Disclaimer:

A InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

B This fanfic belongs to me.

C This fanfic does not belong to Rumiko Takahashi

Therefore since A is not equal to C and B is not equal to C, A is not equal to B. AKA, I'm not Rumiko Takahashi.

Although Tokyo is a busy metropolis, there are still places one can go to find solitude. A few minutes later, they were sitting on a hill, looking out over part of the town. It wasn't like in the Sengoku Jidai, there were always people around now. However, there was as much privacy to be had by talking amongst strangers as talking alone. They sat, two people isolated by lost time, while others walked in a steady stream. One of us is going to have to start this conversation Kagome thought.

"Might as well be me." InuYasha looked at her, a question in his eyes. "I might as well start talking. Ojiisan died several years ago, and I took over the responsibilities of the shrine. Souta went off to University last year, and Okaasan is still working in her normal job. Besides running into Sesshomaru in the last two weeks, and occasional dinners with Houjou, I've been relatively a homebody."

InuYasha tried to contain his anger. He'd not been a saint since she left either, but Sesshomaru had been given strict orders not to give her the letter if she was with someone. "Are you seeing Houjou?"

Kagome looked at him, but he was lazily leaning on his hands and watching her with little curiosity. "No, but we've been friends for a long time, and we both enjoy having someone to eat dinner with. He's married to my friend Eri, and she travels on business. Eri knows we occasionally have dinner together, she initially set it up so neither of us would be lonely." She thought he sighed in relief, but she couldn't be sure. He was less emotional now and it was hard to read him.

"When we were both younger, I had to deal with your childish jealousy quite often. Is that going to happen here?" She looked him eye-to-eye, and hoped he'd be more mature.

He thought for a few moments. "Ten years have passed. I don't think either of us has become chaste in the absence of the other. I will understand any relationships you had before today. I don't think I will understand any future…Kagome?" Kagome's face was very red. She was glaring at him under her bangs.

"You don't think either of us was chaste… As in, you don't think either of us waited for the other?!?" She was breathing very deeply now. "So..what you're saying is that you gave up on me coming back, and didn't wait?" He blinked, realizing he'd opened a chasm of problems for himself. "Exactly what did you mean by that, Dog Boy?" She growled the last part, and InuYasha for the first time ever wished he could take back something he said.

"Heh…" He looked at his feet, hoping the cute confused look would work. When he cut a glance over to her, it hadn't. He could almost see the anger emanating from her body. "I think you misunderstand the importance of certain things." Uh, that wasn't a good thing to say either. "Well…" sweat drops appeared on his forehead, and he actually understood how Miroku must have felt when he'd bumped heads with Sango. "You know how emotional I used to get during the new moon. All these feelings and shit that I never understood." He stood and paced. "Well, imagine me becoming human, for the rest of my life. I was swamped with feelings, not all unpleasant." He grinned salaciously, but froze when he realized that wasn't working either. "So, you weren't there. You'd left, there was no way for you to come back." He looked at her under his bangs. Cute is definitely NOT working. "I waited a whole year Kagome, that's forever!"

"O….SU……WA……RI!" She glared at him, and he glared back. "OSUWARI, OSUWARI, OSUWARI!!!!!" He was trying not to laugh, but he did smirk. Kagome stomped a foot. "Why isn't it working????"

"Because I'm no longer part demon. I'm just a plain human, as human as they get." He actually felt sorry for her. She was so upset that tears ran unchecked down her cheeks.

"But…at the house." She looked at him with big pooling eyes. "Osuwari worked there."

InuYasha took pity on her and grabbed her in a bear hug. She fought him like a tigress, not wanting any contact with a man who hadn't honored their feelings by waiting, forever if needed. He didn't let go. She kicked, screamed, and hit him. Passersby looked in horror, but he just shook his head and they moved on. It was obvious she wasn't being abused, and since he didn't stop his punishment, there was nothing they could do. Finally she calmed down, or at least was too exhausted to fight any longer. He lowered them back to the ground, holding her tightly in his lap as he tried to explain.

"I dropped and ate dirt for you. Not because Osawari worked, but because it was the least shocking, most visible way of letting you know I made it here." He gently brushed her bangs back from her face and traced the tracks of her tears with a thumb. "Men are different than women, Kagome. I believe that women decide that if they can't be with the one they love, than they'll be with no one." Well, she was either accepting this, or too tired to fight. Better to get it all out now. "Men typically aren't. I might have been if not for the fact that I'd had none of those feelings, except on full moon nights." He chucked her chin, but she wouldn't make eye contact. "Look at me Kagome." Finally she looked at him, and could see the honesty of what he was saying.

