AN: Hope you enjoy!

Kagome was worrying about Inuyasha. She didn't think snail demons were that difficult to defeat. In fact, she was surprised when Inuyasha had left her right in the middle of their, well, celebration to go fight a low-class demon. She assumed Sango would probably have taken care of it by the time Inuyasha got there. Well, I guess it was probably smart of him to go check it out, she thought. But that didn't explain why he was taking so long to get back to her.

Kagome had stayed inside their hut, thinking Inuyasha was going to return quickly. But as time went on, she began to pace back and forth. She eventually walked outside, and thought that maybe she should go look for him, just to check out what had happened. Kagome sat down on the porch on the front entrance of her hut. Maybe he would be back soon. She didn't know. She wished that she could call him and ask what was going on, but unfortunately, a phone plan wasn't in the contract she'd signed when she'd decided to live with Inuyasha in his era.

Kagome sighed, and just as she stood up to go find him, Inuyasha jumped into her field of vision.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called happily.

Inuyasha jumped towards Kagome and kissed her hello. Kagome hugged Inuyasha tight. He hugged her back, but she didn't let go.

"What are you doing, baka?" Inuyasha asked gently, when Kagome didn't release the hug.

"I don't know. You leaving me like that just reminded me of when we'd get separated from each other in battle. It brought back the fear I'd feel in my gut when you'd go off somewhere dangerous." Kagome said. Or when you'd go see Kikyo… she thought to herself.

Inuyasha kissed her on the top of her head. "You weren't actually scared that something would happen to me, were you?"

Kagome laughed, and pulled away from the hug, looking into Inuyasha's eyes. "Of course I wasn't actually worried. It just reminded me of that feeling, is all."

Inuyasha kissed Kagome's nose. "Times are different now. You don't need to worry any more. We can relax and enjoy our lives together."

Kagome smiled. "You're right." She turned her eyes towards the hut. "What took you so long to kill the demon then, anyway? It was a snail demon, right? Those things are usually pretty wimpy."

Inuyasha blushed. "Uh, well, yeah. Actually, Sango had already slain it by the time I got there."

Kagome crossed her eyebrows. "So, then why did it take you so long?"

Inuyasha didn't answer, he only blushed a deeper colour.

"Inuyasha?"

For the life of him, Inuyasha had no idea what to say.

"Inuyasha, WHAT took you so long?"

"Uh," he stammered. "Uhhhhh…"

"Inuyasha, if we're getting MARRIED, then you're going to have to start being more honest with me!" This IS just like when he'd go off to see Kikyo! He's hiding something! She thought.

"Uhhh, I just, I don't know Kagome, I don't want to say-"

"Inuyasha, tell me NOW!" Kagome yelled.

"I just, I can't Kagome-"

"SIT BOY!" Kagome shouted.

"Arrgh!" Inuyasha grunted as his body was pulled to the ground by the neck. Damn! Facing Miroku was much better than this! He thought.

As he got up, Kagome was kneeling and waiting for him to lock eyes with her.

"Why'd you have to do that, Kagome?" Inuyasha shouted. It was his first "sit" in three years. He had to say, he sure didn't miss it much.

She grabbed him by his two tufts of hair he had framing his face. "Tell. Me. Now."

Inuyasha growled at her. "Fine, you wanna know what I was doing? I was MASTURBATING Kagome! I WAS MASTURBATING."

"Inuyasha! There are CHILDREN around!" Miroku shouted from a distance with a chuckle in his voice.

Kagome and Inuyasha's eyes widened in embarrassment. He forgot that Miroku's girls liked to play around his hut. Plus, it's not like anyone has much privacy with Miroku around. Inuyasha mentally smacked himself in the face. He almost wished the Kagome would sit him again. Almost.

Kagome had turned a little red. "Oh, uuuuh," she stammered. "Would you like to go inside and talk about it?" She helped him up off the ground, and rubbed dirt off his kimono.

The two walked sheepishly inside, not saying anything as they walked up the stairs to enter the hut. The two sat down to face each other.

"You know, Miroku is never gonna let me live that one down," Inuyasha said.

"Yeah, uh, I'm so sorry. You running off like that also reminded me of how you used to go to Kikyo," Kagome admitted. "I'm sorry, I know that's really silly of me. She's dead, after all."

Inuyasha grabbed Kagome's hands. "Kagome, I love you. I love you so much. You know that, right?"

