"I have to go back," she told him bluntly "he has to know that I'm okay because if I don't then I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I'm sorry, Koga."

Kagome picked the last of leaves out of her hair and started walking towards Inuyasha, but there was a part of her that didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay.

She wanted to stay with Koga, but she knew that her rightful place was next to Inuyasha and helping him find the rest of the Sacred Jewel. Kagome had to go back, she was supposed to go back, and she was meant to go back.

"Kagome," Koga growled under his breath. Kagome turned around to face him and saw his arm reach out for her to grab her. His extended hand grasped the back of her head and pulled her down to him and kissed her sweetly.

The kiss was less passionate than before but it left a more intimate and heartfelt imprint on her as he slowly parted her lips with his own. When the kiss was broken, Koga was staring at her having her eyes in a dead lock- almost like a trance.

"Don't let that mutt get in the way of this," he whispered to her stroking her cheek "wolves mate for life, Kagome, don't forget that."

Kagome's face was flushed red and still felt hot and her heartbeat showed no signs of slowing down, but she forced herself away from Koga and his unending love and walked away. The young wolf demon stood up and stared at her as she walked away from him and walked closer to the one that didn't deserve her. He breathed a heavy sigh and, before he walked off into the moonless night, he hissed something between his fangs that seemed to be less of a threat and more of a promise.

"If he ever makes you cry again, Kagome, he's not going to live long enough to apologize."

Inuyasha sat with his back curled and his knees covering his face and his fist still lodged into the shallow crater that he made with just his human strength. He had felt completely defeated. How could he not have noticed her gone? Even if his dog senses hadn't returned to him yet, he should be more aware of Kagome especially when he was in this form. Why couldn't he be more assertive? Just as he was about to pound his bloody hand into the mound again, the chime of a familiar voice rang in his ear and all sense of worry and depression melted away.

"Inuyasha, what are you doing out here? You know you shouldn't be out here in your current state."

As Inuyasha raised his head, he saw Kagome with her casual happy smile and her tattered shirt being carried in her arms that had dirt and bits of leaves scattered up and down both of her arms and legs. Of course he was wondering what had happened to her, but at that time the only thing he cared about was that she was safe and well and alive.

He slowly stood up and walked closer over to her with a look of happiness in his eyes but his eyes were so black it was hard to tell exactly what he was thinking. He laid his head on her shoulder and brought her body close to his and hugged her tightly, afraid that if he had loosened his grip for even a second then she would run away again.

"Thank God you're alright," he hushed in her ear "I thought I was going to lose you."

Inuyasha always seemed to act differently around Kagome when he transformed into a human. When he was around the others, his attitude never changed and he would always complain about being human and having his usual demon strength diminished, but when he was alone with Kagome he seemed to be so caring and sweet like he was acting right now.

She didn't know what to do; was she supposed to push him away and act like it was a mistake or was she supposed to return the hug? What was she supposed to do? As their hug continued, the sun began to break through the darkness and shine its light over everything. Kagome looked over to Inuyasha's hair and held it in her hands as she watched the color transform from pitch black to the shining white silver that had always stunned her. Although his eyes were closed, she knew that his golden yellow eyes had returned as well along with his destructive claws. She continued to hold him for asecond to compare the way that Inuyasha felt to her in contrast to how Koga felt. There was a difference she easily sense it.

With Inuyasha, no matter how kind he occasionally can be and how close they get, there's always a wall between the two of them and it can't be brought down or reduced or even broken. Kagome knew full-well what that wall was and its name was Kikyo.

Inuyasha could deny it as much as he could but that was the truth and the truth is supposed to hurt. Even as she held him and he held her, Kagome could hear the resonating sound of her heart slowly breaking and the shrieking sound of her mind telling her to stop with this useless romance- it's never going to be worth this much pain.

With this realization in mind, she slowly pushed him away so it wouldn't seem like she didn't want him to touch her at all and draped her leftover shirt around her shoulders.

"Come on, Inuyasha, let's head back. I'm sure everyone is awake by now." She smiled at him trying to mask her emotionally unstable pain.

He was silent for a moment.

"Yeah, I guess."

The two of them returned to their friends in silence neither one of them saying a word. Miroku and Sango and Shippo spotted them from a distance and waved over at them screaming out their names and asking them if something bad had happened to them. Kagome eased their worries saying that bad had happened to either of them.

When the topic of her shirt came up, she lied to them saying that as she was walking around the forest she missed her step and a branch in front of her that had eluded her ripped off her shirt. It seemed like an unbelievable story, but they managed to take the bait.

Kagome hated lying to her friends about something as trivial as who does she choose to be with, but if she had told them she got the feeling that maybe things would start to spiral out of control more than they already have.

