Welcome to the next chapter of "The Travels of the Confused and Mateless"!

Once again, I was in no mood for writing today, but a review motivated me! n.n

Thank you reviews and reviewers!

In this chapter Kyou's plan comes into play and Kouga is stuck as the star player! But who is there for the interception? Who's on the rebound?

I may suck at sports but this one game you won't want to miss!

Enjoy chapter seven, "Whose Mate!"!

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Whose Mate

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Inuyasha was starting to feel restless. Not only did that damn wolf run off, but now the girl they were supposed to be taking to a village was missing too! Well where ever they were they better get back soon. Though, the hanyou couldn't help but wonder about the strange girl that joined their group. She was barely a woman as far as he could tell, take off her hidden features, add on a few missing features and she'd be a male with a slightly feminine scent. It wasn't normal and the way she acted around Kagome wasn't acceptable! No one acted that way towards his Kagome!

Inuyasha growled at the thought of Kagome falling into the woman's arms, just as he would growl at the thought of Kagome falling into the damn wolf's arms! "Damnit! Where the hell are they! We can't sit around and wait all damn day!" He tapped an goaded foot against the forest floor.

"Calm down Inuyasha, I'm sure Kouga and Kyou will be back soon. We can't exactly go anywhere without Kyou, so you may as well just wait." Sango sighed at the impatient hanyou, sometimes she just couldn't get what Kagome saw in him.

Inuyasha was about to retort when there was a light rustle in the trees. The remaining of the group looked in the direction of the noise just as the wolf and healer entered the area.

"Where the hell have you been?" Inuyasha glared at the two, not really looking for answer, just wanting to leave.

Kyou laughed at the Hanyou sounding, eerily cheerful, "Gomen nasai, Inu-kun! I needed to speak with dear wolf for a bit. No need to fret about it now."

"Well, perhaps we should get going now that you have returned. What way to the village?" Miroku stood to his feet brushing off his robes.

Kyou's cheerful laugh stopped abruptly, only to be replaced with a tense one. "W-what way did we come from again?"

The healer's temporary companions looked at him incredulously, Kagome was the first one to break the silence and spoke all their minds, "You don't mean to say, we're lost, do you?"

Ok, so she spoke most of their minds, editing was needed for Inuyasha's thoughts and Kouga…he wasn't really surprised considering his and the healer's conversation. Damn bitch probably planned this! Kouga scowled inwardly, his mind hadn't left him be since the conversation. He, dare I say, feared, what else the healer had premeditated.

The healer continued to laugh nervously as he scratched the back of his head, "Um…let's not call it lost. That's an appalling way to put it, how about we just say, I'm provisionally at a loss for where we are at this point." He smiled as though his explanation made everything better as the party just gave him deadpan looks.

"You bastard! You don't know where we are? What the fuck?" Kyou and Kagome both covered their ears as the hanyou exploded.

"Inuyasha, calm down! We can't help it and yelling certainly won't help!" Kagome slowly removed her hands from her ears as the half-breed panted in obvious irritation. She sighed, "Listen, we have to get Kyou-kun to his village, so why don't we just keep on going in the direction we were. If all else fails Inuyasha and Kouga can just search for the scent of a village. It might not be the right one, but someone might know Kyou-kun and where his village is."

"That's a great idea, Kagome!" The little kit bounced onto the miko's shoulder as he complimented her on her thoughts. "Finding the village should be easy with those two boneheads!" Shippou smile faded as an already incensed hanyou hit him over the head. Yet his smile returned as Kagome 'sat' the said hanyou.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get moving." Sango started walking in the direction they had been heading in, all but Inuyasha following as the spell still held him in place.

They had been traveling for most of the day with no luck. From what Inuyasha said there wasn't a village for at least another week worth of walking at normal human pace. So, they were forced to stop for the night.

Kagome sighed as she got out food for dinner only to be surprised by a firm hand on her wrist, she looked up to see Kyou smiling at her, "Higurashi-san, allow me to cook tonight. You seem to be the only one who ever does."

"It's alright, Kyou-kun. I really don't mind." Kagome smiled at the kindhearted Kyou, unaware of the plans that were coursing through the healer's mind.

