My thanks to: Mangas-Fan, premierarchange, TwilightZelda, bankostuz-fair-lady, Bekuki Saramanca, The Fairy Princess Lady, hentail8ancilla, Lady Sesshy and thanks Shadowprincess for helping me out with developing the idea with your fantastic insanity! ;-)

This time I wasn't drunk while writing. And as many as you said, I was harsh on poor Kagome, so I'll give her this chapter to recover and Inuyasha to think about how he'll make it up to her...

Tessadragon.

Disclaimer: Inuyasha isn't mine and I can't think of any funny quips at the moment cos I'm all busy thinking how to plunge Kagome and Inuyasha into terrible peril...

Chapter 7

"I'll help you with that," Miroku offered, finding Sango going through Kagome's supplies. She nodded, and together they rummaged through pots of ramen and boxes of ninja food. Both of them were tired, having travelled away from the road where they'd found Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippo, and where Kagome had related yesterday's traumatic events. Sango was still seething silently at it: what if Miroku took it upon himself to put a subjugation necklace on her? I would have to kill him, she thought, gritting her teeth.

Miroku mentally flinched, seeing her closed expression. "Why are we doing this anyway?"he asked. "Going through Kagome's supplies? Would she approve? She certainly doesn't approve when Inuyasha takes it upon himself to look."

"I told Kagome to go and bathe in the hot springs," Sango answered, taking a deep breath and silently assuring herself that she'd never let Miroku put a subjugation necklace on her!"To calm down."

"She's still upset?"

"Wouldn't you be?" Sango retorted. "Honestly, Miroku. I had to bandage her nose. No girl deserves that indignity."

"I suppose," Miroku said, imagining Sango with a broken nose. No, he decided, hiding a smile. I'd never stop wanting to stroke her butt even if she had a broken nose. The thought made his fingers itch. Maybe if I distract her…

"And how's Inuyasha?" he asked delicately.

"I'm surprised we don't have to splint every limb of his body," Sango said frankly, arranging the wood neatly to set alight. Then she froze, as Miroku's hand inched over her backside and settled to stroking it happily.

Aaaaah…

Wham!

It wasn't a handslap like usual. It was the log that Sango had in her hand. She eyed the monk coldly as he stared up from the ground, all dazed, but there was still a contented smile on his face.

"Monk, grow up," Sango muttered, then turned back to getting the campfire lit. "Honestly. You men…I don't know which of you is worse!"

"Inuyasha definitely!" Shippo said loudly from his vantage point at the high branches in the sycamore tree that afforded Sango such pleasant shade as the evening sun fought to heat the rain-soaked grass.

"Inuyasha certainly has exceeded his usual idiocy," Miroku agreed hastily.

"Hmph," but Sango did nod in reluctant agreement. "Miroku, will you watch the fire until it's ready to cook over? Shippo, come help me catch fish."

"Ooh! Fish!" Shippo jumped from the branches happily and scurried after her while Miroku stared musingly into the flames.

"Sango," Shippo asked as he waded into the river, his trousers rolled up to his knees. "Can we get rid of Kagome's necklace?"

"I don't know," Sango admitted, worried.

"What'll happen if we don't get rid of it? Or if Inuyasha doesn't grow up?"

Sango didn't answer.

"What'll happen?" Shippo pressed, more frightened by her silence.

Sango sighed. "I don't know. But I don't know if Inuyasha's aware…we're not as tough as he is. Kagome shouldn't be put through this!"

"Keh," Inuyasha muttered from the very top branches of the beech tree over the river where he was hiding, heavily hidden by bushes of leaves. His head was bent low, his ears nearly flat against his silver hair. His mouth was in a tight sullen line but his mind was in a state of shame after seeing Kagome's face. I did that to her? I hurt her more with that than if I'd transformed into a full demon!

His hands convulsed, his claws scraping the bark, sending flakes of it raining down the tree to the ground. Then he leapt out, a huge leap, into the sky and landed in a crouch, his kimono billowing around him, and he strode to the spring where Kagome was bathing. "Kagome!" he called ahead of himself.

Kagome stiffened, the warm waters lapping around her body, then she lowered herself a little deeper into the water. Her usually-kind eyes burnt with hatred.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shoved aside his private self-inclination that usually drove him to steer clear of watching any girl bathe, and he watched her as she sat, small and guarded in her ways, in the hot spring.

