Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Inuyasha. I do own Sen though, she's my original character.

Chapter 2

Kagome woke to the feeling of nails lightly tracing up and down her arm, causing her to shiver. She made a small noise and looked behind her at Inuyasha, showing him that she was awake.

"That tickles you know." She muttered sleepily, still drowsy.

Inuyasha stopped, and wrapped his arm around her waist instead. "Is that better?" He whispered into her ear, sending a whole new type of shiver down her spine.

Kagome just nodded, loving the feel of his arm around her, and just trying to memorize this moment forever. She knew that they would have to get up soon enough, but until that happened she would just take pleasure in every second.

Kagome turned in Inuyasha's arms, sliding her own small and delicate arms around him. She looked up into his eyes, and got the feeling that she was drowning in two golden pools. At some point during the night or early this morning he had knotted his hair at the base of his neck, to keep it from bothering either of them. His silvery dog ears where lazily turning toward noises that she had no chance of ever hearing.

Inuyasha propped himself up on one elbow and leaned over her, smiling down at her, one pointed fang peaking out from under his lips. Then the smile disappeared and he seemed to come to himself. His face took on his usual scowl and he growled out, "Time to get up wench, I let you sleep in later then usual." And with that he stood up and started packing up the campsite.

Kagome wasn't surprised he had reacted like that. After so much rejection throughout his life it was not shocking that he would expect it from her as well. Though it did slightly hurt that he didn't trust her, it wasn't something that truly bothered her.

Inuyasha was over by the fire, putting out the few embers that still burned. He was sneaking short peaks over at Kagome, trying to gauge her reaction. She was just laying there, her long hair spread around her head and shoulders. Her stormy blue eyes stared up at the bright blue sky, almost empty of all clouds.

'I knew it,' he thought, she's regretting it already. She's going to never want to speak to me again, how could I do that? I was so stupid, I took advantage of the situation. I'm a bastard, I'm not worthy to even be her friend. But Kami, I was in heaven last night, it was the best sleep I've had for years, and I won't ever forget it.'

As Inuyasha continued to get lost in his thoughts, Kagome slowly crawled out of her sleeping bag, making sure that all of her cloths were covering her appropriately before she started over towards him. She kneeled down behind him, and encircled him with her arms than resting her head on his shoulder.

"Inuyasha, please, I don't regret what happened. I'm happy. I will never leave you." She murmured into his back, giving him a slight squeeze to emphasize her point.

Inuyasha couldn't believe his ears. Not only was she holding him, but she wasn't going to run either. Inuyasha looked straight ahead of him, raising his hands to hold hers. The day had taken on a brighter, sunnier appearance.

--On the Road Later that Day—

Kagome and Inuyasha were once more traveling. Kagome's extremely large yellow backpack was slung over one of Inuyasha's shoulders, while Kagome walked next to him, randomly gathering herbs as they went along.

"Oi, wench, why are you picking plants?" Inuyasha asked.

"You know my name, do you have to call me wench?" was her response.

Before Inuyasha could answer Kagome tensed and pointed off to their right. "There's a jewel shard in that direction. We have to hurry though, it's about to go out of my range!"

Inuyasha quickly scooped up Kagome and carried her bridal style, seeing as he had her backpack on his back. He jumped nimbly from tree to tree, going in the direction that Kagome pointed.

It hit full in the face, then seemed to wash over him and soak into his skin. The stench of death and blood almost overtook him, but he soon recovered. He soon located the source of the putrid smell, a small village, well what had once been a village. Now there were buildings torn down everywhere, bodies littered the ground, and animals roamed free from their pens.

All of this was caused by the giant thing before them. It was almost 8 feet tall, with a leathery brown hide that seemed to be almost a form of armor itself. It had the nose of a big, but the rest of him was almost human, though he was abnormally fat.

Inuyasha took one look around him and his anger flared. How dare this creature expose HIS Kagome too all these horrible sights. He could feel her shuddering in his arms, and could smell the beginning's of tears in her eyes.

Inuyasha gently placed her down and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Kagome I need to know where the jewel shard is." He asked as kindly as he could.

