InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ If Only ❯ One-Shot

A/N:

Well hell, it happened again, LOL. This was supposed to be a shortie but it got too big! I really only want the shorties in Splendent Shorties to be somewhere around 1k-3k-ish words. Which is apparently a lot harder than I thought it would be!

So enjoy another stand-alone one-shot! This one is canon, and takes place sometime after Kikyou's death but before Kagome's powers got sealed. No particular spot in the storyline beyond those two points.

If only it hadn't been the night of the new moon. If only it hadn't been raining. If only they hadn't come to this kami-forsaken town looking for shelter from said rain. If only there hadn't been a fucking succubus, of all things, living just outside of town in the nearby forest, vexing the local population.

If only Miroku had taken the situation more seriously, instead of 'volunteering' to go search for the youkai in such a way that Sango had insisted on going with him.

If only Kagome or Inuyasha had noticed that the lightly dozing Shippou and Kirara with them in their room at the inn were suddenly both in a much deeper sleep, unable to rouse no matter how much noise the two made while talking and eating potato chips to pass the time.

If only Kagome hadn't had that second cup of tea earlier that night, when the sickly looking inn keeper had insisted on treating the inu-tachi to a complementary meal in addition to their room in exchange for attempting to rid their town of the youkai that was slowly killing their entire adult male population.

“I'll be right back,” she told Inuyasha as she stood up.

“Where ya goin'?” he asked around a mouthful of chips.

“I have to pee.”

Kagome had learned long ago that being blunt and to the point was the best way to go about such conversations with him. Just emphasizing that she had to go would only confuse and frustrate him and have him pointedly asking her where she had to go.

Wordlessly, Inuyasha nodded while stuffing another handful of 'dried potatoes' into his mouth. Slipping on her shoes, Kagome slid open the door, frowned at the steady rainfall just beyond the covered walkway, released a deep exhale and headed outside, without her bow and arrows.

Around twenty minutes later Inuyasha was just starting to get worried when a disheveled looking, damp Kagome, rushed back into their room and quickly slid the door back closed.

“You okay?!” he asked her a bit frantically as he stood up at her abrupt entry and troubled expression.

“It's freakin' cold out there!” she stated as she did her best 'Inuyasha' impression of shaking the excess water free from her person before slipping off her shoes.

Relaxing, he chuckled and sat back down.

Neither Shippou nor Kirara stirred in the slightest from all the commotion.

Teeth chattering, Kagome came over to the firepit and had a seat not too far from the temporarily human hanyou. He tried not to stare at the way her white sailor top clung to her petite form, or how the slight translucency of the wet fabric allowed him to make out the futuristic chest binding she wore underneath, her nipples hard and pressing through both layers of cloth. Then her nimble fingers untied the red scarf wrapped around her neck before hooking underneath the bottom hem of her school blouse as she prepared to lift it up and off.

She only got about halfway up her belly before Inuyasha spluttered, “Wh-what are you doing?!

Kagome paused, but instead of looking embarrassed, as if she'd somehow momentarily forgotten she wasn't alone, she shot him an inquisitive look, arms still folded across her body and holding the hem of her shirt, as she explained, “I'm never going to warm up unless I shed these wet clothes.”

That said, she proceeded to lift her shirt up and over her head and toss it unceremoniously into a heap a few feet away, rather than draping it or laying it out flat anywhere to dry. Pulling off her socks and tossing them aside, next, she then stood up and undid the side zipper on her skirt, letting it slide down her perfect legs before she carelessly kicked it to join her other laundry.

Inuyasha stared, silent and slack jawed, unsure what had gotten into her, while a naughty voice in the back of his mind also wondered if she was going to stop there or keep going. After all, her under clothes were also wet...and partially transparent.

Gah! What's gotten into me?! he thought, shaking his impure thoughts free. Stupid human emotions.

Kagome was obviously just being very logical in that she needed to change into some dry clothes, and he was convinced if she knew the thoughts currently running through his head she'd osuwari him clean through the floorboards. Which, given that he was presently human, would really fucking hurt.

Then she glanced his way, and he flinched before quickly turning his head, trying valiantly to ignore the heat he could feel staining his cheeks a shade of red to rival his fire-rat robes as he ate another handful of potato chips and pretended he hadn't just been enjoying the strip tease taking place three feet away from him. His human ears almost didn't pick up the faint sound of Kagome's giggle.

Hesitantly peaking back up at her through his hair, then, his temporarily gray eyes widened in surprise when he registered the teasing glint in Kagome's own eyes as she stood there, in her (damp) bra and panties, hand on her hip and an amused grin curving her lips.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

“Are you okay?!” he asked in return.

