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Rule Number Seven:

Be yourself. Your identity defines you, so make sure it is one you can be proud of.

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Kagome watched as Inuyasha flicked his ears yet again, and fought the urge to reach out and snag them in her fingers. 'Must…not…touch….'

"You're kidding right?"

'But…they're soooo soft, and cute, and….'

"Oi! Wench!"

The girl jumped at his exclamation, and her gaze shot from his ears to his golden eyes.

She cleared her throat. "Um…what were you saying again?" She had the grace to blush a little as she smiled sheepishly at his rather annoyed face.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes as he glared at her. "Forget I said anything…." He peered at her in curiosity and raised an eyebrow. "Were you…looking at my ears?"

Kagome swallowed and laughed nervously as she spoke. "Of course not! Don't be silly. Why would I be looking at your ears? I mean…not that they're ugly ears, because they're not, at all, I was just…just looking at something over your head. Staring off into space. You're always telling me how I'm never focused. You were right, of course…just…staring…." She trailed off as he inched in closer to her face, never removing his eyes from hers.

She gulped at the smirk that was slowly picking at the corners of his lips. He definitely had a devilish glint to his eyes and he twitched his ears purposely, watching her reaction.

Kagome's eyes shot from his own, to his ears and she swallowed again. 'Do…not…grab….'

"You wanna touch 'em, don't ya? I can see it…." He twitched them again and watched her nibble at her lower lip.

She stammered. "I…I don't know what you're t-talking about."

He leaned down closer until his nose was less than millimeters from hers and twitched them again.

Kagome gnawed at her lip more furiously as she clutched at her skirt to stop her sorely tempted fingers.

He chuckled darkly and twitched them again before pulling his head back suddenly, turning on his heel, and stalking away.

Kagome gaped for a moment before she shook her body into motion and followed him.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"Back with the rest of the group."

"But…but…what was all that about!"

"About how you can't seem to pay attention when someone is talkin' to ya. Stupid wench." He shook his head full of thick silver hair and rolled his eyes.

"Ok, ok! I'm sorry." She grabbed at the sleeve of his fire-rat haori. "Come on, Inuyasha. Let's just…talk. This time I'll pay attention, I promise."

He stopped and turned to her. Kagome opened her eyes wide and smiled enticingly. "Please, Inuyasha? We never get to talk…just the two of us."

He rolled his eyes again and plopped down in the middle of the field they were crossing. She sat next to him, and they were still for a moment, listening to the wind gently rustle the trees of the forest ahead of them, and the babbling of the brook water behind them where they had gone to refill Kagome's bottles.

'Great…so now that I finally got him to sit and talk to me, what do we talk about?'

She cleared her throat softly. "Inuyasha?"

He grunted.

Kagome fidgeted slightly, pulling at her green skirt thoughtfully. "Do you still want to turn into a full demon when this is all said and done?"

He closed his eyes and shifted position, hunching forward so that his bangs hid his face in darkness. Moonlight reflected off of his hair, and Kagome marveled at the silver quality of it. 'It could put the moon itself to shame.'

"Why wouldn't I?"

The softly-uttered question caught her off-guard, and Kagome blinked her eyes a few times, pondering her answer.

"Because…that's not who you were born to be."

He straightened at that, and turned his head to look at her. "What's that supposed to mean? You are who you make yourself to be. You're not…you're not born to be anyone."

She looked down and fingered a few blades of grass. "Well…that's true in a way. But, that can only go so far."

"Feh. How so?"

Kagome flopped onto her back with a loud sigh and stared thoughtfully at the stars. "In my time, when you're little and in school, everyone always asks that one important question that every child ponders at almost every moment of the day. 'What do you want to be when you grow up?'"

She chuckled softly and turned her head away from the hanyou beside her to stare into the distance in memory. "And out of all of my friends, I was the only one who never had an answer. I had no idea. I – I still have no idea." She frowned and worried her lower lip a bit with her teeth before continuing.