"Please, Kagome-chan. I feel as though I've troubled you, cooking this meal is the least that I can do to repent."

Kagome looked at Kyou's pleading look, taken aback somewhat, he's never called me by my first name before… She sighed, "It's really no trouble, but if you really want to…" The miko was cut off by an overwhelming hug.

"Thank you, Kagome-chan! I'm pleased that you trust me enough to let me do this for you and the others." Kyou beamed brightly and took the things Kagome had laid out for the meal, setting to work in making it.

Kagome's blush didn't go unnoticed, by anyone. Inuyasha seethed, Miroku got dirty thoughts , Sango thought about hitting Miroku, and Kouga just glared at the so called 'healer', what's she up to? He sniffed the air but didn't catch anything that might have been important, so shrugged off the feeling of unease.

Minutes had passed since Kagome's embarrassment. She was still blushing, the only one who didn't notice nor even see the incident was little Shippou. Poor thing was exhausted from running from Inuyasha earlier. The kit made a comment on how Inuyasha was too thickheaded to catch a girl…or something along those lines.

Kagome sighed and hesitantly looked to the source of her embarrassment. Kyou, who was adding spices of some sort into the bowls of ramen and handed one to her. She thanked the healer/warrior and lost herself in her thoughts as she ate. Ya know…he is kinda cute… after realizing what she thought Kagome's blush returned and she mentally smacked herself. Urg! No, bad mind! Bad Kagome! So stupid! Sure it was true, the young man was cute, as was her current 'crush', Inuyasha, then again all the men in her group were cute. Arg, stupid Kagome, what kind of pervert am I turning into? Miroku must be rubbing off on me.

"Ne, Kagome-chan!"

Kagome looked over at Kyou who was sitting next to Kouga…that she found odd, Kyou always sat by her or Sango. This was the first time Kagome witnessed otherwise, but then again, it was only the second time Kyou had called her 'Kagome'. Plus she was relieved to be distracted from her thoughts. So, she shrugged it off. "What is it?" she blinked, wondering what the 'boy' could want now.

"I was thinking, why don't we play a game?" Kyou ginned and Kagome missed the impish glint in his eye.

"hm? What kind of game?"

"Some village children taught it to me awhile back. I figured, we don't know how long I'll be with you so why not take some time to get to know each other. It's not as though we're doing anything anyway."

Kagome thought about it. It was truthful, they weren't doing anything tasking, just eating. "Why not, how do you play?" the miko smiled, taking another bite of the ramen as she listened to Kyou's directions along with most of the party.

"Basically, you ask one person a question about themselves and they have to answer honestly. Normally it'd be complicated to separate truth from lie, but with noses like theirs," Kyou made a gesture to Inuyasha and Kouga, "deceitfulness will be quite difficult to hide. Let's all take part! It'll be fun!" He flashed a lighthearted smile.

"Alright, so who would go first?" Kagome looked around noticing only Miroku and Sango really seemed to be interested. Inuyasha was pretty much ignoring them, engaged in eating. Kagome rolled her eyes, figures…her gaze went to Kouga who looked questioning, but not really interested.

Kyou looked at Kagome thoughtfully, "Hn…Not sure." With that the healer closed his eyes and pointed in a random direction and turned in a half circle, his arm in Miroku's general path. Kyou opened his eyes and smiled, "Oi, this works. Monk you go first." After folding his hands in his lap, Kyou gave full awareness to Miroku, as did Kagome and Sango.

Kouga gave about half his attention to the monk and half to the healer, still wondering what she was up to.

"Very well then, I am to just ask anyone any question?" he waited for Kyou to nod before he continued, "Sango." The monk turned his head towards Sango abruptly, "My question to you is…" he threw in a dramatic pause for effect, "are you sure you will not bare me a child?"

Thwack! Ow, that had to hurt…"NO! And don't touch me there!" Sango glared at the bruised monk who had, apparently groped her chest while asking the question.

The monk sighed dejectedly, "you are so cruel…" he gave out a mock sob.

"Ahem, well then, I do believe it's your turn Sango." Kyou gave Sango an encouraging smile.