"It's in his belly button." Kagome answered after carefully examining the demon.

That was when the stupid creature noticed their presence. "Who are you?" It boomed.

"I am what's going to kill your disgusting ass!" Inuyasha yelled, charging at it. He quickly swiped his claws, and realized that its hide really was as strong as armor.

But even armor couldn't stop one of Kagome's purifying arrows. She shot an arrow at its forehead, and the demon broke into hundreds of tiny, gory pieces. Kagome sprinted towards it; she had to get the shard out before its power brought back together the demon parts.

She searched its remains, finally locating the shard. She delicately walked over to it, and picked it out with as little contact as possible. As soon as the shard was removed the demons fleshed turned to ash, leaving behind only the bones. That only happened with demons that had been almost dead when they came across the jewel shard, and Kagome found a lot more pleasant then having left over demon all over the place.

What was left of the villagers came out from hiding, and the village leader came up to both Inuyasha and Kagome, and wept while hugging them both.

It was awkward for the two to be hugged by this weeping man, because he was a larger man, maybe around 6 feet tall, and had short brown hair, and muddy brown eyes. There was nothing remarkable about him, but you could tell that he was not the type to from gratitude often.

"If it is within our abilities to provide it, you may ask anything of us. We are in your debt." He offered.

"We don't want to impose, we know that you have a lot of rebuilding and mourning to do. All we wish is a place to sleep tonight and a meal." Kagome answered for them both, knowing that Inuyasha would probably say something rude, which would get them kicked out, and they would lose a perfectly good opportunity to sleep inside for once.

Inuyasha just feh'd and walked off to help dig graves and start rebuilding. Kagome decided to go help tend the wounded, and was glade that she had picked all those healing herbs today. She had realized that since it was just her and Inuyasha, should Inuyasha get hurt there was no Kirara to carry them back to Kaede quickly. Hell, she wouldn't even be able to move him at all, let alone get him all the way back to Kaede's village. So she had picked herbs so that should something happen she would have some supplies on hand as well as her first aid kite.

Kagome helped tend to those who had been hurt, or who were in shock due to family members who had passed. One little girl specifically sparked her interest. She was only about two, maybe a little older. She had short black hair, and was missing the front right top tooth. Her eyes were a shocking green, the most pure color she had ever seen in a human. She was so innocent, so sweet, and poor Sen had lost all of her family, she was orphaned at the tender age of 2.

Sen had been taken into the hut that Kagome was using as a type of infirmary because she had a few cuts and scraps on her face, arms, and legs. As Kagome patched her up, the older woman who had brought her told Kagome the horrible news of Sen's family. The old woman turned out to be the village leader's mother and asked Kagome if she would be kind enough to watch Sen for the remainder of her stay in the village.

Kagome agreed and set Sen down in a corner and gave her a doll she had found on the ground in the hut.

--That Evening—

An exhausted Kagome carried an even more tired Sen to the room that she and Inuyasha were sharing. Kagome had just finished a bath, and changed into some fresh clothing before going to the room. She had also bathed Sen and asked some villagers with a child her size if they had any spare clothing for her. Thankfully they did, and both Kagome and the innocent child were clean and ready for bed.

Kagome slide open the door to her room and saw Inuyasha sitting the far left corner, his eyes closed in what Kagome assumed to be slumber. She quietly crept over to her bag and got out her sleeping bag, spreading it on the floor and sliding in. She placed Sen in front of her and held the child close to her.

"Kagome, why's that kid in here?" Inuyasha asked, scaring Kagome enough that she let out a little squeak.

"Shhh, Inuyasha, you'll wake her up! Her name is Sen, she was orphaned by the demon we killed, and I'm watching her until we leave." She whispered, carefully extracting herself from the sleeping bag and little girl and going over to sit next to Inuyasha.

Inuyasha looked at the little girl with sympathy. He knew what it was like to be left parentless at a young age, and it would be hard for her. Even without having to deal with the torment of being a half-breed, she would still be mostly fending for herself once she's old enough. It would be very hard to find a family that would take in a child for longer than necessary after hard time's like these.

