AN: Hola! So much for my weekly update, huh? Sorry, when on a vacay that got extended, so didn't have time to write. Also, I was wondering if this fic lacked in fluff, so I was thinking whether I should rewrite this entire chapter and add mush. But then if I do, I'd have to rewrite chapter 10, too, which I'm more than halfway through. So I'll save the fluff for next time. Hey, they're stuck under concrete? How much fun can they have?

            Ehh….don't answer that, just enjoy the fic ^_^.

Prisoner

            Situation—Kagome was stuck under a pile of concrete, in total darkness, in a dark alley in the middle of the night. The only thing stopping the concrete from squashing her completely was Inu-Yasha. There was about half a meter space between them that was quickly decreasing. She could feel Inu-Yasha's arms trembling on either side of her shoulder.

            Thoughts raced through her mind. Would they ever manage to get out of here? Would anyone even know they were gone? Inu-Yasha was strong, but not superhuman. Eventually his strength would give out and they would be buried under concrete forever. Would she ever live past this night? Not to mention that she was practically melting under her jacket.

            All those years of training to defeat Kikyo's killers—wasted. The girl who would avenge Kikyo was now stuck under a collapsed wall. With the second best vampire hunter in the world. Kagome tried to push those thoughts out of her head. It was just a wall. They would get out easily.

            Then another horrifying thought shot into her head, so quickly her blood almost froze (if it weren't near boiling point already with the blasted heat.) "Oh no, I'm going to die a virgin!" she wailed out loud.

            Silence. Then Inu-Yasha's disbelieving voice, "And that's all you can think of?"              

            Kagome was in a state of panic. "This isn't fair! I'm being robbed of my youth! I can't die yet!" She pushed against the dumpster lid with her hands, but to no avail. She began wailing at the top of her lungs about how her life was over and unfulfilled and the like.

            "Kagome, stop it! You're using up precious oxygen!" Inu-Yasha hissed. "My precious oxygen, since I'm the one saving our butts here…"

            There was a pause. Then… "Hey, Inu-Yasha, how flexible are you?"

            "…I'm going to pretend I never heard that. The lack of oxygen is messing with your head, and hopefully you'll black out and never remember saying that," Inu-Yasha said as calmly as he could. He could've sworn he'd heard her mutter, "Damn."

            A drop of moisture dropped down on Kagome's collarbone. Her hands traveled to Inu-Yasha's face, which was lined with sweat. Kagome bit her lip, then started unzipping her jacket.

            Inu-Yasha heard the sound of the zipper and nearly had a heart attack. "Uhm, Kagome, what are you doing? Didn't you hear me? This is so grounds for rape…"

            "You're such a moron!" Kagome shot back. She shrugged out of her jacket as best as she could while lying on the floor. Wrapping the white cloth around her hand, she wiped the sweat from Inu-Yasha's face.

            He started at the sudden feel of cloth on his face, but when he realized Kagome was not trying to smother him (and perhaps ultimately do worse things), he relaxed. "Thanks," he mumbled. But in that one moment he'd allowed himself to relax his arms wavered violently and collapsed. "Shit!"

            Kagome yelped and braced herself, but Inu-Yasha didn't collapse on her. She didn't feel the weight of a ton of cement on her body. He'd held out his arms again, and they were now braced against the floor now, his elbows resting against Kagome's sides. His teeth were gritted in pain, and occasionally he cried out. Kagome was feeling worse and worse every minute. She was supposed to be capable of taking care of herself! So why was it that when Inu-Yasha came along, he had to save her from everything?

            Hah…she could hold up the damn wall too…Kagome squirmed around, trying to move her legs from under Inu-Yasha's. When she got them free, she planted a foot on either side of Inu-Yasha's waist on the dumpster lid and pushed. Holy crap that's heavy…But all that jogging and biking and Myouga's sword dodging helped, and the lid rose off Inu-Yasha's shoulders a little bit.

            "Thanks," Inu-Yasha said again. That was the second time he'd said thanks to someone that night, and it felt weird, since usually the word was alien to his lips. All of a sudden he grinned into the darkness. "Hey, aren't you wearing a skirt?"