He had never said it to her before. She knew it, of course, but she'd never heard him say those words.

"I love you too," she replied. "And of course I know that." Inuyasha scooted beside her, and put his arm around her shoulder. She rested her head on his. All the anxiety Inuyasha had felt earlier had vanished, but he still had some questions. What did Kagome want?

"You've never said those words to anyone else, right? Especially not that wolf boy?" Inuyasha asked.

"No! Inuyasha, I never forgot about you. No one else has even come close to you. And when would I have even have had time to say that to Koga? I was in my era the past three years!"

"Uh, nevermind," Inuyasha said, putting the thought of future-Koga out of his head. Gods, I'm jealous, he thought. I'm imagining Koga chasing after her in a time period that he can't even access.

"Okay, tell me something then. Why were you, uh, masturbating?" Kagome desperately wanted to sounds mature when she said the word masturbating, but she couldn't help hesitating around it a little. Her and Inuyasha never really had conversations like these before. Back in the day, the two were usually really embarrassed to discuss anything surround physical intimacy. Inuyasha usually blushed if Kagome cuddled up next to him. Now, things were different. The two were older and committed to each other.

"Uhhhh," he stammered. "Well, I was thinking about earlier… how I proposed… how we were…"

"Baka!" Kagome hit Inuyasha on the arm. "Then why didn't you just come back to me and then we could continue what we were doing, instead of making me worry?"

Inuyasha took his arm off of her shoulder and sat facing her again. He folded his arms together.

"Look, Kagome," he said, unable to look her directly in the eye. "I… I didn't want to pressure you on anything. I don't know if you want to wait until after we're married, and I was worried that I'd get carried away and do something I'd regret." Plus I was worried that you'd fucked loads of Koga-like men in your time and that I'd be terrible and bed and you'd hate it.

Kagome kissed Inuyasha in response to what he'd said, much to his surprise. She grabbed his hands. "Inuyasha, I really do love you. Look, I'm from a different time period. In my time, lots of people don't wait to sleep together until they're married. I'm a twentieth century girl. The only thing that matters to me is that I'm with somebody I trust and love. And," she said quietly, "I've been wanting this, and wanting you for three years. I feel like we don't need to worry about 'waiting,' since I've been doing my share of that." Kagome laughed nervously. "I know we don't have to rush things, but we don't have to slow anything down if it's just for the sake of slowing down. Basically, what I'm saying is, don't worry about me. I'm fine that we're getting more sexual. I'm more than fine with it."

"I'm glad," Inuyasha replied. "But I want you to know that whenever you'd like to have sex, I'm happy to wait as long as you need."

And why does him saying that make me want him more? Kagome thought. "Let's make our first time special," she said.

"I was planning on doing that anyway," he replied. "So then, should we just wait until we're married?"

Kagome paused. "Look, Inuyasha. I… I don't know when I want to get married to you."

"Uh, what do you mean? You having second thoughts?"

"No, it's not that." Kagome bit her thumbnail. "I just… I always pictured my family being at my wedding." Her voice trembled just a little, but Inuyasha could always smell when she was getting a little sad. "I miss them, Inuyasha. And it makes me sad to think that I might never see them again. If they're not at our wedding, I think I'll be too sad to enjoy the day as much as I'd like to."

"So… what do you want to do? I hate to say this Kagome, but we don't know if we'll ever see them again."

Kagome couldn't hold it back anymore. Inuyasha embraced her, and she cried into his robe. He hated to see her in pain. He wished there was something he could do. He knew what it was like to lose family. It sucked.

"Kagome, I'm so sorry. It's all because of me that you're not with your family."

"Inuyasha, it's okay. I chose to come back here. I wanted to be with you. I just miss them, is all."

"Yeah, I understand. Of course you do."

Kagome cried, while Inuyasha held his beloved in his arms. He rubbed her back, wishing that he could do more to comfort her.

AN: I keep saying that Kagome is from the twentieth century. I read an article by inu-fanon on tumblr, and she had some great opinions on the time period in which InuYasha takes place. Basically, it's complicated. Just for simplicity's sake, I'm calling Kagome's time the twentieth century.

Also, even though they're getting married, they still have those jitters that you get when you start a new relationship. After all, they haven't seen each other in three years! It's kind of like they're getting to know each other again… especially since they're exploring new parts of their relationship ;)