Disclaimer: You've heard it, so I'm not saying it again. It is on the first chapter for those that managed to miss it.

Chapter Two: The Birth of the Matchmaker

I. Running Away

PLOINK!

Inuyasha growled softly, his right eye twitching as he glared at the sky above. He leaned against the tree trunk and attempted to re-settle himself on his chosen branch, but winced when the noise from below continued.

PLOINK!

PLOINK!

"Shippou," he finally snapped as he glared down at the kitsune's auburn head. "Shut that shit down now!"

Shippou rolled his eyes but did as he requested, knowing better than to piss Inuyasha off while he was in his mood. He pocketed a couple of stones and returned his slingshot to his back pocket, then glanced up at the somber hanyou and shook his head. "I don't think it's your fault Inuyasha."

Inuyasha said nothing, his amber eyes round in surprise as he stared down at the kitsune pup. "Yeah well," he sighed after a moment's silence. "Sango and Miroku don't feel like that. They think I did this on purpose."

"Well I don't," Shippou told him as he climbed up the tree. "I don't think you knew about Kagome's feelings-"

"Of COURSE I didn't!" Inuyasha snapped back furiously. "If I had I would have...I would have...aw what the hell," Inuyasha sighed as he gazed back at the sky. "I don't have a clue as to what I would have done."

"But you didn't hurt her on purpose and that's what counts," Shippou assured him with a comforting pat on the shoulder. "I mean, you didn't, right?"

"Oh hell, not you too."

"Inuyasha wait!" Shippou called out when Inuyasha looked to jump out of the tree. "Hey, I'm sure Kagome will forgive you. She always does, right?"

"Yeah, you're right," Inuyasha replied with a far away look in his eyes. "Look, pup, I'll be back."

"Hey, where are you going?" Shippou demanded as Inuyasha sprinted off into the night. Shippou sighed when Inuyasha disappeared, the last of his red haori vanishing in the blackened forest.

II. Accepting Defeat

Kagome threw her arm over her eyes to shield away the sunlight, the cheerful chirping of birds and the sounds of everyday life outside her window almost a sacrilege to her depression.

"Kagome honey," her mother called as she lightly knocked on her bedroom door. "Are you alright? We haven't seen you since you came home from the well."

"Everything's fine Mom," Kagome assured her before grabbing a nearby pillow and burying her head underneath it. "Or it would be, if I weren't hurting so badly." 'Why does it have to hurt anyway?' she asked herself as she scrubbed away the last of the tear stains on her cheek. 'Why can't he just be in love with me, or be my friend even, instead of constantly insulting me? I know I'll never be as perfect as Kikyou, but I'm trying. What's so bad about just being myself? Why can't he just love me for me?'

"OK honey," Kagome's mother said from the other side of the door. "I'm going to work and your grandfather is going to some convention on the other side of town. Do you think you'll be alright here by yourself?"

"Yes," Kagome called from underneath her pillow. "I'll be fine."

"Ok then. Have a good day dear," was her mother's farewell before her footsteps faded from the hall. Souta's heavy thuds were next, then all was quiet and the shrine closed for the remainder of the day. Kagome sat up and glanced around, her starlight eyes miserable as she glared at the four walls surrounding her. Happy pink shone around her, from the blushing walls to the comforter and the fluffy hot pink rug on the hard wood floor. She glared at it all in disgust, the baby color reminding her of the childhood that she never got to enjoy.

"I'm tired of this," she sighed suddenly as she jumped up and dove into her closet. She jerked on an old set of clothes and stormed out of the room toward an old shed on the opposite end of the shrine. She grabbed a couple of buckets of paint and, with a determination she normally saved for hunting jewel shards and searching for the bad guy, she commenced on Operation: Attack the Pink. Her ammo was effective and her attitude ruthless as she spent the rest of the day tackling this newfound challenge.

