A/N: Here ya are. There's another a/n at the bottom. Nika, I dedicate this chapter to you. Hope you like it!

Oh, btw, I'm working on that untitled fic about shifters, the one Dance belongs to. I feel like I'm writing a novel, what with the character lists, and that map

Previously, On A Shot In The Dark: "I'm gonna be late." Inuyasha sauntered into the little kitchen, looking delicious in a tight t-shirt and jeans. Kagome almost burst into tears, knowing she had to leave him But not now. A little more time with him. Just a little.

She pouted. "Damn. Fine. Go, before you're late."

Inuyasha grinned and kissed on the lips. "Thanks. I love you!" He called over his shoulder as he left.

"I love you too."

The door slammed.

I love you too.

A Shot In The Dark

Chapter Nine

Forbidden Trousers

Inuyasha was beginning to get worried. Kagome had been very different, the past week. It wasn't her monthly bleeding, it wasn't the right time. She just seemedstrange. She barely spoke to him anymore. Or Sango, or Miroku. It was as if she had done a complete one eighty from her normal disposition.

Even Sango had noticed it after a while. She had been a bit wrapped up in Miroku, and the joy of being out of the hospital, that it escaped her notice for a day or two. But now it was very apparent that something was up with Kagome.

Even weirder was that Kagome told Nika that she had thought the shooter was aiming for someone else outside Starbucks. That whoever it was wasn't trying to get or Sango. Sango gave her an incredulous look, but stayed silent.

Kagome began waving things off, being flippant about the entire situation. She acted like she wanted the police to stop the investigation. In fact, when a few reports on Kuroko, who they believed to be behind the attempted murder of Kagome, were found to be missing, Kagome didn't seem worried. She had just shrugged it off.

It was scaring him, to say the least. She barely talked to him, her boyfriend, didn't kiss him, didn't spend the night with him. Hell, she hadn't hugged him in three days! Something wasn't right. And he was going to find out what it was.

Sango jumped when she heard the knock on her door. "Coming!" She closed her Literature textbook and opened the door. "Inuyasha? What's up?"

"Is Kagome here?"

"No, she's in Art-"

"Good." Inuyasha cut her off. "I want to talk to you about her."

Sango stiffened. "Oh. Come in, then."

She opened the door wider and he stepped inside and sat himself on the edge of Kagome's bed.

"So." Sango said, walking back to her desk, turning the chair so she could face him.

"So. Do you know what's up? Has she told you anything?"

"No. she doesn't really talk to me anymore."

"Sango, this is scaring me."

Sango looked at him. "It's scaring me too." she said, softly.

"Why were you surprised, that day at the police station? When she told Nika she thought the shooter wasn't aiming for her?"

Sango blinked. Inuyasha had never been one to beat around the bush. Especially in matter like these. She was drawn back to the conversation she had had with Kagome in the hospital.

Kagome sat down, an uncharacteristically somber expression on her face. "Kagome? What's wrong?"

The other girl bowed her head. "I'm so happy you're okay, Sango."

"Somehow, you don't strike me as a very happy person at the moment. What is it?"

Kagome sighed. "It's just-" She stopped.

"What?"

"It's my fault, you know? They're after me. They were after me. And I know it was them, because who else would be shooting at us?"

"She told me-she told me that it was her fault. She said that they were after her, and I was her fault I got hurt. She knew it was them, because why else would someone just start shooting up a Starbucks?"

Sango turned her head towards the window.

"That's why I was surprised. She said-she said she knew. And then she denies it, coming out with this bullshit about shooting at someone else.

"That's when I got scared. Why? Why would she lie? It's not right."

Inuyasha said nothing for a long while. The echoes of Sango's words rung in his head.

He blew out a breath. "I'm going to talk to her."

Sango looked at him. "Do you think she'll talk to you?"

"She'll have to. I'm not giving her a choice."

Despite the chill that ran down her spine at those words, Sango nodded. "Don't hurt her."

"Never."

He stood and left. Sango sat a few more moments in silence, gazing out the window. Then, slowly, she turned back to her Literature homework.

