A/N; We have a wonderful new fanart, guys! You can find it on tumblr and on AO3 version of this fic. Thank you to lady2nope for your awesome art and for allowing me to add it to the fic. It makes me so happy to see that people like this story.

The Miko Gets Passionate

Kagome stared, forgetting about inhaling again after exhaling. She'd always thought that Inuyasha's giant dog form was a sight to behold, but his elder brother was like the most magnificent nightmare. Easily taller than the trees, fur shining white, muscles flexing as he shifted his paws against the ground, his face markings making his snout looking even more slender than it was, eyes blazing, ears...

'He has floppy ears!' she exclaimed. How an akita inu had floppy ears? Inuyasha's were proper, but his elder brother looked like he had some amount of other dog breed in him . She wondered what kind of a dog could it be. A spaniel maybe/

'Focus, wench!' Inuyasha barked at her in mind speech. 'When I leap at him you go for Tessaiga and then move your ass to the treeline.'

"What? No, I told you, I'm not leaving you!' she objected.

'And how will you aid me, aside of being trampled?!' he snapped and lowered his head to nudge her with his nose, eyes focused on the other canine. She frowned, but there was some logic in his words, she was tiny in comparison to either brother.

'Okay, but I will not stand by if I can help,' she grumbled.. Why had he to be right? She wanted to help, she wanted them not to fight.

As soon as he got her words, Inuyasha sprang forward, not bothering to bark or otherwise signal his attack. Kagome did as she was told, grabbing Tessaiga and running for the edge of the meadow. Which was a wise choice of action, because two giant dogs biting and showing at each other wasn't what one wanted to be close to.

Massive paws hit the ground, lifted and clawed at the flanks, kicking up torn pieces of dirt and grass, along with fur torn off of the combatants. The youkai disengaged and jumped back, growling at each other, ears laid back heads lowered, fangs bared, only to jump at each other again, trying to get a good grasp at the ruff-covered throat of the other. Tails swishing and youki swirling around them they pushed and bit at each other's shoulders. Sesshomaru knocked Inuyasha off of his feet and almost pinned the shrine guardian down, but Inuyasha managed to roll over from under him just in time. Growling vibrated in the air.

She could sense all the times Sesshomaru's teeth dug through his fur and skin, drawing blood and painful. She sensed each time the shrine guardian bit his brother. Adrenaline, both his and hers, sang in her ears and Kagome could not look away from them. There was beauty in the ferocious attacks of the smaller dog, so bravely challenging the bigger and stronger one time and time again.

Kagome bit her lip and clutched the katana to her chest, sensing the pulsing power within the blade. It didn't like this fight as well. Inuyasha, no matter how angry and determined, didn't look like he was going to win and she tried to find a way to make them stop. She knew he could use Inuyasha's kotodama, but that would only make him vulnerable to the other youkai, who she was sure wouldn't listen to her. After all he had threatened to kill her under the assumption she was enslaving the hanyou. The fact that Inuyasha was getting hurt trying to protect her weighted heavily on her heart, she didn't want him in pain because of her. She gripped Tessaiga in her hands, unable to look away.

"Inuyasha!" she called out when the smaller dog was once again knocked don to the ground. The bigger dog stepped closer, snarling at the hanyou trying to get up. Kagome reached out towards Inuyasha, both in her mind and physically as she took a few steps forward. Fatigue and pain warred in his mind with anger and determination, all thoughts swirling in a tornado she couldn't even begin to decipher. Reaching him to talk was unlikely. This time the shrine guardian didn't get up and away in time and the jaws of the older dog clasped around his neck. The battle was over and Inuyasha lost Now the daiyoukai moved deliberately slowly, as if to show his dominance over his fallen opponent."No!"

Something swelled in her and she let it, forgetting that she as supposed to stay at the sidelines. She ran towards her hanyou, the energy leaving her in a wave of heat. The youkai lifted his head and growled in surprise when the collar around the hanyou's neck came to life with the glow of sacred energy. Blood red eyes looked straight at her and Kagome stumbled to a stop, dread filling her, along with sudden wave of weakness. When the reiki in the collar faded away, so did his dog form. The hanyou struggled to his feet and touched a hand to one of many bleeding wounds on his body. He looked tired an in pain, but his eyes were glowing with stubborn refusal to give up. Seeing him like that made Kagome straighten her back. Her shrine guardian would fight and she was not going to let hm get more hurt while she just stood watching. Now they couldn't trample her, she could do something... right?