            Kagome rolled her eyes. "You can't see through the dark anyway, and there's nothing you can see that Naraku's vampires haven't already. Which is why I'm going to slaughter them once I get out of here," she added under her breath. "If we get out of here."

            "We will," Inu-Yasha said confidently. "Or we'll die trying. Literally. Kagome, can't you shoot your arrow out of here or something? My Tetsusaiga is buried under all this crap as well."

            She shook her head, even though Inu-Yasha couldn't see. "When I shoot the arrow, the power glows around the arrow in the form of light. Since the lid of this thing is metal, it would reflect back to us. My arrow's more of a long-range thing. Plus I'm lying on it."

            "Why didn't you say that in the first place? Well, then we're stuck here until I think of another idea," Inu-Yasha muttered. With Kagome holding up half the weight, talking wasn't so difficult. He sighed and lowered his head so that his chin touched his collar bone. He heard Kagome giggle. "What's so funny?"

            "Your hair's tickling me." He felt her hands near his face again, gently brushing his hair away from it, tucking it behind his ears. Inu-Yasha felt his cheeks redden. Then, as chirpily as if she was complimenting a new mother on her baby, she said, "You know, I had a dream about you last night."

            He gulped. "Y-you did?" Was that supposed to be suggestive? She sounds like she's going to seduce me or something…

             "Mmm-hmm. It was really funny. Remember when I first met you—gosh, it seems like a long time ago—I thought you were a vampire?"

            "Dear lord, how could anyone forget?" He muttered. Kagome shushed him and continued, "Well, in this dream you were a vampire. I was a vampire slayer, and Naraku was there too. It was this sort of wrestling arena, except instead of wrestlers it was the three of us, all fighting against each other. Miroku was the referee. I was wondering why you were a vampire, and whenever I wondered, you changed back into a human. Then when I dismissed it as me being screwed up, you became a vampire again. And sometimes I couldn't tell what you were. And Naraku just kept laughing. And at the end, I became a vampire too. The only person who stayed human was Miroku." Kagome let out a small laugh of her own. "Usually I can interpret dreams pretty well, but that was way over the top."

            Inu-Yasha's heart had nearly stopped with every sentence, until the end at least, which seemed totally ridiculous. Kagome had probably been eating too much pizza at night as well. Obviously her dream had come from the fact that she'd thought he was a vampire, and all her thoughts about Naraku. It had nothing to do with him. But maybe she could make something out of his dream… "You know, I had a dream about us too."

            Kagome snickered. "Were we fighting like in my dream? Because I can interpret that easy. It means we've been seeing too much of each other."

            "Sort of. You were trying to kill me. We were fighting Naraku, and all of a sudden you turned on me—" he decided to leave a little detail out for a few reasons "And almost killed me. Then someone else killed you, and I rushed to your side. I guess I felt a little scared, I dunno. And Naraku kept laughing, like in your dream." Again he left out a little detail. "So what does it mean, O Madame Kagomenski?"

            "Hmm…" There was silence as Kagome pondered. "Oh, I know! This dreams means you care about me!"

            Inu-Yasha nearly collapsed again. "What?! Me, care about you?"

            "It's either that or you really don't like me. Come on, which one is it?"

            He scowled. "I don't know…" He didn't really want to talk about it. In fact, he was sorry he ever brought up the dream. To get Kagome's mind off the subject, he shifted his shoulders, trying to find another spot on his back to balance the lid. This reminded him that Kagome's legs still flanked his waist, helping him keep the thing up. He wondered if they were ever going to get out of here. 

*          *          *

            "Hey, Ms. Higurashi!" Miroku greeted as he entered the shrine.

            Kagome's mother smiled back, even if it seemed a bit stretched. "Oh, hello Miroku. What can I do for you?"

            "I was just looking for Kagome. Are she and Inu-Yasha back yet? We were all supposed to go bowling afterwards." Miroku checked his watch. "The movie ended like forty minutes ago."

            Mrs. Higurashi looked at the clock on the wall. "Yes, they are a bit late." There seemed to be a slight trace of hope in her voice. "Maybe they stopped at a restaurant after the movie…or took a walk by the park…even though I discouraged Kagome from walking around alone at night, Inu-Yasha's there with her…maybe more than just a walk?"