Inuyasha leaned against the wall opposite the Art room, waiting for her to emerge. He let his mind go over and over Sango's words, and the way Kagome had been acting, but couldn't find a reason for it.

The door opened. Inuyasha straightened. Students filed out the class, talking and laughing. Kagome was the last out. She looked up, caught his eyes and froze. The other people all seemed to disappear at once, leaving Inuyasha and Kagome the only people left in the hall.

Kagome broke the uncomfortable silence. "Inuyasha. What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you."

"Oh."

Inuyasha stared at her. Kagome fidgeted, feeling very nervous.

"Um, what is it?"

"We need to talk."

Kagome's heart and stomach sunk at his words. Talk. He was probably going to chew her out. She wondered if any of them were going to confront her about her sudden change. After a week had passed, she had been hoping that they would not bother her about it and respect her personal space. Apparently, she had been wrong.

"Oh. Right."

Inuyasha took her arm firmly and led her outside. Her throat closed up when she realized they were under the tree where he had served her his homemade stir fry.

"Sit."

Kagome sat. Inuyasha followed suit.

"Now. You are going to tell me what the hell is wrong with you." His voice was deceptively calm, and that scared her even more that if he had been yelling.

"Nothing, really."

"It's not nothing."

"Really, it is. I'm fine."

"You are not 'fine'." he said scathingly. "If you were fine, you'd talk to me. You'd talk to Miroku, to Sango. You'd kiss me, hug, me, hell, punch me, but you wouldn't be like this. You are not 'fine'"

Kagome swallowed nervously. Inuyasha could smell the tenseness and it only served to reinforce his belief that everything was out of whack.

"Look, I'm just going through some stuff right now. There's a lot on my mind-"

"So talk about it."

"It's not that important." Baby, stop it. I don't want to lose you.

"It's important enough to make you forget your friends."

Kagome was silent.

"What's going on, baby?" His voice was softer, pleading and it broke her heart to hear it.

"Nothing, I told you."

"Why are you trying to stop the investigation? Why did you tell Nika that you thought the shooter wasn't there for you when you told Sango the exact opposite at the hospital? Kagome, you're scaring

me."

The confession made Kagome close her eyes. She sighed, and plastered a soft smile on her lips. Blue grey opened again and found amber. Kagome lifted up a hand and placed it on his cheek.

"It's nothing, baby."

"Bullshit!" He stood up and Kagome flinched. "You expect me to fucking believe that?"

"Inuyasha-"

"Quit lying to me!"

Kagome bit her lip. I wish I could. I wish to god I could, but I can't.

She didn't say anything to Inuyasha's outburst. He felt his heart sink.

"InuyashaI think we'd better stop seeing each other."

His jaw dropped. "What?"

"You heard me."

"Kagome-!"

"Goodbye."

And she was gone. The only woman he could ever love stood and walked away from him. He didn't see her go. Just, one minute she was there, the next she wasn't. She had left his life completely. Inuyasha fell to his knees and stared at the ground. Kagome

Naraku snarled. Dammit. He was cornered. All he had wanted was a nice drink, but no, these goons had to come in and ruin it. Just cause he was working for the good side now

Naraku stood slowly. The group of men blinked at him in unison, as if they had been trained. They probably were, knowing Kuroko.

"Excuse me. May you be helped?" The underlying threat in his voice was either not heard or discarded. Naraku suspected it was the former. Stupid thick headed creatures.

When Naraku tried to leave, they converged on him. "Ah, so that's how it is. Pity. I thought you would've wanted to leave here alive."

Phoebe saw him, arms chained to the wall, shirt open to the waist, displaying the flat planes of his abdomen. He straightened on seeing her, causing his satin breeches to tighten across his narrow hips.

"Oh, Sebastian!" Phoebe flung herself across the room towards her beloved, her frail gown tattered where the Dark Wizard Tristan had torn it. "I surely thought you were lost to me forever!"

