A/N: I'm so glad everyone liked the last chapter! I was so nervous. A guest reviewer just informed me that I had not changed this to "in progress" after I decided to continue it from a one shot, so that is fixed. Also, please don't kill me, because I know this isn't what I promised, but it needed to be. It started to get long and a friend said I should post it as a stand alone chapter. Don't worry, he's been bugging me every day through texts to finish "Kagome's turn." That will be up soon, until then, enjoy some plot that connects to a story that I was writing before this one...so sequel?

One last thing! To whomever nominated me for "best canon" at Feudal Connection: my most sincere, heartfelt, thanks. Really. It brightened my very stressful life. Thank you.

Chapter 3

Inuyasha couldn't stop the smug smile at Kagome's blush. His body was slowly returning to its normal feeling, well, normal for when he was human, but his excitement hadn't diminished. He wanted her to feel exactly as he had: pure uncontrolled, pleasure. If it took until dawn, so be it. It wasn't as if he ever slept during the new moon, anyway.

Kagome stammered, "Uh, maybe we could just...you said you needed a few minutes. Do you want some water? Are you cold? We could..." She trailed off, refusing to look at him.

"Kagome," he said, but she kept her eyes hidden behind her bangs, "we don't have to do anything." He wanted to do a lot, but not if she was uncomfortable. "It's just like you said, we have all-"

"I want to do everything!" She practically yelled. Her eyes were fierce and determined. "I want you to kiss me and touch me, and I'm sick of being embarrassed! I don't want to be shy. Even if it isn't proper!"

He laughed, he was sure his grin was almost sinister, his tongue on what were usually his fangs. "Then don't be proper! It's just us here, and you know I ain't ever proper."

She deflated again, "I don't want you to think...that I'm, I don't know. In my time, we have...we see, sex, a lot more. I know things people here don't. Not because I've done them, but because it's everywhere."

"Kagome," he said seriously, "you made me feel more amazing than I have ever felt in my whole life, and in the middle of it, I started bawling like a baby. What could be more embarrassing than that?"

"That was different," she argued.

"How?"

"Because it doesn't make you look like a whore!"

His hands balled into fists, clenching the fabric of her sleeves. His jaw tightened and he knew that there was no way to keep the all-encompassing rage that suddenly burned throughout his body from showing on his face. After everything he'd done, the lives he'd fucking saved, did the damn villagers just pretend?! He'd heard a few make comments about having a demon live among them, but nothing had ever been directed at Kagome, even after it was known that he intended to make her his wife. He'd sworn long before she'd even returned that she would never experience what his mother had. "Who?!" He spat.

Kagome's startled eyes searched his, "Inuyasha, what?"

He shook her once, unintentionally. He just needed a name. Come morning he would show them exactly what a demon could do. If all the years of his protection couldn't win their trust, he would...what? Make them fear him? That would only make things worse for Kagome. If the villagers turned against him, he could leave, return to living in the forest, but Kagome couldn't. That was no life for her. Yet, he couldn't stand by and watch her be ostracized because of him. "Who called you a whore?"

She looked confused, "No one, Inuyasha."

"Then why would you think that?!"

"Inuyasha, you're shaking..."

"Why would you think you're a whore?!"

"Because I know things. About sex. What's supposed to feel good. Women aren't supposed to know if they're still virgins."

He searched her eyes furiously, looking for any deceit, "Th-the villagers, they didn't, they haven't called you any names? Threatened you?"

"What? No! Why would they?!"

He quickly gathered her to his chest, rocking back and forth, trying to calm himself. "Tell me," he whispered, his voice cracking, "if they ever say anything. If you even think you heard them say something. I need you to tell me." He paused for a moment, he knew she was confused. "That's how it starts. Just one or two. They convince enough people. Enough so others don't challenge them. Then it isn't just words. It's stones and steel a-and fire...I can't protect you if you don't tell me."

She called his name again, pulling away enough to look into his eyes. "They won't."

He shook his head, "You don't know that! You don't know what it's like!" Her hands gently cupped his face as he bowed his head, "They'll hurt you. I can't. I can't let them hurt you."

"Do you think Miroku and Sango would stand by while anyone tried to hurt us?"

He shook his head, there were only two of them, and they had their children to think about. Why couldn't she understand?! "Promise me! Promise me that you'll tell me!"

It took a few moments of his pleading, but with a solemn expression, she relented, "I promise."

He clutched her tightly, "You're not a demon's whore. Don't ever think that!" It wasn't until a few moments later that he realized what he'd said: the word he'd added to Kagome's expression. He bowed his head shamefully.

"Inuyasha," she repeated his name until he finally looked at her, "I was never worried about what the villagers thought. I didn't want you to think less of me."

He shook his head, "Never," he spoke forcefully. "I would never. Everything you did was good. If you know how I can make you feel like that, I want you to tell me." He huffed, pulling away. He needed to move, he wanted to scream, his outburst had ruined everything. "I'm cold," he wasn't, not really, but he needed to do something physical. He pulled on his suiken, not bothering to tie it closed, and stepped to the small pile of wood he'd gathered earlier, but had been to anxious to do anything with. He knelt and arranged it, then tried to strike a spark. He growled in frustration at his failed attempts, then at his stupid human nails. He should have started the damn fire when he could just rake his claws along his sword. Fuck! He hated being human!

