Chapter 4

Disclaimer: don't own still

Inuyasha awoke with a soft pressure on his hand. He looked down to find that sometime during the night Kagome had wrapped her hand around his. A blush rose to his face, but he didn't remove his hand from hers.

"Well I think that somebody likes somebody." Inuyasha looked over to Miroku, surprised that he was awake.

Inuyasha's blush rose slightly. "Whatever. You don't know what you are talking about." He avoided looking at Miroku's face.

"Really? Then why are you holding Kagome's hand?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Inuyasha looked back down at their intertwined hands but couldn't bring himself to separate them or rather didn't want to. He just avoided looking at Miroku and closed his eyes.

"See. I think that you're starting to like that girl." Miroku looked at Inuyasha to find that he was still avoiding him.

Inuyasha ignored him, really not in the mood to listen. He was tempted to knock him out, but if he got up he would disturb Kagome. So he settled with throwing a rock.It hit him in the forehead.

"Ow. That hurts you know." Inuyasha just shrugged.

"It's not like it doesn't serve you right. You idiot." He rested his head back down on Kagome's.

"You know that I've never seen you like a girl before."

Inuyasha looked at him with one eye open. "I don't like her like that."

Miroku shook his head. "You can deny it all you want but the way you're acting around her shows that you do. Oh well at least it shows that you're not gay." The last statement earned him a face full of rocks, plus a flaming piece of wood down his shirt. Miroku danced around while Inuyasha hold back a fit of laughter.

"You call me gay again or even suggest it I will make sure that you have some burns." Inuyasha said as he watched Miroku fish the burning wood out of his shirt. "Now can we talk about something else?" Inuyasha said trying to get off the personal subject about a certain girl.

"Fine." He said as he sat down. "What are we going to do about Kouga and the thunder brothers?"

"Don't know. All I know is that now we are in some serious trouble." He sighed. He couldn't believe that he betrayed the entire kingdom in order to save one human girl that he hardly knew. Though it seemed that he would do anything for her despite the fact of not knowing her. "We'll not only have those three to worry about but the entire demon kingdom."

Miroku sighed as well. "Yep we are seriously going to have a hard time. We'll be hunted until we are dead."

Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well. It's not like I haven't been hunted before." He smirked and clenched his fist. "Besides, I can take anyone that comes at me."

"Yeah I'm sure you can. Except for your brother." Inuyasha's mood suddenly changed at his "brother's" name.

"Half brother. If that." His voice held venom, showing his obviousdislike for his brother.

"You do know that he will use your betrayal as an excuse to come after you and kill you."

Inuyasha fist tightened. "So? He's wanted to kill me ever since he knew that I had human blood flowing through my veins. Besides, I bet he would try to kill me even if I hadn't betrayed the kingdom."

"What about your father? He may come down on you too." He saw that Inuyasha's face darkened.

"I don't know." He said quietly. "He may just come down to punish me. I doubt he'd try to kill me. But my father can be unpredictable at times and I may soon end up in a graveyard. And if he did try to kill me I don't think I could stop him. He's far stronger than I am. Even with the tetsusaiga I doubt I could do anything." He felt Kagome's grip tighten around his hand. He looked down at her to find that she had been awake during most of the conversation.

She looked up at him, sadness in her brown eyes. "Does your family really hate you that much?" He smiled at her.

"Afraid so." The look in her eyes seemed to deepen.

"How can you be smiling?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"Guess I've gotten used to it."

Kagome looked away, but her grip tightened around his hand as if trying to comfort him. She felt bad that there was nothing she could do. Staring into the burning flames of the fire she thought of how it might feel to have your entire family hate you because of a different blood that you had. She just couldn't believe it. She didn't want to.

"Kagome there is no point in dwelling on the thought." She looked up at him, surprised that he knew. "I've lived my entire life being hated. There's nothing that you can do. So don't think about it. Besides you've got your own problems to worry about. My life is not important."

The last sentence made Kagome do something she didn't even expect to do. She slapped him. He looked down at her with a mixture of shock and surprise. "Don't. Don't you ever say that again."

"Say what? That my life isn't important? Cause it's not." She looked at him sadly.

"How can you say that?" He didn't answer. He just stared into the fire. "How can you say that?" he still didn't answer. Her anger began to rise. "How can you say that!" she yelled.