"It's a terrible feeling, not knowing what you're destined to be – what you're destined to do. And I used to feel lost, because I felt like I was the only one without a goal in life. My mother found me, once…sitting beneath Goshinboku, crying after school. She took me inside, held me in her lap, and made me explain what was bothering me."

Kagome remembered the moment with clarity.

'But they said that if I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, that I'd never become anything! The other kids…they all know whether they'll be teachers, or doctors, or lawyers. I-I don't have any idea what I want to be!'

Kagome's mother smiled down at her. 'Kagome, my darling. You are and always will be Higurashi Kagome. You are and always will be a wonderful, loving girl. You are and always will be loved by your family and your friends. And that, my dearest daughter, is all you need know about who you will be in the future. The rest will shape itself. You…you were meant for great things…such great things, you can't even begin to imagine what they are yet.'

"So, I always just knew that it didn't matter what I would become, because I was born to be Kagome, I was born to be a good and loving person, and I was born to be something wonderful."

Inuyasha scowled. "Yeah, well, maybe some of us weren't born to be something great. Some of us have to change to become something worthwhile."

She gazed at him with saddened eyes. "Is that what you think of yourself, Inuyasha? You think you were born as a nothing…a nobody, with no future? With no hope?"

He didn't answer.

"You, Inuyasha, are one of the most remarkable people I've met. You put yourself in danger selflessly time and again to protect those around you, even when they don't deserve it or are not grateful for it. You use your strength and wit in order to help others and to do what you know is right."

When he huffed and turned away from her, something inside of her snapped, and she shot upright and grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to face her. He looked startled at the anger that sparked in her brown eyes.

"Just because you were born to be different from others, does not mean that you were born to be less. Inuyasha, you were meant to be something bigger and better than you and I can perceive. There is greatness in you that is yet to be unleashed, and I can tell you right now that it will not be released by becoming a full demon. You are a hanyou. You are a mix of the two greatest beings ever to walk the earth. You are the very best of both worlds. You have the abilities of a demon, and the heart and loving attitude of a human."

She was directly in front of his face by that time, and looked intensely into his eyes. She quieted her voice. "Inuyasha, you were born to show the world that the prejudice that exists between humans and demons is not justified. You were born to prove that hanyous are not to be looked down on."

"How do you know that?" Inuyasha jumped to his feet and glared down at her in a mixture of anger and uncertainty. "How do you know that I wasn't meant to change into a demon…to change into something stronger and better!"

Kagome jumped to her feet as well, and shouted back. "Because there is nothing better than what you already are, Inuyasha! You lose yourself when you're in a demon form. You don't know any of us. You lose your self-awareness, and you lose the ability to make decisions! And that awareness… and that ability…those are what make you who you are. That is what helps you make the choices that can make your life mean something."

Inuyasha's shoulders slumped and he looked suddenly tired, and forlorn. "Kagome…I haven't found the choices that could ever make my life mean something. I'll always be the filthy hanyou, no matter how many good decisions I make."

She grabbed his hand in hers. "You took the life that was given to you, and you improved upon it…you molded it into something wonderful. Your decisions made you who you are today. Good decisions and bad…they all brought you to where you are right now: the middle of this field, under a beautiful moon, with a friend who thinks the world of you staring you in the face, and more friends waiting for you when you return to the camp for the night. You have a kitsune who looks up to you as his hero, you have a man who turns to you for friendship, and a woman who depends on you to understand what it is like to be a warrior."

She stared down at the hand she held in hers. "And you have a girl who thinks you're the most wonderful person she's ever met, and who loves you just the way you are."

Kagome swallowed and looked back to his face. "You took your life and did the best you could with it."

A tear escaped her eye but she ignored it. "Inuyasha…please, please don't change all that by turning yourself into something you're not. You are who you are, and I love you that way."

She dropped his hand and turned away, uncomfortable with his silence.

