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KURAMA: Now that reader interaction week is over, perhaps you will now explain to me how you came to possess these photo negatives.

I bought them on eBay.

KURAMA: Where did you really get them?

eBay!

(A cab pulls up.)

The 1001st reviewer is here to visit.

KURAMA: Is she bringing her kids?

No.

KURAMA: Fire-breathing livestock, perhaps?

I don't think so.

(A girl in Sesshoumaru makeup and an "I LOVE EBAY" T-shirt exits the cab)

KURAMA: Somehow I'm not reassured.


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Kagome didn't see Inuyasha look over his shoulder, but both of his ears flicked, and a smirk grew on his mouth. A second later, his arm dropped from her waist, and Inuyasha flexed it in relief.

"Damn, my arm is stiff," he muttered, swinging it around in its socket. "I think Sango went this way when she decided to go sulking, Kagome," he pointed, jumping twenty feet ahead in one hop. His ears twitched. "But I don't hear anything. How far off did she feel like stomping?"

"I guess Kouga's out of earshot," murmured Shippo. Kagome said nothing.

"Yeah," Inuyasha muttered back. "Unless the stupid fuck's trying to sneak up behind us." The dog boy snuffled his infuriating nose and shook his head. "Nope." He chuckled darkly. "No scent of dead fleas or B.O. He probably went off to find Miroku like you told him to, Kagome."

Kagome nudged the kitsune cub off her shoulder and set him down on the moss. "Just give us a minute, Shippo, okay?" she asked.

The kit's demon-pale eyes got just a little bigger, "Are you two going to fight again?" he demanded.

Kagome opened her mouth to answer him, then closed it again, turning sharply to face Inuyasha.

Shippo edged back a bit.

"Why are you being such a jerk?!" Kagome hissed at the dog demon.

Inuyasha folded both arms, pointing his nose at the trees, "I don't know what you mean."

"You're being nice to me just to annoy Kouga!"

"No I'm not," he pouted.

"So what was up with you holding my hand?" she asked. "You put your arm around me like it was prom night - and you stopped the minute Kouga couldn't see anymore!"

"Maybe I just felt like doing those things."

Oooooooh, even Miroku does a more believable I-didn't-do-it.

"Yeah right," called Shippo. "You just like making Kouga mad, Inuyasha!"

"That's not why I did it," Inuyasha sniffed back.

"Oh," the kit dared hop a little closer, "so I guess you must have been lying every time you said Kagome was ugly?"

Inuyasha raised one hand, a half-ready retort in his mouth. His hand lowered slowly as the kitsune kept a perfectly straight face.

The dog demon's arrogant posture didn't change, but he suddenly looked like he'd just tried to swallow a whole ostrich egg. "I ... guess ... so," the words struggled from his throat.

"And what about all the times you called her stupid?" Shippo asked innocently. "I really don't see why you'd have been so nice to her if you thought she was stupid."

Inuyasha met Kagome's eyes. Kagome looked away.

I'd be laughing like crazy if I weren't so mad.

"Sure, I was lying."

"And what about the time you called her a-"

"Shut up, brat! I said that I just felt like acting that way and that's the way it is!"

Shippo ducked Inuyasha's swipe and took refuge behind Kagome's leg. The girl paused. But... she wondered, trying to read the twitching messengers on his head, Could he be telling the truth? Maybe he really does like being with me...

They had almost had a real talk on the hillside before Kagura'd shown up. For a second there, when he'd let her touch his ears, it had almost seemed like they were sharing an intimate moment. ...albeit one that she could never gossip about in homeroom without the girls thinking she really did have four different kinds of brain fever.

Who knew what might have happened if they hadn't been interrupted with the battle and then the fight with Kouga and then... Kagome's thoughts suddenly turned thick and cold.

I get it, she remembered miserably. His meeting with Kikyo last night didn't go how he wanted, and I'm the second best thing, aren't I? Inuyasha's sulking face began to blur. But only if Kouga-kun is watching!

"Hey!" the wavy Inuyasha held out both hands. "Why are you crying, dammit?"

"I'm not crying!" Kagome sniffled. She blinked hard and the tear ran down her cheek.