Kagome gently took the flint from his hands. She sparked the tinder deftly, her skill at such things had greatly improved over the last three months. "I didn't mean to make you angry," she said softly.

"I'm not angry," he sighed, "okay, maybe I am. But not at you. I wanted tonight to be perfect." He glared at the fire, "Should have known I couldn't pull off romantic."

Kagome was staring at the fire, but a soft smile blossomed, "Romantic doesn't mean perfect, you know."

"I just yelled at you."

"I'm scared of losing you, too."

He flinched and stared at her, her eyes didn't move from the fire. "Kagome..."

"I had to go to school, like everything was normal, because no one knew, could know, what happened. I couldn't come back here, and I didn't know if I ever would. So, I had to finish school. All I wanted was to be here. Sometimes I have nightmares that the well never reopened, and I went to college and got a job, the whole time I feel so empty. I know you heard when Sango asked if I miss my time." He had, but he had run before he heard her answer, because he was terrified of it. "I miss my family, but not my life there. I didn't have one. My life was here." She took his hand, tentatively; he let her. "Things here are harder, but this is where I want to be. Being with you is where I want to be."

He squeezed her hand, "There's always going to be people who fear me, hate me, because I'm not human. I'm selfish for dragging you into that."

"Hey," she argued, indignant, "you didn't drag me into anything. I'm with you because it's what I want. And everyone in the village knows you. They all love you."

"Not everyone," he responded sadly. "I don't ever want you to have to see that, how quickly a whole village can turn because of a few. I don't want you to suffer because of me."

"Who's said something about you?"

"Yuuto," he replied softly. "It was before you came back. One of his daughters was playing at the edge of the village. A bug demon, a centipede, I don't remember, tried to snatch her. When I carried her back home he tried to hit me with a rake. Told me to stay away from his family." She didn't need to hear the full story. That he'd slashed the rake to pieces with his claws after the man had also threatened to beat the child for "allowing herself to be touched by the disgusting monster."

She didn't try to minimize it, nor did she ask for more details. What she did say surprised him: "Promise that you'll tell me if someone says or does anything because you're a half demon."

He narrowed his eyes, "Why?"

"So you don't have to dwell on it alone."

He smiled, "I haven't felt alone since you came back."

She had slowly inched closer, she rested her head on his shoulder, "Plus, I'm sure I could find some herb that would make Yuuto's hair fall out or something. I bet Kaede would help me."

He chuckled, "Don't go poisoning the villagers. Then they'll really know I'm rubbing off on you."

They sat in comparable silence for a while. Inuyasha had expected to feel his tension build, but the opposite happened. His shoulders slowly relaxed, until he finally shifted so that he could put his arm around Kagome.

"Talking about what's bothering you can be romantic," Kagome placed her palm flat on his chest over his heart. She kept the pressure gently reassuring as she ran it up to his shoulder and back to his sternum. It wasn't the same as earlier, it didn't send spasms of pleasure through him, but it comforted him, nonetheless. "You being this open, talking, is nice."

He scoffed, "I don't know what it is. It's not like my feelings are different when I'm human. It's like my ability to stop reacting to everything is weaker."

She laughed, "I'd tell you what that sounds like from a woman's perspective, but I think you'd get mad."

"I just don't understand how I can be so happy, then in an instant be so sad. I have everything I could want. Hell, more than I ever thought I'd get, why would that make me sad?"

"I wish I had an answer for you."

"Thanks for being so patient. I sort of just expected us to," should he admit it? He turned his head away from her, blushing furiously, "just kind of have sex and that's it. I didn't think there'd be more to it."

"Wouldn't be us if it was that simple, would it?"

His lip curled into a small smile, "Guess not." He looked up to the sky, the night had felt impossibly long, but he knew they were still many hours from sunrise. "Do you want to try to rest for a bit?"

He was startled by the way she answered, she continued to stare calmly at the fire, her words were perfectly even. "No. I want you to kiss and touch me like I did for you." She took a deep, what he understood to be a reassuring breath, and met his eyes. She looked equally determined and embarrassed.

Instantly, his excitement was back. His smile widened, he wanted her to relax, to stop being embarrassed. He had an idea on how to achieve that. He stood and held out his hand.

She took it without hesitating, but still asked, "What are you doing?"

"You're thinking too much."

This was going to take a bit of coordination. He pulled her close and kissed her, hard, the way she had said cleared her mind, but he kept his eyes open. After a few moments, when he was sure her mind was fully occupied with the kiss, he carefully led her backward, just a half step at a time, so that the movement would go unnoticed, until they were right next to the tree he had spent half a century pinned to.

He pulled away just long enough for her glazed eyes to open, they spoke for her, asking why he had stopped. "You had to figure out what made me stop thinking. I got lucky." He smiled deviously at her confusion. He wrapped one arm around her middle, the other slid into her hair to cushion the back of her head as he pushed her against the tree and pinned her there with his body. She gasped out half of his name, but his kiss swallowed the rest.