AN: I'm so sorry this took so long to come out! To my reviewers still supporting this fic, thanks so much! There's some fluff in this chapter to make up for it......... somehow.

Pirate Pash

Chapter 8 – Her Secret


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Kagome got up and straightened out the front of her filthy skirt, staring again at the empty air surrounding her. Not only had everyone fled, their belongings had fled right with them.

The water and food supply was gone. Even the rum bottles had disappeared into thin air.

This was in no way happening. Just yesterday she was banging her head in anger at the thought of never being able to escape. And now... well, her captives have escaped her.

Kagome stepped forward, stumbling as she noticed the smooth sand surrounding her. She turned her head to see her own footprints, so deep in the sand even a baby could identify them. Oddly enough, hers were the only human prints in the hefty sandy area; the rest indeed belonged to those of animals. So how in the bloody hell did Inuyasha and his crew manage to get out of the area? Maybe they flew?

She sighed and flopped to the ground in a meaningless attempt to think. The sun was shining at its' peak, the rays shooting right into her eyes and down her back, causing her to break out in a sweat. This heat alone would kill her if she failed to find any water soon.

"Inuyasha..." She mumbled aloud to no one, feeling an odd sensation of loneliness. In fact, the only sounds her ears picked up were the winds and her bottom squirming uncomfortably against the ground. "Where did you go, you jerk?"

She squeezed a handful of sand between her fingers, feeling the warmth of the granules run through them. She could run, for sure, but it was easier said than done. She was lost on this jungle of an island with nothing to show except the old clothing on her.

'Anything's better than sitting around like this.' Her muscles hot and achy, she began walking, the heat of the sun tearing her up and draining her physically. She really needed to get under the shade of some trees.

Luckily, ahead of her was the forest area, and the trees were casting a beautiful shade below. She managed to crawl into the shady area, breathing a sigh of relief when she escaped the heat rays of the sun.

She was all alone now. And there were only two things she could think of doing: staying and waiting for someone to find her, or wandering around the island and attempting to get off it.

The answer to that question was unquestionably easy.

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"Oh, shit..."

He awoke with a blinding headache, and it felt as if someone had just taken a tree trunk and brought it down on his skull. Where the hell was he? Had he been attacked by his crew members and thrown into a ditch somewhere alive? Or maybe he was just too damn hung-over to know the difference between sane and insane.

Inuyasha rolled over and blinked open his heavy eyes. Brown dirt was what he saw. A few trees up ahead as well. "Where...?" He muttered, rubbing his sore head with his sandy hand. "Where the hell am I?"

Not receiving an answer from any of his lazy crew members, he wheezed heavily and sat up on his own, barely supporting himself with one arm. Everything was one big blur.

"Mi...Miroku? Sango!" He yelled with his eyes closed. The sunlight hurt his eyes. "Shippou! Goddamn it Hojo! Anyone?!"

Groaning, his eyes cleared up as he finally got a good look at everything. No one was anywhere to be seen, and not only that, but he was in a completely different place than yesterday night.

"This..." He slowly pieced the events of the night before. They had all been drinking and laughing like complete idiots., twirling and singing and hollering, until two guys got into a rumble that he stopped. Then that girl screamed something about not being able to sleep with all the noise...

That reminded him. That woman. Where was she now? Did his crew abduct her? Did she escape from the island?

"Kagome...you bitch." He snarled, despite the fact she probably had nothing to do with this. "Run away, why don't you?"

He stomped around angrily, madly kicking sand around, flailing his arms in a sad attempt to look frustrated. He really was frustrated. He lets his guard down for one short night and what happens? His crew deserts him.

But there was something he couldn't understand. Why didn't they kill him off instead of dropping him alone somewhere?

He was distracted by the heat of the sun and lost his train of thought. Even he couldn't take much more of this weather, which reminded him – Miroku's crew was still around. He'd find them and together they'd hunt out those fucking backstabbers...

He growled, snapping a thick, burly branch off a tree with one hand. "Wait 'til I get my hands on them......"

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"I'm so......so......hungry........." Kagome plopped against another tree and glanced up, still no coconuts. Weren't there supposed to be coconuts on trees on deserted islands? There were on her island.

She had been wandering around now for hours, feeling like she had been walking in stupid circles the entire time. She had to question exactly how the animals stayed alive on such a food-free island.

"So hungry......" She mumbled again, trying to absorb some of the final warmth from the sun. If the weather was anything like yesterday, she would probably freeze to death.

She needed to make a fire.

Now that she thought about it, even if she managed to somehow scrounge up a mountain of wood, she would still have nothing to light it with. It would just be a lousy pile of dead tree.

She sniffled quietly, pinching her nose from the cold. 'I shouldn't be complaining......Souta's probably in a lot more pain than me right now. Why am I so weak......'