He jumped from her sudden outburst. He hadn't expected her to do that. "Cause I can. And why do you care so much anyway? You don't even know me."

"I care because I can." She replied, using his own line. "And you should care as well. Your life is important no matter what you think."

"Yeah and how do you know how I think? You've only known me for what two days? You don't know me at all." He started to get up, but Kagome pulled him down. The amount of power from the injured girl surprised him and caused him to become unbalanced and go straight back down.

"You're right. I don't know you that well, but I can see that in your eyes everything you are saying is a lie. You do care about your life and you hope that your life is important. That something good will come from it. One way or another."

He scoffed. "Like you can really tell what I'm thinking or feeling just by looking into my eyes. It's not possible." He said as he stared into her eyes. He knew that he was lying. He knew that the girl could see into his eyes, which was a first because he had such a shield that no one before could tell his thoughts and feelings even if they could do it to everyone else. Yet this girl he had known for two days could tell every emotion, thought, and feeling that he had. And in a way that scared him.

As he stared into her eyes he searched them. He found that more than one emotion ran through them. Sadness, happiness, disbelief that he thought is life was nothing. Several other emotions ran through her eyes. Even one he couldn't identify.

"Inuyasha, you keep telling yourself that your life isn't important, but I know that you believe it is. Not only that but I think that your life is important." Inuyasha was surprised that she had said that. No other person had ever said that except for his mother.

A muffled cough caught the two's attention. "Well even though it's nice to see this little romantic scene play out I'm starting to get hungry and I believe it's Inuyasha's turn to prepare our food." Miroku said, obviously tired of being ignored. The two blushed from his comment before Inuyasha reluctantly got up, releasing his hand from hers.

Kagome shifted uncomfortably as a rock constantly poked into her back. She attempted to move, but a massive pain erupted form her chest. The pain nearly caused her to pass out.

"Kagome are you alright?" Miroku asked as he walked over to her. She gave him a weak nod. He noticed that she was grasping her chest tightly. "What bones are broken?"

She took several seconds to catch her breath before responding. "I think I broke my ribs and maybe my collarbone."

"Then you need to stay still for a while." He helped move her into a comfortable position and she smiled gratefully at him. "Glad to help." As he took his spot next to Sango he noticed that a strange aura was radiating off Kagome, but it was gone a second later. He was about to ask what it was but she had dozed off before he could.

What was that? He thought. He stared at her sleeping form, but eventually shook the thought away.

Sango awoke with a shiver. She sat up and groggily looked around the cave. "Who else is up?"

"Besides me, Inuyasha. Kagome was up a second ago but she fell back asleep." Miroku looked at her half asleep face. "You know that you look cute when you look like that." The comment caused her to blush.

She turned her head away from him, trying to hide the blush. "Why are you giving me a compliment? You don't even know me."

"You're right I don't know you, but…" He snuck up closer to her. "I know that you're the most beautiful girl I've seen." She turned to look at him and found his face a few inches from her face.

"Aaah!" she screamed. Her hand swung up and connected with his face. He flew backwards, clutching his cheek. She tried to slow her racing heart. "What are you doing getting that close to me?" An embarrassed blush appeared on her face.

"I didn't think that you would mind." She looked at him like he was crazy.

"You didn't think I would mind?" She yelled. "You're invading my personal space!"

She turned her head in another direction, trying to avoid him. She suddenly felt something touch a spot that was not supposed to be touched. She quickly turned her head at Miroku. She looked down at his hand. Her eye twitched. "You little!" A loud smack resounded throughout the cave.

Inuyasha was forced to cover his ears from since it was so loud. It even woke Kagome up.

Sango stared angrily at the now unconscious Miroku. Her stare was so intense that it could've burned a whole through his forehead. "You pervert." She said as she continued to stare at him.

"What happened?" Kagome asked, rubbing her eyes.

"This thing." Sango pointed her at Miroku. "Groped me!"

"Don't worry about it. He does that to almost every pretty girl that he's seen." Inuyasha said as he tossed the food onto the open fire. "You should sort of take it as a compliment." Sango looked at him the same way she looked at Miroku, just with less intensity. He nearly took a step back. "I mean because he thinks you're pretty. That's all I meant." He slowly walked back toward Kagome, her stare following him all the way.

