.::Inquiry::.

In the morning Kagome was unusually silent as she sat on her knees folding her sleeping bag into a tiny ball, looking deep in thought. It didn't take the rest of her group to catch on to her queer mood. While Shippou rummaged through her yellow bag, looking for sweets, Sango leaned over to Miroku and whispered. "Is it just me or is Kagome being awfully quiet?"

Always eager to be closer to a beautiful woman, Miroku leaned over, "No, you're right. I don't think I've heard her say a word all morning."

A few meters away, Inuyasha's ears flicked in their direction. His eyes slid over to Kagome for a second before flitting away guiltily. Shippou emerged from the bag brandishing a small sucker. "Aha! Kagome, can I have this? Please?"

"Sure."

"Kagome…" Sango began, "Are you feeling all right?"

Kagome began to push her bed-bundle into her knapsack and glanced over to the taijiya, "Of course, Sango. I'm fine. How are you feeling this morning?"

Unsure but accepting, she replied, "Good."

"Well it's great that we're all good, but do ya think that we could get a move on some time this year?"

"You don't have to be so mean you know," Shippou mumbled around his treat. "You've been up in that tree playing dead all morning anyway, while we were getting ready to go."

"Shut it runt, before my fist meets your face! Nobody was talking to you." Inuyasha glared at Shippou, a threat right behind his eyes.

"Cut it out, you two! Stop being rude to each other," Kagome said tightly. Shippou and Inuyasha replied simultaneously:

"He started it!"

"Don't tell me what to do woman!"

Kagome's eyebrow twitched. "Ouswari."

Inuyasha planted face-first into the hard dirt, and while Shippo laughed at his predicament, she pulled the sucker from his mouth.

"Hey, wait!" Kagome threw it on the ground and then crunched it to pieces. "Aw man."

Shippou sat down and stared at the candy bits glumly. Inuyasha, however, was fighting against the subjugation beads. As soon as the charm wore off, he was up and in Kagome's space, red-raced and a little dusty. "What was that for?! You can't just go around acting like I'm your pet on a leash. Show a man a little respect."

"Well you certainly weren't acting like a man a few seconds ago!"

Inuyasha scoffed and said, "What would you know?"

And just like that, the entire tone of the conversation had changed. Tension rose around them like Naraku's miasma, quick and suffocating. Kagome put her hand up to push Inuyasha a few steps back, out of her personal space, her anger fueling the few pink sparks that came from her fingers.

"Ow! Hey, stop that!"

"I might not know all that much, Inuyasha, but I do know that fighting with a little kid doesn't made you grown-up. It makes you immature! And selfish!"

(Further away, Miroku whispered to sango, "Selfish?" Sango shrugged.)

"What? How?"

Kagome sighed heavily, trying to push the moment of hurt rage out of her body. "Nothing, Inuyasha."

"No! I wanna know what you're going on about!"

Kagome was silent for a moment, contemplative. She looked at Sango and then back to Inuyasha. "What were you doing last night?"

"… What?" Inuyasha sounded nervous. "I was here, watching over you guys."

"For most of the night, I'm sure that that's true. But what were you doing with Kikyou?" Sango and Shippou both gasped and Miroku just shook his head. Kirara licked a paw.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Kagome stared at him until he dropped his gaze. She was almost startled to find that hearing him lie hurt almost as much as what she saw last night. Inexplicably she found herself fighting off tears again.

"Inuyasha, I followed you when you left…. I saw you two together."

She didn't really need to say anything more. When Inuyasha's ears pressed flat against his head, it seemed that he understood. He put up a weak argument, "You can't go wandering around at night by yourself. You'll get…" he trailed off at Kagome's glare.

"I don't suppose you were all that concerned about our safety when you left us all asleep to go hook-up with Kikyou."

"I… don't know what that means, but what you saw didn't mean anything Kagome."

Wow, was her only thought. It's like straight out of a cheesy rom-com. She was suddenly very tired and very much ready to be done with the entire conversation. She gave a tiny smile that didn't reach her eyes and said, "I'm going home."

A/N: Do you think Inuyasha is selfish?