The taijiya mumbled something about monks and hormones before turning her consideration to the hanyou who had been ignoring the game thus far, "Inuyasha," she waited until he looked to her and she blushed, "I would just like to know, is…is that your real name?" now, no one was expecting that. With the blush on Sango's face some would have thought she was confessing her love to him, but no, it was a much simpler question, one that people would understand blushing to. 'Inuyasha' was an odd name after all.

The hanyou huffed, "Keh! What kinda question is that? This is stupid!" he mumbled and turned his head to the side, he hadn't even been listening this whole time. His mind was on Kyou and her advances on Kagome. What was the little brat up too? He just couldn't put any of the pieces together.

"Inu-kun, Dear Sango asked you a question and as long as the game is in play you have to answer." Kyou stared the dog down waiting for his response.

His response, a deep growl at being thrown from his thoughts, "Of course it's my real name! Now shut up about it!" he sulked and was reminded by Kagome that it was now his turn to ask someone something…oh yes, now I'll get some answers! He smirked almost evilly as he looked to the cross dresser, "Kyou, why do you fake the part as a man?"

"Eh?… GEH!" Kagome's eyes bugged out and her left eye twitched, Kyou's not a…you mean he's a…she's…he's…. she continued to twitch as thoughts raced through her mind and she looked to Kyou as he/she spoke.

"It is because of my mother." Kyou looked to the ground, "I had read once in her diary, that she wished to dawn a son. She died during labor, never even seeing what she birthed, so I can only do so much to put her spirit at ease." Kyou looked back up and turned to Kagome, smirking as she was still twitching, "Dear Higurashi-san" Kyou dragged out Kagome's name in a somewhat seductive voice. "My question to you is…"

Kagome listened to Kyou, snapped out of her thoughts by the way her name was said, she noticed that the female she just learned was female had paused, as though waiting for Kagome to acknowledge the dialogue, "Y-yes?" Kagome spoke nervously, she did NOT like the look in Kyou's eyes.

The once mischievous glint was now, much, much more! Kyou's eye looked almost evil with mischievous intent, "If you had to chose between these three males, Miroku, Inu-kun, and Kouga, who would you chose as your mate?"

The group looked to Kyou as though she'd grown not two heads, but ten heads. Looked to her as though she were insane! Kagome wasn't one to answer questions like that!

"How the hell can you ask something like that?" Inuyasha thundered, of course Kagome would pick him. But the thought of her possibly picking someone else was to much, not to mention…just how the fuck does someone expect an answer to that?

Kyou smirked, "Inuyasha, it makes no difference, I've asked the question and now, dear Kagome must answer."

Kagome listened to Kyou's voice and words, he sounded…she sounded completely evil! No 'Inu-kun', no 'Kagome-chan', no 'Higurashi-san', and…one of the most devious sounding voices she'd ever heard.

She turned even more nervous as Kyou's stare was directed at her, obviously waiting on an answer, "Well, ah….um…" She stuttered as she looked over the males, Miroku had a playful smirk and winked as she looked over to him, only to be smacked by Sango of course, Inuyasha was looking away and still fuming, and Kouga…Kouga, was staring right at her, with a look in his eyes, she'd never seen before. Kagome felt her face flush as she looked into the wolf's eyes.

All gazes were now on the couple that did nothing but stare at each other. Both blushing. Now they could understand Kagome blushing, but the wolf prince? Since when does he blush? The two opened their mouths to say something, but simultaneously looked away to the side.

No one noticed Kyou's smirk, or her last few words before the fire died down leaving only the moon for light, "Let the games begin, whose mate is the name. Play your first hand." They didn't even notice her muted chuckling as they watched the wolf prince and the miko looking at each other once more and laughing apprehensively.

It was at this point that Inuyasha thought…no, he knew, he was going to be sick.

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That's all for now! n.n

I would like to state, that I'm still unsure of the couple. I've not gotten enough suggestions to base a choice on! u.u So at this point, I'm probably just going to write names down, stick 'em in a hat and randomly choose a couple. Whatever couple is chosen I'm sure I can make it work.

Either way, the ball is up in the air and the game has sounded now to find out who wins the first round. See you in the next chapter!

Ja ne.