mean?" asked Sango, coming closer to inspect the small wound.

"Apart from the fact that no demon is allowed to touch her, I don't know. We'll just have to wait for Kagome to wake up."

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

Kagome slept for two days. They all took it in turns to sit with her, although Inu-yasha was there the most. He hadn't left her side for more than a few hours, to get some sleep and to eat.

In the late evening on the second day as he sat beside her, he thought he could hear a change in her breathing. Stroking her hair gently, he called to her.

"Kagome. Please wake up."

He took her hand and squeezed it, overjoyed at finally seeing the end of her coma. She moaned softly, then slowly opened her eyes and looked into his face. And screamed.

The others, who had been waiting anxiously just outside, came running in as soon as they heard her, and saw Kagome sitting pressed against the far wall of the hut, staring madly at Inu-yasha. Her arms were clutched protectively against her chest and her bottom lip was trembling.

"Kagome…." said Inu-yasha softly. "It's me. There's nothing to be afraid of. It's me, Inu-yasha. Whoever it was that hurt you, he's not here now." Slowly Kagome relaxed and her eyes focused clearly on Inu-yasha's face. A large shiver ran through her body. Then she began to sob. She cried loudly, her face screwed up in despair. None of them had ever seen her cry like that. Hell, none of them had seen anyone cry like that.

Inu-yasha edged carefully towards her and when she showed no sign of trying to run away, put his arms around her, trying to comfort her. Bit by bit she calmed down and unclenched her fists, turning her face into his shoulder.

"Let's go," said Kaede quietly. "Let them be alone for a while." Without a word, the others turned and left the hut, sensing that what Kagome needed right now was to cry it all out, and to have Inu-yasha near her.

The next day Kagome felt well enough to tell her story. She had cried herself exhausted and then fallen asleep in Inu-yasha's arms. Now she was fully recovered, and almost felt back to her old bouncy self again. She told them all about what had happened and felt kind of stupid. In broad daylight among her friends, the fact that Sesshoumaru was after her blood suddenly didn't feel as horrible anymore. She had even forgotten the terror of when she woke up the day before and thought that it was the demon lord who was gazing down upon her instead of his half brother.

Her friends, however, didn't treat the matter as lightly.

"Can you tell me exactly what he said again?" asked Miroku, who was taking notes.

"That no demon would ever touch me again because of the mark. And then when I asked why, he said "Because you are mine to kill." " The memory sent a cold shiver running down Kagome's spine, but she tried to hide it. Back with her friends she felt that nothing could ever hurt her. Well, not without trying pretty damn hard, anyway.

"Where did Inu-yasha go?" she asked, more to bring the talk away from Sesshoumaru than anything else.

"He left after you told us what his brother did because he wasn't sure he if he would be able to control his anger," Sango explained. "He's probably gone to slice some trees with the Tetsusaiga, he's been doing that a lot lately."

Kagome gaped.

"He's controlling his anger??!"

Inu-yasha, meanwhile, was venting his fury on the forest. He saw his brother's face before him, sneering down at him, and brought the Tetsusaiga round in a long arch, slicing what he thought was Sesshoumaru into several pieces. His vision cleared, and he saw that he had managed to demolish a young oak. Panting slightly, he sheathed his sword and took a few deep breaths. As he laid his hand against the tree, for some weird reason asking its pardon, he heard Toto-sai's words inside his head.

"No matter how much you hate him… Sesshoumaru is still your elder brother. You couldn't make yourself cold-hearted enough to kill your own brother, could you?!"

'Can I kill him?' Inu-yasha mused. 'He would certainly kill me if he had the chance. But I wonder if I could ever make myself that cruel. I can't seem to forget about when we were kids…' Kagome's face swam before his vision. Kagome as he found her the day after the snow storm. So terrified she looked ready to give up and die, right then and there. He clenched his fists, digging the claws into his palms.

'Brother or not, this time I will kill him.'

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

Sesshoumaru walked idly between the trees, taking his time. He thought about the human girl, Inu-yasha's wench.

'Just what is she to Inu-yasha? There are no claim marks on her, yet since the day he met her she's been his weak point. Well, not entirely weak point. She is rather strong herself. But what does he want with her? Does he want her as his mate? If so, why not claim her? If not, why does he protect her?'

Sesshoumaru, alien to the feeling love, did not understand. He himself felt drawn to the young girl, but for entirely different reasons.

