Chapter 10: A Spat and Kagome's Stupid Idea (A.N. Please disregard any errors in this chappie, it's late and I don't feel like proofreading)

The silence is broken when they hear the scraping of stone against stone and Inuyasha slows to a halt. He watches as a bird sets carefully on the horse's head. Kagome stares, it seemed to be made out of solid granite. It cocks its head at Kagome and then looks to Inuyasha before sitting there as if waiting for something. Inuyasha rolls his eyes, this one must have never seen Kagome, and didn't know how much she knew, "Speak, servant."

Kagome blinks and is about to ask if he'd lost his marbles when the granite bird did indeed speak, "Yes milord. I am glad I caught you. Any further and it would have been most grievous. Right over that ridge you brother is camping with, I'd say, about five hundred soldiers or so."

Inuyasha's eyes widen quite a bit, "Five hundred!? I thought he thought I was gone! And we're still a good day's worth of traveling from the border, how the hell'd he get so far in so quickly?!"

The bird bows "I know not master. I report only what I see. And I saw what I told you."

Inuyasha think for a moment before nodding, "Alright. Go back to the castle and report. Oh, and tell the other messengers about Kagome. Anything you would tell me, you can tell her."

The servant bows his agreement before taking off. The horse shakes his head, grateful to be rid of the heavy burden. The two watch the bird fly out of sight. Then Kagome turns to Inuyasha, who seems deep in thought, with wide eyes. Pieces were clicking into place quickly, and her mind gaped at the result, 'The kingdom's border is about a day's travel away, and that creep called Inuyasha 'Prince'...oh no...it couldn't be that Sesshomaru, I thought it was just a coincidence, and that means that Inuyasha is...no, no, no, that can't be right! Inuyasha couldn't be...there's no way! He couldn't be lost prince that Grandpa always talked about! He just couldn't...' (A.N. Lol, a bit slow on the draw isn't she? Lol)

Inuyasha had brung himself out of his thoughts and sees the wheels turning in Kagome's head. He sighs before deciding to nip this in the bud. "Kagome, my name is Inuyasha, and I swear if you call me anything more you won't like the result."

This seems to bring her out of her trance and she smiles, "Right, I wouldn't dream of calling you anything else Inuyasha. Well, except maybe dog breath." She teases before giggling.

Inuyasha growls, and Kagome can't help but sink into the vibration. She barely hears when he mumbles "Wench." under his breath with an underlying warmth that makes smile. After a second Inuyasha breaks the moment by dismounting, catching her when she falls off due to loss of balance. He smirks down at her when she instinctively wraps her arms around his neck to catch herself. He sets her on her feet before encircling her with his arms.

Kagome sighs, letting herself mold to his body. They stay like that for a while, Kagome close to his chest, Inuyasha almost protectively encircling her, head on hers, breathing in her scent.

Kagome lets his presence surround her, blocking out the outside world. Truth was, she'd been scared to death by Naraku and was more then willing to let Inuyasha cut her off from the world where a lunatic like that resided. This close, with her eyes closed, Kagome is surprised to find that he doesn't smell like the dark, dank castle, or even like a dog, but like the forest after a spring shower, fresh and new. She smiles as she feels his hands play her hair. Never in her whole life had anything felt so right, and it confused the heck out of the logical side of her mind.

He was a monster, literally! He had claws, fangs, beady blue eyes swimming in a sea of red, and once in a month of a blue moon he became a bloodthirsty beast that scared the living daylights out of her.

And yet, here she was, not twenty-four hours after she found out that last little tidbit, in his arms, enjoying the smell of him all around her, feeling his claws lightly caress her back as he ran his fingers through her hair. It was insanity!

But, argued a little voice inside her, she knew he would never harm her, no matter what, he'd proved that last night. And he had shown he'd protect her by the way he'd acted back on the horse. Why not be in his arms? At the moment, it was the safest place to be.

Finally, Kagome angles her head up to his, smiling at his content looking face, and almost reconsiders before speaking, "So, are we going to camp out here?"

Inuyasha lifts his head before nodding, "Yeah, we'll need a good night's sleep if we're going to take on Sesshomaru's troops."

