A/N: Yay! More reviews! Awesome-ness! Hopefully, you guys will like this chapter enough to review as well! Hope you enjoy!

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My Only Hope
Chapter Eighteen

"Inuyasha…" Kagome whispered. "Look at me. What did you say?"

He turned slowly to face her. "I said…I said I love you, Kagome." He stammered. "I have for a long time. I'm sorry I didn't say anything before now…"

"Oh…" Kagome nodded slowly. "That's…that's what I thought you said…" she whispered her reply. "Inuyasha…I…" Kagome's expression fell. In the distance, she could see that Kouga was approaching.

He stopped in front of Kagome, taking her hand in his. "Kagome, my dear, how have you been? Have you thought any more about my offer?"

As much as he tried, Inuyasha couldn't help it. His eye began to twitch almost uncontrollably. The annoying wolf had just interrupted possibly the most important conversation he and Kagome had ever almost had. His face grew very red very fast.

"Kouga…" he growled.

Kagome gently pulled her hand away. "Kouga…you are my friend, but nothing more than that. I have told you before…"

Kouga sighed. "But why not, Kagome?"

Kagome smiled. "Kouga, I can't agree to anything with you, because I love Inuyasha," she turned to him.

Inuyasha's mouth dropped open in a very impolite manner, and he quickly closed it. "You do?" he coughed, and Kagome nodded.

Kouga sighed deeply. "Truthfully, I suspected as much." He admitted in a low voice. "You had better be good to her, Inuyasha, because if you hurt her, I will come find you…" He paused. "And of course, Kagome, if you ever get bored with dog-face, you always know where to find me."

"No, Kouga. I won't. I want you to be happy with Ayame. Don't wait for me, because you'd be waiting pointlessly." Kagome advised him.

"I see." He nodded. After a moment's pause, he cleared his throat. "I have also come with news. When you have your affairs in order, you may want to mention to your father that there is a rather large clan of bear youkai that are making their way down into this territory from the mountains. Sesshoumaru is already aware of the threat, but he probably won't reach the village for another day or two. I thought that you should be given fair warning…." He told Inuyasha.

Inuyasha nodded. "Do you know what they want, or how far away they are from this territory?"

Kouga frowned. "Not really, no. My scouts didn't gather much information…"

"It's okay, Kouga," Kagome smiled. "Thank you for the information. Please have a safe journey home."

Kouga nodded. "I will."

When he had left, Inuyasha turned to Kagome. "They'll come looking for us soon unless we head back to the village." He warned her. "Do you feel any better now?"

"Of course I feel better," she grinned at him, taking his hand in hers. "Besides, we don't have much of a choice now, do we? We don't want those giant fuzzy teddy bears to attack this territory, do we? I'm sure our fathers would love to hear this news before they get here."

"Kagome, I wouldn't exactly describe them as big fuzzy teddy bears," Inuyasha smirked. "Their claws are about as long as your arm, and they aren't exactly the cuddliest demons that walk the earth."

Kagome nodded. "We'll do fine."

"Everything will be all right, Kagome. There is no way I would let anything happen to you. Besides, I have plans for you…" Inuyasha whispered. "That is, if your father doesn't mind…"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome felt the heat rise into her cheeks, and she was pretty sure that her skin color rivaled that of a tomato.

When the two of them got back to Kaede's hut at the edge of the village, Inutaisho, Jin, Akira, Izayoi, and Shippo were waiting for them.

Inuyasha blinked. "Where are Sango, Souta, Kohaku, and Miroku?" he asked.

"Kohaku is playing with Souta and the other children in the field, and Sango and Miroku have taken Kirara and gone off on their own again…"

Kagome paled. "In which direction did they go?" she demanded.