"Now that everyone has returned safely, should we start out our search for Naraku?" suggested Miroku.

"He's right," Sango said picking up her Hiraikotsu "we can't stay here too long or else we'll lose him."

"Don't even bother. Naraku's scent has been wiped completely clean of this whole area. There isn't a single trace of him anywhere."

Kagome could tell that Inuyasha was kicking himself about this. Naraku was so close to them but they had to stay where they were in fear that Naraku would figure out Inuyasha's secret. Kagome thought that she had to take some responsibility as well. Instead of trying to win Inuyasha's heart, she should have tried to convince the others to go after Naraku. They could have held him at bay long enough until Inuyasha got his demon strength back to deliver the killing blow. Then they could finally be rid of that demon for forever.

She tried to reach her hand out to him so he wouldn't feel so helpless but he intentionally dodged her touch. He told everyone to get their stuff and move out. Sango and Miroku jumped on Kirara's back and headed out first, Shippo tried to catch up to the two of them so he chased after them with all four paws on the ground and leaped up to grab Kirara's tail. The awkward couple was the last one to go.

Kagome grabbed her over-stuffed backpack and hopped on top of her bike and was just about to pedal off when Inuyasha stood in front of her.

"Listen, Kagome," he started.

"Yeah?" she stared up at him.

"You can ask if you wanna ride on my back, ya don't gotta ride that metal monster of yours."

Kagome stared at him in disbelief.

"What is it now?"

"Nothing, nothing's wrong. It's just that when I rode my bike before it never bothered you so it's a real shock to me that you would start caring about it now."

Inuyasha tried to keep up his façade but it seemed to be slipping more than he had anticipated so he took action and got right to the point. He ripped Kagome off of the "metal monster" and threw her body over him and forced her arms to wrap around his neck and darted off in the same direction as their friends.

"Wait a minute, Inuyasha!" she hollered at him, "we can't just leave my bike there!"

"Why are you so concerned about it? It's nothing special."

"Just because it isn't important to you, doesn't mean that we should leave it behind. It's my bike and I want it back!"

"We're busy here, Kagome, we don't have time for trivial things like that."

"It's only trivial to you because you don't care about what happens to it!"

"I do care just not at this moment!"

She scoffed.

"No, you don't! The only thing you care about is yourself! You don't care about anyone's feelings but your own! Except when Kikyo's involved then all you think about is her. I am so sick of you loving her! You're a demon! How can you love anything at all?"

Inuyasha fell silent. Kagome gasped at her own words. She didn't mean for it to come out like that. How did the conversation even come to that? They were supposed to be talking about something that had absolutely nothing to do with this. How did it come to something like this? The two didn't say anything for a while but Inuyasha didn't stop running and Kagome didn't ask him to stop either.

She still clung to his neck and he had his arms wrapped around her legs to support her and she tried not to press her chest too much against him because if she did how could she be sure if he would hear the sound of her heart either beating too fast or crying too loud.

After a while, Inuyasha slowed his pace and stopped running and come to a halt then he just dropped her to the ground. Kagome hit the ground pretty hard and it made her neck snap back and the pain was minor but, after this moment, she had wished her neck had been hurt so much more than what Inuyasha had said to her.

"I am tired of this Kagome! You don't have a single clue of what I've been through because you've been wrapped up in your own! You tell me that I'm selfish? You say that I'm the one who has no regard for human emotions? In case ya haven't noticed, Kagome, I ain't human! Why don't you take a look at yourself! I care a lot about you Kagome, but that doesn't mean that you're the only one that I care about. I...also care about Kikyo because I loved her first and I probably always will love her, but don't you ever use that as ammo to hurt me just so you can feel better about yourself."

"Inu…yasha?" her words were filled with choking tears.

"You don't think I don't see you moping around in corners sighing to yourself all day long? Obviously you've got a problem with me still loving Kikyo, but you have to get over that! I love Kikyo and as for 'us' we are nothing. We don't have a relationship, Kagome; you're just a jewel detector. You're a means to an end."

What was he saying? She couldn't understand what he was telling her. Was that all she was to him? A jewel detector? A means to an end? Did he truly love only Kikyo and her alone? What about all the times that they had spent together?

Out of all of the times they had spent together, Kikyo's name hadn't popped up unless they were talking about Inuyasha's past. Other than that she didn't cross anyone's mind. Why was Inuyasha being like this? Kagome's eyes had faded so much that you couldn't see her pupils-they looked so lifeless. Her hands rose to ears and clenched around them to keep form anymore hurtful words coming after. She tried to breathe but her chest felt so tight and constricted Kagome thought that there was no longer air in the world. Tears began to wallow in her eyes and slowly spilled down her face and those tears stung with each drip.