Kagome blinks, "Take on? We? You mean, you're not going to try and talk to him or at least get more help? How the heck are the two of us going to take on five-hundred trained soldiers?!"

Inuyasha shrugs, "Five hundred's not that many, I can take most of them while you pick the rest of them off with that aim of yours."

"And what about talking through it?" Kagome asks hopefully.

Inuyasha shakes his head, "Trust me, that would never work."

Kagome huffs, "Well why not?"

Inuyasha growls, "It just wouldn't, okay?" he then turns and sticks his nose in the air, sniffing cautiously.

Kagome raises an eyebrow, "What are you doing?" she asks a bit more bitingly then she meant to.

Inuyasha inwardly flinches but responds in an equally condescending tone, "I keep good stashes all over this forest, just in case of an emergency like this. Now shut up so I can concentrate, or do you not want to eat?"

She attempts to sear the meat from his bones by glaring at him before huffing, crossing her arms and giving him her back. "You know that whatever food you had out here is probably long gone, either rotted or taken by some animal, right?" she says before something is dropped in her arms.

She opens her eyes and looks to find half a loaf of bread on them, Inuyasha's voice saying simply "When you know this forest as well as I do, you learn how to get around things like that."

Suddenly she remembers that the last time she'd eaten was at breakfast, and then she hadn't even gotten to finish it. She hungrily digs into the bread, chewing as little as possible before swallowing and taking another bite. She was about half-way done when she hears, "You're going to make yourself sick if you keep eating like that."

Kagome stops and looks up to where Inuyasha is sitting on a branch lazily, tossing his half up into the air then catching it when it falls. Kagome glances at him while taking an especially big bite, though she has to chew a bit more to get it down to a manageable size.

Inuyasha rolls his eyes before turning over. Suddenly he hears her moving away and flips over, "What do you think you're doing?"

Kagome turns around, "Getting wood for a fire, in case you didn't notice, it's getting dark. Out here, unless you have a fire, it gets cold when it gets dark."

Inuyasha responds, "Feh, just be back before the first stars come out. If you're not, I'm coming after you."

Kagome rolls her eyes, before going to fulfil her self-appointed duty. It doesn't take long before she's back only to find Inuyasha fast asleep. She growls in frustration before setting to starting a fire. When she's got a good blaze going, she sits against a tree when she stares up at Inuyasha's sleeping form. 'Stupid hardheaded idiot. Sango said that his brother thought this land was unruled. If he just talked to him, I'm sure that he would leave peacefully. That's it! I'll go talk to his brother and explain! But I'll need something to prove that I'm really with him, hmm...' she looks around briefly before seeing that before going to sleep he'd taken off the red coat. 'I've certainly never seen one like it. That's it then, I'll take the coat, go talk to Sesshomaru and be back before Inuyasha even realizes I'm gone! Then I can tell him he doesn't have to fight his brother and we can return the castle no worse for wear!' With that she works quickly and quietly, taking his coat and making her way to the ridge.

A.N. Oh Kagome! You idiot! Well, this should be interesting for sure. I'm getting this up way later at night then usual, but tonight was the new Inuyasha and Wolf's Rain eps. so I had to watch those before writing . Sesshy's introduced in the next chapter, as well as Hojo for a bit. Oh, and as thanks for getting so many great reviews, I've decided to start reviewer responses . Just a little added incentive to review. Ok, let's see here...

RoseMaiden- I'll start with you since you've been reviewing the longest. Lol, I totally agree with that idea of school, which is usually why I just spend my time writing during class and then bumming the notes off of one of my friends lol. I'll try to keep updating as quickly as possible, and I want you to know that the fact you keep reviewing is very appreciated .

RebelWriter- I'll do yours next since you've been with me second longest, plus you write the longest reviews lol. The Kouga bashing isn't coming for a couple chapters, but hang in there, it's coming! As for Hojo bashing, I think I've decided to just show him as the weakling he is. Thanks for reviewing, yours are always fun to read .

StaryKegome- Thanks for the input, and I'll update as quickly as possible .

Starflower-Gem- Thanks for the idea! I hadn't thought of that possibility, but I'll definitely consider it now.

animereader- Thanks for the support! I'll update asap!

Alright, that's it for me for now, my fingers are killing me and bed is calling. See ya'! R&R please!