Kagome's grandfather stepped out of Kaede's hut. "They said they were heading for the woman's old village," he informed her, "and that they would be back by dawn tomorrow…"

"To Sango's village! Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped. "The mountains! Kouga said…"

Inuyasha wrapped her in a hug. "Calm down. Sango and Miroku may not even run into them. They'll only be gone until morning. I doubt the clan has gotten that far this quickly…"

"What clan? What are you talking about?" Inutaisho demanded of his son.

"Kagome and I were…ahem…talking about something near the god tree when Kouga came up. He said that he had already talked to Sesshoumaru, but that he thought we ought to warn you that there was a large clan of bear demons headed from the mountains and straight into this territory. He said Sesshoumaru is on his way here, and should be here in a day or so…"

"Are you serious?" gasped Jin. He glanced worriedly at Inutaisho. "We would almost have to transform to handle such a large threat. To even be grazed by one of their claws…" Jin shuddered at the thought.

"I know that." Inutaisho nearly jumped. "We shall discuss our strategy for handling this problem tomorrow after we've had a chance to speak with Sesshoumaru. Maybe he will have a bit more information for us to go on. In the mean time, we need to relax and conserve our energy. There is a big fight ahead, and we are going to need our strength…."

As if this was their cue to breathe, Izayoi and Akira each took a deep breath, and seemed to relax a little.

"So, Inuyasha…" Akira whispered, her voice a little shaky, "what was it that you and my daughter talked about, if you don't mind my asking?"

"About…us." He admitted to her.

"Hmm… 'us'?" Jin repeated, and Inuyasha nodded nervously. Jin laughed. "Well it's about time, boy! Inutaisho and I thought that we might have to beat it out of you!"

Inuyasha blushed, despite himself, gulped, and nodded.

"So you think it's okay?" Kagome smiled happily.

Jin grinned at his daughter. "We've all thought it was okay from the beginning." He told her. "We've all just been waiting for Inuyasha here to spill the beans…"

"What do you mean?" asked Shippo, displaying his best 'I'm confused' look on his face.

Izayoi giggled to herself. "We'll explain it all to you once you've gotten a little bit older, okay Shippo?" she offered.

The kit frowned and crossed his arms in front of him in a pouting gesture. "I'm too little to do anything. It isn't fair!" he whined.

Kagome stroked Shippo's head a moment. "Don't worry, Shippo. It's nothing bad. I promise."

"Yeah runt. Don't worry about it." Inuyasha shrugged. "Ask the monk when he gets back."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome hit him in the head.

"What the hell was that for?" he demanded.

"Because I can't 'sit' you anymore, and you don't need to be telling Shippo to go to Miroku, of all people, and ask those types of questions!" Kagome yelled at him.

Inuyasha frowned. "All right. He won't go, will you, Shippo?" he looked at the small fox demon, who shook his head vigorously.

"Good." Kagome nodded to both of them.

Akira couldn't help but laugh. Her daughter acted like a mother to the fox demon, and it was a rather amusing spectacle to witness. The kit looked nearly horrified at Kagome's temper, and even Inuyasha looked somewhat frightened.

Kagome yawned. She didn't need nearly as much sleep now as she did when she was human, but she still managed to be tired every once in a while. She glanced around. "Are you guys going to stay up for a while?"

"Don't worry, Kagome. I'll be keeping watch tonight. You can go to sleep if you want to." Jin reassured her. "I'll be sure to wake you if something happens."

"Can you wake me when Sango and Miroku have returned? I want to tell Sango the news…" Kagome whispered.

He nodded. "All right. Get some sleep."

Kagome situated herself up against a nearby tree trunk, positioning her sword in her lap. In mere seconds, she had fallen asleep.

"Hey Inuyasha, does she remind you of someone?" smirked Shippo.

"Shut up."

"I was just saying," he laughed. "It kind of reminds me of you." He paused. "Except Kagome doesn't look very comfortable…"

"Keh." Inuyasha scoffed, but he quietly got up, moved Kagome's sword to inside Kaede's hut, and carefully picked her up bridal style. He carried her inside the hut, where her grandfather eyed him suspiciously.

