CHAPTER 16

'I thought that if I left, things would get better, and now they've only gotten worse!'

"So, explain to me again how you got into this mess."

Akage's patience was wearing thin.

"Akage, how many other ways do you want me to put it? I made a stupid mistake. I should have never taken her out so far. I might be the one who's more sorry about that out of the three of us."

"And what is that supposed to mean!" the calm Akage was trying to keep himself under was quickly dissipating.

"What do you think it means? I've talked to the girl, gotten to know her a bit. She's not half bad for a human - " the faintest growl made it to Ori's ear.

"You're right; she's not." The fierceness behind his words did nothing to quell Ori's fear of the truth.

"Listen to me Akage. She's the one she's the priestess. Even you can't deny that after what you saw today, and if you tried to I would have to seriously hurt you for being such a baka.

"She saw the shard, Akage," he tried, not wanting this to escalate into something that both of them would regret. "She felt it's presence, and when she picked it up it changed. She is the priestess, and you have to do what's right and help her find where ever it is that she belongs. You know you do." There was a stretch of silence before Ori decided to venture further.

"So…did you find anything?" he prayed that Akage didn't catch the hint of hopefulness in his voice. He really did just want the best for his friend.

"I learned the location of the bone eaters well. I didn't see it for myself but I'm certain that I can find it. There's a village not far from there but I was…sidetracked and decided to come back, which is a good thing I did, which brings me back to my original question; what were you thinking? I still don't understand why you…" he trailed off as a flush crept up his cheeks to turn into an angrier red.

"Father put you up to it didn't he! I thought that we had an understanding," he said more to himself. "That bastard! And you went along with it! How the hell could you do that to me Ori! Of all the people, I didn't think that you would be the one to go behind my back," he spat.

"What if you did something to her! He didn't know what would happen-"set in place.

"What is going on with you? We both apologized for disobeying your orders. Here, I'll say it again. Akage, I'm sorry. It wont happen again, I promise." She finished with a small smile to try to placate his unforgiving countenance. He just continued to stare over her head.

"Or you can continue being a jerk and not except my apology!" she shouted, spinning around to finish the journey to her room alone.

"Don't you know you could have been killed!" came from behind her, and as much as she wanted to say something in return she decided that she would just give him a taste of his own medicine and ignore him.

She could hear him coming up behind her and was preparing herself for anything when he grabbed her arm and spun her around. The heat in his eyes killed whatever indignant exclamation was on the tip of her tongue.

"That youkai was going to kill you, and if I didn't show up when I did, it would have!" he shouted down at her, his grip never leaving her arm.

"What do you want, a thank you? Fine! Thank you Akage for saving my life from a most certain, excruciatingly painful death! Thank you Akage for making me feel worse about this then I already do! Thanks for taking the time to consider that I might have been as scared as you were, if not a hundred times more confused! Thanks for asking me about how I felt instead of just shoving the facts in my face, that was really considerate of you," she hissed.

The beginnings of tears stood in her eyes as she continued. "You want more?" Akage was glaring at her but did let go of her arm.

"Thank you," she ground out before stomping through the remainder of the foliage as smoothly as she could with the waning light.

'Damn it! Why can't she understand?' he thought viciously as he followed after her. He was trying to keep himself together and focus on his urge to protect her so that it might take over his urge to bed her. Unfortunately all that was resulting in was making him dwell on the fact that she almost died, and how much it was pissing him off that she didn't quite get the picture.

"Quit following me!" she hollered back at him "We're on friendly grounds now, right? Or do you think that another Shikon shard wielding youkai is going to attack us here too?" she demanded over her shoulder.

Getting a slight shiver from even mentioning the jewel, her thoughts drifted back to the unnerving sliver she had in her possession, along with the now fading voice of a stranger. 'But he's not a stranger, I know that voice, I've heard it before in my head. But…' a sad smile touched her lips. 'But why does it make me feel so empty?'

Great full that she made it too her room without further incident, she quickly shoved the door open and tried to close it when Akage stopped her progress.

"What Akage, what? I'm tired," she pleaded with him, "and I'm sore, and I'm confused, and I just don't want to do this right now." She desperately hoped he got the message. But when he pushed the door the rest of the way open she was very disappointed to see that he had not.

Frustrated beyond belief she threw her hands up.

"ARGH! What didn't you understand about what I just said? I want you to – "

"It's you that doesn't understand!" he yelled, his body and mind warring. 'It was too close, just too close.'

"I think it's you who doesn't understand! I don't want you here!" she screamed, jabbing her finger at the door.

"This is my castle and I'll be where ever I want to be!" he retorted childishly. " And I want to be here with you."

"Well that's too bad pal. I-don't-want-you-here," she stated darkly.

The look in his eyes changed then, and it wasn't exactly one she particularly liked. It made her think of the youkai after she mentioned the Shikon no tama, like everything was trained on her, or maybe it was trained on the jewel fragment? There was something else there too she just couldn't quite figure it out.

"I want you, Midori, to – "

"You want me to what, huh? Give you the Shikon shard? Better yet, why don't I go out and help you find the rest of them and be your personal 'Jewel Detector', just like – like…" and there it was, right on the tip of her tongue. The name that she could never remember that eluded her time and again, the name she was looking for even when she didn't know she was looking. 'Why can't I remember! Just like who?' she thought miserably.

"I want you!" he shouted savagely, bringing her out of her reverie when he stepped closer grasping her shoulders.

"I want you," he stated again, voice and eyes lowered. "I need you."

"We had the best females keeping watch. They would have intervened if things started to get out of control-"

"What are you talking about, you know you could have taken them out given the right incentive, and I know it would have been there."

