Expectation

He didn't understand what had gone wrong. Things had been wonderful at first. He and Kagome had agreed not to tell the others about their tryst, and had left the forest separately. Kagome had left first, claiming that she had not found Inuyasha the night before, and had wandered the forest lost until she had found her way back to the village around dawn. This also adequately explained why her clothes were torn and dirty, and why her hair was full of brambles. It was a good excuse, but it didn't prevent Shippou and Myoga from smelling the hanyou's heavy scent that still clung to her. And though Miroku and Sango lacked the sensitive noses of the two youkai, they easily guessed what had actually transpired by the tone of Kagome's voice, and the many gulps and blushes that accompanied her tale. Their suspicions were confirmed when Inuyasha returned to the village later that day and insisted on speaking to Kagome in 'private', private being a few miles out of earshot, back in the forest. Still, to spare their friends of any awkward feelings or embarrassment, Miroku and Sango said nothing, but smiled and gave each other sideways glances from time to time.

Things had carried on like that that for several weeks, and they were some of the happiest weeks of his adult life. He and Kagome had continued to sneak around, trying to hide the new element in their relationship from the others, and the others had gone on pretending that they didn't know exactly what was going on between the two of them.

Then one day, several weeks ago, something had happened. Kagome had gone home for a few days, and when she came back, she had changed, somehow. Her scent had changed. Well, maybe not CHANGED, but it had…shifted, slightly. Something was different about it, and about Kagome in general, because it wasn't only her scent that had changed. At first, the difference was slight; she became upset more easily, and little things seemed to irritate her more and more. He had probably been 'sat' more times in the last few weeks than in the entire time that he'd known her. Then she had started avoiding him. When he would find or create opportunities to be alone with her, she would suddenly remember an errand that she had to do, or something that she had forgotten to tell someone, and run off. He began to wonder if she was mating with someone else. He started spending his days following her, silently watching her actions from the treetops. It was on one such day that he discovered the stick. He had found it in a small patch of bushes that she frequented daily. It was small and white, and made from a material that he had never seen before, so it was obviously from Kagome's time. What confused him, however, was the fact that it smelled strongly of Kagome's urine. For the life of him he could not fathom why Kagome would have peed on a stick. But by that point, it was just another notch in a long list of strange events. She was moody, had stopped sleeping with him, she was going home less and less often, and the worst, the one that irked him the most, was that she had started wearing miko's robes like Kikyo's. It infuriated him. He liked Kagome the way she was, and the last thing he wanted was to see her as a constant reminder of his first love. It was bad enough that she looked so much like Kikyo to begin with, but to see her wearing the very robes that Kikyo had worn unnerved him. Then there was the fact that he had liked the tight blouses and the short skirts that she normally wore. He had found the curve of her breasts, and the flash of thigh (and occasionally panties, when the wind blew hard enough) he got when she wore them to be very alluring. In the baggy miko's robes, he could barely see the shape of her body. Her soft, supple body…

"Inuyasha!" Kagome's voice interrupted his thoughts, bringing him back to earth. He looked down at the girl he was mated to from the high branches of the tree he was sitting in. Normally, this would have been the occasion for some friendly banter; little insults flung on either side that had been rendered meaningless by their new found feelings for one another. But with her recent change in temperament, he found it infinitely safer to be straightforward with her. So instead of teasing her with a well-intentioned 'What the hell do you want, woman?' he answered:

"Yes? What is it?" Rolling her eyes at him, Kagome sighed audibly and clicked her tongue against her teeth in disgust, a sound that went through him like Sesshoumaru's poison claws. Diplomacy obviously wasn't going to work with her today.

"I thought you had an excellent sense of smell!" she said testily. "Lunch is ready, mighty hanyou, so you'd better come down here with the rest of us lowly humans if you want to eat." He recognized the warning tone in her voice immediately, having become quite familiar with it as of late. He knew that if he didn't come down on his own, and very quickly, she would bring him down instead.

"I'm coming down!" he called, dropping off the branch and landing solidly on the ground beside her. Kagome took a step back, startled by his abruptness.

"Watch it!" she exclaimed, frowning at him. "You almost knocked me over!"

"What? I didn't come anywhere near you!" he protested. He hadn't raised his voice, but Kagome's lip began to tremble anyway. She bit down on it as tears began to roll down her cheeks.

"OSUWARI!" she cried, and ran off sobbing into some nearby bushes. Prostrate on the ground where she'd left him, Inuyasha started banging his head into the earth.

"WHAAAAT??" he moaned loudly. "What did I do now?"