Nothing had ever hurt this much before she thought I don't remember being in this much pain before in my life. This is all my fault, if I hadn't made such a big deal out of something so stupid I would never had to experience this much pain and now Inuyasha hates me. I was naïve to think that Inuyasha would just drop Kikyo from his heart and come running to me. I was pretty stupid.

"You're right…, Inuyasha," she managed to choke out of her throat.

I never should have left with him.

"I should have… thought more about you."

I never should have loved him.

"I was…only…thinking about…myself."

I never should have chosen him.

"I am…so….very…sorry"

I want to be with Koga!

"I'm so sorry, Inuyasha."

I love you, Koga.

The entire time she apologized to him, Inuyasha didn't turn around to face her once. The sight of his back facing her without the slightest hint of a flinch or nudge or any movement of any kind created a sense of coldness around Inuyasha that Kagome had imagined circling around him.

He had meant every word that he told her and he stood by them. He stood there with his broad back and malicious aura and she sat there in her depression and brokenness. When the silence proved too much for either one, Inuyasha faced Kagome and saw the actual damaged she had cause to her. Tears had stained to rough patched ground where her defeated body sat almost like a deteriorating corpse in rigor mortis.

He couldn't see her face but from he stood he could still see a slight glimpse of her color turning from its once lively peach color to a scare white. I really am sorry Kagome he wanted to tell her but you had to hear it. He wanted to reach out for her and hold her close to him to comfort and caress her and make the trouble he himself had caused but, to him, the bringer of grief can't take it back.

The lingering silence was finally broken when each of them sensed something coming straight towards them. Kagome could sense the jewel shards and Inuyasha recognized the disgusting stench of a certain wolf.

"Great, the last thing I need right now is for that damn wolf to annoy me." Inuyasha growled to himself.

Kagome didn't say anything, but when Inuyasha said "wolf" her heart leapt into her throat. Koga was heading this way and he was coming to see her. Even with her aching heart, she still managed t spread a genuine smile across her face.

She lifted her body off the floor and stared off into the far distance where she could sense the jewel shards coming from. There was a distinctive cyclone heading towards them and as she stared at it, her heart began beating faster and harder. Her heart was pounding so violently, Kagome thought it would burst out of her chest, but she couldn't help it. She was ecstatic that Koga was coming back.

"It's Koga," she whispered, "Koga's coming back."

The whirlwind was gradually drawing closer and closer to them and as it did Inuyasha's hand was drawing closer to the hilt of his Tetsusaiga.

"I'm gonna put an end to this once and for all."

Inuyasha drew out his Tetsusaiga in a single stroke and aimed it straight at Koga. Kagome saw Inuyasha draw his sword and she felt a wave of disturbance wash over her. Although in the past Inuyasha and Koga were never serious about killing each other no matter how many times they said it, today seemed different. Inuyasha was already in a foul mood because of their argument and Koga was charging full speed at Inuyasha with no sign of slowing down. Reacting solely on her instincts, Kagome threw herself at Inuyasha and wrapped her arms around his arm that held the dog demon fang and tried to rip it from his grasp.

"Kagome!" he growled "what the hell are you doing?" he tried to shake her off.

"Don't hurt him," she cried to him "don't hurt him, Inuyasha, please! Please, don't hurt Koga!"

The sound of pleading in her voice over the pathetic wolf caused Inuyasha to snap. In a fit of blind white rage, he struck Kagome to the face sending her body flying to the sidelines unconscious and her face bleeding. He breathed heavily for a moment and when the rage disappeared he was disgusted with himself and dropped his sword and started to run over to her side but was stopped with a bellowing growl.

"Inuyasha!" it snarled "what the hell did you do to my Kagome!"

Inuyasha turned around and faced Koga, but not the Koga he was expecting. The Koga that stood in front of him had his fangs bared and looked ready to rip apart anything in their path. His fist rose to his face in a fighting stance where his claws extended out and ready to rip. His eyes were no longer the calming light blue they usually were, his anger and fury changed his eyes to show a sort of blackish grey glow that only meant one thing: Death.

"Koga, what do you mean "my" Kagome?"

"Shut your fucking mouth! How dare you do this to her! You were supposed to protect her! You were supposed to keep her out of danger! How are you supposed to protect her when the most dangerous thing around her is you?!"

Inuyasha sheathed his sword with his head lowered in disgrace. Koga was right, though he hated to admit it; his job was to protect Kagome and make sure that she wasn't hurt by anything and if they did hurt her it was his job to destroy that thing. He turned to face Koga without showing Koga the look of complete defeat in his eyes.

"Koga, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me, you mongrel! I'm not the one you mauled across the face like some kind of mindless beast!"

"Yeah…"

Koga's patience was wearing thin. He snapped.