"Hey, just wait a fucking minute! I'm not the one who's lusting after a human girl. I'm not the prince, and future leader of this tribe. Just what did you think would happen if you took this girl as your mate, huh? That everyone would except it with open, fucking arms? Think about what your father would do. We both have a pretty good idea of what he's capable of doing, and I for one don't think he would tolerate having a human in the family."

"When did I ever say that I wanted to take her as my mate!"

"Please, whoever can't see that your ass over tail in love with her is a fucking blind mute, with shit for brains."

"I'm not in love with her," he forced, trying to make it sound true to his own ears.

"Then you're all of the above," he stated tiredly. "Akage, you can't keep her. Midori - whoever she is - she has another life, and I think that she plays an important part in it. To be able to see the shikon shards…you've heard the rumors. That was even your first guess as to who she was…" he trailed off as Akage spun away from him heading over to the girl.

Kagome; dutifully staying out of their confrontation after she was all but told to stay put or else, had done her part keeping busy tending to her own wounds and letting the crazy events of the day sink in. Or she was until Akage stormed into the small, secluded area he had deemed worthy for her.

"Come on, were going."

"Isn't Ori going to come too?" she was a little concerned (not to mention more then a tad angry) at Akage's current countenance. 'Even if his over all mood has improved, he's still acting like a jerk,' she thought while following behind.

"He's coming later," he shot back darkly.

Deciding now would be the perfect time to go into reflection she stayed there for the rest of the long way back to the castle.

While Kagome was deep in thought Akage was having trouble keeping his thoughts straight.

'What was I thinking? I don't know what I'm thinking anymore…'

After being fortunate enough to gather some information; however vague it had been, on the first day of his search, he followed it travelling through the night and next day. As he neared what he thought to be the area his unreliable source had been trying to describe, he came upon a few villagers. Doing as he had to the rest of the humans he had come across and just passing them by, he stopped cold when the mention of the name he - on some level - feared hearing.

Inuyasha, the half breed son of the great inu taisho; the disgraceful hanyou who went after the shikon no tama, and got himself pinned to a tree by the priestess Kikyo; loved, feared, and hated by youkai and humans alike. The same Inuyasha who was awoken 50 years later, said to be travelling with a miko in search of the fragments of the shattered jewel; a miko that was more than likely in his general possession at the moment.

The way the villagers were talking about him made Akage all the more unnerved. The drastic change in the once tolerable hanyou … the hanyou that was at this very moment in the village.

That knowledge had upset him and made him irrationally panicked. He was being presented with the perfect opportunity to find the truth. Was this human girl that he had been taking care of for over a fortnight really a miko? Was she - the one who baffled him and made him feel things he didn't really think he could ever feel - one of the girls in-which Inuyasha traveled with?

He suddenly didn't want to know. All he wanted to do was go back to the mystery girl and tell her that he couldn't find anything that it was useless to look for something that didn't matter anymore. She was Midori. She had a place to stay, and there were people who cared about her and that should be all that she needs. Of course he realized how extraordinarily selfish that was, but by then he had already sped out of that particular neck of the woods and was making his way back to his home. Where he stumbled upon his best friend and strange new friend engaged in battle with a shikon wielding youkai; a scene that hit too close to home.

Never had he wanted to witness anything like that ever again.

After momentarily reliving one of the most traumatizing experiences in his life, he narrowly saved this girl from the same fate as the first, to come to find that the main reason he had left was still as much of a problem as it had been.

'Well…almost as much of a problem.' Her scent was stilltantilzing but there was something, some component suppressing the inebriating, over all effect. And then he had it. It made complete and total sense: his fear. His fear for her life, that was what was somehow holding his primal urges at bay. 'My want to protect her quells that part of me…' he marveled.

Unfortunately for Akage, with each un-threatened step they took he began to realize that this new development was in a way like that feeling when you rush into battle. It helps you out, giving you that extra edge but after all is said and done and the danger has passed, so does that feeling slowly making you aware of the after math, which usually came in the form of pain. And again a more pleasurable pain was making itself known to the poor fox youkai. 'I'm doomed…' he thought bitterly as the girls scent tickled his nose.

Their trek back to the castle was finally coming to an end. 'Finally!' Kagome thought with a tired sigh…and then walked into Akage's back.

"Geeze! You could have let me know you were going to stop Akage. You know, given me some warning before I smashed my nose into the brick wall you call your back," she grumbled, glaring at it, as he still hadn't turned around.

Huffing loudly before she side stepped, and came around to face him with her most annoyed glare

She was at a loss for words, for breath, for anything; her mind was a complete blank. Of all the things she thought he could have said, that would have been the last thing on the list.

He shook her again, gently "I need you."

The look in his eyes, the pleading in his voice touched her in such a way she couldn't begin to fathom. It was like she had been waiting to hear those words all her life, and when he let go of her arms and held her face in his hands with as much care as he could muster, it didn't matter that there was something just under the surface that protested. Nothing mattered when he used the pads of his thumbs to brush away the few tears that had fallen, escaping her notice. When his lips brushed against hers in her first kiss, her knees went weak. And when his arms encircled her, she could do nothing but let him be her support as she fell forward into the kiss deepening it.

A few more tears fell silently, and Akage pulled back, kissing them away. His breathing was uneven, sending tiny shivers across the wet tracks left by her tears, in turn sending shivers over the expanse of her skin. That was all it took; her soft gasp, the barely noticeable quiver of her body, the subtle shift in her scent, Akage couldn't help what happened next.

Ok, I know I don't usually leave you guys with evil cliff hangers but this is pretty much up to the point of where I'm stuck and I figured it would be ok to get something then nothing at all, right? Thank all of you soooo much for you patients and support, every little bit helps.