            Miroku stared at Mrs. Higurashi. "I don't think Inu-Yasha and Kagome would that sort of thing, Mrs. Higurashi. I mean, they're like cats and dogs around each other." Then he stopped. "Dog…Inu-Yasha…heh heh I made a funny joke…" he chuckled at his brilliance.

            Mrs. Higurashi gave Miroku a strange look. "Well, won't you sit down?" she offered him a chair by the kitchen table. "Is it really true that Inu-Yasha and Kagome aren't too fond of each other? After my initial meeting with him, he seems like a very nice man."

            "Actually, I think they're warming up to each other," Miroku said. "Sure, they still fight, but it's nothing like the first few days of school—they loathed each other. Kagome thought Inu-Yasha was a vamp—" he stopped.

            "A what?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, busy making a pot of tea.

            "Vamp," Miroku finished, mentally congratulating himself on his save. Mrs. Higurashi stopped and gave him a weird look, wondering whether Inu-Yasha really was a woman who liked seducing men with sexually suggestive charm. Miroku was slow—he wouldn't realize his mistake until probably later in the night.

            She set before him a cup of tea. "Why don't you drink up first? I'll see if we have some leftover cake. Maybe if they're not back soon we can call."

            "Sure," he agreed. "I'll call after I get something in my stomach."

*          *          *

            "Hey," Kagome said suddenly. "There's an empty space to my right. If I move so that my back is against the dumpster side, we could fit in that little nook the lid creates. We wouldn't have to hold this thing up anymore, and just kind of huddle until help arrives."

            Huddle? "What if the lid is too weak to support all the concrete, and caves in completely?" Inu-Yasha asked. "And while we're moving we could get squashed in the process."

            "We just have to try it then. We'll move quickly. I can already feel the side of the dumpster with my hand, it's to my right and your left. On the count of three we'll scoot back into that little nook and hopefully the lid still forms a triangle around us." Kagome flicked Inu-Yasha's arm. "Come on, it beats keeping this thing up for hours. You're weakening already." She finally got a sigh of defeat. "Ok, on the count of three, ready? It has to be a quick movement. One, two…three!"

            They rolled lightning fast into the little space. The lid crashed down on where they used to be, but didn't cave in to the concrete. Kagome's back slammed against the dumpster side, and a split second later Inu-Yasha crashed into her. The space that they'd rolled in was half of what they'd had before. Now they couldn't move around, for they were pressed tightly together, but Inu-Yasha wasn't holding up the debris for them anymore.

            The burn in his shoulders was killing him. Exhausted, Inu-Yasha closed his eyes and dropped his head forward, hoping that the cool metal of the dumpster would soothe him somewhat. Instead his face dropped into a warm shoulder.

            Kagome made a surprised sound when she felt Inu-Yasha's head on her shoulder. He mumbled into her skin, "Sorry, I was looking for the dumpster for my head…" He stopped when he realized how stupid that sounded. 

            "Oh, yeah, I'm kind of squished against it. You want to trade?"

            "Like we can trade," he snorted. "Both of us are currently cramped in a space the size of a coffin. This is our coffin. Our coffin of death. This is our graveyard. We are doomed in this coffin-sized coffin of darkness."

"Could you be any more morbid? Not to mention stupid?"

 "All because of you," he continued as if he hadn't heard her. "Why did I let you talk me into this?" He was still leaning against her shoulder.

            "Uhm, because we were about to be squished into pancakes? Nice to know being confined in a tiny space doesn't hinder your ability to sound ungrateful and mean."

            "Believe me, when I have the energy, I'll show you mean," Inu-Yasha said. Kagome giggled at the tone of his voice. And Inu-Yasha was suddenly aware of how close her shoulder was to her neck—how close he was to her neck. His cheek nearly touched it when it rose and fell with her laughter. He could faintly hear her pulsing heartbeat traveling through her jugular…half of him wanted to do it now, but the other half was desperately fighting it, and a tiny bit was wondering why the hell he needed it so much. Hadn't the man in the theater been enough?    

            Inu-Yasha closed her eyes. Stop it, he told himself. Stop it right now. Not Kagome. But even with his eyes closed, he saw her arched neck, the soft skin. Inu-Yasha tried to move his head back, but there was so little space…

            "Inu-Yasha? What's wrong?"