Now his mind froze. What do I do? What do I say? Sorry? And he realised that wouldn't be enough.

"What do you want?" her voice was dull, emotionless, like she'd used up her emotion.

She's so beautiful, something said in the back of Inuyasha's mind, seeing the curtain of Kagome's raven-black hair and how it lay upon her slender white shoulders. "Inuyasha." There was no questioning lilt to her voice, just deadpan quietness.

"I'm sorry," he blurted, then turned and ran.

Kagome lowered her eyes. Why should I want to run after him? After he hurt me so much? She clenched her fists as she fought against the urge to follow him, but the lapping bubbles of the hot spring suddenly wasn't as soothing as it had been.

"Damn him!" she snapped and climbed out of the hot spring, reached for her towel and began drying herself, glancing out of the corner of her eye to check that she was alone. Once dressed, she walked back into the clearing. Her nose was less swollen than it had been last night but it radiated tingles of pain every few seconds.

"Kagome?" Sango's voice had that questioning lilt as she looked up from taking the grilled fish from the flames. "Are you alright?"

"Where did Inuyasha go?" Kagome's voice wasn't deadpan anymore. It was a whisper.

"I don't know," Sango said cautiously. "Did something happen?"

Kagome sank to the ground, her head bowed, then her shoulders shook. Immediately Sango went to her and hugged her. "It'll be okay," she tried to soothe, but Kagome was shaking her head as she sobbed. "It won't be okay! It won't! How can I still…how can I still love him when he hurt me?" She sobbed harder, and Sango held her until her sobs abated.

"Is she alright?" Miroku had just come back from the hot water spring where he'd just taken a turn bathing. His voice was deep with concern as he watched them.

"Miroku, take her to the well," Sango said quietly, letting Kagome curl up in exhausted sleep.

"Are you sure?"

Sango nodded. "She needs her own world. She needs to be away from Inuyasha."

"I don't think she'll have a problem with that," Miroku said.

"Why?" the slayer demanded.

"He's gone. He didn't say where, but he said we must keep ourselves safe."

"And you didn't stop him?" Sango stared at him, aghast.

"He didn't tell me face to face. He scratched a note on the ground." The monk looked at Kagome, who looked troubled even in her sleep. "Do we think we can keep Kagome safe without Inuyasha?"

"I suppose she's able to defend herself as well as us defending her," Sango said slowly, uncertainly.

"But we are used to Inuyasha being there alongside us," Miroku agreed with a grimace, taking one of the sticks of grilled fish, holding it while he thought, then he took another and handed it to Sango. Shippo wandered up from the river and happily grabbed his own grilled fish and took a huge bite. "Mmm!"

"You're right," Miroku said finally and bit into his grilled fish. "I'll take her to the well tomorrow," he said in a muffled voice and swallowed the fish. "We're quite a way from the well…Do you want to come or do you want to wait here?"

"I'll come."

Kagome lay curled up, listening to them and continued pretending she was asleep as she fought through the turmoil of emotions. Do I want to go home?

"It's your turn to go to the hot spring," Miroku suggested once he'd finished his fish. "I'll stay and watch over Kagome."

"I'll help," Shippo volunteered.

Sango smiled at the fox demon kid's enthusiasm. "Thank you, you two. I will."

Once she'd gone, Miroku yawned and lay on his back, his arms behind his head. "Miroku? Aren't you meant to be guarding Kagome?" Shippo demanded.

"I am," Miroku assured him. "I'll keep one eye open."

"Yeah right," Shippo muttered a few minutes later, when Miroku's open eye fluttered shut. "Guess I'd better guard 'em all."

"It's okay, Shippo," Kagome sighed, finally opening her eyes.

"Kagome?" Shippo looked at her anxiously. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and managed a weak smile. "I'm going for a walk, Shippo. I promise I'll be okay…I'll bring my bow and arrows with me."

"Are you going to look for Inuyasha?" Shippo asked bluntly, his lower lip jutting out in worry.

"I don't know," Kagome said truthfully, grabbing her quiver of arrows and her bow. Shippo watched her, troubled, as she walked away.

"Inuyasha, where did you go?" Kagome asked softly aloud, looking up at the trees.

A rustle of a branch shaking under someone's weight, then something plunged from the treetops.

Kagome shrieked, and a hand grabbed her, wrapping an arm around her, then pulled her after him back into the sky, exploding through the branches asshe screamed.