Kagome rested her head on Inuyasha's shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her waist. "Inuyasha, do you think maybe...we could...possibly..." Kagome started, then wasn't sure how to end.

"Possibly what?" Inuyasha asked.

Kagome looked over at the fragile human being sleeping in her sleeping bag and asked. "Could we take her with us?" She asked.

"Are you sure you want to Kagome, we would have a lot of work to do, and it's not like having Shippo around, she won't know when to run and hide." Inuyasha warned.

"I know, but I feel like if I leave her here she will never truly be happy, I can't do that to her. I'll take responsibility for her protection, no one will harm her." Kagome vowed.

"Then we can both protect her, I'll help you, and we can watch over her." Inuyasha answered, also feeling a deep connection to this little girl. It wasn't only that she was in a similar situation that he had been in, it was also partly the love and affection he heard in Kagome's voice when she declared her vow of protection.

'I'll protect you little one, even if it means sacrificing myself. I promise...' Inuyasha thought as he drifted off to sleep with Kagome once again in his arms.

--End of Chapter 2—

Well that's it, I hope you like it! Sen was actually a whim of mine as I was writing out the village scene. I hadn't planned on having them have to protect a child just yet, but now that I've done it I like it. I hope you did too, please review? Speaking of reviews, I LOVE YOU GUYS

Review Responses:

Fieryredfairy- thanks! I would LOVE to check out one of your fics, but I don't know anything about them, so the annoying new search thing won't let me look up your pen name! I did try for like half an hour doing different combo's of stuff, but it still didn't work and I lost patience. If you could put the link to your account in your review I would be sooo grateful, thanks!

Rinstwin- lol, cool name! I hope you liked this update, and it's longer than last time, and thanks!

Nuvy- lol, I don't know if I'll have a plot yet, the closest I've gotten to a plot was adding Sen, and I hope you liked her, I thought she was just adorable...but I fashioned her a little bit after my cousin, though she has brown hair, not black, but that's ok! Thanks!

AnimesFireBaby- thanks! I'm glade you like the fic, and by FL do you mean Florida or Fort Lauderdale? Thanks!

Shoppingurl- thanks, not so much fluff in this, but I promise next chapter there will be more.

Keiko89- thanks! I always love being told that I did a great job, lol, it doesn't happen that often...

Random Villager In Inuyasha #9- cool name! and I am definitely going to continue this fic, I'm just not sure if there will be plottyness or not...

One for the trees- thanks, I'm trying to not make Inuyasha too OOC, but it's hard to keep him moody and snappy when the fic is all about fluff and them being in loverness.

Kip430- thanks! I wasn't really sure how people would respond to this, it's the first time I've actually tried writing anything romantic, because well...I just got my first boyfriend almost 7 months ago, and so I didn't know a lot about romance. So I'm trying my hand at it. It's really great to know you find it interesting.

Waterandsky04- THANKS! Lol, and I hope this was soon enough! Glade you liked it!

C.A.E.O.1 and only- I'm actually not too sure about the lemon, I would like to try, but I've never actually written anything farther than kissing. There well be at least some limes, but I still have to think about the lemons. Thanks!

Anna-7- thanks! I'm glade you like it!

Lyn- lol, here's more for you! I hope you liked this chapter, I worked really hard on it, thanks!

Janelle- HI 'NELLY! Lol, I tried to make this chapter a little less romantic, though not for u, but because I wanted to...hehe. and I hope I got it flowing better, I tried not to use such choppy sentences. Thanks babe, lover u!

Kimi- thanks! I love knowing that I did awesome. I hope you liked this one too!

14 reviews on my first chapter of a fic is a record, I LOVE YOU GUYS!

IMPORTANT: I am going out of town tomorrow (Tuesday August 9, 2005) and won't be back for a little under two weeks. I am sooo sorry, but I am going to continue this fic. Please review, I will be able to check my mail every once and a while, and it would make my trip to read your reviews, the first have is a family trip...and I don't really get along with my family very well, and I'm going to see my grandmother and great aunt, both have terminal cancer. I'll need a pick me up. thank you so much for reading it.

-Rosepetals Turn To DoubleEdged Swords