"You know as well as I do how hard it was for me to keep away from you on full-moon nights. My feelings overwhelmed me, and it was all I could do to control myself. I couldn't kill, Tessaiga didn't transform, and the other side of that aggression is passion. You were gone, you weren't coming back and we both knew that; and I was filled with all that emotion and aggression without being able to find a release. Our group split up and went separate ways, Shippo went to live with Miroku and Sango, and I went to live by myself. I was lost for a long time, just wandering the countryside, trying to find a way to keep existing."

"I'd basically quit living when we were separated, so that left me only existing. Soon after you left, on the next new moon in fact, I found sake. It was a wonderful numbing agent for a while. That's what caused me to break my vow that I would be with no woman except you." Kagome started struggling again, and InuYasha tightened his hold. "If I don't come clean with you, we have no future. Please let me finish while I still can. The past is something I cannot erase, and I won't continue to live with the guilt you are forcing me to carry"

"One night the barmaid had black hair and deep brown eyes. She looked a lot like you, but I wasn't tempted. However, I continued to drink sake, and at one point she put on my haori to see how it looked. That's when I lost my vow to myself. She looked just like you used to, wearing my haori. Her black hair shone on the shoulders of my shirt, and for an instant I was reminded of our first battle, with Yuri. Before I knew it, we were in a back room, and I had done something I couldn't erase." He let her go when she struggled.

Kagome walked off a distance, but not far enough she couldn't hear his whispered, "You waited didn't you?" She hung her head and crossed her arms in a protective gesture. If she squeezed tight enough, maybe the pain would quit. He came up behind her and brushed her hair off her shoulder. "Men are different than women, women are stronger." He gently wrapped his arms around hers, pulling her back against his hard chest. He whispered in her ear, "I'm sorry, if I'd known this was possible, I'd have waited despite the physical pain I would have endured."

"Pain?" She turned and looked at him in confusion.

"Yes, having desire for someone and not doing anything about it, hurts. It hurts very badly. The first six months I hurt every day for you. After six months, I figured some things out on my own, and it got a little better." He smiled, but not pleasantly. "The night I succumbed to my desires, I thought I was with you. I screamed your name as I came. When I woke up the next morning and realized what happened, I was physically sick. I wanted to die for a week or two. Miroku finally pulled me out of my depression."

InuYasha smiled at the memory. "I'd been wandering the countryside, trying to forget what had happened, when out of nowhere, I was hit up-side the head with a staff. The man was chanting strange words, and throwing fukas at me. When I didn't even look up, the bastard tripped me. I looked up in anger to see Miroku holding his sides and laughing. I tried to pound him, but he was still lightning quick."

"I didn't really have anyone else I could talk to, so I asked him if we could talk privately. We were already pretty private, there was no one else around, so he knew what I meant. We found a quiet place and sat. He listened to everything I had to say, what I'd done, my feelings about how I'd betrayed you, and other things." InuYasha blushed, and Kagome looked at him with curiousity.

"What things?"

"Uh…guy things." InuYasha blushed, and Kagome grabbed his ear tightly. "Owww!" She didn't let go. "Okay, sex things. I had never had sex before that night. I had a lot of questions."

"Such as…" Kagome was feeling evil, and she knew this was not something he wanted to talk with her about.

Oh boy, no way am I going to be able to have this discussion without repercussions. InuYasha thought. "Uh…birds and bees, you know."

"I do?" She jabbed his ribs. "I waited, remember? Why don't you just explain some of these birds and bees things to me!"

"Why did you wait anyways?" InuYasha let go and stepped away from her. "You didn't believe I'd come back."

"Because I love you, baka." She turned and walked back to the shrine.

Love…as in present tense? Not Loved, but Love. "Kagome, wait!" InuYasha ran after her. She stopped when he caught up.

"Yes?" She was shocked when InuYasha got down on both knees and took her hands in his.

"I can promise that from the moment I entered Demon Gate, to the moment I die, there will only be you."

"Even if I die?" InuYasha nodded. "Tomorrow?" He gulped, but nodded again.

Kagome went down on her knees and grabbed him around the neck, placing a tight kiss on his mouth. "Take me home."