She focused on the task at hand and it was well into the heat of the day when she decided to stop for something to eat. She returned the paint bucket- now empty- back to the shed, changed clothes and gathered her savings before walking out the door and heading for the mall. Her family was back by the time she returned, and no one said anything as Kagome quietly walked back upstairs to her room and finished what she started earlier that morning.

"There," she said as she put the final pillow in it's place. "I'm finished." She stepped into her doorway and looked around, a satisfied smile on her face as she took in her room's new atmosphere. "Perfect." She sat back down on her bed, in the exact same place where she started her day, and pondered her situation with Inuyasha. While she worked on her room, her mind worked on her heart and she realized that she couldn't really blame Inuyasha for loving Kikyou.

'They had so little time together,' she said to herself while she absently fiddled with the fringe of a nearby pillow. 'If it were me, I'd be devastated too. Maybe he's just not ready to move on.' She ignored the little voice that said it was more than that, and that she deserved more than that, and glanced back to her open window.

'I can wait a little longer,' Kagome decided as she closed the window, grabbed her nightclothes and headed toward the bathroom. 'I'll stay with him, no matter what it takes. Maybe...maybe someday he'll be ready to move and when he does I'll be right there waiting."

III. Explaining My Heart

Inuyasha stood at the foot of the stairs, his arms folded and his posture strained as he stared back at the well house and sighed.

"Well," he said as he turned toward the setting sun. "I guess it's now or never." He crossed the grounds quickly, amber eyes intense as he focused on his goal and the light curtains fluttering out of a bedroom window. 'Wait a sec,' Inuyasha said to himself when he landed on the ledge beside Kagome's window. 'I thought that curtain was pink.' He stared inside and jumped back, startled to find Kagome's starlight orbs staring back at him. He adjusted himself and shook off the dreadful fright she gave him (though he'd never say as much), then turned back to her and waved his hand in her face.

"Hey we-Kagome," Inuyasha called out. "Snap out of it would ya?"

She blinked, the fog that settled over her eyes lifting when she finally noticed him. "Hi Inuyasha," she softly greeted with a wan smile. "When did you get here?"

"Feh, you'd know if you were payin' attention." He frowned, his eyes regretful when she sighed and glanced away. Her sadness washed over him, lapping at his feet in gentle waves of her disappointment and grief. "I'm...I didn't come to fight with you," he said to her incredulous glance. "I want to talk about-"

"What I said?" Kagome finished for him. Inuyasha nodded and she sighed again, then held up her hand before he could speak. "I'd like to say something first."

'Oh boy, here she goes,' Inuyasha said to himself as he prepared for one of her lectures. 'I deserve it though. I've treated her like crap for so long so-'

"Inuyasha, I understand."

"Wha?"

Kagome shook her head, her smile more relaxed. "I understand. It's gotta be tough."

"Yeah?" Inuyasha asked more than said, his tone doubtful and confused as he stared at her. "What's so tough?"

"You know, trying to get over Kikyou with me walking around." Kagome laughed weakly, her hand giving a careless flip before returning to the window sill. "I'm sorry about what I said. I'm not trying to push you though. But Inuyasha..."

She blushed and looked away from him, her eyes watching the oranges and yellows of the darkening sky. "I'll wait for you," she finally whispered. "I'll wait for you as long as it takes." She turned when Inuyasha groaned, her brow creased in confusion while Inuyasha crossed his legs and sat down below the sill. "Inuyasha," Kagome called out and leaned over the window's ledge to watch him. "What's wrong? What'd I say?"

"Nah, it ain't you," Inuyasha sighed. "But I want you to listen, and for once don't interrupt."

"Um, Ok," Kagome nodded. "Go ahead."

Inuyasha sighed again and looked up, his gaze toward the sky but his thoughts millions of miles away. How exactly could he put his feelings into words? It wasn't like he had experience in doing it or anything. 'But Kagome has to know,' he said to himself. 'She has to know and I have to say it.'