She couldn't stop thinking about her brother. Why? In a time of need like now she needed to worry about herself and herself only. But she couldn't do it...

All of a sudden, a branch from behind snapped. She froze and looked behind her to see no one in sight. Feeling her stomach drop, Kagome stared carefully. Was it a bear? A fox? A lion?

She crouched down slowly and wrapped her hands around a heavy rock by her foot. She wasn't stupid, she knew enough of the whole 'survival of the fittest' logic, and she wasn't about to let some stupid animal get to her first.

Kagome listened carefully as the creature came towards her one step at a time. She could hear each leaf crackling as it advanced. 'So close...'

She painfully bit her tongue and held the large rock back until she made out the exact location of the animal. A few more steps and she could make it out......

The animal suddenly picked up its' pace, and Kagome swallowed heavily. And it wasn't long before the creature was a mere step away from her hiding spot behind the tree.

"AHHHHH!" She swung terribly hard with both hands and released the weapon, praying it made contact with the creature.

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief when she heard a deep groan from the animal and the rock colliding with it. Then suddenly, she felt something small peck her cheek.

She brought her hand to her face, onto to stare back down at the red splotches lined on her fingers. A tiny white object was held between her unstable fingers.

It was a tooth. A small human tooth.

"Oh my god - " She dropped it instantly and stepped out from behind the tree. Lying on the ground in a heap wasn't the bear or wolf she had imagined ...... but rather the body of Kenji. The rock was lying right above his head, and his reddened face appeared distorted.

She had hit Kenji with a thirty-pound rock right in the temple and across the face.

The surprised girl inched forward, speechless, until she was next to the motionless pirate. Kagome kneeled down, making sure to keep her eyes locked anywhere but on the bloodbath across his face

She shook as she brought two fingers to his twisted neck, patiently awaiting some sort of a pulse to emerge. Her stomach dropped even lower when she couldn't feel one – she pressed her fingers into his warm skin even harder.

"No...... no......not again." She brought her face down to Kenji's unmoving chest, feeling an annoying sense of déjà vu. Yet when she tried to cry she couldn't.........there just wasn't anything in her that wanted to mourn for him.

"I hate you." She whispered against his chest, feeling slightly guilty because somehow a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She scampered off Kenji's chest and dropped down next to him. "I was so afraid you were going to hurt me today......and now you're dead......"

She should have realised talking to a corpse wasn't normal, but she didn't stop. "You know," she reached over and hesitantly wrapped her small hand around his larger one. "I didn't know where anyone had gone when I woke up this morning......... it was pretty scary. And just yesterday I was praying everyone would just disappear and get out of my life– not that I missed any of you guys, mind you, but the truth was that I was lost."

Kagome chuckled and released her hand, suddenly sickened by the thought of touching him. "What am I doing talking to you? I bet you would love to sit up right now and strangle me until I choke," She backed up slightly and winced.

She had killed him.

The phrase sounded awkward on the tongue, but at the same time it gave her an odd sense of strength. She had already killed two men in the short time away from home. What would her family have thought of that?

'Sango was right......' She ran her hands through her tangled hair and scrambled off the cold ground, continuing her slow walk. 'Crying about it would only make me feel worse about it.' Kagome looked over her shoulder one last time, the body of Kenji still laying there motionless. 'We all die someday.'

As she looked up at the darkening sky, she couldn't help the uncontrollable tears rolling down her cheeks.

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Blood.

And it was nearby.

Inuyasha could smell it a mile away. He had an odd knack for picking up the scent of blood and locating it......... at first it was just disgusting and annoying, but over the years it had become a rather useful talent. Oddly enough, he didn't even know where this skill came from.

'It'd better be food!' As he had come to realize, this island was void of anything edible. He sprinted towards the faint smell, hoping to see a dead hog lying on its back with its four feet up in the air.

Leaping over high logs was an easy task right then for a hungry pirate.

He ran for what felt like hours before the smell became a little stronger, his legs never stopping once to rest. Inuyasha withdrew his sword hurriedly as he ran, quite looking forward to slaughtering his prize.

He almost stumbled over his sword when he saw his 'prize'.

Inuyasha could not believe what he was seeing.........curled up on the ground like a dead rat was Kenji......... his face bleeding and battered-up. His head was resting in a pool of dark red.

"Damnit! KENJI! What happened........." He immediately raced to him, all earlier thoughts forgotten. "Who the hell did this to you?!!" He turned the bleeding man onto his back and checked for a pulse. When he didn't find one, he checked for a breath, anything.

Kenji was dead.

"Who the fuck did this to you? I'll kill them!" He snarled, so outraged he could have choked anyone. "Kenji! TELL ME!" He was close to grabbing him by the collar and shaking him until he woke.

Kenji – Kenji was one of the only guys he trusted on his team. Did his crew betray him and murder Kenji? They couldn't have...... Kenji got along with everyone. So how did he die......?

