Kouga sneered, and his blue eyes flashed. He ignored Inuyasha, looked past him to Kagome. She felt her blood freeze in her veins. She wrapped her hands around Inuyasha's arm and drew as close to him as she could. Her heart hammering in her chest.
"What are you doing wasting your time with this loser Kagome?" Kouga took a step towards them and Kagome felt Inuyasha's muscles tense under her hands. "Come here and I'll remind you what it's like to be with a real man."
"Where's this real man? I just see a kid who gets off on scaring an innocent girl." Inuyasha said smoothly.
"You insulted me once Inuyasha." Kouga spat, making his name sound like a curse. "I told you it wasn't finished."
Suddenly Kouga launched himself at Inuyasha. Kagome shouted in surprise and stumbled back. But Inuyasha was ready. Kouga was quick, but Inuyasha was too. Kouga fist only just missed Inuyasha face, striking only at air. But no Kouga was close and Inuyasha took his oppurtunity. punching his opponent soundly in the stomach. Kouga lurched back a step, his face looking less confident, but even more enraged. It was Inuyasha's turn to take the offense. Kagome could only stand transfixed, unable to form a single coherant thought. She cold only watch, pray that Inuyasha would be ok.
Inuyasha threw himself at Kouga while he was still open. This time there was a flurry of fists, and blood. They didn't back up, they didn't retreat. They leaned into the pain. Kagome heard a shout and knew it was her own voice. She watched Inuyasha's fist fly, and blood pour from Kouga's nose, a red torrent that made Kagome's stomach turn. She saw blood trickling down Inuyasha's chin from his split lip. It all felt like an eternity had passed, when it was barely more than a minute. Then there were people pulling them apart. They dragged Inuyasha away from Kouga and finally Kagome found it in her to move. She ran to Inuyasha and grabbed his arm, looked into his bruised face.
"What were you thinking, kid?" The man was scolding.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome interupted and the man stopped to look at her.
"Are you alright?" Inuyasha asked, shaking off the older man, laying his hands on her shoulders to peer into her face.
"I'm fine!" Kagome said in a shaking voice. "I'm not the one he attacked. Are you ok?"
"I'm alright." The older man seemed to understand.
"Was he giving you a hard time? Should I get someone?" He asked Inuyasha glancing to where Kouga was walking away, brushing off his own guards.
"Forget it." Inuyasha said gruffly, and Kagome knew he had his own plans for Kouga. "Let's get out of here."
He put his hand on Kagome's back and started to guide her down the street in the opposite direction. Kagome knew she was still shaking, but Inuyasha didn't speak. They continued to walk in silence until they reached a more deserted stretch of sidewalk. He stopped and turned to look at her, his expression serious.
"Oh no, look at your lip." Kagome said when he turned to face her again.
She dug into her pocket and pulled out a travel pack of tissues. She hesitated before dabbing the oozing wound, hoping it wouldn't sting too much. He didn't flinch, but allowed her to wipe away the blood. She started examining his face, checking the bruises on his jaw by turning his head from side to side with one tiny, trembling hand. He finally took it in his own steady hand and held it away from his face.
"What happened between you and Kouga?"
Kagome's mouth opened but she didn't know what to say. She wasn't sure where to begin. She took a step away and he let her hand slide out of his.
"Nothing. At least, not what you're thinking." Kagome said, slightly deffensive and embarrased.
"You don't know what I'm thinking." Inuyasha said calmly.
"I don't?" Kagome challenged; this was not how she pictured their first date.
"No. You don't" Inuyasha said again. calmly. "I'm not thinking anything except that every time we see Kouga he seems to have an intense interest in you Kagome, and you always seem to be terrified by that. So why don't you tell me why? I think I ought to know the reason I'm defending your honor, besides the fact that you're my girlfriend."
Kagome was already in such a state that she was barely affected by his last words. She was just dealing with her memories, and trying to figure out a way to tell the boy she liked abuot Kouga. What would he think of her? She even thought of herself as naive and stupid. And if he'd had such a response to Kouga's vague tauntings, how would he react when he knew the truth?
"I was a freshman. A stupid, little freshman. I was new at our school." She finally said out of the blue, not looking at him. "We met...who knows where. The mall maybe, somewhere surrounded by a lot of peole. He was nice, he flattered me. He sought me out and talked to me, even with Sango right there. No one had ever done something like that before. Flirted with me? It made me feel special or something." She laughed bitterly and shook her head.