"Um, well, you know Kikyou and I weren't exactly given a chance right?" he asked and waited for Kagome's nod to continue. "I mean, between her protecting the jewel and Naraku it wasn't exactly paradise for us. I know Kikyou and I can't continue from where we were interrupted, and we can't start over either, but...when all of this is over I intend to keep my promise to her."

"But Inuyasha," Kagome gasped, the fingers of her right hand splayed across her lips in shock as she stared down at the crown of his snowy head. "You can't. You'll-"

"Go to Hell," Inuyasha finished for her. He sighed heavily, his shoulders slumped and his head hung down. "Yeah, probably, but I owe her that." He sat up and stretched out his legs while his arms remained folded in their usual places. "You know what I think about when I remember Kikyou? That, even though she thought I betrayed her and she knew she was dying, she still didn't kill me. The arrow hurt and everything, don't get me wrong, but she still didn't kill me.

"She put me to sleep until someone else could wake me up and finish what Naraku started. She died, Kagome, and I never knew. Not until you woke me up. I...owe her that much. Do you understand?" She didn't respond and Inuyasha turned around just as the first tear rolled down her cheek. He watched the crystalline droplet cascade down her face and regretted what he had to do. Kagome nodded though and took a deep, shuddering breath as she brushed the tear aside.

"I know you don't understand it, not all of it, and I hope you never have to. I love Kikyou, Kagome, but I love you too." He closed his eyes to her hopeful gasp and continued on. "You, Miroku, Sango and Shippou are like the family I never got to have. You guys don't care what I am, or what I'm not. We help each other and joke with each other and I honestly don't believe I'd have the others if it weren't for you." Inuyasha looked up at her and sniffed, then frowned both at her and at himself as his senses began to dull.

"None of them would have given me a chance if you weren't there, and I wouldn't have let them get near me if it weren't for you. You guys are pack and I-"

"I get it Inuyasha," Kagome suddenly interrupted. "I do. I just...are you sure?"

"About Kikyou or about you?"

"Both."

Inuyasha exhaled silently, his gaze turning toward the last of the sunlight before nodding. "I think that, if we had med in a different place, you and I could have been together. But I think that, if it weren't for Naraku, Kikyou and I would be together, and I'd be human. Naraku fucked over a lot of people but, if it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have gotten to meet you or the others."

"But why can't you stay?" Kagome asked with a muffled sob. "Why can't you just kill Naraku and let it be that?"

"Because I can't," Inuyasha answered back, his shoulders straightening as an uncomfortable ripple flushed over him. "It wouldn't be enough for me. And-" He turned around just as the amber began to fade from his irises, the honeyed hue darkening to a purplish-brown. "We both know that, if I were to stay with you, you'd spend the rest of our lives wondering if I'm with you for you, or with you for the Kikyou still in you. And I'd wonder it too." Kagome turned and sat against the wall behind him, her muffled crying barely heard to his now human ears as the night fully settled on the bustling modern city. She cried for what felt like hours but Inuyasha never moved, his vigil silent as he waited for her to stand up on her own. He finally climbed into the room, pausing briefly to glance at the changed surroundings before finally falling into place beside her.

"I'm sorry Kagome," he whispered to her hunched over form. "I'm really, really sorry. If I knew how you felt earlier, I'd have said something earlier. I wouldn't have let you fall for me so hard-OW!"

"You JERK," Kagome hissed and hit him again. "Just who do you think you are anyway? You can't -stop- someone from falling in love with you! You're not invincible you know."

"Yes I am," was his confidant response and Inuyasha smiled when she giggled and leaned on his shoulder. "Are you finished?" he asked as she dried her eyes.

"Yeah, I guess," Kagome sighed forlornly. "But...where does this leave us?"

"Where I thought we always were, I guess," Inuyasha shrugged. "I'm still gonna take care of you Kagome. You're kinda like my little sister."