'She is quite a challenge. As well as beautiful, in a….bouncy sort of way. I will enjoy breaking her. I do hope no one else kills her first…. Of course, I marked her as mine but there are demons out there stupid enough to go against the will of Sesshoumaru. Very stupid demons, they are.'

Slowly he became aware as to where he was heading.

'Funny. I wasn't planning on returning to my castle just yet…. Oh, it's just as well. I can see how much of my finances Jaken has managed to screw up already.'

As he stepped in through the doors to his castle, a small child hurtled towards him with the speed of a bullet. She threw herself in his arms, giggling happily.

"Rin is so happy Lord Sesshoumaru is home!" she squealed, looking up at him with that grin that somehow seemed to enchant him. He kneeled down to her level, taking her chin in his hand.

"How did you see that I was returning back…here?" he asked, unable to use the word home. Lord Sesshoumaru did not have a "home". Rin grinned widely again.

"Rin saw it from her window! Rin saw Lord Sesshoumaru walking through the meadow, home to Rin!"

Sesshoumaru sighed quietly. He was trying to find out what this girl's magic was. But although her smile made him act unlike himself, he hadn't found that she had any special powers – except a strange ability to speak only with exclamation marks. It puzzled him, and vexed him a little. He couldn't understand why he had saved her and – stranger still – kept her. He told himself it was because he was interested in her strange brand of magic, whatever it was.

Lord Sesshoumaru wasn't a liar, except to himself.

"Lord Sesshoumaru!" exclaimed Jaken, appearing out of nowhere and bowing down at Sesshoumaru's feet. "I did not expect you back so early, nothing is ready for you yet, although it will be of course in a matter of moments, let me just go and tell the – "

Sesshoumaru kicked Jaken in the face, making him yelp in pain and jump back a few paces.

"Jaken," said Sesshoumaru calmly, "what have I said about the grovelling?"

"So sorry, m'lord, I'm so – "

"The child," snapped his lord. "What is she doing out of her room? Haven't I told you that I want her to be in her room at all times, safe from the harm the guards or objects in this castle might mean?"

"Yes, m'lord, and I'm so sorry, I was just going to bring her the afternoon meal when she hit me over the head with a flower vase and ran past me."

"Did you, Rin?" asked Sesshoumaru approvingly. "Well done." The small girl grinned and giggled.

"Rin is sorry!" she chirped, turning to the little green frog who was looking rather hurt. "Rin promises she'll never do it again!" She gave him a big hug – he tried frantically to free himself – and then took Sessoumaru's hand.

"Now when Lord Sesshoumaru is home, he'll be with Rin!?"

'Amazing,' he thought, looking down at the girl. 'She must be the only person in the world who can exclaim a simple question.'

"Yes, Rin," he said out loud. "Let's go for a walk. Jaken, I want lunch to be ready at noon. You'll find us in the garden. And you might want to sort out the paperwork, I'm planning to go through my finances. If it's as bad as the last time you were in charge I will have your head on a plate for tonight's dinner."

With that he left, picking Rin up on his way and setting her on his shoulders. Jaken watched the pair with jealousy.

'How is it,' he thought bitterly, 'that although he's been acting much kinder since she came, he's even more merciless now than before to me?'

Sniffling a bit to himself over the cruelty of the world, Jaken went to sort out his lord's finances, which were in a sad state.

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

"Inu-yasha, can we please slow down? I'm really tired," said Kagome, readjusting her quiver of arrows to better suit her aching shoulders. Inu-yasha, however, did not slow down at all – if anything, he quickened the pace.

"NO, we can not slow down!" he snapped irritably. "We've lost enough time as it is!"

Sighing, Kagome picked up the pace again. She looked over her shoulder at Sango and Miroku, who were walking beside each other arguing, as usual. Shippou was riding on Miroku's shoulders, once in a while adding a remark to fuel the pair's anger, if the argument ever seemed to come to a standstill. Kagome smiled at the mischievous little demon, then turned her eyes forward towards Inu-yasha again.

She couldn't understand him at all. She loved him, a lot, and she thought that he loved her back but with him it was just so hard to tell. She seemed to remember him comforting her the first night she was awake back at the village, and she also had a fuzzy memory of him saying he loved her.

'Maybe that was just trauma-induced hallucinations,' she thought glumly.

At that moment there was a loud yell and a scuffle behind her. Both she and Inu-yasha turned quickly, to see Koga lying on the ground next to Sango. It looked as if he had been hit hard in the head with a monk's staff. Miroku was blushing.

