Thank you for the kind comment Small Town Girl :) I was sick for almost a month, but luckily I got better...but now my throat it hurting again. Apologies for the delay in updating chapters, I picked up a lot of overtime at work, and was unable to publish anything, but I have been writing!

I always felt bad for Ayame and her one sided love, she deserves to be happy, so she will not be forgotten! I hope everyone enjoys these two chapters, and I appreciate any kind and constructive comments!

Kouga laid on the floor staring mindlessly at the ceiling, replaying the day's events and exhaled sharply. What a day it had been, he hadn't expected a fight, but was not surprised, he knew Ayami had pushed Ayame too far somehow, even though she had refused to say anything he knew it was about him somehow, and he didn't hold it against her for fighting back. It was a good thing that things between the chief and him had not soured.

He shivered at the thought of Ayami, and also it was cold and he wondered how kagome was fairing with it. He hoped she was okay, but he didn't want to add more fuel to the fire, he knew people would talk. He shook his head, no it would be inappropriate to go find her at this time. Well no, his intentions were not inappropriate but being that he was not in his own home, it most definitely would be. Someone would certainly ask questions, and after all that had happened today he was not exactly feeling very comfortable. It was also very uncomfortable that he was sharing the room with ayame. Of course it was to be expected. Thankfully she was not there yet, but he had dragged a little mat and made it his bed, leaving her the most cozy furs.

A gentle knock made his ears perk up.

"Kouga? Can I come in?" ayame's timid voice asked.

"Yea? Come in." he turned his head over to her.

"Can we talk for a bit?" she asked, he felt his stomach drop, but her eyes were bright and not sad which made him perk up. And he also smelled something else, but he couldn't pinpoint it.

"Of course. What's wrong?" he asked, finally getting up from his mat, she sat on the bed and patted it, and he sat down, leaving some distance between them.

Please don't ask me to sleep next to you. It had happened in the past, on their unification night, well actually she had wanted more than just sleeping, in fact it had been everyone who had whooped and hollered when they went to their chamber after celebrating all day, it was expected after all, to mate. He had feigned tiredness and rolled over and pretended to sleep. The next day she had asked to sleep next to him, just sleep, which turned into a very strained and awkward conversation, after which she never asked again, and they slept separately.

"I…" she paused looking away, and sighed "I want to end our union, tomorrow"

"Oh…oh!" was his slightly baffled reaction, in fact it took him a minute to understand her, he shook his head, "you said…you wanted to end our…union? Is that what you said?"

She nodded, "yes, that's right."

"Is…" he paused, "is there a…reason on why it's so soon?" he wanted to tread carefully on this.

She looked at him both with amusement and with the come on look.

"I mean isn't it obvious what the reason is?"

"It's ka-"

She stopped him, "no kouga, with or without kagome, you were never going to fully love me, at least in the way I loved you, even after she left you never changed, your feelings never changed about me, and well what's the point? We're both still young, and honestly I want to have pups and I'm guessing…you do too." he nodded slowly, yes, he wanted kids and lots of them, nothing in this world would make him happier than to have his own pups, but he wanted it with the right person.

"Well, it's obvious that it's not going to happen with the two of us," she continued, "and I think that there's someone out there for each of us" she smiled shyly, her thoughts going back to someone.

"anyways the point is, we're going nowhere with our unification, and both of our elders are getting antsy with us being unified for years, and still no pups, they've already started asking questions," she rolled her eyes, "they asked if either me or you had…problems or if we didn't know how to…do it" she whispered the last part, her cheeks flushing. A few of them had ambushed her when she woke up to get some food, asking far too many personal questions, how she had wish kagome was there.

Kouga laughed and ayame joined him with giggles.

"Of course we know what to do and how to- nevermind" he said his cheeks blazing, yes they had been unified for years, but this was still new territory for them "it's just…ayame, I love you as a friend truly, and I respect you too much to just use you that way so we can have pups, I want you to have pups with someone who you love and loves you. You deserve that. "

She smiled at him, "as do you, which is why tomorrow morning, I'm going to talk to the elders, and I want you to come with me, if we vouch for each other there should be no conflicts, we can bring up not being compatible as mates, and they'll let us go our own ways. I know we talked about ending it but I think tomorrow is good, you know, since they're all here…" she trailed off.

He smiled at her, "thank you, ayame." He reached to hug her and she flung her arms around him and they hugged each other tightly, as friends.

"Thank you kouga, I hope you end up with kagome."

He blushed, "I'm not gonna chase her again, but I hope you end up with ezume."

She gaped at him, "e-ezume?"

He snorted, "don't play, you have his scent all over you and your scar's gone." he wiggled his eyebrows at him and she swatted at him, her face burning red. He knew?!

Tomorrow, they would both go and see what would happen.

Sango was positively gloating, her smile was so wide, he thought it was creepy and he shuddered. He never thought that he would see Sango smile at him, at first he was thrilled thinking everything had blown over but quickly his feelings grew wary.

He had eyed her suspiciously, he had noticed that miroku, sango and shippo had been gone for hours which was odd considering she was pregnant, once they had returned sango was practically bouncing with glee. She had seen him watching her, and she grinned and… waved at him? No, it was his eyes playing tricks, sango hated him but even shippo had looked at him and stuck out his tongue, this was also the first time that the young fox had acknowledged him, women sure were a mystery to him.

Screw it he thought, looking around to make sure his mate wasn't around. He cautiously approached the group, hoping it wasn't a trick and sango wasn't going to bash his skull in, as he neared them the smell hit him, wolves he wrinkled his nose and tried to hide his disdain.

"What are you guys up to?" he asked.

Sango looked down at her nails feigning boredom, "oh nothing much just visiting kagome and her boyfriend." she drawled on the boyfriend part.

So she wants to spite me eh

"You went to visit kagome and the mangy wolf, hm" he poked his head up and sniffed in disgust, crossing his arms.

"Oh yes, he wanted to surprise her with us before they left."

"L-left? To where?" he sputtered

Sango and Miroku looked at each other, "we actually don't know but it seemed like it was a big deal." miroku answered, trying to intervene gently but also wanted to help his wife in bothering Inuyasha.

Sango's face lit up in a disgustingly gleeful way, "I'm sure it was to meet everyone." she smiled, "or to ask her to be his girlfriend, who knows ." she shrugged, loving the irked expression on the hanyou's face.

"maybe to meet his family? Either way she lit up when she saw us, it was a cute surprise on his part."

He gritted his teeth, she left? So soon? Was she already moving on, after all those years was she going to move on? He shook his head. He wanted to ask more questions, he opened his mouth and...

"Inuyasha." her soft voice spooked him, he turned and saw kikyo staring at him, with the same passive expression she always had. He nodded, it was time for him to go home and help kikyo with making medicine. He slowly trudged towards her, and snuck a look back, Miroku and Sango were smiling about something, and he rubbed her belly, he felt himself slightly deflate, he wanted kids, but he knew it would not be in his future.

Kikyo reached her hand out and instantly he took it, he made the right choice. Of course he did, he loved Kikyo and that outweighed everything.

Right?