Authors Notes: It's a short chapter, as usual.. But it's strictly Kagome and InuYasha. It's been a little while since anything cute happened so here ya go! Read and review, of course.

Kagome's POV

"What are you thinking about, InuYasha?" We were back around a camp fire and safe for now, and everyone seemed to be somewhat at peace. Everyone was either asleep or thinking silently to themselves, like InuYasha is.

"Keh! Nothing, but you should get some sleep." He has never been good at lying, but that's something he hasn't figured out yet for himself.

"Don't lie to me. You must know by now that you're not very good at it.."

An awkward silence loomed overhead for minutes, until he finally spoke up. "It's not important."

"Is it Kikyou again? Must be.. She's close by, right?" His face always becomes clenched whenever Kikyou's nearby, or whenever he thinks of her. He's not much of a thinker except when it comes to Kikyou, then he'll use his brains for a good few solid hours, if he has the time.

Silence.

The crickets were out tonight and their song was awfully loud compared to other nights. Probably has something to do with Kikyou, seeing as how she's so important to everyone. Maybe it's not right to be jealous towards her, but it's never seemed to matter before. He just can't forget.. There's a new excuse everytime. He can't be with anyone else unless he finds out how she's doing, he can't love anyone until he checks on her afterwards to see how she's healing, and he can't let her fight her own battles alone so until Naraku's gone.. I'll be the second pick.

"Yeah, she is." But this time, he looked a little ashamed.

Am I really that harsh on him? I guess he can't change who he's in love with..

"Then maybe you should go and see her, huh? You can, you know, if you want.." Please say no, please say no..

"Oh yeah?" After a long pause he started again, "I think I'm alright. Unless you want me to go.."

"No, no.. I want you close by." I don't expect him to say anything in return but a quick, "Me too." would have lifted some weight off of my heart. "But you shouldn't stay here on my account. If you want to see her, you should. I promise not to get mad or anything, if that's what you're afraid of."

"I'm not afraid of anything like that!" His voice went from an almost whisper to an aggrivated growl quickly, but soon he toned it back down. "I just want to stay here with you, alright? Not easy for me to say.."

Another silence, another pain in the butt.

"I'm sorry. I just don't know where we stand anymore." I felt the presence of warm tears behind my eyes, and my chin start to quiver. I've been trying so hard not to break down in front of him, I don't want anyone to find me weak. Especially InuYasha.

"Kagome, come here."

Warm arms embraced me into his side, burrying my head into his soft kimono. "Sometimes I don't know either. But I do know how I feel.."

"Then how come I don't know?" I rubbed at my eyes and looked up at him from where I was.

"I've told you before. You were there, you heard me." Again with his damned impatience..

"Yeah but-"

"So, I meant it." He played with my hair for a moment then leaned in to kiss me softly on top of my head. "But things are messed up right now. With Naraku being a pain in my ass, and Kikyou running around stupidly putting herself in danger. It's constantly a weight on my mind, and on top of that, I need to protect you no matter what."

"Alright, I'm sorry. I'm okay now, really.."

"No need to be sorry. Just don't doubt us."

Us?..

InuYasha's POV

"Do you want to go some where else and talk some more?" I'm no good at this kind of stuff when morning comes along, and I know we need to resolve some things. I don't want Kagome to think that I don't care about her. I do but there's always some bastard getting in the way. "If we don't shut up soon we're gonna wake them, and I don't want to hear anything out of Shippou."

"Sure.." Kagome laughed softly through her tears and jumped onto my back, holding on tighter this time.

After a hop, skip and jump we landed in a close by tree and I helped Kagome next to me, putting an arm around her shoulder for support.

"So, I obviously care about you Kagome." Damn it, I'm no good at this stuff no matter what time of day it is!

"Yeah, I get it. But that doesn't mean you don't frustrate me sometimes." A deep sigh escaped her lips, "You're always running off looking for Kikyou. And when you find her, you talk for what seems like forever. And you can't even talk in front of everyone, it's always a private discussion. I don't know what to think when that happens, whether or not I should believe you. I know you'd never purposely hurt me, and I know that I can't ask you to forget about her.."

At least she's spilling all of her feelings out to me, the less anger she has pent up the less commands I'll recieve. And damn it, I'm done with the whole sitting thing.

"I'm not a two timer, Kagome. We don't talk about anything special other than Naraku's whereabouts and her condition, it's nothing that all of you can't hear, I just don't want to put you through that."

"It hurts more when it looks like you're keeping information from all of us, especially me. I don't know if I can trust you all the time." Silence. "But I guess I should."

"Probably. But I'll.. try harder next time to keep you all involved." Although it's likely that Kikyou will feel underattack and a bit jealous, she knows how I feel about you.

"No, I can understand why you need time alone. But when you come back, at least tell us what you've been talking about?" I guess sometimes talking is better than fighting, not like I could do that with Naraku though. "Unless it's something I don't want to know."

"Kagome.." Damn it, I'm no Miroku!

"I know, I know." I felt a little extra weight against me, and Kagome's head nuzzling against my chest.

"Good night, Kagome."

After that talk, even I'm tired as hell.