"She's sleeping," Inuyasha whispered. "Where's her sleeping bag?"

The old man pointed, and Inuyasha nodded and walked over to the corner of the hut without a word. He tried to set Kagome down as carefully as possible without waking her. He got down on his knees, moving the top layer of the sleeping bag with one hand, and holding on to her with the other. When he'd finally gotten the top layer out of the way, he tried to set her down. Kagome wrapped her arms around his neck in unconscious protest of his actions, and snuggled closer to him.

"It's okay, Kagome." He whispered, thinking he may have somehow scared her.

Kagome yawned again, although she did not wake up. "Inuyasha, stay here. You're warm…"

Defeated and stuck in Kagome's death grip, Inuyasha gave up and leaned into the corner of the hut. Kagome let her head rest on his shoulder as he covered her with the sleeping bag.

Kagome's grandfather eyed Inuyasha with growing suspicion. He didn't trust the hanyou, and he could tell that something was going on. He just hadn't figured it out yet. Not wanting to wake his granddaughter, but still seeking his answers, Kagome's grandfather silently stood and exited the hut, joining the small group outside.

He sat next to Akira, and took a deep breath. He let the air out slowly through his mouth before finally speaking. "Would any of you mind telling me the reason why Kagome is in there cuddling with Inuyasha? That sort of behavior is very unbecoming of a young lady, and Inuyasha ought to know better…"

"Relax gramps." Akira shrugged. "There's nothing to worry about. Inuyasha and Kagome have already talked to us about it. They plan to become mates…" Akira told him nonchalantly.

He blinked. "Mates?"

"Yes…you know…like the demon version of marriage." She explained quickly.

"The demon version of what?" yelped the old man, his eyebrow rising in surprise. He frowned. "And I suppose there's nothing I could say to…"

"Nope."

"All right, then." He nodded.

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Near dawn the next morning, Sango and Miroku arrived safely back to the village with Kirara. Jin nodded to them as they landed.

"We have some not-so-good news for you," Sango reported.

"We already know about the bear demons." Jin replied to her. "Did you encounter them?"

Miroku nodded. "We flew over them. They are half a day's journey in that direction…headed this way." He informed Jin. "There was nine of them total."

"That is a rather large group…" Jin remarked to no one in particular. "The wolf demon wasn't lying…"

"They were huge." Sango described.

"Yes…which is exactly why nine of them is going to be a bit of a problem to handle." Jin frowned. "I need to wake the others. We don't have a lot of time to mess around. I hope Sesshoumaru gets here soon."

"Wake us for what?" asked Inutaisho, jumping down from a nearby tree with Izayoi. "Have there been any new developments?"

"There are nine of them, my friend." Jin repeated what he had been told earlier. "Half a day's journey from here."

"I see." He frowned. "I'll wake Inuyasha and Kagome. Could you go out and search for Sesshoumaru? He needs to get here as soon as possible."

Jin nodded his understanding and took off into the forest. Inutaisho walked into Kaede's hut and gently shook Inuyasha awake. Kagome stirred in his arms. "I'm sorry to wake you, but we've got some big problems headed our way, and I'm going to need to know if you'll be able to help…" he told the two of them.

Nodding, Inuyasha stood and helped Kagome to her feet.

"What is it, dad? What has happened now?" Inuyasha asked, his voice groggy with sleep.

"We don't have a lot of time to prepare," Inutaisho told him. "The bear youkai are moving faster than we expected…" He sighed deeply. "I am not sure if we have enough power with which to fight them off. I wish I knew the reason they were coming down here in the first place…"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Inuyasha glared at him. "There's you, Jin, Sesshoumaru, me, Kagome, Kouga, Sango, and Miroku…and I doubt Kouga will be the only wolf fighting…"

"I hope you're right son…but how soon do you think they can get here?" Inutaisho asked. "We have, at best, half a day to prepare for the attack…"

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A/N: Heh heh….I'll leave it there for now. Please review and I will update soon!