Author's Note: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews! Like I said before (if memory serves) I wrote this story a while ago and it's been finished since December (not much time to update). Your reviews remind me why I wrote this story in the first place, particularly one, you know who you are, in which the reviewer interacted with my story and actually analyzed Yuri's behavior! I love that! Feedback like that really tells me whether or not my message is being received properly or if something got lost in translation and I need to improve my writing so that readers understand what I'm trying to say. Woah, I've rambled too much. In short, I love you guys, all those of you who review my work!

A soft knock on the door stirred Yuri from her musings. "Who is it?" she called tentatively. She didn't think he would come to see her anymore, but Yuri had resigned herself to not admit Kiba in the room in any case—they both needed some time to cool off.

"It's just me, Blue. May I come in?" Blue answered softly. There was a somewhat cautious tone in her voice.

"Oh, sure Blue, come in, please," Yuri said, sighing at the sound of Blue's voice. What a relief!

"Here, I brought you some dinner. We've all been pretty worried you haven't been eating enough lately," Blue said, walking into the room, her right hand carefully balancing a tray with a bowl of soup and a glass of water. She closed the door quietly with her left hand. "I hope you can sit up," she added, looking up. "Oh."

Yuri was standing at the window, a hand holding the curtains aside. She was wearing the same white flannel nightgown Granny had put on her after she had been treated. It sat loosely on her small shoulders, making her look even more like a tiny China doll. She looked slightly antagonized.

"You can stand!" Blue said, placing the tray on the small table at the foot of the bed. "I'm so glad, you're recovering so quickly!"

"You too I see," Yuri remarked with a sigh, letting the curtain slide back closed and walking toward Blue, her arms crossed firmly in front of her.

"Huh?" Blue responded, looking puzzled.

"Uh," Yuri said with a derisive chuckle, "I'm afraid Kiba may have exaggerated my condition to the lot of you. I assure you, I'm not near death or anything, just tired of being cooped up in this cage of a bedroom."

Blue smiled. "Apparently so."

Yuri relaxed her shoulders, letting her arms drop to her sides. She let out a deep sigh, closing her eyes. "What has he been saying about me? Is he still mad?"

Blue eyed Yuri with interest. If she only knew. Sure, Kiba was mad, dead mad. He was infuriated that Yuri wouldn't let him take care of her. "What else am I supposed to do?" he would ask, desperately running his fingers through his already-messy hair. Blue would just sigh and chuckle to herself. It was really quite amusing, watching the two of them. They just wanted the other to be happy, but didn't know how to communicate their feelings to the other. Typical.

Blue smiled quaintly and sat on the edge of the bed, indicating for Yuri to do the same. "I'm supposed to take a look at your bandages too, come on."

Yuri agreed, sitting down in front of Blue, her back facing Blue's front. She easily slipped her arm through the nightgown's large neck, exposing her bandaged shoulder, and pulled her hair over her other shoulder.

"He's…how do I put this? Upset." Blue answered, carefully peeling the bandages off Yuri's wound.

"Upset?"

"He's not mad. He's just worried about you, that's all."

"I know he is," Yuri replied, pulling absently at her hair, "it's just—"

"You don't like him treating you like a baby," Yuri replied.

It was more a statement than a question. Blue had known what the problem was from the moment Kiba emerged from the room, red in the face. His subsequent "talks" with her, which involved Kiba wringing his hands and pulling at his hair while he asked Blue why humans were so complicated, had confirmed her suspicion.

Having been raised by humans as a dog, Blue understood and recognized human emotions much better than the other wolves did. She saw how much Yuri loved Kiba and her heart went out to her. Kiba was, afterall, a wolf and didn't understand the concept of love, at least not the way humans did. His love was of a baser variety, connected more with feral instinct than something as abstract as emotion. Blue had tried explaining this to Kiba, but wasn't sure she'd gotten through to him. In the end, it was up to Yuri whether or not Kiba was going to understand the way she felt.

"He can't help it, you know," Blue said.

"Can't help it? Of course he can, I've told him how I feel, I've asked him to stop. How hard could it be?" Yuri responded indignantly.

"He really can't help it. Haven't you ever done something inadvertently, something that you couldn't avoid?"

"Well, I- yes, I have."

"That's how it is for Kiba. He doesn't mean to hurt you, he doesn't realize that he is hurting you."

"But I've told him how I feel!" Yuri cried.

"Have you?" Blue asked, turning Yuri slightly so she could look into her face. "Have you really? Did you tell him out and out? In plain language?"

"Well, no, not exactly," Yuri sighed, facing forward again. "I didn't actually tell him, but I hinted at—"

"Nope, if you didn't actually tell him exactly how you feel, he has no idea," Blue cut in, with a matter-of-fact tone.