She took a second to pause and gather her thoughts. Inuyasha remained silent and still, waiting for her to finish the story that obviously bothered her. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest and sighed deeply.
"He asked for my number. I gave it to him. I thought he was cute, he was older, and from another school. I couldn't get over the fact that he seemed to like me. So when he called, I was so excited. We went to a movie. He only tried to hold my hands toward the end. I thought he was nice. We started going out. We talked on the phone, but now I doubt much of what he told me was true, and I certainly never told him much about me. It was a shallow relationship at best in the beginning. But I was young. I wanted a boyfriend, and we liked each other well enough, I thought." She finally looked up at Inuyasha. "But of course, as I'm sure you guessed, a failed relationship is only part of the story. After a while he went from shy, to...persistent. I wasn't comfortable, but I figured, this is what we're supposed to be doing right. Then he kept wanting me to do things. I didn't want to. It made him angry. I could tell."
She paused again. The story was getting harder to tell, Inuyasha could read that on her face.
"He kept himself under control at first. But he was so angry. He said he loved me. Even then I think I only half believed him. I said it back, but I knew I didn't mean it. I just wanted to hear it at that point I think. Now I know it's not worth it unless it's real. But then..." She sighed again. "Naive. But after I kept him waiting he just got angrier. He hit me. Not just one time either. I didn't see the hypocracy of his words in the face of his actions. My mother was supposed to love me, and she hit me. So maybe he was telling the truth. But I still refused to do what he wanted me to."
Inuyasha heard her breath catch and watched her wipe away angry tears imatiently. He resisted the urge to reach out and take her in his arms, to comfort her. She needed to finish the story, she needed to make it to the end. Then it would be over.
"We were at some party. Someone's birthday maybe. He pulled me off to some shadowy corner somewhere. He wanted to...I didn't want to. What else was new? But he'd had enough. He tried to rape me." Her voice had taken on a detached quality. "Came pretty damn close too, even though I fought him like I was possesed. Sango found us, acutally. She saved me. She showed me that he didn't love me, that the way he treated me was wrong. Sango showed me that my mother was wrong too. She showed what a really famiy was, and what love was, and friendship. And I made sure I didn't have any more to do with Kouga."
"He'd wanted to use me all along. I can see that now. I feel so stupid for the way I let him pull my strings, manipulate me, abuse me. He scares me now. I see him over me, trying to rip off my clothes, tyring to pull my legs apart. Hearing him say he loved me, feeling his hand strike me..." She was getting hysterical now and Inuyasha knew the story was over.
He pulled her into his arms. She was stiff at first, lost in those horrible memories. Then she inhaled the scent of his shirt, felt his gentle hand stroking her hair, heard the gentle rythm of his heart and relaxed, coming back to him. She melted into him and didn't cry anymore. Just listened to the lulling thud of his heartbeats and matched her breath to his. He kissed her forhead, her temple, then rested his head in the curve of her neck, his breath gently lifting her hair, tickling her skin.
"I'm ok." She whispered after a while.
He pulled back slightly without releasing her. She smiled genuinely and he felt his own lips curve to match.
"You must be so tired of me crying." She said and laughed, and Inuyasha managed a small chuckle.
"I have to say, I do like it better when you laugh. But I don't mind being here for you when you're upset." He didn't tell her how much it upset him to see her cry, to see her unhappy.
"Well from now on I'll try to keep that in mind." She teased, then surprised him by standing up on her tiptoes to give him an innocent kiss.
She was so broken, so wounded. Inuyasha vowed to do everything he could to see that she was healed.
Ok so that's the story with Kouga, I've had that all planned out from the start and I finally got it out of the way. Hope no one was dissapointed or anything, hope everyone liked the chapter. I have to say when I first put this story it was under my first penname MySundown, and I had so many more reviews than I do now, of course it didn't help that I put chapters 1-5(I think) up at once. But still. If you love me, REVIEW PLEASE. I don't mind(wink) if you review every chapter...and of course you don't have to I'm not tyring to force you all into anything but if the feeling takes you GO AHEAD haha. To those of you that review I LOVE YOU. I've been checking them every morning and it just makes it easier to get up and go to classes when I was up late the night before writing when I should have been reading for those stupid classes haha.