Inuyasha stared at the hand she returned to him. "She was right, ya know."

Kagome started and turned back to him. "What?"

"Your mother…she was right. You were destined for great things."

He dropped his hand to his side and looked up at her. "You traveled through time, saved lives…saved me."

She smiled at him, and held out her hand. "You were too…you just didn't have anyone around to tell you so…until now."

He grinned softly and took her hand in his own, and the started their walk back to camp. "For the record, Kagome…I really like where I am: in the middle of this field, with you and the others."

She laughed. "I know you do, Inuyasha. I know you don't want to be a full demon just to leave us. But, you have to know that being a full-blooded demon doesn't mean your life will be better or easier. It's your friends that will do that for you. Your friends, and the decisions you make, not what type of blood flows in your body."

He nodded thoughtfully. "I hope you're right."

"Just trust me on this one, the way I always trust you."

They continued back to camp, Kagome swinging Inuyasha's arm playfully with hers. "You know my real reason for not wanting you to change, right?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Real reason?"

She giggled and shot him a mischievous smile. "I'd miss those cute little hanyou ears of yours." Her other hand shot out, snagged the closest ear and give it a quick rub before taking off toward the woods.

Inuyasha gaped at her, before narrowing his eyes and yelling, "I knew it! You were staring at my ears!"

He shook his head and smiled before taking off after his friend.

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Next:

Rule Number Six:

You don't know what you've got till it's gone, so be thankful for what you have while you have it.

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A/N:

Ahhh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just… I got total block when it came to writing this one. I honestly did. I couldn't think of anything. Even now, I don't like what I wrote. I was trying to go for something different than the typical: "I love you the way you are, don't change" deal. I'm not sure if I did, but I figured I better post it anyway. If I come up with something better later, maybe I'll go back and change it. I wanted to show that Inuyasha made himself into something more than was expected of him. Blah, I'm sorry, I apologize profusely.

Anyway, hopefully the next one will be better. Unfortunately, I used my best idea for the next chapter in The Tree and The Flower, so I'll have to come up with a different approach…though I still want to use Sesshoumaru, because he's so much fun to write.

Also, if any of you ever want to talk to me, my screen name on AIM and on Yahoo is MissMusicality. Or you can email me using the address on my profile. I would really love to talk to some of you! If you have any suggestions, that would be the way to get them to me.

Thank You's:

Strike: You're such a faithful reviewer. Thank you sooo much for your support.

Lucinda: Once again, your review has made me laugh. I love you, love you, love you! (And for the record, Miroku is my favorite as well!)

Jedi: It's totally true! I've noticed that as well. Whether intentionally or not, children that have lived rough lives are always teaching me things. I do missionary work in Mexico ever summer, and it's incredible how much those children teach me without even trying. Thanks for your review. I appreciate it.

CrmsnBtryl: You've reviewed each of my stories, and even added them to your Favorites list! Can I just say… I love you! Seriously, thanks for all your support. It means so much to me.

Pyrinsomniac: You crack me up, you really do. Thank you for your reviews on all of my stories. You cheer me right up. You have excellent comments in your reviews. It's good to know that my writing style is successful.

Green Fey: Thanks! And thanks for taking the time to review. I'm glad you like.

Medlii: Your reviews are very special to me, and here's why: I discovered that every situation in life can have a moral to it…a lesson to learn. And I'm glad to know that I can make mine interesting. It's good to know that I am keeping them in character…sometimes I wonder. And by the time this is over, I will try to have used every main character I can, and maybe even some that are not so common, I'm not sure yet. I have plans for Sesshoumaru, Kagura, and Rin, I believe, as well as those that belong to Inuyasha's core group of friends. Thanks for taking the time to review each chapter!

For those that have added me to their Favorite Authors list, or have added one or more of my stories to their Favorite Stories list: I'm SO flattered. You wouldn't believe it. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside…like I just ate a kitten. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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