Title: Of Two Lifetimes

Genre: Angst/Romance

Pairing: Kagome/Kouga

Word Count: 213

Of Two Lifetimes

Inuyasha was the love of her two lifetimes. It didn't matter that he was insecure, demanding, and jealous or that he was ignorant, arrogant, peevish, and vitriolic. Kagome loved him all the same.

And Kouga was the boy she never took seriously. That would spend two life times and five hundred years chasing her. And when she died, as mortals do, chasing her memory.

He was destined to be second best. Even in his next life where he was handsome and witty and wealthy and loving. The school boy who worshipped the ground she tread upon.

But he didn't know about that life or the smiling, eager, and oh so oblivious boy he'd become. The one who could offer her everything.

He could only offer her something now.

Kagome smiled nervously as she shuffled her feet in the dirt. And for a moment Kouga let himself believe there was something in her eyes beyond friendship.

"Kouga-kun," she murmured, no more than soft hum of syllables. "I still love Inuyasha. That's he's-" she swallowed, tears misting in her eyes. "I don't love you."

"I know," he said, turning on his heel only to be stopped by her hand on his arm. Gazing at her, his face holding all the confidence Inuyasha had never possessed.

"But," she whispered as she slid her hand down his arm to take his hand. "I want to try."

Kouga smiled and squeezed her hand, realizing that second best didn't always mean first loser