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Title: Not Quite Courtship

Prompt: Rivalry

Summary: Inuyasha, Kouga, and a brief look at their interesting relationship.

Word Count: 465


Inuyasha had sensed the shards approaching, felt the familiar tingle of awareness up his spine and the tug at his core. The speed at which they advanced had nearly overwhelmed his "sixth sense," making his stomach churn as he tried to keep up with the blur of energy. Before Inuyasha could speak he was there, glowing with the shards' power and snarling at them like they had done wrong in defending themselves from the wolves. Kouga, he'd claimed, Ieader of the Eastern Wolf Tribe. As if that made any difference, excused the horrors he'd allowed his beasts to commit. Inuyasha had hated him in that moment. All these people, an entire village, senselessly slaughtered, and the bastard couldn't even muster an ounce of remorse or guilt.

The way he spoke to Kagome made him sick. How dare he speak to her that way, to any of them that way, as though they were weak and he were better than them? What did a rotten wolf prince know about what real strength was? Each and every one of his friends was kinder, smarter, stronger than he was. Just because that prick could run like a comic book character didn't mean he was better than anyone. Then he even had the nerve to kidnap him! Inuyasha had at least been able to get Shippo out of there, secretly worried what the much larger demons would do to the fox kit they had no use for. It wasn't much of a surprise Inuyasha spent his entire stint in captivity arguing with Kouga. He was pretty sure the wolf had gotten awfully close to deciding he wasn't worth the effort more than once.

Inuyasha didn't really know what he was thinking when he defended Kouga. Honestly even he'd expected himself to stand back and let Kagome put an arrow through him, but he hadn't. Maybe it was because he knew Kouga had a family, or because he didn't like the idea of Kagome killing out of vengeance for him, or maybe it was because some part of him had enjoyed their constant back and forth. Maybe it was all three. Whatever the reason, he'd done it, and something had changed between them. They still called themselves rivals, still fought over every little thing they could think of, but Kouga sprinkled in veiled compliments and flirtatious remarks, always catching Inuyasha off guard in the midst of a fight. Kagome wasn't keen on him hanging around, but Inuyasha found he actually enjoyed the wolf's presence, probably a lot more than he should. It was an odd almost relationship, a fragile balancing between challenge and courtship. Some day the balance would need to be tipped for good, but for now both boys were content to call this thing between them a rivalry.


Shrugs. I don't know when I started shipping this it just kinda snuck up on me? But its cute and it makes room for lesbian Kagome, so . . .