            "I'm…hungry," he said in a low voice, the word just spilling out.

            She giggled again. Stop laughing. You don't know what it's doing to me. "Is that all? You're going to have to tell your stomach to hold."

            It's not my stomach. Then Kagome's heartbeat became louder. Inu-Yasha could almost taste her on his lips. Slowly he lowered his head, his lips tracing her skin softly as they traveled down her neck. Not a good idea, since Kagome's pulse began to race, making his hold on humanity even weaker.

            "What are you doing?" Kagome didn't know why Inu-Yasha was kissing her neck—well, not really kissing—but she was torn. It felt good, but it also wasn't Inu-Yasha. It was a strong sense of déjà vu, like that scene outside the novelty store was replaying itself all over again. A part of her wanted to close her eyes and let him continue, but most of her knew this was scarily wrong. It didn't feel warm and tender like before—"Stop!"

            He wasn't listening. He opened his mouth and was ready to bite down—

            A very loud, jarring, sudden ringing sound allowed his humanity to take control. Growling, he pushed his head back so hard that it crashed into the tin above his head. Stars winking in his eyes, he noticed Kagome fidgeting under him, glad for a distraction. The ringing stopped.

"No!" Kagome wailed. "That was my phone! It's somewhere here but I can't find it!" She continued to burrow around. "Oh, please ring again…" Thankfully, it did. After a few minutes of browsing and more loud ringing, Kagome reached under the dumpster and pulled out her glowing phone. "I found my phone! A lifesaver!" she cried, whipping the cover open.

            Inu-Yasha exhaled. "More than you know," he murmured under his breath.

            "Hello? Miroku!! You don't know how glad I am to hear your voice!" Kagome said happily into her phone. "Hey, you'll never guess where we are!"

            "Oh! I know! You're slowly wasting away under a ton of cement!"

            Kagome did a double-take, then glared suspiciously at the phone. "Actually under a dumpster first, and I won't ask you how you knew that, you freakish all-knowing weirdo." A pause.  "What dumpster? How the heck should I know, Miroku? Do they have names?" If there was any room, Inu-Yasha would have lifted his hand and smacked it against his face. Of all the people to save them, it had to be Miroku.

            "Yes it's really tight in here…" Kagome was beginning to lose her chirpy tone. "Miroku, no we have not done anything, you lecherous pervert. Why do I sound out of breath? Because I'm trapped under cement with a dwindling supply of oxygen! Miroku, are you going to help us or not? I swear if me and Inu-Yasha die we're haunting you for all the days of your life." A pause. "Now you're making sense! What alley?" she asked Inu-Yasha, turning her mouth away from the phone.

            "Before we ran into the maze I saw a sign that said Gojira Alley," Inu-Yasha replied. "You'll have to tell him to look around for it, I don't know where we are now."

            Kagome repeated the message to Miroku, and when she was sure he got it, pumped her fist in the tiny space. "Yes, we're saved!" she shouted, wrapping her arms around Inu-Yasha's neck. Then she remembered what Inu-Yasha had been doing before the phone call and quickly dropped her arms.

            At the same time, Inu-Yasha drew back at the sudden contact and coughed. "Uhm, that's great." Don't get too close to her, you already slipped once. "Please don't hug me." He stopped and realized that was the second stupid-sounding thing he'd said tonight. My god, I sound like a depressed teddy bear.

            From the phone that Kagome forgot to turn off, Miroku's voice, etchy with static, "I knew it! You are making the moves on him, Kagome!"

            Kgome indignantly drew back. "Oh, what about that part when you said you cared about me?"

            "You said that, Inu-Yasha?" Miroku asked through the phone.  "Okay, me and the cops are at Gojira Alley, we're looking around a bit…"

            "I only said a little!" Inu-Yasha protesting. The snickering from the other side of the line proved that to Miroku, a little meant a lot. "Did I tell you about how when we were first stuck in here, Kagome was bawling about how she was going to die a virgin then tried to—"

            Kagome quickly pressed the end call button on her phone. Inu-Yasha smirked. "I think Miroku knows enough to make his brain pop out," she said. "Besides, if you ever do spill, I'll just tell him about what you were trying to do. What was all that business about kissing my neck, anyway?"