"That's great," Kagome groaned into a piece of tissue. "From potential girlfriend to little sister in less than an hour."

"What's a girlfriend?" Inuyasha inquired curiously. Kagome blushed and shook her head. "Never mind. It's not important. So," she said as she lifted a lock of his now dark hair. "I take it you're staying here?"

"I guess," Inuyasha shrugged again. "I mean, I've never been on this side of the well during a new moon. I'm not even sure the well will take me back."

"Me either. Oh well." Kagome stood up, brushed herself off and extended her hand to help him up. Inuyasha grimaced and knocked it aside, his near feline grace still with him as he leapt to his feet and gave her a fang-free smirk. "Are you sure you're ok?" he asked when she turned toward her closet. "I mean-"

"No, Inuyasha, I'm not fine," Kagome answered honestly as she dug around her closet. "But...I guess I kinda knew this was coming. It hurts and-"

"And lets not worry about it," Inuyasha interrupted. "Let's just hand out, ok? I am stuck here, so let's make the best of it. Where's the twirp?"

"Who, Souta?" Kagome giggled and pointed toward the door. "He's downstairs. Go ahead," she waved when he went toward her door. "He's been looking for you. Hey Inuyasha, why would you want a hand out?"

"Isn't that what you do when you sit around and do nothing?"

"No!" Kagome collapsed into her desk chair, her swirling blue and white walls around her as she giggled at Inuyasha's expense. "It's not 'hand out' it's hang out."

'What-the fuck-ever," Inuyasha griped. "Damn, always so fucking testnical!"

"Wha-that's technical!"

Kagome laughed harder as his mumbled cursing fluttered up the stairs, the pain inside her heart lifted for a moment in time before she jumped up and followed him down.

IV. Cupid's Liaison

Inuyasha sat on the roof of the shrine, his eyes tuned to the horizon and his memories of last night swirling around his head. No matter what happened, or what kind of mood he was in, he always found his experiences in the Modern Era with Kagome's family...entertaining, to say the least. Kagome's family had to be 'certifiable', as the miko herself would put it, and it was always great fun to watch them at the dinner table. They argued, laughed and had a great time with one another, and they never failed to include Inuyasha in on their antics. Over time he'd become used to the occasional ear rub from Kagome's mom, Souta's hero worship and Kagome's grandfather's loud bellow before he slapped one of his useless sutras onto Inuyasha's forehead.

'They're great,' he said to himself as the dark sky turned a deep purple. 'They're so close...like a family should be. I never would have met them if Kagome hadn't fallen down the well.' He jumped down from the roof to the ledge underneath Kagome's window, his dark eyes softening as he watched her sleep. She cradled the indigo pillow closer to her, the tear stains from earlier in the night drying still in the early morning hours.

'I didn't mean to make her cry,' Inuyasha thought as he sat down underneath her sill. 'It's just that, I can't give her what she wants. She shouldn't have to wait on anyone. Kagome's deserves to be protected, provided for, and understood.' He pondered this new thought for a while longer, his eyes closed and his head resting against the wall behind him. With the warmth of the sun came a solution and his eyes shone with determination as they faded to burnished amber.

"I'm going to find Kagome a mate of her own."

(End Chapter)

SF: lol. And here we go people! The beginnings of the matchmaker. I'm so excited!

Inu-chan: How come NONE of your stories have me gettin the girl in the end! You started out with ME as the hero. Do you remember that?

SF: Yes, I do and believe it or not, I have a story stored somewhere where you ARE the hero...um, near the end. You're kinda a jerk in the middle.

Inu-chan: Figures...

SF: And who's to say you won't get a girl in the end? It just won't be Kagome, that's all. (Inu-chan gripes) lol. You'll be fine Inuyasha. You'll see.

Shippou practice is interrupted

Kouga and Rin meet again

Inuyasha's first elimination

Next chapter-Chapter Three: What Do Women Want Exactly-The Elimination Begins