Chapter Eight: Affections

Even after almost drowning, Inuyasha still wanted to stay in the water.

"Can't we stay in just a little longer?" Inuyasha begged.

"My hands are pruning and I'm getting a little hot…." Kagome replied

"Oh come on Kagome…" Inuyasha continued, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his head in her shoulder "Please stay in, just for me?

"Ok…."

For nearly two hours, Kagome taught Inuyasha how to swim. He was a quick learner, and eventually he was swimming around the hot spring with relative ease. When he returned to her side she complemented him on a job well done, making him beam a smile much like a young child would. This made Kagome giggle at him, hiding the fact that she was happy she had made him happy.

When Inuyasha finally agreed to go back to camp, he followed Kagome over to the edge of the spring and helped her out. He reached over to her backpack and pulled out a towel for her. As she dried off with the towel, Inuyasha began to dry off has well. Kagome did her best to suppress her laughter as he shook himself like a dog, sending water everywhere.

'Finally, she's fallen asleep' Inuyasha thought. By the now steady consistency of her breathing, he could tell she was unconscious. He jumped down from his usual spot in a tree above the camp and slowly tip-toed up next to Kagome.

'Damn she's hot' He said to himself. 'What?! What did I just say?' He realized he'd never though about it before. Then again a lot was different about her now. The most noticeable of course, was her scent. Though it wasn't too much different then before, he could still recognize it was hers. It just smelled so much more….. What would be the right word? Fertile? Yea that's it! She looked so innocent but her scent told him a different story. It told him that, lest I say it, she was fresh and ready to be picked sort of thing. He knew that she loved him, he knew that much but, if she only knew how badly he wanted to take her. To make her his. With this spicy new addition to her already enticing scent, it made it too hard for him to resist his instincts when she was just displayed in front of him like this. He knew that the change in her scent meant that she was of bearing age but he didn't know what it was doing to the rest of her body. He longed to explore the soft and fragile skin and see what made her, well…. Aroused.

To put it frankly, her scent was driving him crazy! Every minute of every day now he couldn't think of anything but her. So earlier that afternoon, he had decided to follow his instincts that were fighting to overpower him. But what he was afraid of was that Kagome wasn't reacting in the same way about him. So tonight he had decided to release some of his frustration by doing the one thing he so desired, to touch her.

As usual, she had fallen asleep in her two piece robe which was made of some sort of modern material woven together into a simple quilt-like pattern. The robe fell to just about knees length and was done up in the front with three buttons, one on the top, two on the bottom. Inuyasha had goose bumps as he slowly unzipped her sleeping bag. He slowly shifted the material away, exposing her well-shaped body. Inuyasha spotted the button that held the top robe together and reached for it, seething with anticipation. The pin easily slipped free and he moved the cloth away, giving himself full access to her soft upper body. Kagome murmured something in her sleep, quickly shocking him out of his daze. He finally calmed himself down, and lay next to her, his back facing the fire. Inuyasha was amazed by the smooth contrasts in her skin. He first reached up to her shoulders and traced the thin line that 'b-ra' contraption that she usually wore which circled across her upper chest from one side to the other. He then ran the back of his hand over her stomach and was amazed by its texture.

'Wow it's a lot smoother out of the water' He thought and he moved his had up, just short of her chest. He was beginning to have second thoughts. What if she wakes up? What would she do?' 'Sit you to death that's what' was the response that came back and he began to pull his hand away.

"Inu Yasha… don't stop" Kagome again murmured in her sleep. As if he wasn't already shocked enough, she began to open her eyes. She glanced over to see a very guilty looking Inuyasha and then looked down to find that her chest was completely bare. Her first reaction was to pull the sheets around her and slap him across the face, but she did not. She only managed to twitch a little and say "Inuyasha w- what are you doing?" Inuyasha quickly withdrew his hand and slowly looked over into Kagome's eyes with a sad look in his face.

"I'm sorry Kagome, I wasn't thinking" His entire body was screaming for him to jump away to the other side of the fire pit and yet, something still anchored him to his spot.

"You should be" Kagome said in a somewhat aggravated voice that made Inuyasha fold his ears back and whimper under his breath. Seeing him like this quickly conquered up a sympathetic look on Kagome's face.

"I'm sorry, Inuyasha…" She whispered.

"It's not your fault" Inuyasha continued in a sad tone, "I was the one who… violated you." He just stared at the ground as he spoke, he felt unfit to lay eyes upon her.

"It's ok…" Kagome said breaking the awkward silence, "because I…. I kind of… wanted you too" A blush quickly swept across both their faces.

"You mean you're not offended?" Inuyasha in a surprised voice.

"Well a little" Kagome looked at him uneasily. (Ears fold back)

"But, you could have just asked" Kagome watched as a play of emotions flew across Inuyasha's face. Afraid, Sad, Concerned, Confused, Thoughtful, and then… Happy.

"Oh Kagome!" Inuyasha exclaimed as he pulled her into his arms.

"This makes me so happy!"

'I knew it would' Kagome said to herself.

"Then if I asked you, to be my mate… would you say yes?" Inuyasha asked timidly.

"Of course I would!" Kagome cried and almost leapt into his arms.