            The smirk died from his lips. Though he was wishing she would forget it, he knew it was impossible to. "What do you mean? I wasn't kissing you. I—was looking for a place to rest my lips."

            "On my neck?"

            He wished he could stop cranking out stupid sentences. "Don't think anything of it, okay? It was nothing." What could he say to make her forget it? Probably nothing. Oh, wait! Draw the attention on her… "And what about you? If I recall clearly, you were arching your neck like you wanted me to do it!"

            She sputtered, "What—no—nu-uh! If I recall clearly, I was petrified with shock. Just tell me why you were doing it. Oh, wait I know, you didn't want to die a virgin either!"  

            Inu-Yasha snorted. "What makes you think I'm a virgin?"

            A very long pause. Then, "You're kidding, right?"

            "Heh heh. That's something you're gonna have to ponder." As Kagome whacked his shoulder with her fist, he gave himself a mental pat on the back for coming up with a diversion (even if it meant physical pain.) All of a sudden he grabbed her wrist. "Ssh, Kagome, do you hear that?"

            Kagome frowned. Then she nodded slowly, "Yeah, like some sort of rumbling…"

            "It's getting louder," he murmured. Then the ground started shaking, not violently but still enough for them to feel it. Forgetting the past events, Kagome clutched onto Inu-Yasha's arms. Wild thoughts ran through her head. "Oh my god, they're going to bulldozer us into little pancakes and no one will know we're here until they see the blood running down the street and our flat, broken severed hands poking out of the debris and our skulls crushed to powder and our ribs cracked and spine snapped—"

            "Shut up!" Inu-Yasha hissed. Her description was sort of sickening him. "It sounds more like a helicopter than a bulldozer."

            There was a loud crash, so loud it shook the ground and jostled them. "Right," Kagome said, "There was a helicopter. Now it's a mass of twisted metal."

            A loud, blaring sound, like—"Sirens," Inu-Yasha realized. "Kagome, Miroku must have found us! I knew that he had some form of a brain in his head!" He began yelling, "Over here—I mean, under here! We're under here!"

            His voice probably didn't go through the many pieces of rock, but it sure deafened Kagome. "Shut up!" she repeated his words. "They can't hear you, but I can. Just wait till they find us. It can't be too hard to find a big pile of rocks."

            So they waited. And waited. And waited.

            "So you say, Kagome?"

            Before Kagome could retort, there came yet another loud noise—and the dumpster quivered. Kagome closed her eyes, fearing that the stones would finally cave in. The lid of the dumpster shook violently, and started bending down in their direction. Then it stopped.

            Inu-Yasha tentatively pressed a foot against the lid. He looked shocked when the dumpster sprang back up. "Kagome—it's a lot lighter now." The dumpster wall shook again, this time with a loud thud that knocked against the metal walls and sent her ears ringing. Then there was yet another crash—and the lid finally caved in. Instantly Inu-Yasha covered Kagome, who shut her eyes tightly. Once again, the lid was pressing down on Inu-Yasha's back. He winced. Don't let it get Kagome…don't let it…get…    

            "Inu-Yasha?" Kagome whispered, her eyes still shut. "Are you OK?"

            He'd been bracing himself for the humongous weight of hundreds of pounds of concrete, but he blinked with surprise when the load on his back felt like the weights he lifted in weight-training. "Kagome, I think we can get out of here." Placing his palms against the floor, he lifted his knees so that his feet were on the ground. Then he pushed. He could do this.

            With a loud cry Inu-Yasha got to his feet, pushing the concrete off his back. The numerous blinding lights around him nearly made him fall again, but the shock of cool night air helped him stay up. The tiny alleyway was filled with people holding flashlights. It turned out on the other side of the broken wall there was a wide street, now filled with police cars and ambulances and—a crane?

            "Duck!" someone howled. Inu-Yasha looked up to see a big crane swinging towards him, its mouth open to grab more concrete. He cursed and dove back down, pushing Kagome who was straggling to her feet.

