Hello, fanfictionmuffins! I'm glad you're still reading this.

You know what's weird? It's been more than a year sinceI started writing The Sound of Her Voice. Funny huh? And it's still not done. See what a nice writerI am. :sigh:

So, to all of those who asked, I was in the musical Crazy For You, and I played Junior, (the spunky cowgirl with about seven lines. Wanna hear some? Oh you know you do. Okay well, the best ones are, "Talk about an excitin' day," "He's still sorta shaky," and, my personal favorite, "I just don't have the energy." The story of my life. I'm an awful person.)

So, lets see if we can make it to a thousand reviews this time::is bowled over bythe support for her story:

Thank you! I never thought so many of you would like my work::huge grin:

The Sound of Her Voice is almost over. This saddens me. But hey, do any of you think you'd be interested in reading another fic of mine? I've got a cool plot bunny. Next chapter I'm going to send you a link to a sneak preview of Caged Beasts, a story who has been living in my head for a while now.

Mmmkay I think it's time for the new chapter now.

Thanks!

The trunk smells like blood. Our blood. I'm beginning to get really really sick of that dumb smell. It's been filling my nostrils for the past however-long-we've-been-stuck-here.

I fiddle with the duct tape around my wrists but to no avail. I am frustrated. I can't help feeling despair at this time, but the soft warmth that is Kagome lying next to me cheers me up a little. I nudge her, and suddenly I feel something.

Her slender fingers fiddling about with my earpiece.

I grin. Kagome is so clever. She is blind now, with the duct tape over her eyes, and mute, with the noises of the car to distract her, and she is working with her wrists so tight together, yet she still opens the casing of the plastic transmitter and takes out our secret weapon. She starts working on the duct tape on her own wrists with the metal contraption in her mouth.

Every moment is painstaking. I can feel each fiber of tape breaking apart, but soon the dent is large enough to rip, and rip she does, the freeing her hands. Soon she finds my entrapped wrists, and in moments she has freed me too. I rip the tape from my eyes and begin to work on freeing my feet.

I have barely released myself when the car slows and stops. My fingers grope and I find Kagome's hand, and we wait and prepare for our escape.

Our assailants open their doors.

Our bodies tense, teeth clench.

They leave the car and walk around the back to open the trunk.

We are blinded as daylight reaches our dark-accustomed eyes, but we spring from the car and run as fast as we can, pushing past our kidnappers.

The ground shakes. They chase us, but we dart back and forth between trees. They have guns too, but the trees take most of the metal, and those with guns do not want to hurt their comrades. Pushing all my being into running, I pull Kagome ahead with all the strength I can muster. I run and run and run, but we still do not lose them.

Something comes shattering through my left arm, and I scream high enough that I can faintly hear it. Pain ricochets everywhere, and I feel myself slow down, almost allowing myself to be captured.

But Kagome saves us again. She darts through a cluster of bushes, thorns grazing our faces, and we see our salvation.

A well. An old, decrepit well made of old wood and stones, it could be hundreds of years old, hidden by a huge briar. We run as fast as we can to it.

We jump.

Kagome lands first and I next, alongside her.

I clasp my arm and lie in the mud, panting. Kagome listens to the men.

We wait.

We are not found. Relief fills my bones as time passes, ten minutes, twenty, thirty, an hour.

"We did it!" Kagome signs after a while, "Inuyasha, you saved us"

I grimace and shake my head. She did all the work.

I can't sign. My arm is dead. It pulses, and blood seeps my filthy shirt.

She kisses my cheek, "We'll get out of here as soon as it's dark, and then we'll find a road and get out of here. Then we'll get you to a hospital, okay? You're going to be fine." She looks worried, and I am flattered, both by the kiss and the look.

Kagome and I have never kissed.

There's a softening of the light, the suggestion of sunset, and her face is even more beautiful than ever before.

I scoot closer to her. Closer, closer, each movement creating jarring pain in my bloodied arm, but soon I am close to her.

She looks into my eyes, and her face keeps getting closer and closer and…

Suddenly her lips are against mine. Her soft, perfect, never-been-kissed lips lock with mine and we're both blown away.

I mean, who expects to have their first kiss when they're trapped in a gross muddy well with a bullet in your arm and blood everywhere? Certainly not me. But somehow, the perfection of the kiss is not at all affected.

It's still lovely.

We keepkissing for a long time.