DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha. We all have Rumiko Takahashi, the romantic and comedic genius to thank!!

A very random idea, nothing too spectacular to read…

This is just a short, sweet waff that came to me while looking at a picture of Inuyasha and Kagome kissing under a cherry blossom tree in full bloom. I very much hope you enjoy this piece of sweet romance that doesn't seem too sappy. There's a little tasteful violence, but everything is pretty well balanced.

I hope it isn't too bad for a 3am idea. Please forgive the bad spelling or wrong words – I typed this in an hour so it could be posted today.

-Bientôt, cloudiko-chan

Every Heart

By shinigami cloudiko

Miroku had given Inuyasha the sword.

However, the hanyou remained in full youkai form. His grip on the sword slackened, and with unusual control, Inuyasha jammed the Tetsusaiga back into its sheathe.

The youkai who had turned Inuyasha into this form had long since been defeated. In a bloody, ruthless mess the demon had been reduced to only pieces of a head, four limbs, and bits of torso. It had miscalculated Inuyasha's increased desire for blood.

What a foolish creature to believe that as a full - blooded youkai Inuyasha would kill his friends and leave his enemies unscathed.

Now that the enemy had been eliminated, Inuyasha turned to his friends.

Was he seeking more bloodlust?

Sango and Miroku stepped in front of Kagome.

Kagome, who had dropped to her knees in horror while Inuyasha ripped the other youkai apart, pressed her face into her hands in shock. Sango had tried to spare Kagome some of it...Such protection proved useless when blood managed to spray them all.

From there, nothing could be helped.

Kagome looked up. Her eyes focused on the hanyou she had grown to love as he ripped the throat of his opponent. She pressed a hand over her mouth to prevent from retching at the sight.

Sango pulled the girl into her arms. The action forced Kagome to look away from the sight for a few moments before she fought against the hold to see her hanyou.

"Inuyasha!" cried Kagome.

The half - mad youkai didn't hear her voice.

"Inuyasha!" she tried again.

Miroku kneeled in front of the two girls and took Kagome's shoulders. "He does not recognize your voice, Kagome-sama."

Kagome shook her head to clear it. "Maybe he'd turn back if I used the subduing spell..."

Sango shook her head in a no. "It wouldn't change his condition...and it might make his temper worse. Remember, this is an induced transformation, not one caused by Inuyasha losing or breaking the Tetsusaiga."

Kagome pushed Sango away, an idea formulating in her head. It seemed strange enough to work...

So she stood and walked right past Miroku. Behind her she could hear Shippou cry, "No Kagome! You're going to get hurt! Inuyasha isn't himself! He'll hurt you!"

She smiled at the kitsune's worry. Inuyasha isn't going to hurt me, she reasoned to herself, If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that Inuyasha will never purposefully hurt me. Wait... Kagome thought back to all the mean things he had told her during their time together while searching for shards of the Shikon no Tama. All those times, she thought as she continued in the direction of Inuyasha. She could picture him clearly calling her bitch, wench, woman...but quickly Kagome's thoughts changed to all of the good moments they have had together, of all the times he had willingly protected her. And, if she had been captured, how he would rescue her. Internally, she amended, Well, okay. At least physically anyway.

She shook the thoughts off and walked toward the hanyou.

"Inuyasha," she began softly as she neared him.

This time he turned around.

The sight of his condition startled her.

Not only had Inuyasha undergone the usual changes that accompanied his becoming youkai, but also blood stained his fire rat hatori. She looked closely at his hands and noticed that his claws were also covered in blood.

"Stay away," he warned her.

Kagome stopped closer, both hands in plain sight of the youkai. One reached out for him, but Inuyasha backed away from them as if poison.

"Inuyasha?"

His blood red eyes met her brown ones. The girl had to suppress a chill at the intensity of Inuyasha's gaze. The bloodlust in his eyes was unmistakable, controlled only by his pure will.

"Inuyasha?"

She came another step closer when he didn't growl at her to get away again.

For only a moment the crimson in his eyes warmed at the sight of Kagome. She used this to her advantage and came within a foot of him.

Inuyasha, struggling to maintain control so obviously, reached out and grabbed Kagome's upper arms to prevent her from coming any nearer.

"I told you to stay away wench," came the inevitable insult.

"Inuyasha, come back to me," she pleaded with him. Kagome noticed that the hanyou's grip had become crushing. His claws were digging into her arms, piercing through the fabric of her uniform and her flesh. She winced in pain, but repeated, "Inuyasha, come back to me, please!" His hold tightened further, and blood welled up in the wounds his claws were making.

"Can you forget so easily that I came back to this time to be with you?"

Far from the two, Shippou smelt the blood beginning to pool around the places where Inuyasha's nails were piercing her skin. "He's hurting her!" the kitsune youkai cried as he tried to get Miroku's attention by jumping onto the monk's shoulder. "He's hurting Kagome and I'm going to rescue her!" he shouted into the monk's ear.