As he sat down he scooted behind Kagome. "Will you tell her to stop staring at me like that?" He whispered into her ear. She laughed lightly at the scared tone in his voice, thought she regretted it when her chest hurt.

"Don't worry. She'll stop looking at you like that in a few hours." She tried to hold back a laugh when she heard him groan.

Another groan was heard as Miroku slowly sat up. His movements were slow and disoriented. As he opened his eyes he found a very angry Sango looking at him. He almost instantly shrunk back. "Why Sango what's with the angry look?" He asked as he backed away.

"You know full well what's with the angry look." He looked down at her hand, which had begun to form into a tight fist.

He looked over at Inuyasha. "A little help here?' He begged.

Inuyasha shook his head. "Nope. You're on your own when it comes to fighting an angry demon slayer."

Miroku looked back at the angry Sango. "Sango I'm sorry. Please don't hurt me."

"Oh I won't hurt you." She smiled evilly. "Much." Miroku stood up, and began running toward the other end of the cave, Sango hot on his heels.

The other two laughed. "How long is the cave?" Kagome asked resting her head on Inuyasha's chest.

"About three miles." He looked down at Kagome and wrapped his arms around her stomach, being careful that he didn't put to much pressure on it.

The two sat in silence, staring at the fire. They enjoyed the peaceful silence except for the occasional sound of yelling that echoed throughout the cave. As they sat quietly they both began to wonder why they were suddenly so comfortable with each other. They barely knew each other, yet they seemed to be fine holding hands and showing other ways of affection with no problem. They seemed to trust each other amazingly easily and that kind of scared them both. Why did they not have a problem with it? They weren't a couple or anything. So why then did they trust each other so easily?

Inuyasha suddenly felt a pulse coming from Kagome. It was very small and he almost didn't feel it if it had not felt familiar. He knew that he had felt it before, but where?

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt Kagome's hand pull down on his arm. "What is it?"

"The food is burning." She said as she pointed to the food that was now on fire. His eyes widened as he quickly grabbed it. He was thankful that it was arms length away otherwise he wouldn't of been able to grab it. Not only that but he would've had to disturb Kagome.

He tore the meat into two pieces, handing one to Kagome and keeping one for himself. When he noticed that she wasn't eating he looked at her. "What's wrong? Is it not cooked enough?"

She shook her head. "No it's fine, but what about Sango and Miroku? They need to eat too."

"Oh. Yeah them. Forgot they were here." He took the two pieces and broke them into four. "Hey Sango and pervert! Get over here and eat!" He yelled.

Several minutes passed before they he heard the sound of footsteps, but he heard only one set instead of two. As a figure approached out of the darkness of the cave they saw that it was Sango and she had a pretty big smile on her face.

"Where's Miroku?" Kagome asked as she started to eat.

"Oh him? He's just knocked out about a mile down." She grabbed a piece of meat before sitting down.

"Well you seem pretty happy." Inuyasha said as he swallowed his chunk in one bite. Kagome looked at him, surprised that he didn't choke on it.

Minutes later they heard another sound of footsteps and found that Miroku was walking back, and he had a large bump forming on his head. "Hey you guys did save some stuff for me didn't you?" the two girls nodded as Inuyasha threw him his piece.

As Miroku sat down next to Sango she watched his hands. Even though she thought that knocking him out three times would stop him she wasn't sure. She had a feeling it wouldn't stop him. She knew that those hands would be a problem in the future.

The four sat back and slowly digested their food. Inuyasha rested his head on Kagome's, ignoring the look he was getting from Sango. He closed his eyes silently, enjoying being close to her. He realized that he was getting too comfortable around her again.

What is wrong with me? Why am I so freaking relaxed around her? I don't understand. She's human. He thought. As he pondered this thing he felt her head become heavy on his chest. She's asleep again. How often is she going to do that? He wondered. He soon found himself dozing off as well.

Sango and Miroku looked at the two both smiling. "I think that those two like each other." Sango said as she watched the sleeping pair, who seemed completely and utterly relaxed.

"I do believe that you are right. But the two don't quite realize it yet." Miroku said as he leaned back and rested on his hands. Sango nodded in agreement.