When the spell had worn off, Inuyasha peeled himself off the ground and followed his nose to Kaede's hut. He pulled back the reed curtain at the hut's entrance to reveal Miroku sitting alone, eating. Inuyasha sighed, taking his place to the right of the monk.

"Where is everybody?" he asked.

"Shippou and Kirara have already eaten and are playing some game that I can't remember the name of at the moment, and Kaede is assisting as midwife to a birth." At this last part, he gave Inuyasha a pointed look. Inuyasha, completely oblivious, picked a fish off of the stick above the cooking fire and began to eat it, more out of habit than any real hunger or enthusiasm. He was very tired of fish.

"Where's Sango?" he said with his mouth full, licking fish grease off of his thumb.

"She went to fetch Kagome," Miroku said between sips of tea, "who apparently is very upset."

"Keh. How would you notice?" Inuyasha snorted.

"YOU are very insensitive." the monk said simply, and refused to elaborate.

"Whatever." Inuyasha sighed, rubbing his sore back. "I already get enough abuse from her, I don't need to hear it from you." Miroku raised one eyebrow in Inuyasha's direction, but said nothing, and merely sipped tea from his cup. Minutes later, Sango returned with a puffy-eyed Kagome in tow. The two girls sat opposite from the men, as if not wanting to get too close, and took their share the meal. Inuyasha avoided Kagome's eyes, pretending that he found his fingers far more interesting. They ate in uncomfortable silence, occasionally broken by a belch from Inuyasha or a sniffle from Kagome. That is, until Inuyasha bit down on a thin sliver of fishbone and got it lodged painfully in his gums.

"Aargh!" he grunted. "Shit!" he spat, pulling it out. The edge of the bone was stained crimson, and a tiny drop of blood rolled down one canine and fell onto his hand.

"Stupid fish!" he yelled. "I'm so sick of fish!"

"Well what would you prefer, your highness?" Kagome retorted, hands on her hips, staring him down. Beyond frustration, Inuyasha took the bait.

"Why don't you go back to your own time and bring us some real food?!" he barked at her. "Instant noodles don't bite!" Then, for what seemed like the one millionth time that day, Kagome burst into tears.

"I can't go home!" she shrieked at him, jumping to her feet. "I've shamed my family! I can never go home again!" She ran past him and out the door, knocking him over and ripping the reed curtain from the doorframe in the process.

"I'll fix that." Miroku said, inclining his head slightly toward the door. Then he turned to Inuyasha and said, "You, however, had better go fix that!" and pointed him out the door.

"What do you expect me to do?" Inuyasha yelled. "Every time I open my mouth she runs off crying! And I don't feel like eating any more dirt today, alright?"

"You are an idiot." Miroku said simply, but again, refused to elaborate. Fortunately, Sango felt that they had all suffered enough.

"Inuyasha," Sango said gently, touching the sleeve of his haori, "Kagome…Kagome isn't feeling well." Despite his anger, Inuyasha seemed effected by this news.

"Is Kagome sick?" he asked, a hint of concern dropping into his voice.

"In a manner of speaking," Sango said hesitantly, "but it isn't for me to say. What I do know is that she needs to hear a kind word from you. She needs some…reassurance."

"SHE does!? What about me!" he fumed, some of his anger returning. "She's the one who's acting weird."

"She's acting strangely because she's frightened. But you really need to talk to HER…" Sango persisted.

"Frightened? Is she really THAT sick? She should be in bed!" Inuyasha exclaimed, his concern now fully apparent.

"That's what got her into trouble in the first place- " Miroku said wryly. Sango silenced him with a kick to the shin.

"Ouch!"

"She's not really sick!" Sango said quickly, beginning to get flustered. "She's just…not herself. Please, Inuyasha…?" she implored.

"Fine! Alright, I'll go." he said reluctantly. "But you might want to prepare some cold compresses for when I get back, I'll probably need them…" he muttered, his voice fading as he skulked away, following Kagome's scent. The two humans let out an audible sigh of relief once Inuyasha was out of earshot.

"Are you certain we shouldn't follow him?" Miroku asked. "This is bound to prove interesting." Sango shot him an evil look.

"Have some decency!" she scolded. "For Kagome-chan's sake if nothing else!" At that moment, Shippou and Kirara came bounding into the hut, playfully chasing one another. They stopped at the feet of the demon exterminator and looked up at her and the houshi.

"Did we miss anything?" he asked innocently.

"NO!" the two humans chorused.

"Nothing important." Sango added, trying to ignore the unease that clutched at her heart, but unable to ignore the hand that suddenly clutched at her bottom.

*SMACK*

"No, I guess I haven't missed anything important." Shippou said with a sigh, shaking his head at the momentarily stunned monk. "Just business as usual."