"Yes you are; you can't fool me," he muttered back. "Okay," he answered. "I wasn't just being nice to you because Kouga was there. Are you happy?"

"No," she told him, wiping at one eye.

The dog demon sighed loudly. "And /I was lying every single time that I said you were an ugly weak stupid human girl. /Now will you turn off the waterworks?"

"No!" she fumed.

Inuyasha blinked. "Why not?"

"You're such a moron!!"

Shippo rolled his eyes, "You're so insensitive, Inuyasha."

"Stupid girl!"

"Paranoid!"

"Weak human!"

"Why did you hold my hand back there? Why do you want to make Kouga upset?"

The dog demon paused for a moment. "And if I tell you, you'll stop crying?"

Fat chance.

"I'll try," she nodded.

Inuyasha folded his arms again. "Kouga thinks you're his!"

"So?" she asked. "Kouga's always thought that."

"So you're not his! He'll try to take you with him again!"

She stamped her foot, sending the fox cub rolling, "I wouldn't go, stupid!"

Inuyasha blinked, startled out of his pouting, "Huh?"

"What, do you think I belong to whoever tosses me over their shoulder? Inuyasha, I don't go where you tell me to half the time! What makes you think that I'd just run along with Kouga? Oooooooh!" she seethed. "Kouga will get the idea eventually, but until he does, there's nothing we can do to make him-"

Two strong hands gripped her arms, and a pair of bright gold eyes blazed down into her face. "You're not his," Inuyasha's words fell like the hammer onto glowing metal, half-formed, but bright "He's not going to get the idea. You belong HERE."

Kagome's breath froze. "In-Inuyasha?"

The dog demon swallowed hard, letting go of her arms quickly, as if he hoped she wouldn't notice that he'd grabbed them in the first place, "The minute Kouga realized that I wasn't just your little pet guard dog-" his voice broke off here and his ears twitched strongly and flattened back, almost as if he were trying to hide them. "He's going to do something to put himself back in control," he shook his head. "And I'm not going to let him."

"Inuyasha," she held out both hands. "Kouga's our friend! He's going to help us kill Naraku! Kouga wouldn't try to kidnap me, um," she stumbled, "again."

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow.

"I think he's got you there, Kagome," Shippo offered hesitantly.

Kagome felt her face go pink and looked away.

"If Kouga tries to take you away, I'll just stop him," Inuyasha's tone was just a little too casual to be anything but serious, "but no messing around. I'll kill him this time, and I don't want to see you shed even one tear over his lame ass," the dog demon turned away from her wide-eyed stare. "And I figure that means that I have to stop him from trying..." he muttered.

Kagome blinked. That... That almost sounds like he was worried about what I'd think. In a medieval, chauvinistic paranoid dog boy way, but still.


"Kouga's looking at me now, and not at you," Inuyasha went on. "If he tries to drag you off again, he'll pick a fight with me first. This way..."

She took a breath and let it out slowly. He was letting her see his motives. How am I going to say this? I don't want him to hold me like that again just to get at Kouga, but...

But I liked it when you touched me.

But I almost thought you meant it.

But I want you to do it for real.

"Let's just get back on the road, Inuyasha," Kagome reached out one hand. "Kouga's not going to try to kidnap me again, and even if he did, what then? He wouldn't hurt me. And his brothers wouldn't hurt me, not even if he told them to." Her eyes fell on Shippo. He'd held onto Kouga's tail all the way to the wolf cave. He'd been so scared... "He's got nothing to hold over me. Even if he took me away-" Kagome put the lightest feather-touch on his shoulder. If he noticed, he didn't show it. "-I'd just come right back."

Inuyasha shook his head. "You're too trusting, Kagome."

She shrugged, picking Shippo up off the moss and setting him back on her shoulder.

"News flash, Inuyasha," said the kitsune cub: "That's why she puts up with you so much."


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Welcome, crystal singer. Please have some pie.

CRYSTALS: It is so good to see you again!!

KURAMA: I didn't know that you knew my captor.

She means you.

KURAMA: Really? But I don't believe we've met.

But she's seen you.

KURAMA: That's odd, because I don't remember...

. . .

CRYSTALS: . . .

KURAMA: Is that a high-speed camera?!