He spotted a huge rock lying above his head, and then looked down at the dent on his temple. So that was how he died... some coward probably hid somewhere and threw it from behind a bush.

"Bastards... I'll kill you!" Inuyasha cracked his knuckles, extremely unpleased with the turn of events. He'd get his revenge for him......... Kenji always promised to do the same whenever he got hurt in battle. "Shit......... this shouldn't have happened." He mumbled, resting his head in his hand. Who did he know that would have a motive to kill Kenji?

No one - that was who. Maybe he was killed by a savage group of Indians. But he was pretty sure no Indian would ever kill so tastelessly.

Throwing a rock was almost.... foolish? No one with any real skill would do so...... he would even go as far as saying it was someone who was a plain coward.

Whoever the bastard was, Inuyasha was going to get revenge for him. Make them die a gruelling death......

Inuyasha dropped down to one knee, exhausted and frustrated. But he didn't get to rest long – out of the corner of his eye he saw something stand out in the darkness of the sky.

Footprints were in the sand. And they were leading away from the body. Whoever had done this was obviously too thick to check the trail of sand prints they left behind.

He smiled pleasantly. Checking out the prints, he saw that they were rather small feet. And the killer was alone.

So it wasn't his crew who killed Kenji, he thought so... it was someone with relatively smaller feet. And smaller strides.

He followed the steps carefully, studying everything about the way the murderer walked. He had very, very small feet...almost an unhealthy size for a man. He also walked with tiny steps, almost like a child.

"Sick son of a bitch......" Inuyasha commented to himself, imagining a feminine man barely lifting the rock used to kill his friend. The thought greatly disturbed him.

Suddenly, Inuyasha stopped his inspecting.

He had run into a long strand of hair resting innocently on the ground. Immediately, he swept it into the air and let it hang innocently before snapping it in half.

It was long, silky, and black. Kind of like Kagome's.

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It was absolutely freezing. Kagome had completely forgotten about her desperately needed fire, and now it was close to complete darkness. She glanced up at the bright moon.........it was so pretty......... she used to look up at it all the time when she was young.

'Mom, why does the moon follow me around?' She'd asked once to her mother. Her mother simply replied with, "it follows everyone, Kagome. It's so beautiful that everyone in the world can see it."

She'd forgotten that. It felt like such a distant memory.

Her parents died not long ago...and already she was losing important memories. Would she forget Souta soon too?

She sighed and cradled down into a ball on the ground, shivering from the cold weather beginning to emerge. Without realising it, her knuckles had turned a ghastly shade of blue, and goosebumps were lined all the way up her arms.

"I'm cold......" Kagome sniffled loudly and huddled underneath the tree, but it was no use. It was like trying to put on a piece of cloth for warmth in an ice storm. "So cold......"

She watched her hot breath dissolve in the dark sky, and wished she was somewhere bubbling hot, kind of like inside a fire. That would be just fine with her.

Kagome's legs had turned a ghastly shade of white, and she was certain the same had happened to the rest of her body. The trees were also dimming; she saw less of each branch as each minute slipped by. It could have been a minute; it could have been an hour. How was she to find out.

Huddling even tighter against her skin, she cursed her stupidity again. Why did she not make a fire? Was she asking to die? She sniffled silently, but her nose was stuffed and frozen. "I'm tho thupd."

It eventually got so cold, she found herself almost giving up. The wind was slicing into her exposed neck, face, hands, and legs, and her lips were so chapped it hurt to lick them. 'Is this... it this the end?' She would have sobbed, but her face felt as if it was frozen solid. 'Why... why didn't I stay on the boat when Inuyasha told me to?'

She wasn't even thinking straight anymore because of the pain... those trees to her left were looking more and more like Sango and Miroku, and the one next to it looked strangely like Inuyasha. 'If he came......... I might even be a little happy. God, this has really gotten to me.'

Strangely enough, the Inuyasha tree was coming closer, whilst the Sango and Miroku trees remained trees. "Hey there.........tree," She managed to mumble with a slight smile, the image blurring more and more by the second. "Come to laugh at me?"

"Kagome......"

She remembered trees didn't talk. And they definitely didn't call her by her name. "Yes?" She asked light-heartedly, her body so cold it was straining to force out anything..

Then, she felt a pair of large, warm hands envelop around her small form, and right then she felt the warmth she had been missing. Not just the heat she needed at the moment, but the warmth she lost the instant her parents died. "Trees don't hug people.........do they?" She breathed tiredly.

"Kagome – you fucking idiot! I can't believe you! Why the hell didn't you build a fire?!"" The voice snapped at her harshly.

She smiled and returned the embrace, pressing her hands into his back, feeling little heat return to them. "Couldn't......" This tree person was so warm she never wanted to let go, no matter how mean he was being. "No fire......"

