'Where is Kaede-baachan when we need her the most?' Kagome thought desperately, trying to ignore all the noise Inuyasha was making while she was practically dragging him toward the hut.

"Calm down, Inuyasha." she pleaded with him, deeply regretting for sending off Kirara – she could use some help right now.

"How can I?" the hanyou almost yelled. "This is insane! I am going insane!"

"No, nothing is insane. You're just sick or something..." Kagome tried to reason with him and successfully pulled him inside the hut. "Just sit down and try to relax."

"It's easy for you to say!" Inuyasha said after being pushed to sit on her sleeping bag. "You don't have black spots in your mind."

"That's true, Inuyasha." Kagome said and went to her bag. "And it's white spots, not black." she corrected him.

"Well, mine are black." he snapped and made an attempt to cross his arms in front of his chest but yelped in pain.

"What's wrong?" the girl quickly spun around and rushed to him.

"My hand..." the hanyou whimpered holding his right hand in front of his face.

"Oh my..." Kagome gasped seeing that his index finger's claw was almost completely torn off. Blood was dropping from his finger and not really caring how he sounded Inuyasha whimpered again. "When did that happen?" the girl asked and carefully took his hand in hers.

"I have no idea." Inuyasha said and shivered at the thought about what he could've done during his 'black spots'.

Kagome released him and went to her bag again to take the first aid kit. Actually she had a pretty good explanation about his torn off claw. 'It must've happened when I sat him.' she thought but decided not to tell him – she didn't want to upset him more than he already was.

"Now stay still." she said and took his hand with her left, in her right one she was holding pincers. "This may hurt a little."

"What are you gonna do?" Inuyasha asked nervously, looking at the strange object she was holding, but didn't pull his hand away completely.

"I'll remove that claw." she said and seeing his horrified expression and feeling how his hand stiffened, she decided to continue with her explanations – just in case if he decided to run away. "If I don't the wound might get infected and I'll have to cut your finger off."

Inuyasha nearly choked and his eyes looked like they were going to burst out. In the condition he was currently he didn't get that Kagome was exaggerating and actually there was no way in Hell that she could cut his finger off. She involuntary shivered at the look he was giving her and couldn't help but feel guilty about lying like that to him. A second later Inuyasha thrust his hand in hers, turned his head to the side, gritted his teeth and closed his eyes tightly.

Kagome took that as a sign to proceed. "Ok, here it goes." she said and held the claw with the pincers. "Ready?" she asked and after receiving an approving nod from the hanyou, pulled the claw.

Inuyasha just winced a little and remained in his current position while Kagome cleaned and bandaged his finger. When she was ready she let his hand go and started to gather her things to put them back in her bag. When she turned to him, after closing her bag, she saw that he still hadn't moved.

"Inuyasha, you're ready." she said and went to sit next to him on her sleeping bag.

The hanyou slowly opened one eye and seeing his bandaged finger he sighed in relief and relaxed. "I thought you said you were going to cut it off." he said darkly and the girl next to him frowned.

"I was exaggerating, Inuyasha, you know that." Kagome said and then she seemed to remember something. "Wait a minute, weren't your fingers broken?" she asked and took his right hand to look at it better.

"They were..." he said and after swallowing hard continued. "There's something I have to tell you..."

"Hm?" she eyed him suspiciously and he gulped.

"I, well... I met with Kikyou last night." he said and involuntary Kagome dropped his hand. He winced a little but didn't say anything about that. "She healed it..."

"Oh?" Kagome raised a brow at him, her face starting to get a cold and serious expression. "And what else did you two do? Alone?"

"W-We t-talked..." the hanyou's throat suddenly went dry and he coughed.

"Are you sure?" the girl asked and her cold tone immediately told him that whatever he said she wasn't going to believe him. Actually she knew that his relationship with Kikyou wasn't her business, and she definitely had no right to act like that with him, but she was just...

"Are you angry?" Inuyasha asked, not answering her question.

"Why should I be?" she turned her head aside and wanted to stand up and leave him.

"Are you angry?" he asked again, grabbing her hand and pulling her back down.

Kagome blinked at him in surprise and disbelief. Usually he was the one who didn't want to talk about those things and would be happy if she left him alone, but now it was the opposite. "A little." she said, deciding to see why he was so brave today.

"Why?" that question caught her completely off guard and se started at him for a moment before finding her answer.

"Well, I guess it's something like your unexplainable jealousy." she said and was left even more surprised when she saw his cheeks redden a little.

"I don't know what you think me and Kikyou do when we meet..." now was Inuyasha's turn to be surprised as he saw her start to blush.

