The fight was more heated than usual, simmering, threatening to boil over...

Surely, it had begun simply, and stupidly, enough, about what to make for breakfast; Kagome made the mistake of making chicken flavored Ramen. Inuyasha made the mistake of voicing the opinion that he would have preferred beef flavored instead. It went downhill from there. And, in all actuality, it was merely a catalyst for the tension that Sango and Miroku had felt palpably hanging over the group for the last three days of useless shard hunting. The group was finally entering Kaede's village and things had reached a breaking point.

Both Inuyasha and Kagome were red in the face, fists balled at their sides, teeth clenched. For all of her mortality, Kagome did do a fine impression of a pissed off hanyou- growl, snarl, and all.

"And another thing, Princess!" Inuyasha spat, "You think you know oh soooooo much , huh? Well, you don't, your HIGHness. You don't know a Kami damn thing about me or anything else for that matter. If it wasn't for your stupidity, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place!" 'Good ol' tried and true' Inuyasha thought with a smirk as he stomped into the hut, 'At least now she'll be mad enough to stay home for the next few days so I can control myself around her....Kami! Her oh so delicious smell...Doesn't she realize she's in heat?!?'

The air in front of the hut hung heavy as Sango and Miroku contemplated the safest course for a hasty retreat. The forest nearby fell deadly silent and the air seemed to crackle with energy. Inside, Inuyasha slumped against the wall and clenched his jaw for the inevitable.

"Ohhhh!" Kagome huffed, throwing her hands in the air, an evil glint in her eye. Through gritted teeth she whispered, "Inuyasha, Osuwari."

"OSUWARI! OSUWARI! OSUWARI!"

Inuyasha slammed into the wooden floor as Kagome entered the hut, glaring at him.

"Oi 'itch," he mumbled as he tried to free himself from the subduing spell, "Am it 'ench!"

Kagome squatted down beside Inuyasha, running her fingers though his silky silver hair, then reached up to caress the soft triangles on top of his head. Inuyasha swallowed audibly, trying to force down the contented sigh and growl that was trying to escape, as he shifted uncomfortable over the heat rising in his loins.

She smiled a sly smile and leaned over further, his brain becoming fuzzy as her warm breath touched his ears, "Inuyasha?" she whispered in a sultry voice, her words coming out in puffs. She was so near now, bent forward to lean to his ear, he had a nice view of cleavage down her shirt. And if he had thought she smelled nice before, whew, being this close was damn near intoxicating.

Taking a deep breath of jasmine, honey, and essence of Kagome, he cocked an eyebrow through half closed, lust filled eyes, "Hmmm?"

"Inuyasha?" Kagome whispered again, almost, almost inaudibly, "ooossuwaarriii..."

Inuysha slammed further in to the crater he had begun to create, his swollen member now painfully crushed beneath him.

Kagome looked triumphantly over him as she began to walk back out of the hut. As the spell wore off and Inuyasha could stand again, he dusted off his clothes and popped his neck and mumbled.

Kagome froze in her tracks. Surely, surely she had heard him wrong. Even Kaede who had been silently looking on, grinding herbs, stopped and raised a disbelieving brow.

Kagome turned on her heel slowly, her head hung low, her hair hiding her expression from view, "What did you say, Inuysha?" she asked flatly.

"Nothin'" he snapped back.

"No, really, what did you say?"

"I said it was nothing' wench."

"It was important enough the first time you said it to expel the air from your lungs to form the words...so, what did you say? Or do I need to say a few more S-I-T s to convince you?" Kagome was still talking with a chilling flatness to her voice.

Inuyasha huffed and mumbled again, "I said, atleastkikyoneverabusedherpowers."

"That's what I thought I heard come out of your lips. 'At least Kikyo never abused her powers,' right?" Kagome's voice rose a quivering octave, "That is what you said, right? RIGHT?"

Inuyasha just stared straight ahead at the suddenly-very-interesting knot in the floor. His stomach knotted, reminding himself of the skipped breakfast fiasco this morning, 'Isn't a man supposed to get a last meal before their execution?'

Kaede interrupted the pair with a soft laugh, "If only ye knew how wrong ye are, Inuyasha."

Both pairs of eyes snapped to the old woman.

"What do mean by that hag?"

"I love my dear sister and all, Inuyasha, but really, ye must stop placing her on so high a pedastal. It is unfounded idolatry. Who do ye think made that necklace? Why do ye think it was Kagome who could use it? Really, Inuyasha," Kaede chuckled softly again, turning back to her work. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at the old woman, then looked through his bangs to see Kagome trembling. 'Oh, shit, here come the waterworks!'

But the tears never came. Kagome still stood near the door, head down, her chest rising and falling with her labored breath.

Kaede could feel the change in Kagome and looked up hesitantly 'Oh Kami, what have I done? I only wanted to make him see her, see both of them for what they really are. Like the dark and the light. What have I done?'