"My love! Oh, mind the hair, that's a pet." Phoebe pressed herself against her beloved, eliciting a moan. Her milky bosom heaved against him.

"Phoebe, you must leave! It is a trap!"

"No, my love, I could never leave you!" A deep booming laugh sounded throughout the dungeon.

"Ah, Phoebe, my sweet, there you are." Phoebe turned to see the Dark Wizard Tristan leaning handsomely against the stone wall.

"I will never be your sweet!" Phoebe cried defiantly, tossing back her mane of silky ebony hair.

The Dark Wizard Tristan chuckled. His laugh, like everything else about him, was ineffably manly- from the muscular arms revealed by his tight shirt to his emerald eyes and tangles of golden hair, he was truly a gorgeous slab of masculinity, a sight to behold. And, Phoebe reminded herself quickly, Evil.

"You will. Or your lover Sebastian, to whom you so desperately cling, will die by my hand. After sufficient torturing, of course."

Phoebe gasped. "You wouldn't!"

"I would," he asserted, smiling in a satisfied way. "I'd like it to. I am Evil, after all, and take pleasure in dastardly and pointless acts of sadism"

He stood and walked catlike towards Phoebe. His lean, graceful from was like to that of a panther's. Phoebe trembled-truly, he was Evil, but no man had ever excited her this much, before or since-

Nika started as a loud knocking on her door interrupted Phoebe's inner struggle. "One second!" She put a bookmark in her book, Forbidden Trousers, and answered the door.

Outside was the last person she'd ever expect. He was covered in blood, his long tresses matted together from it. He swayed on the doorstep, and any anger that might have been there for coming to her house was put away and she caught him and helped him inside. Sesshoumaru's going to kill me

Nika sat Naraku down in the kitchen, filling the sink with hot water and taking a dishcloth, wetting it in the stream from the faucet.

She turned the water off, walked back to Naraku and began wiping the blood of his face.

"What happened to you?" Nika asked as she cleaned his face of the dark liquid. How much of the blood was his own?

Naraku looked at her. "Kuroko sent some goons."

"Why'd you come here?" Nika rinsed the cloth out, dying the water in the sink red. She returned to cleaning him, taking his shirt off and wiping down his arms and chest.

"I don't know. I justcame here. I need your help." Nika stopped at looked at him in shock. Naraku, admitting he needed help?

"You need my help?" she repeated slowly. Naraku nodded. "How can I help you?"

"She'll come after me again. I don't particularly want to die, and I was hoping that maybe you would consent to assisting me in that goal. I have a lot of information on her, and she knows it."

"What information do you have?"

"What do you need?"

Nika looked at him appraisingly for a long minute. "Alright. But you attempt to hurt any of my family or my friends, and Kuroko won't have to kill you, because I will." Inwardly, Nika was surprised. She had meant that threat, as opposed to before when she had been bluffing. Would she kill again?

Naraku, unaware of her internal battle, nodded. "I have no wish to."

"Not even Kagome?"

A look of disgust passed across his features quickly. "No, suprisingly. I will always hate her, but I can live with it."

Nika nodded. "Good. Now go take a shower before my kids come home and you scare them to death with your executioner impersonation. Incidentally, is any part of you injured? Or is all that blood someone else's?"

"A few minor cuts, nothing I cannot deal with."

Nika nodded and pushed him up the stairs. "The towels are in the closet across from the bathroom, which is down the hall to the left. I'll put some clothes outside the door for you."

Naraku made no outward sign that he had heard, but walked up the stairs. A few minutes later, Nika heard the shower turn on. She went upstairs, pulled a few of her mate's old clothes out from the back of their closet and laid them at the bathroom door.

Going back downstairs, she flopped onto the couch and opened her book, picking up where she left off.

A/N: Okay, I was planning on a longer chapter, but I need to do some planning.the next few chapter are kind of vague in my mind. Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out.

Anyway, I hope you liked it. I had so much fun writing that excerpt from Forbidden Trousers. It's not an actual book, by the way, at least as far as I know. Hee.

Adrian rolls her eyes