"Who do you think you are, coming here and attacking Inuyasha?!" Kagome desperately hoped that she sounded brave and angry, not scared. She dug in her sleeve and produced a sacred paper to show him. "You have to stop that! Just go away!"

The youkai didn't look threatened, but he watched the paper for a while, as if bewildered by her even swaying it at him.

"Hijin Kessou!" with a cry Inuyasha flung his blood at the dog, the blood changing in red blades that entirely missed the target when the youkai shrunk back to his humanoid form. He had no wound or a speck of blood on him, appearing as pristine as before. He didn't look away from Kagome,.

"Release the hanyou or this one shall kill you. None of the royal inu blood will be a slave to a human. Not even a half-blood."

"Don't you dare threaten Kagome, you asshole!" the hanyou barked and jumped intent on attacking his brother with his claws again, but the daiyoukai wrapped his fluffy pelt tightly around him, bringing him down. It somehow grew longer, because it easily coiled around the hanyou several time. He tried to wiggle free, but to no avail, his angry growls muffled.

"He is no slave!" Kagome pointed a finger at him, still holding the paper. "And don't talk to me like I abused him, you locked him up and beat him as a child! You can't barge in on him and demand anything from him! You should apologize and let him go, you terrible person!"

The cocoon of fur stopped struggling. 'Kagome...' he whispered so softly that it almost made her smile. What was he thinking, that she wouldn't defend him? He was per partner and her boyfriend and no estranged scary family member could make her not speak on his behalf. He was owed an apology for all the suffering and loneliness.

"You hurt and starved him when he was little and had no one else to turn to because he couldn't do something you wanted him to! And you tried to take from him the last thing his dad left for him, you sad excuse for a big sibling!" Kagome ignored the soft call of her name in her mind. She ignored the fact that the youkai in front of her was staring coldly. Her reiki was rising again, albeit it lacked the desperate heat of the previous burst. She had seen glimpses of Inuyasha's life when he had been feverish during his human night. And that cold bastard had hurt Inuyasha, he had turned his back on him - just to come back here now, demanding that she was the bad one abusing the hanyou, threatening him and trying to take from him the last thing he had from his father.

"This one has never ordered for his servants to starve the hanyou," Sesshomaru stated plainly. "And now, as he had proven himself strong enough to survive, he can be counted in the royal pack in the West. He has mastered the Tessaiga ad can..."

"Fuck you!" Kagome shook her head. "He chose to stay here and here he will stay! I love him and he is welcome here, no one looks down at him and you will not take him from me, you hear! I'm the miko of this shrine and I will guard the shrine guardian! You can't take the choice from him!"

She huffed after the outraged scream, glaring daggers at the youkai, who so coldly spoke of taking Inuyasha away. This was his home, he had friends here. If he didn't want to go to wherever this youkai wanted him to go, he was going to stay. She wasn't sure how she could win a battle against an opponent that had just beaten Inuyasha but she was going to do whatever she could to make sure he ha a choice.

Tentatively, she reached for Inuyasha to ask if he wanted to go with the daiyoukai. After all... he was his family. He had treated him shitty, but maybe now it would be better? Sesshomaru seemed somewhat impressed with Inuyasha after he had sent a Wind Scar at him. Anxiety filled her when she thought about Inuyasha leaving the shrine to be among the supernatural beings in their own world. Now, thanks to her lifting all the restraints layered upon him over the centuries, he was free to do so. A part of her reminded her that he had reasons and ties to stay at her side too. She had to ask, to see what his choice was on the matter.

But when she touched his mind, she found it quiet. The usual walls that prevented her from reading his thoughts were all but gone, but there was little for her to read. He was not trying to find a way to free himself fro the fur. He was not thinking about leaving her.

The sacred paper fluttered from her fingers and she brought her hand to cover her mouth, staring at the daiyoukai and the hanyou in front of her, her own words ringing in her mind like an echo. That wasn't something she had been planning to yell at his brother. She ha wanted to tell him while holding him close and seeing his face. She had hope to tell him over a dinner of homemade ramen or during a walk through the forest, when they would be alone.

She hadn't planned to blurt it out while yelling at his terrible brother.

Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow at her sudden stillness and hot blush creeping across her face. The foolish girl stared at the hanyou bound in his pelt instead of him.