Apologies for not posting a new chapter yesterday...I went to London and had a look at the great new newspaper exhibition at the British Library and went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

My extreme thanks to:

bankostuz-fair-lady, LadieSesshy, Mangas-Fan, Meatballheadedprincess14, Madison, SurvivalHorror, hentai18ancilla, Sayuri-chan 16, andtoo-lazy-to-log-in lol!

Please note: I am drunk while writing this chapter. Many apologies.

Disclaimer: Inuyasha isn't mine no matter how many times i say 'sit' aloud.

Chapter 6

Standing dazedly, looking at the tarnished rosary clenched in his palm, an inane grin on his face, Inuyasha heard Kagome and Shippo's running footsteps. He turned to let them keep knowing that he always knew where they were, and struggled to keep the grin off his face as he hid the rosary inside his kimono where it rested against his creamy shirt, a warm weight.

"What do you think you're doing, wandering off at night?" Kagome demanded.

A tinge of guilt went through Inuyasha at the worry on her beautiful face. "Just walking," he said defiantly though.

Now how the hell do I get it around her neck? He agonised, then turned on his heel and started walking back towards the hut. "Come on!" he called in an aggravated tone over his shoulder.

Kagome and Shippo exchanged puzzled glances but followed him back down the beaten forest track to the hut.

"Maybe it's the new moon," Shippo whispered. "It's coming tomorrow…maybe that's what's making him act weird."

"Uh huh," Kagome whispered back.

"I can hear you!" Inuyasha yelled at them. "There's nothing wrong with me! It's your brains that are broken! Paranoid! Both of you!"

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief but Shippo didn't look so convinced, eyeing the half-demon shrewdly. Inuyasha ignored him. "Hey, Kagome, are you gonna sleep outside?" He'd crossed his arms like he didn't care what her answer was.

"I don't know," Kagome said slowly, looking up at the stars that were beginning to pale, overpowered by the coming sunrise. Early morning already. "It's kinda cold, Inuyasha…no, I'll sleep in the hut."

"Then I'll sleep with you," Inuyasha said coolly with a shrug.

"You pervert!"

"Not WITH you, dummy!" Inuyasha yelled. "In the hut! I just said I'd sleep in the HUT!"

They'd both halted to concentrate on their dawning argument. Shippo sighed and stood still too, observing them and hoping he never started acting like them. Thank goodness a shiver ran through the air. Then the sky whispered drops of rain down upon them. Kagome growled like Inuyasha might. "Come on, Shippo!" she said, crouching quickly, and the fox-demon child jumped into her outstretched arms. "Let's not get wet!" Then she ran off ahead of them: her umbrella was in the hut and she was wishing, as the rain fell, that she'd thought to carry it with her.

Inuyasha followed in light leaps, thinking. It'd have been so easy to put the subjugation rosary on her in her sleep…I guess I can bear sleeping inside, he thought reluctantly though the wet air was stuffy. When the air was this humid he usually despised sleeping inside those stuffy huts…I've been spoiled, he thought humourlessly, thinking of the pleasant residences where Miroku had often managed to get them rooms for the night. Getting to the hut, he hesitated then pushed open the hut, slipping inside.

Kagome was peeling off her wet shoes and socks, wriggling her cold toes, wincing while Shippo shook out his bed blanket and prepared to snuggle down to sleep for the rest of the morning. Inuyasha stood there like an idiot for a second then went to the nearest corner where he had a good view of the door and couldn't be taken by surprise. Sinking into a cross-legged sit, he took the tetsusaiga in its sheath and let it lie across the lap of his kimono, and his head sank down.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome whispered, climbing into her bedroll.

Inuyasha just grunted.

"Inuyasha, I know you're not asleep." She sighed. "Inuyasha…you would tell me if something was wrong, wouldn't you?"

"What's wrong is having this stupid necklace on me," he muttered.

Kagome wrinkled her nose. "If you weren't wearing it, you'd have killed me and taken the sacred jewel ages ago."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't kill you any more," he growled. "You know that."

"Okay," she agreed. "But…" she shut her eyes, thinking. "If you didn't wear that necklace…I'd never be…" a faint flush reached her cheeks, "on an equal footing with you. I'm a good archer, okay, but you…you're strong. I'm just human."

"And that's the way it's meant to be," Inuyasha growled. "I'm meant to protect you!"

Kagome smiled, flattered like every other time Inuyasha had ever told her this. "But still…I need a way to stand up to you. Like, what if you let go of Tetsusaiga and became full demon? You'd…" she lowered her eyes. "You'd kill me."

Inuyasha opened his mouth to think, but couldn't think of an answer. He hunched lower over his Tetsusaiga.

Kagome tried to sleep, but for once, Inuyasha sitting there in the corner, watching her out of the corner of his eye, wouldn't let her.

"You have to sleep," he said quietly, frustration in his voice.

"What are we doing tomorrow?" Kagome stifled a yawn. "Are we going to go back for Miroku and Sango? Are they okay?"

"How should I know?" Inuyasha demanded grumpily then amended his answer as worry came over Kagome's face. "Fine. We'll get back together with them tomorrow."

Kagome smiled and sank her head back against her pillow. "Thank you, Inuyasha," she murmured then her eyes fluttered shut.

He waited a few minutes, his body tense, then slowly unfolded himself from his cross-legged sit and crawled to her, taking the subjugation necklace from inside his shirt. His ears twitched; he looked over at Shippo as the kid snuffled extra loudly. No, he was asleep thank goodness.

Not that that runt could do anything to stop me, Inuyasha thought smugly, then raised the necklace over Kagome's head.