Shippou started to jump from Miroku's shoulder, but he caught the child youkai by the tail. All four of Shippou's limbs thrashed about in an attempt to get free. "Lemme go Miroku! Are you going to stand there and let Inuyasha hurt Kagome?"

"It pains me just as much to see Kagome-sama hurt, Shippou-chan, but we must let them be," replied Miroku. "If there is one thing I am positive of, it is that Inuyasha would never hurt Kagome-chan."

"Do you think she can turn Inuyasha back?" Sango asked the monk.

Miroku nodded. "Kagome-sama will find a way."

"If he makes Kagome bleed anymore, I'm going over there," Shippou added stubbornly from his perch on Miroku's shoulder.

All three of the spectators watched as Kagome placed her hands on Inuyasha's chest. She winced again as his claws dug farther into her skin. Her own hands fisted in his hatori, trying to ignore the pain she felt.

"Maybe this is something children shouldn't watch," the perverted monk mentioned casually. He reached up and grabbed Shippou by the back of his shirt and pressed a hand over the kitsune's eyes.

"HEY! Lemme go!" Shippou protested. "Lemme go! I wanna see!"

"No, no, no, Shippou," the monk replied with an amorous smile. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait until you are older."

"Houshi-sama, you're such a pervert," Sango told Miroku. The monk's smile grew wider as his hand started to reach... Too bad Sango almost expected such a move from the corrupted monk.

SLAP! Miroku had a nice red handprint on his cheek. And that smile never faltered.

Sango started to say something, but was cut off by an outburst from Shippou. "They aren't doing anything, Miroku!"

Inuyasha looked away from the girl standing before him. He honestly didn't know how much patience he could muster up before he would have to push her away. Although...he really didn't want to.

"Inuyasha?" she tried again. The hanyou turned to face her again.

On the count of three, thought Kagome, One...two...She took a deep breath, leaned up, and pressed her lips to Inuyasha's. Three...

Surprisingly, he didn't push her away like she originally thought he would. The chaste kiss ended quickly - or so Kagome thought. Inuyasha bit her bottom lip slightly as she was about to pull away, deepening the kiss.

Kagome's heart rate increased tenfold when she felt Inuyasha start to kiss her back. His mouth slanted gently against her own and she could feel the iron grip on her arms loosen while hers tightened in his hatori.

The others watched in amazement as Inuyasha's transformation reversed easily while he kissed Kagome. Sango knew immediately when the transformation had ended -

Inuyasha pulled Kagome into his arms, holding her close to him. Blood smeared onto Kagome's uniform, but neither noticed. The hanyou rested one hand on the small of her back, the other rested a bit higher on her spine. The hand on her spine moved gently up and down it, as if a soothing motion to tell Kagome that the worst was over.

Their kiss ended when Inuyasha had to pull away for air.

With a gentle graze of teeth on her bottom lip and a final caress of lips, the two allowed their lips to separate.

Both looked into one another's eyes, not completely sure of what had just transpired between them. Calm, amber eyes met Kagome's when she looked up into Inuyasha's face.

A faint blush stained both of their faces at the mere thought of what they had been doing seconds before.

Kagome was startled by the radiant smile Inuyasha had on his face. Was he smiling at her? Surprised, she only managed, "Is that really you, Inuyasha?"

The hanyou laughed at her comment - loudly enough to surprise even their onlookers. "Who the hell do you think it is, Kagome?"

Kagome smiled and allowed herself to partially collapse into his arms in relief.

It was then that Inuyasha noticed that he had his arms wrapped around Kagome. He smelt blood and immediately realized that it was not his, but hers. It had mixed with that bastard youkai's blood that had attempted to make him kill his friends. Inuyasha pulled back from Kagome to survey her for any wounds.

"I'm fine, Inuyasha," she told the hanyou.

"You're bleeding," he told her matter of factly. Inuyasha realized that the blood was coming from some wounds in her arms. Did he do this? "You are hurt."

"I'll be fine," she repeated, hugging Inuyasha again. From the expression on his face, he must have realized that he had hurt her. "It doesn't matter if I'm hurt or not," Kagome said softly, noting that Inuyasha had wrapped his arms around her again. "I was so worried that I would never have the old Inuyasha back. I worried that you wouldn't return to me again and that I had lost you to something that couldn't be changed."

"Kagome, it's alright," the hanyou soothed her. The tenderness in his tone surprised him, but he made no effort to alter it. "I'm not going to leave you." He was greatly surprised by the words she had used. She had worried about him? She worried that he wouldn't be able to reverse the transformation and return to her again?

She pulled back this time and smiled up at her hanyou.

Inuyasha surprised her again by saying something she never thought she would hear him say:

"In the end, you came back to be with me...

"And I never argued," he continued, " but we always said we wanted to be together, right?"

Kagome rested her head on his chest.

His heartbeat pulsed under her ear, soothing to her frayed nerves.

"Right."

end "every heart"

thanks for reading,

-cloudiko-chan