"No, don't tell me." Kagome quickly said before he could continue. "I believe you that you only talked. It's not my business, anyway."

"Well, we talked mostly about you..." the hanyou said, looking at her only with the corner of his eye. "...and me...about..."

"Kagome-sama?" a child's voice from outside the hut interrupted Inuyasha.

"Keep that thought." Kagome ordered before going to the door, suddenly very interested about what he was saying. "I'm coming." she yelled and exited the hut.

"Um...hi, Kagome-sama." a small girl, bout 11-12 years old, said.

"Hi, Aiko-chan." Kagome smiled. "What is it?"

"You forgot this." the girl handed a book to her.

"Oh, thank you." Kagome said and took the book, which she had originally brought to read fairy tales to Shippo, and this morning – to the headman's children.

"Will you come again some time?" the girl asked and tried to look as sweet as possible.

"Of course." Kagome smiled and after waving for goodbye the girl ran off.

When she entered the hut Inuyasha was nervously scratching the floor with his left hand's index finger and was quietly muttering something. The moment the girl he had been having the most important conversation in his whole life appeared at the door, he shut up and froze on his place. She hurriedly placed the book in her bag and turned to go to him. This was the first time he had decided to tell her about his meeting with Kikyou, without much pressure from herself and she just couldn't help but be curious and excited.

"So, Inuyasha..." she started to say as she was about to sit next to him again, but suddenly she tripped in her sleeping bag and with a small scream fell forward.

Seeing her fall, out of reflex, Inuyasha turned toward her and standing on his left knee he caught her. However, the Gods weren't on his side these days and the next situation was the ultimate proof for that. As Kagome fell in his arms, his right foot slipped forward, making him fall on his back. The startled girl crashed on top of him and their faces came so close that their lips lightly touched.

Everything was ruined – Inuyasha's courage had once again been blown away to Hell. Until now he hadn't been really determined to tell Kagome about his feelings for her – he was just willing to give it a try, to follow Kikyou's advice and talk with the girl from the future more openly. White spots started to appear in front of his eyes and his vision started to blur very fast. Now he was afraid – it was an incredibly strong and overwhelming fear that felt like it was eating him from inside.

As Kagome's lips touched Inuyasha's she suddenly felt lightheaded and for a moment she thought that he had done that on purpose. While falling she had closed her eyes and now when she opened them, she saw him staring at her wide-eyed. Kagome looked at him confused at first, but seeing how unfocused his eyes had become she started to worry.

"Inuyasha?" she said and tried to pull herself away from him, but his hands on her waist held her tight. Then his breathing started to quicken slightly and she felt him start shaking. "Inuyasha..." she repeated his name but again got no response.

'This is bad. This is bad.' Kagome kept repeating in her mind while she pried herself free from the hanyou's tight grasp after nearly twenty minutes of unsuccessful attempts. His breathing was now heavy and deep, his eyes were still opened and he had started sweating. 'He's got a fever.' the girl thought as she touched his forehead and cheeks.

Back at the forest, far away from the village, the two familiar humans were on their way again. The demon exterminator was dragging the monk, on whose shoulder was sitting the small kitsune, again. It was getting dark but the two didn't seem to want to stop, well at lest one of them didn't. The monk and the kitsune, who was felling sorry for his friend, desperately pleaded with Sango to stop and rest. But she didn't listen.

"Sango..." Miroku and Shippo groaned in unison.

"No." she said without even turning to look at them.

"Kaede-sama is there, Kouga went to warn them, Kirara is probably already on her way to take us." the monk tried to reason with the determined demon exterminator. "Why don't we stop? We might miss Kirara. Are we even waking in the right direction?"

"Yes. Kouga ran this way." Sango said and pulled the young man's hand harder. "We have to hurry. And not a word from you two anymore, understood?"

"Yes." Miroku and Shippo sighed and followed without more complains.

At Kaede's hut everything was quiet. Inuyasha was lying on Kagome's sleeping bag by the fire, with a wet cloth on his forehead. It was already dark outside and there still wasn't any change in his condition. Kagome was sitting a little aside from him, hugging her knees close to her chest.

Right now she couldn't do anything for him and that made her want to cry. The only thing she could do right now was think over about what had happened. After this strange 'fit' or whatever it was that Inuyasha had and was still having, Kagome had gone to the headman's house for help. She didn't get any – after all the man wasn't a healer. But he at least agreed to send someone to the other village to get the old Kaede.

"Inuyasha..." Kagome whimpered. "What am I going to do with you now..."

TBC