Her lips parted. He stiffened again.

"Inuyasha...sit," she mumbled.

The necklace glowed for a second but Inuyasha was too busy slamming to the ground to notice. "Argh!"

"What!" Kagome bolted up from her sleep, then stared at the necklace around her neck. "Inuyasha!" she shrieked.

Spluttering, Inuyasha struggled to his feet and then pressed himself back against the wall, trembling at the fury in her voice. The forests themselves must have quivered at the young priestess's anger!

Kagome struggled with the necklace, trying to pull it off. It just glowed more fiercely every time. Finally she slumped, exhausted and stared at Inuyasha. "What have you done to me!"

If he hadn't been so terrified, he'd have been grinning.

"Wha?" Shippo woke up and blinked at them, then saw the necklace around Kagome's neck. "Argh!" he was with her in a second. "Inuyasha!" he yelled at the half-demon, a comical sight as he was just a kid staring angrily up at the lanky Inuyasha. "How could you do this to her!"

"Easily, brat," Inuyasha yelled.

Kagome was still for a moment, then burst into tears and grabbed her bag, leaving her bedroll, and ran from the hut.

"I can't believe him!" she sobbed. "Kaede! Kaede! Where are you?"

The priestess's hut was silent and dark as she ran to it.

A man emerged from his own hut, alerted by Kagome's panicked calls. "Milady?" he stammered.

"Do you know where Kaede is?" Kagome fought not to cry any more.

"She went with five men to slay a demon two miles from here," the man answered, watching her in puzzlement.

"Then I'm going to her," Kagome said decisively, fighting back a crying hiccup. "What direction?"

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled, running out from the hut.

"Tell me!" Kagome yelled at the man, and wordlessly he pointed North-East. She nodded and ran as fast as she could, her bow and a handful of arrows in her hand.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha screamed at her.

She spun around, stopped running, staring at him with loathing. "Don't come anywhere near me, Inuyasha," she commanded, "Or I will shoot you dead." She clenched her arrows in her hand.

"C'mon, I just wanted you to know what it's like to have one of those freaking necklaces around your neck!"

"You're lying! You're trying to control me! Now leave me alone, youkai!"

Inuyasha recoiled, not just at the venom in her voice but the way she'd said what he was, as though it was such a hateful, disgusting word.

"You're just a human! What do you know!" he yelled. "You've humiliated me all the time and now it's your turn!"

"Sit!" she yelled. "Sit! sit! sit! sit! sit! sit! sit! sit! Sit! Sit! SIT!"

"Inuyasha, you're such a jerk!" Shippo wailed, coming up behind him.

"Ow," Inuyasha said very, very, very faintly from the centre of the earth.

Shippo studied him for one second, then nodded as though to himself, and transformed with a Pop! Into a clumsy-looking albatross and sped off after Kagome.

An hour later, Inuyasha pulled himself out of the very deep pit he'd certainly dug himself, and using his tetsusaiga as a crutch, limped after Kagome.

She was far ahead, storming along at a fast pace, Shippo flying above her, terrified of how her aura was as angry as a demon's. In her head, she was imagining what would happen if she didn't get the necklace off...

Coming into the cafeteria...her friends spotting her, "Hey, Kagome, come sit over here!"

Bang.

Her mother, greeting her when she got back from the Feudal Era..."Kagome! You're back. How was the feudal era. Come sit down and I'll run you a bath."

Bang.

No, wait! Relief flooded through her. Only one person can say the word...and it might not even be that word!

But oh god, Inuyasha...!

"Hey Kagome..." she could imagine his smug, sweet voice. "Come sit here..."

Bang.

"Hey, Kagome, can I have some ramen?" His innocent gaze.

"No! Get it yourself!"

"Sit."

Bang.

I'll just have to give as good as I get, she thought grimly.

"Kagome..." Inuyasha's voice was as faint as the evening. "Kagome...wait!"

"Sit," she snarled.

Bang.

She fancied she'd heard a bone crack. She hoped it was his neck.

Kaede will figure out how to get rid of this necklace...she must!

She strode faster. It can't be much farther!

Then a shadow blotted out the sky for a second. She halted.

"Kagome!"

Oh, what a welcome voice.

"Sango!" she yelled back, a sob breaking into her voice.

"Kagome, what are you doing, walking alone?" Miroku demanded as Kirara flew down and landed gently on her four paws, her fiery tail whipping the early-morning breeze.

"She's not alone," Shippo said, then pointed back behind them. "Inuyasha might as well tunnel underneath us, she's said sit so many times."

"I think you'd better tell us what's happened," Sango said. Miroku nodded in agreement.

Inuyasha pulled himself out of the ground again. "She's way overreacting," he complained faintly.

"Uh huh," Shippo said sceptically.

"You swine!" Sango took out her hirikoss and brandished it at Inuyasha. "You did that to Kagome? You absolute swine!"

"It's not like I've figured it out!" Inuyasha yelled hoarsely, turning his attention on the demon slayer. "Any time she says sit--"

Bang.

"--I get shoved into the ground," Inuyasha finished, not having heard the sound of Kagome hitting the ground.

"Inuyasha," Sango began warningly.

"Oh come on, can't we just sit--"

Bang

"--down and talk about this?" Inuyasha demanded.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed in a muffled way from the ground, getting up a second time. "SIT!"

"Wha--!"

"Don't you get it?" Miroku demanded, staring down at the half-demon. "Any time you say 'sit', poor Kagome's getting her nose broken!"

Inuyasha stared at him dumbly. "That word? Sit?"

Bang.

"Sit!" Kagome shouted as she eased herself up from the ground, her nose bleeding.