Hey hey hey hey! Sorry 'bout not postin' anything sooner. I was at my cottage for a week and I thought I'd b able to update before I left. Oh well, I'm here now! Hope u enjoy readin' this as I did readin' my reviews! (tear, tear) Sorry, they were so nice! I love u all SO much! But…if u want more of this story, I need 15 reviews! I got 6 last time, so I'd like some more. Anywoo, have fun readin!

Chapter #2: I Need Time To Think

Once Kaede had announced the news, the sky could not be seen because hats and herbs were thrown into the air and the wind's howling couldn't be heard because of all the villager's cheering. Kaede had decided to provide a huge banquet for the village, no, world's greatest heroes. A huge mahogany-wood table was placed in the center of the village. However, you wouldn't even be able to tell if it was mahogany or if it even was a table because of all the food on it.

There was turkey, chicken, salads, vegetables, fruits and (especially for Inu Yasha) ramen. The whole village attended the feast and it was expected to run late into the night. Each villager had a gift for their favourite hero. But our hero's favourite gifts were:

Sango: A new kimono (it was purple with a yellow line in the middle, rose-colored waist tie and a few flowers at the bottom the same color as the wrap)

Kirara: A big bouncing cat play ball (flame repellant was sprayed on it)

Miroku: A few wind-elemental spirit wards to replace the lost of his wind tunnel (although personally I don't think it's a real loss to him)

Shippo: A sword and scabbard that looked just like Inu Yasha's Tetsusaiga, but a lot smaller

Inu Yasha: A sacred jewel that looked like the Shikon-no-Tama, only it brings good luck to the owner. And…

Kagome: A new bow and arrow set made out of a tree from the edge of Inu Yasha's forest.

Everyone enjoyed all their gifts, but those were their favorites. They also got stuff like herbs for healing almost every known disease to man-kind (meaning some disease are only found when in contact with a demon), nice new sleeping bags with there names on them and toys (like spinning tops and magic pop-up boxes).

Once the gifts were given, the feast began. Kagome and Sango, with Shippo and Kirara on their laps, sat down on the west side of the table, closest to the forest entrance and Inu Yasha and Miroku sat down on the east side, closest to the bon-fire. The group got to sit near the front of the table. Everyone filled up their plates as soon as they sat down but the biggest plate was, you guessed it, Inu Yasha's.

A few minutes into the night, someone tapped Sango on her right shoulder. Sango froze and turned around. Suddenly, Sango smiled with joy. Kohaku was behind her looking way better then before. "K-Kohaku?" Sango asked in stunned shock. "Hey sis. Say, can I…oh!" Kohaku couldn't finish because Sango had pulled him into a loving embrace. Kohaku looked shocked, then closed his eyes, smiled and hugged his sister back.

Soon, Miroku had turned (after talking to Inu Yasha (who was on his right) to talk to Sango and saw Kohaku with her. Right away Miroku asked, "Kohaku, are you alright?" Kohaku looked up at him, still smiling but now had happiness fluttering through out his eyes. "Yes, I'm fine." Kohaku then pushed back from his sister to ask her a question. When he did, he saw a tear roll done her cheek. He caught half way and asked, "Can I please eat now?" Sango just nodded and moved over (towards Kagome (who was on her left) to make room for him.

'I think I'll stay quiet now,' Kagome thought, 'Sango and Kohaku really need this time to be together since they were so far apart for so long. They were together almost every day until Naraku tricked them and "killed" Kohaku. Speaking of being together…' Kagome then turned to look at Inu Yasha to see him laughing it up with Miroku. Kagome just smiled at this, but still felt bad. 'Inu Yasha and I were together, well, with each other…no, uh, travelling together, yes, travelling together before any of these guys came around and he never looked at me differently then he did the others. I was always the same as everyone else.

'But I don't want to be the same as everyone ELSE! I want to be someone he'll look at with love and passion in his eyes. I want him to embrace me and never let go. I want him to whisper to me that I'm the only one for him, his soulmate, and we'll never part, not even in death. I want him to whisk me away in those strong, well muscled arms of his to a beautiful, peaceful land where only the two us go, where we're the only ones who know of such a place. I just wish that for one day he'd…

'That's right. I can only wish, hope and dream of such a thing. (sigh) WHY?! Why is it that I have two men who love me crazy (a.k.a. Hojo and Koga) and he's not one of them? Why is it that the one guy I love more then life itself loves my carnation and not me? Although we supposedly look the same, he STILL won't look at me the way he does her. Is the world against me or something? Did I do something so terrible that I'm getting karma's punishment? Is that what happens to everyone? Is that why those terrible things happened to Sango and Kohaku?

'Wait a minute! Is that it? I'm not saying this happened to Sango but is the old saying true? Do you really not realize what you have until you lose it? Look at Sango and Kohaku. Now that he's back, Sango won't let him out of her sight.' Kagome looked at Sango and Kohaku to see them just sitting there, eating, with one arm around the other, making sure the other wasn't about to leave.

' It must be.' Kagome continued her thoughts, 'I mean, Inu Yasha never cared about me unless I was kidnapped or about to be abducted. Maybe he only cared because I could see the shards. If that's the only reason, then-then maybe I sh-shou-should j-j-just leave now b-before I get hurt…again.' Kagome started crying while she was thinking But because of a certain hanyou's nose, the one person Kagome didn't want to find out she was crying was the first one to notice it.

"Kagome," Someone asked in a worried tone. Kagome wiped her eyes really quickly and looked up (she sits across from 'someone who asked in a worried voice'). Inu Yasha then continued, "Are you okay? I smelt your tears." As soon as he said that, the rest of the gang looked at her, also with worry sketched on them. 'Why would you ask if you don't even CARE if I am or not?' Kagome's eyes started to fill up with fresh tears at this thought. Kagome couldn't let him see her cry, so she hid her eyes with her bangs. She then pounded her fist lightly on the table and stood up. "I'm going for a walk." Was all she said before walking quickly into the woods.

The gang looked at each other then Inu Yasha stood up. He went to leave, but felt something grab his sleeve with a tight grip. Inu Yasha looked down to see Miroku looking into the forest with a serious look on his face. "Let her go," Miroku began, "She needs to think. Give her time." "But she…" "If she doesn't come back in ten minutes, you can go after her. I won't let anyone, including myself, stop you." Miroku then let go and took a sip of his tea. Inu Yasha just plopped down and looked into the forest's entrance, hoping Kagome would emerge from the bushes with her regular smiling, cheery face on. Or he was waiting for ten minutes to come quicker. On way or the other, he would help Kagome so she wouldn't cry anymore.

Hope u enjoyed it. Sry 'bout all da (placement) stuff. I couldn't show you a diagram, so this was the next best thing without making one paragraph 20 lines long. Anyways, as you can see, Kagome thinks a lot we can't say the same thing about Inu Yasha, but…. Just PLEAZ stay tuned. The next chapter explains the title. C ya'll REAL soon!

R&R!