"Do you know why they are acting so close?"

Miroku shrugged. "Don't know."

Sango rested her head on her knees, and quietly watched the two sleep. She wondered if she would ever be able to experience what they were experiencing. She thought back on how her parents were when they were around each other. She remembered that they seemed to show their affection and love for each other almost every second of everyday.

She smiled sadly as she remembered her parents. They had died about three years ago while her and Kohaku were out hunting. They had been killed by a demon disguised as a human. She couldn't believe that they had been killed when she first arrived by their dead bodies. She didn't want to believe it. She felt even worse for Kohaku. He had taken it worse than she had. And now they were the only two left of their family.

As she thought of her family she wondered how Kohaku was. She hoped that he had gotten away from the forest unharmed. She was beginning to miss him. She hoped that Kagome would heal soon so she could go look for him.

A tear fell down her cheek as she thought about him. She was surprised to find that Miroku wiped it away. He smiled at her comfortingly and she smiled back.

"You mind telling me about what you're crying about?" he asked. She nodded.

"Just thinking about my little brother Kohaku. He ran away during the fighting and I hope that he got away unharmed." She said as she wiped another tear away that streamed down her cheek.

"I'm sure he did. He is a demon slayer too right?" He put his arm around her shoulder hoping to make her feel better and he was surprised to find that she didn't seem to mind.

"Yes he is but he is young. Too young. He shouldn't been out there in the first place." Another tear fell down her cheek. Miroku wiped it away before she could. She smiled at him again.

Miroku got a sudden feeling to embrace her, but he wasn't sure whether to listen. He was afraid he would get slapped again. But as he waited the feeling grew and he couldn't fight it anymore so he embraced her.

She was a little shocked at first and didn't know how to react, but as he held her she started to relax. She even hugged back. He let her go to find that she wasn't holding up a fist or chasing him around and for that he was grateful. He turned his head back to the fire and found that on the other side of it he saw Inuyasha looking at them with an open eye. The two instantly blushed and looked away from each other.

"Well aren't you two close?" Inuyasha said as he held back his laughter.

"Shut up Inuyasha. We're no closer than you to that girl." Miroku replied causing Inuyasha to stop laughing.

"Whatever." He closed his eye again. He really didn't feel like arguing. He thought about the conversation between the other two and as he thought about Sango's little brother something hit him. "Shippo!" he suddenly yelled out.

Miroku looked up at him his eyes wide. "We forgot about Shippo. He's going to think we abandoned him." Inuyasha nodded.

Inuyasha gently took Kagome off of him and headed for the entrance of the cave. He started to remove the giant boulder blocking it.

"Who's Shippo?" Sango asked as she watched him remove the giant boulder from the entrance of the cave before jumping out and putting back.

"He's a kitsune that Inuyasha and I promised to take care of after his parents were killed." Miroku replied.

"What happen to his parents?"

Miroku looked down sadly. "They were killed by the thunder brothers. They skinned his father alive and display his fur as a trophy." Sango's mouth dropped.

"That's horrible. It's inhumane! I thought demons were on the same side."

"They are but the thunder brothers love to kill. They especially love to kill demons since they put up a better fight." Sango couldn't believe that demons would do such a thing. Especially not to their own kind. "Inuyasha bears a deep hatred for the two. And he made a promise to Shippo that he would avenge his parents."

"Poor kid. That was the same age Kohaku was when we lost our parents." She said quietly to herself.

"Poor kid indeed." Miroku said as he pulled a box from his robe. Shippo your parents miss you. He thought as he opened the box. It revealed a ring that, in small writing, said "Shippo we love you very much."

"What is that?" Sango asked as she looked at it.

"It's the last gift from his parents. I am supposed to give it to him when he's seven and that's in a week." He put the ring back in the box and put it back in his robe. Get to him soon Inuyasha. You know that they'll try to kill him.

Scene change

Inuyasha ran through the forest as fast as he could. He had to reach Shippo before the thunder brothers. He was the only one stopping them from touching him. He couldn't believe that he was so stupid to leave the kid alone. Please be alive Shippo. I'll be there soon. I promise. He thought as he raced through the forest.

Fourth chapter is over. And I sort of left it as a cliff hanger too. I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible and don't forget to review!