            "What was that for?" she yelled at him. She looked up and saw the crane swinging to a stop on top of them, and her jaw dropped. "My god, they could have killed us…"

            Shouts of "They're ok!" "Someone get the mom!" "Get the blankets!" "Tell the air watch we've found 'em!" filled the dark sky. Once Inu-Yasha and Kagome got to their feet, they were swamped with paramedics throwing blankets around their shoulders, and police officers asking questions. Clutching her blanket tightly around her, Kagome pushed her way through the crowd. Near the ambulance were Mrs. Higurashi and Miroku. She broke into a run and headed towards them.

            Mrs. Higurashi saw her first. "Kagome!" she shouted happily, throwing her arms wide open. But Kagome rushed past her and jumped on Miroku, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck in a viselike grip. "You stupid!" she shouted. "The hell took you so long, huh? Huh?"

            Miroku gurgled in response. Kagome wrestled him to the ground and started punching his head. "Asking me what dumpster, for crying out loud! Why didn't you call earlier? Weren't you worried about your dear friends? We almost died there!"

            He choked out something that sounded like "Mercy!" 

            "Kagome," Mrs. Higurashi started, her face white. "What on earth were you doing walking through an alleyway at night? Especially after Souta was kidnapped in an alley?" Kagome stopped mangling Miroku's limbs and looked down, giving Miroku the chance to slither away. How was she going to explain how she ended up in an alleyway? Her mother was deathly pale enough, she definitely didn't need to find out about vampires this time. 

            "Kagome!" Myouga hopped towards her, followed by Kaede. Unlike the police officers and her mother, Myouga didn't bombard her with questions. He already knew what had happened. Turning to Mrs. Higurashi, he bowed politely, "May I request Kagome spend the night at our house?" It wasn't an unusual request—Kagome had spent the night several times before, and Mrs. Higurashi knew she could trust Kagome with the people who had supposedly saved her life.

            "But she's been through quite a lot tonight," Mrs. Higurashi pointed out. "Wouldn't you rather stay at home, Kagome?"

            Kaede, meanwhile, tugged on Inu-Yasha's blanket. "You too, boy," she said. Adding in a lower voice, "There is something important Myouga has to tell you."

            Kagome's mother heard the first part of the message. "Inu-Yasha too?" she cried out, her face turning paler still. Kagome winced, expecting her mother to say no and drag her home and give her a lecture about how it wasn't proper to be doing such things...

            It was amazing how quickly her mother's expression could turn from shocked to sly in the span of half a second. A grin spread on her mother's face, and Inu-Yasha thought uneasily how similar mother and daughter were, changing expressions quick as a Cheshire cat. She said smoothly, "Well, I have no objection, knowing that I put Kagome in, er, safe hands tonight." Miroku began coughing violently, and Kagome looked like she would attack him again.

            "Come, let's leave this wreckage to the police," Myouga said, taking Kagome's arm (he barely came up to it).

            "Hang on, our weapons are under the concrete," Inu-Yasha said. As Kagome started to walk forward, he stopped her. "Let me get them." He disappeared for into the throng of police officers and curious passerbys, and a few seconds later came back with the bags.

            Kagome yawned and rubbed her eyes with the sleeves of her jacket. The jacket—and her face—were smudged in dirt. Whatever Myouga told her, it would have to wait until a long, hot shower, and possibly some sleep.

            As the team walked home, Miroku walked up beside Kagome (Inu-Yasha was attempting to send mental telepathic messages to them to save him from Kagome's mother, who was sweetly bombarding him with questions behind them, but sadly failing) and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked her quietly.

            "Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

            "Because I wanted to ask you what happened in there," he said, smiling innocently. "You can tell me, Kagome. That phone call sounded really interesting. What's that about you dying a virgin?"

            Kagome winced. What with being saved and all, she'd managed to forget for awhile what had happened with Inu-Yasha. If she told Miroku about it, there would be endless teasing. She didn't bother hiding her irritation. "I'm tired, Miroku, and what happened back there is the last thing on my mind." Well, sort of. Miroku took the hint and didn't press it. Instead, he put an arm around her shoulder and she laid her head against his. Ever since they were kids he'd always hugged her shoulders when she felt tired, especially after one of Myouga's hard tests. Now she didn't cry anymore, but the tradition stayed. Even if she did beat him up a lot, they really were best friends.