"Kagome...." he began.

"Shut up."

"Kagome...."

"I said, shut up," she snapped. Something in her voice, in her eyes as she looked up from under her hair, or in the way her body had stiffened, silenced Inuyasha.

"GODDAMMITMOTHERFUCKERSONOFABITCH!!!" Kagome screamed to the ceiling. The yells prompted Sango and Miroku, who came to aid in warding off whatever unseen forces had entered the hut. They saw no youkai, no spirits, no witches, no undead mikos. But they gaped at Kagome before them. She appeared feral and beastial, untamed. Her hair fell wildly in her face and a bright fire burned in her eyes. Deeper than that fire, Inuyasha could see the sorrow...his Kagome had sworn to make a sailor blush, cried it the seven hells and yet she looked so haunting, so pure. But he could see the anguish,. 'Oh, how can I stop her pain? How can I make her smile again? This day has gone wrong, so wrong!' His heart sped up as he took one tentative step towards her, arm outstretched.

Kagome started laughing. Softly at first, almost a chuckle, then more and more menacingly.

Inuyasha gasped like a fish, now truly frightened. 'Something is wrong about this. Very, very wrong. Kagome doesn't laugh like that. About something like that.'

Kagome suddenly stopped laughing. Softly she whispered, "I understand now."

"Um, understand what Kagome?"

"That's why you can't love me isn't it?"

Inuyasha stammered, "Nani? Nani? What do you mean?"

"I'm just second best, number two, sloppy seconds ...At everything. Why would you settle for seconds, when you had the real thing?"

Kagome walked slowly over to Inuyasha, a lone tear finding its way down her cheek. When she reached him, she cupped his face in one hand.

"No matter what I do, it's never enough is it? My soul, hers first. My face, hers first."

With her empty hand, Kagome reached to the small bottle on a chain around her neck where the Shikon shards lay.

"The jewel, hers first." She tugged, snapping the necklace free. She drew her hand away from Inuyasha's cheek and thrust the shards into his hand. Gently she reached her hand under his haori and settled a feather light caress over his heart. Inuyasha shivered.

"Your heart, hers first."

She reached up to pull a stray whisp of hair out of his face and gently stroked one ear.

"Your dreams, hers first."

Gently she reached on tip toe and traced a searing kiss on his lips.

"Your lips, hers first."

She rocked her hips against and could feel his arousal against her. Sango and Miroku, turned away, embarrassed by their friend's forwardness.

"Your desire, hers first." Inuyasha blinked, clearing his mind, as his youkai screamed for him to take her, to make her understand.

"Stop this!" Inuyasha shouted, grabbing her wrists. "You're wrong!"

Kagome lightly chuckled again, "No, I've been wrong before...thinking that maybe..."

"Maybe what?"

"It doesn't matter now." she sighed softly. He dropped her hands, ears flat against his head.

Slowly she reached up to Inuyasha's binding rosary and tangled her fingers in them. She tugged and with a sharp snap, the rosary was broken, the spell undone. The beads flew, the silence of the room making each fang and bead sound like a boulder as it hit the floor of the hut

"Hers first," She said so softly Inuyasha almost didn't hear it.

With that, Kagome rushed to the door, nearly knocking over Miroku. She pushed her way through the tayjii and houshi before they could recover from their shock at her outburst and rushed out into the village, never looking back, pumping her legs to carry her to the well.

Inuyasha rushed to the door but was thrown back against the wall.

"KAGOME! NO! STOP!" He shouted as he pounded the invisible barrier at the entryway. Sango and Miroku tried to advance as well, but were also thrown back.

Shaking her head to clear it, Sango gasped, "What...what happened? How did she do that?"

Miroku hesitantly pulled himself to his feet and began brushing off his robes, then blanched, reaching into his sleeve, finding it empty. "She took my ofuda!"

"NANI?!?"

"When she ran into me she must have grabbed my ofuda and sealed the hut."

Inuyasha lunged at him, grabbing him by the collar of his robes, slamming him into the wall. "Well, how the FUCK to we get out of here. I...we have to get her, make her understand..."

Miroku shook his head, "You heard her. She does understand. At least she understands what you've been trying to make her see all these years. Right?"

"FUCK YOU Houshi!" Inuyasha growled, slamming Miroku against the wall again.

"Inuyasha, If you want to get out of here, you may want to leave my head attached to my shoulders."

Reluctantly, Inuyasha released his hold on the monk's robes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Miroku sighed, "No use being sorry right this minute. First we have to get out of here. She is more powerful than she knows and it may take much of my strength as well as much time to reverse the binding."

"We don't HAVE time... I have to make sure she's ok. I have to protect her..."Inuyasha trailed off, feeling weak and useless, feeling worse than all of his human nights combined. He opened his palm to find the jewel shards.

'But how do I protect her from what she feels? How do I protect her from me?'