"But how?" Yuri asked, slipping her arm through the sleeve of the nightgown mechanically as Blue finished examining her wound. She turned to face Blue.

"I think you're forgetting that Kiba isn't human, he's a wolf," Blue replied simply.

Yuri started at Blue's words. Her eyes widened as she realized: she really had forgotten! She had forgotten that strength was not the only difference between wolves and humans. How could she not see it before? Was she that blinded?

"He's only doing what comes naturally to him, don't blame him for that," Blue said. "It's in his instinct to protect what he cares about and he cares about you. He cares a lot about you."

The words echoed in Yuri's head: "He cares about you." She felt elated and deeply saddened at the same time. Somewhere inside her, she knew that Kiba did care about her, but she had wanted to deny it, fearing the pain of rejection. But hearing it now, said aloud, it felt good. She was sorry about the way she had treated him.

"Really?" she asked, her hands clenched together, sweet hope in her eyes.

Blue nodded slowly, putting the hair that partially covered Yuri's face, behind her ear. "He's told me so. But you see, we wolves, we don't feel emotions the way you do. We don't love the way you do—"

"You mean he doesn't love me?" Yuri cried.

"No, no, that's not what I said, don't jump to conclusions."

"Sorry, I guess—it's just that this is a really touchy subject for me."

"I understand. It's not that he doesn't love you, he loves you…more than either you or I know. But he can't say it, not like you would. He can't express it the same way either."

"Then how—"

"Think about…dogs."

"Dogs?"

"Yeah. How do know when a dog loves you? How does a dog show love? I mean, you do believe that dogs can show love, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do, uh…" Yuri scrunched her nose. How do dogs show love? "Well, they wag their tail when they're happy and they lick you when they see you."

"Yes, you're on the right track. Because they can't convey their emotions through words, since dogs can't talk, dogs must display their love physically and behaviorally. Just like you said, a dog will wag its tail when it's happy to see you and stuff like that," Blue explained, thoroughly enjoying the look of awe on Yuri's face, her mouth partially open. "So, in much the same way, Kiba shows his love for you. He can't say what he feels, since he doesn't completely understand the human aspect of love that you feel, only the animal."

Yuri nodded her head slowly, her hand coming up to finger her lips absently.

"So, Kiba shows his love by protecting you with all he has. He'll take care of you when you're hurt. He will give what is most important to him, his life, for you. That's how much he loves you. Sure, he can be possessive, but that's just part of his nature too. He is a male, afterall, and males are supposed to dominate females in a pack." Blue smiled shrewdly as she looked upon her companion's face.

Yuri slowly stood up, her mouth still over her mouth, her eyes wide. It was so simple. Now that Blue explained it, Yuri didn't know why she hadn't seen it before. Oh, his behavior had only been natural! How heartless she felt! The way she had treated him—didn't deserve it at all. Thinking this, Yuri suddenly felt the urge to run out and beg Kiba for forgiveness. All this time, he had been trying to tell her exactly what she wanted to hear, and all she had done was yell at him.

"Oh, and by the way, your shoulder's all better. You may still feel some soreness, but your wound has closed," Blue said.

"How could I have been so blind?" she whispered.

"Don't blame yourself," Blue said, also standing. "You're more like a wolf than you know," Blue added, with a grin, walking toward the door.

"I am?" Yuri said, looking surprised.

Blue nodded reassuringly. "Neither of you knows how to express your feelings very well."

Kiba stretched languidly in the couch, yawning widely. He'd slept for over an hour—he hadn't realized how tired he was. Sitting up slowly, he looked around the room.

"So, what were you dreaming about? Or rather, whom were you dreaming about?" Hige teased, eyeing Kiba with a comical look from the other side of the coffee table.

Kiba glared at Hige. "And what do you mean by that?"

"Oh nothing," Hige retorted, grinning widely. "But you had an awfully stupid smile on your face, like you were dreaming about—"

"No." Kiba answered curtly, unable to keep himself from blushing slightly.

Hige continued to tease. "Well I don't blame you," he said, standing up and crossing his arms in front of his chest and nodding assuredly. "That Yuri is a fine female. The first time I saw her I got a—"

"Why do you insist on always being this damn crass?" Kiba scowled.

Hige laughed heartily. "Am I wrong?"

Kiba rolled his eyes and sighed. "That Hige," he thought. But he had to admit…

"That's right," Hige nodded, seeing the sly grin on Kiba's increasingly crimson face.

Ok, so I wrote another "character development" chapter. I wanted to establish the friendship between Yuri and Blue, seeing as I've neglected it so far. You like? I promise, there's drama in store for next week's update. Thanks for reading, and please review! And my sincerest thanks to those of you who actually review my story! I'm writing for you!