            Inu-Yasha, now tuning out Mrs. Higurashi's cheerful chattering, watched them from behind. And he realized that because he'd been interrupted when Miroku called them, he was still very hungry.

*          *          *

            After a long shower and a brief prank on Miroku which involved flushing the toilet while he was in the shower (yes, Myouga had agreed to let Miroku stay over as well) Kagome took a walk out in the backyard. It was very late at night, but aside from her previous tiredness, she wasn't sleepy yet. From inside the house she could hear Myouga and Miroku watching wrestling, and the clink of silver as Kaede gathered silver arrows on the table. At Kagome's insistence, Myouga was to tell nothing until she was clean. But when she'd come out of the shower, he'd been so absorbed in wrestling that it had to wait until afterwards.

            The moon was out against the black sky, and it was full. There were a few wisps of clouds that the moon liked to hide in occasionally, but it always came out and shone its light on the garden.

            There was a figure leaning against the far wall of the backyard, his shoulders slumped, shrouded in darkness. At first Kagome thought with panic that it was Naraku, because the figure's hair was long and black. But as she edged towards him, she realized it was Inu-Yasha and laughed softly. "Inu-Yasha, what are you doing out here skulking?" Then she remembered what had happened under the concrete. "Say, Inu-Yasha, I wanted to ask you about—"

            She stopped as he jerked up, amber eyes scanning her as if seeing her for the first time. The moon appeared and disappeared, casting a brief light on his stricken face. Kagome's laughter faded. Why did Inu-Yasha look so…what word could possibly describe it? Wild? Frightened? And he still hadn't showered, so he was dirty, too.

            He was trembling, too. Kagome had never seen Inu-Yasha like this, not ever during their weeks of training. She had seen him in pain, exhausted, furious, but never torn, like this. She reached out with her hand and touched his arm. "What's wrong?" she asked.

            "You want to know what's wrong?" his voice came out in a deep growl, like from a wolf. "You're a fool, Kagome. You didn't see the signs from the start."

            "The hell--?" Kagome bristled. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not a fool!"

            A sort of choked laugh came out—like Inu-Yasha wanted to laugh and didn't want to at the same time. "All those signs, and you could have found out! Could have stopped me, could have done something." With speed no human could have he grabbed her neck and slammed her against the wall, switching their places in the span of a second. Kagome choked and held on to Inu-Yasha's arm. He's gone crazy! She thought wildly. Kagome kicked out with her foot, but Inu-Yasha caught it in his other hand, then brought his knee forward and blocked her legs.

            "Inu-Yasha, why—"

            "Stop asking all these questions!" He snarled. "God I'm so hungry!" Releasing his grip on her neck, he clamped both hands on her shoulder and pushed her against the wall again. Inside the house Myouga and Miroku cheered along with the fans as the wrestling match neared its finale.

            "You want to know why I had my lips on your neck, don't you?" Inu-Yasha said harshly, holding her gaze with his glowing eyes.

            Kagome's mouth slowly opened in shock and her eyes widened. "Oh, my god," she said softly. With his gaze he made her remember all those things Inu-Yasha had done unusually. The raw meat…his disappearance in the movie theater…his lips on her neck and his remarks about being hungry…the red welts he'd gotten when he touched silver that time in the dojo…Naraku saying he wasn't what he seemed…cold shock flowed through her limbs. The fact that silver hadn't harmed him during those early school days and his reflection was irrevelant—this wild creature in front of her showed all the evidence. With this sudden realization of who Inu-Yasha was, confusion also hit her like that concrete wall.

            "You're one of them," she whispered.

            The moonlight came again, lighting Inu-Yasha's face, lined with hunger and wildness. "Only sometimes," he said. "The time wasn't supposed to come now, I'd just had it two weeks ago. But when it does, I get really, really hungry."

            Kagome ducked down and tried to sprint away, but Inu-Yasha grabbed her. "Stay still!" he snarled, and he grabbed her hair and pulled her head down, exposing her neck. Then in the moonlight, with the clink of Kaede's silver arrows and the loud cheers from the TV, Inu-Yasha sank his now-grown fangs deep into Kagome's neck and drank.