"Stupid girl, where did you run off to last night?" He tightened his hold on her, surprised it was possible for anyone to be this cold and not pass out. "My god, you're freezing."

"You're funny." Kagome mumbled against his solid chest. "I don't know how I got there."

"Seriously."

"I really don't know......but I'm so cold......can I stop talking for now?" She dug deeper against the folds of his shirt, breathing in the warm scent of him. Kagome had absolutely no clue whose shirt she was latching so tightly on to.

And it was making him uncomfortable.

The girl was grabbing on to him so tightly he could barely breathe, let alone see her. "Yea......" He was barely feeling the wind against his back anymore. All he could think about was the girl wrapped up in his arms.

Inuyasha held a finger against her cheek, relaxing a bit when it no longer felt like ice. She was close to falling asleep underneath the stupid tree, which would have led to her death.

Then he remembered something else. Just whose hair was it he found? Long, black, silky......that sick sonofabitch – he was probably smiling to himself right now at his win over his friend.

The thought was pissing him so much he accidentally squeezed Kagome too tightly, stopping when he heard her low groan. "Sorry." He scooped down to rest his aching legs when he noticed something unusual about Kagome.

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows and grabbed the hand resting by her side, trying to ignore the her breaths burning against his neck. He glared at her hand, but more importantly, the red stains along her fingers. A few tiny red spots......

He didn't have to sniff her hand to know what it was. Blood was written all over it. But why the hell would Kagome have blood on her fingers? He checked for signs of cuts...... there was a little scrape, but that was all.

"Psst. Kagome!" He whispered eagerly next to her ear. Her heartbeats were slowing down as she relaxed more completely against his chest. "Wake up."

"Hmmm?" She mumbled absently. "Inuyasha?!" She opened her eyes and spotted it was the captain holding her so tightly against his chest. She blushed and shrieked before pushing away lightly, but he didn't look like he was planning to release her.

"Why do you have blood on your fingers?"

He felt her still jerkily in his arms, even more so than earlier. She paused. "Well?" He urged her further, feeling a tang of angriness. What exactly did she have to hide?

"Nevermind." She replied quickly, still attempting to push away from him as she spoke. She seemed to have cured really fast. "It's a woman thing."

Inuyasha choked, but didn't stop his questioning despite his embarrassment. "Kagome, I know it isn't......that. Tell me the truth." It was hard keeping the impatience out of his voice.

"Why do you care?" She replied, looking away as she spoke. It was still just as cold out, but their conversation was heated enough to make them both forget about the weather. "You're the last person in the world I expected to care about this."

He stuttered, "that doesn't mean I can't fucking know why you're injured!"

Kagome would never tell him. She knew he would be steamed if he knew what she did. He may or may not have seen the body yet, but she knew Inuyasha thought of him and Kenji as buddies, despite what Kenji was planning to do. "No......... no, you can't."

That comment struck a nerve. "Tell me, goddamn it!" He grabbed her tightly by the arms and shook- not enough to hurt her- but enough to snap some sense back into her.

Inuyasha didn't understand. He had just saved her from freezing overnight and here she was fighting back over nothing.

She pushed him away. "I'm not going to warm up to you. EVER." She hissed angrily, obviously still feeling the effects of the shake. "Don't think you saving me this one time will qualify as my sharing secrets with you! You kidnapped me from me family, and now you demand to know about me?" She spat back. "I regret even touching you in the first place!"

"Touch me?" Inuyasha pointed at himself in anger. "You're the one who pounced on me the second I walked next to you!"

"That's not true! I was going to freeze!"

"Well, that's just too damn bad, isn't it?" He sneered, already getting up to his feet. "If you don't want to tell me why you're bleeding, that's fine with me! But I don't want some stupid girl annoying one second, bitchy the next, to be ungrateful for what I just did!" He paused. "Do you know how many people I save? Ever?"

"A lot?" She gazed with questioning eyes.

"Next to never. I don't save people, Kagome. It's not my style." He stared her straight in the eyes. "So you'd better appreciate my concern this time because you won't see it again."

Inuyasha spun around and walked away.

"Oh no." Kagome answered sarcastically as his figure disappeared into the trees; she was a little disappointed now at the loss of body heat. She hated to admit it, but she missed his strong chest pressed up against hers. He gave her a sense of comfort that she hadn't felt in ages, and she regretted letting her anger take her away in their argument.

But she could never cross the line from 'hate' to 'tolerate' with him, with anyone. It would be another stab in the back to her dead parents. She really had to stop getting along with these man-murdering pirates. She couldn't keep doing this...... she couldn't......because they all deserved to die......

So how come she felt dead inside when Inuyasha's smell started to fade away?

It couldn't be...

She was getting attached to him......

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AN: Yikes!