"Why thank you," said Sango, raising an eyebrow. "But I cannot understand why you felt you had to knock him unconscious just because he took my hand."

"I… I thought he was an enemy demon!" Miroku tried, looking flustered.

"Oh. Is that why you yelled "You again, you sleazy pervert! Let her go!" before you bashed him?"

"Let him be, Sango," said Kagome, grinning and gently slapping Koga's face. "Koga, wake up! The big bad extremely jealous monk is gone now." Koga's eyelids fluttered and then opened. As soon as he saw who was bending over him he sprang up and grabbed her hand.

"Kagome, my darling. You can't imagine how I've pined for you! I even mistook that girl there – " he pointed at Sango with a short laugh, making her seethe with anger and reach for her boomerang, "for you. I'm seeing your face everywhere. Please reconsider. Do you really want to spend your life with a puppy?" Inu-yasha started casually cracking his knuckles.

"I'm not the one who needs flea shampoo."

"OK, relax," said Kagome, feeling it was best to intervene before the two of them got down to their favourite activity: beating each other up. "Koga, we're really busy so we have to go. We'll see you some other time I guess."

"So you want to see me again?"

"Koga," said Kagome, "I think it's best if you leave now." Behind her Inu-yasha was starting to make loud growling noises. Koga looked as if he was ready to oblige, but then his gaze fell on her neck. He stepped close to her again and pulled her hair out of the way.

"What is this?" he asked quietly.

"It's some sort of claim," said Shippou helpfully. Koga froze.

"Have you marked her, Inu-yasha? Against her will? You know her heart belongs to me!" With a shout the wolf demon leapt towards Inu-yasha, who snorted impatiently.

"If you'd been just a little bit smarter you'd have seen that those are not mate marks," he said, nimbly sidestepping a blow from the other's fist. "There's a demon out there who wants to kill her, so if you could just let me go and rip his sorry little life to shreds – " here he delivered a blow to Koga's stomach – "I could get back to kicking your ass another day. OK?"

Wheezing from the loss of air, Koga still managed to get a few words said.

"Who…is...he? I will…kill…him …."

"No, you will not," said Inu-yasha coolly. "He is my brother, and he is mine to defeat. For trying to do me in on several occasions, for being an absolute son of a bitch and most of all for hurting Kagome. Now go, we're in a hurry."

Koga stood up slowly.

"You must know," he said with the trace of a smile, "that I'm not going to let this go so easily."

"I know. That's why I want you to get out of my sight so I don't waste my energy killing you. God knows you deserve it, stubborn idiot."

Koga, seemingly realizing that the battle was lost for today, prepared to leave.

"Goodbye, dear Kagome," he said, grinning. "When I see you next time, I will bring you the puppy's brother's head on a pole." Then he took off.

"Maybe it would be a good idea to find out who my brother is first, you idiot!" yelled Inu-yasha after the retreating form. The others brushed off the usual dust that always seemed to settle on their clothes whenever they said goodbye to Koga.

"Well, he's a true romantic, at least," said Sango sarcastically. ""I will bring you his brother's head on a pole"….it's a wonder you didn't agree to marriage on the spot."

Inu-yasha snorted and started to walk again. The others followed, with groaning and complaints. Kagome sighed again as she watched the tense set of his shoulders.

'One day he's going to kill Koga. Damn, he's so jealous. And what right does he have to be jealous? He's the one who was seeing Kikyo all the time – even though she tried to kill him every time they met! Is that fair?!' She sulked for a while, then went back to thinking about what he had (possibly) said while she was crying hysterically that night.

'I am pretty sure he did say he loves me. Well, if he did, he could show it a bit more.'

At that moment Inu-yasha stopped and waited for her to catch up with him.

"Sorry," he said. "For being so mean before. I'm just very tense right now. If you're tired, jump on my back." Surprised by the sudden offer she just blinked for a while. Then she felt how much her legs ached and accepted. Once on his back she felt tiredness starting to envelop her like a blanket and yawned widely.

"You know, Inu-yasha," she said sleepily, "I would never go to Koga, you know that, right? It's with you I belong, you know."

"Feh. Whatever," answered Inu-yasha. However, he was grateful that she couldn't see his face, as it was rapidly turning the same colour as his jacket.

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

In a castle in the western lands, Jaken learned that he was quite a skilled climber. At least when his lord was standing underneath him with a pitchfork which he intended to use for educational purposes. Namely, to educate Jaken in what happens when you fail to summarize the monthly finances properly.

Jaken was pretty sure that he did not need any more education in that area.