"Is that all you have to say for yourself, you stupid mutt?!"

Koga launched himself at Inuyasha and round housed Inuyasha across the face. Inuyasha's feet scathed across the ground but he didn't fall. His only reaction was spitting out blood. Koga was far from finished. A hail of punches connected aggressively to Inuyasha's stomach that drew them farther and farther from Kagome. When the punches stopped, Koga clasped his hands together, raised them above his head and pounded them down into Inuyasha's skull. Koga hovered over him and waited for his retaliation. When there was none, he grew impatient and sneered.

"Stand up!"

Inuyasha said nothing.

Koga gripped the collar of his kimono and brought him up to his face.

"I said stand up, dam you!"

Koga launched his arm back and thrust his clenched fist into Inuyasha's face. The young half demon went soaring backwards and slammed into a tree. The bark snapped at the impact of his body.

Inuyasha slumped to the ground in total defeat. He didn't have the drive to fight anymore.

Koga stood over him and began kicking him in the stomach.

"This is only the beginning," he grunted between each kick "the pain your experiencing right now is nothing compared to the suffering you caused to Kagome. You don't deserve her!"

With his final blow, there was nothing left to say except for Inuyasha's heavy breathing and gasping for air. Koga glared down at the stupid half-demon pup and spit down at him.

This wasn't enough. He deserved more than what Koga was giving him. He deserved a sword driving through his stomach. He deserved to burn in the pits of Hell itself. Koga thought he deserved so much pain and was ready for another round until he heard Kagome's weak groaning.

He kicked dirt in Inuyahsa' face and walked away from him and ran over towards Kagome. He kneeled down next to her and held her body in his arms while her heady rested gently on his shoulder.

He turned over her face and saw the blood streaking down her cheeks and down her neck. He didn't have a cloth to clean the blood off of her so he had to use what was on hand. He began to lick the blood off her cheek and circled around the wound to try, at the very least, disinfect it. There was a lot more blood than he had anticipated, but the wound had stopped bleeding moments ago so there wasn't any serious damage to her. Once the cheek had been fully licked cleaned, he worked his way down to her neck. He felt Kagome's body flinch slightly at the reaction of his tongue. He looked over at her face and saw her that it had turned slightly red but not from the blood. Her body was reacting to the touch of his tongue licking away at her tongue. Somehow amused by this, Koga smirked and brushed a few stray hairs out of her face and put his lips by her ear to whisper a simple piece of advice.

"Just try and hold it in. It'll be over soon."

Koga's moist heavy tongue continued to graze all along Kagome's neck, licking her clean of any and all blood. Her neck was covered in a slightly thicker coating of blood than her cheek which meant that Koga had to hold his plate still as he licked it harder. He grabbed her shoulders and brought her closer to him. The feeling of his tongue went from a gentle tickle to a fierce shiver of heat. Kagome snapped out of her unconscious state and the jolt of heat flipped herself out of Koga's arms and flinched farther away from him. She covered her face with her arms in a sort of defense thinking that she was being attacked by an unknown enemy but when she got a better look at the "enemy" her heart felt at ease and she lowered her defense.

"Koga?" she asked still a little groggy "what are you doing here? What happened to me?"

"Don't think too hard, you got yourself a nice cut on your face so it might hurt still." He gestured toward the shallow gash on her face. She touched the top part of the scar and wondered how she first gotten this scar and then it came rushing back at her which made her sick to her stomach.

"Inuyasha did this to me, didn't he?" she asked straight forward.

Koga simply nodded his head in agreement and Kagome threw herself at Koga and hugged him around his neck. This had caught him way off guard so the surprise attack made him fall backwards onto the ground.

"Kagome what are you-"

"Please take me with you! I don't care where it is just take me with you! I can't take it anymore!" her voice quieted down "please, Koga, take me with you."

Koga was shocked at first but then he smiled and returned her embrace. He brought up their bodies still clinging in their hug and slowly stroked Kagome's long black hair hushed the girl softly since he could feel her tears dropping his shoulders.

"You win, Kagome" he hushed in her ear "I'll take you with me."

Kagome broke their hug to stare at him with a way-she was sure- Koga had longed to be looked at by her. In her eyes, Koga could see that there was love and affection and desire for the one that held her heart tighter than any iron grip this world has offered. She smiled widely and began to laugh silently as she brought her hand to his face.

"I love you, Koga."

She pushed Koga's face to hers so their lips could crash against each other and swarm around in the passionate heat that they had the night before when Koga had told Kagome he loved her. As they kissed, Koga could feel Kagome's lips shaping into a smile which made him smile in return and he grabbed her waist to bring her body closer to him. He broke the kiss for a brief moment and genuinely smiled her.

"I love you too, Kagome."