Sighing, Kagome sat back down, right beside him on his left, and leaned herself against him while wrapping her right arm around his body. He stiffened at the contact – honestly, in more ways than one – but when she sighed again and leaned her head against his shoulder, he turned to nuzzle his nose in her hair, cursing his human sense of smell.

Although, something was…

“Have you changed shampoos?”

But that couldn't be right. Surely he would've noticed when he'd still had his hanyou senses. He sniffed her hair again.

“This is nice,” she said suddenly, and all thoughts of smelling her hair went out of his head at the sound of her voice.

“Yeah...” he agreed, wrapping his arm around her in return.

He could feel her shivering against him, and pulled her against his side a little bit tighter. Poor thing was never going to warm up while she still had wet underclothes on.

“You need to finish drying off,” he said then, an almost seductive edge to his voice that sounded foreign to his own ears. Was he trying to make her subdue him? He couldn't believe he'd just been so bold!

But Kagome only smiled at him and nodded her agreement, and then disentangling herself from him, she knelt beside him and, while shyly – or was that coyly? – glancing up at him through her bangs as she ducked her head, she reached her arms behind herself and unhooked her bra. He watched, mouth going dry, as the garment went slack, and then Kagome was sliding the straps down her arms, to discard the binding along with the rest of her wet things.

He licked his lips.

Her light pink nipples were standing at attention, not unlike a different part of his own anatomy, and as she 'shyly' glanced up at him again, as if awaiting his appraisal, he met her eyes with his own and locked their gazes together.

“Kagome...I don't...know what's gotten into you, but whatever it is has gotten into me, too,” he confessed.

“Nothing's gotten into me,” she countered, “except I just realized, here we are, alone just the two of us...”

Apparently the two small unconscious youkai didn't count.

“...and I've felt this way for so long. Have wanted...to be with you, like this, for so long.”

“Like this?” he questioned with a raised eyebrow, his tone of voice teasing.

Kagome stood up on her knees to slightly tower over him, and leaning her face down closer to his, whispered, “Like this...” as she touched her lips to his.

Her kiss was like a jolt of electricity arcing throughout his entire body to coalesce in his cock. Suddenly, all remnants of logical thought flew from his mind as he grabbed her by her shoulders and roughly returned her kiss.

He had no memory of Kagome pushing him down to lie on his back, but suddenly, she was straddling his waist, and then stretching herself across the length of his body she was kissing him again, and his hands were everywhere as their tongues dueled for dominance. He fisted her hair, grabbed her shoulders, rubbed his palms up and down across her back, cupped her ass – when had she slipped off her underwear??? – and grinding his pelvis up against her heat Kagome mewled into the kiss.

Sitting back up on top of him again, she started tugging open his robes, and he smirked as he was suddenly reminded of the time Kagome had oh-so-innocently been trying to treat his stab wound from Yura's sword. Of course, she hadn't been naked back then, and Kaede had indeed been given the wrong impression as Kagome's only intention really had been to treat his wounds, even though he hadn't needed her medical attention at that time. This time, however, he had a very different kind of ailment he needed her to treat, and his need was getting worse.

Kagome slowly shimmied herself down his body as she undid his suikan and kosode and pulled them both open and out from his hakama. Sitting on his legs just above the knees, then, she began untying his hakama next, and exposing his bulging fundoshi she merely reached inside from the side with her right hand and pulled his erection free, his loincloth fabric bunched up alongside his shaft on his right.

He moaned loudly as she began stroking him, his eyes rolling back in his head as she rubbed the bead of precum from his slit all around his sensitive mushroom tip.

“Come on, K'gome, please...” he begged, bouncing his hips the best he could with her still sitting on his legs while he tried to tug her forward.

“Uh-uh-uh,” she teased as she dismounted him off to the side, sitting on her legs to his left.

He turned his head to stare at her naked perfection, and the fact that she'd gotten him lying flat on his back, his clothing splayed open and weeping cock standing at attention, in only a matter of minutes, did not strike the hanyou as odd because he was too fucking horny to think. It didn't even occur to him that Sango and Miroku could theoretically walk in on them at any given moment, although it was true they hadn't been back once all night since heading out after dinner, but without his demonic senses he'd have no warning of their approach and even the slimmest possibility should have unnerved him, but the worry was completely absent from his mind.

Then Kagome wrapped her right hand back around his shaft again and lowered her mouth over him, and whatever minuscule amount of brain function he'd still had left, which had been reserved for admiring her beauty, proceeded to flat line as he struggled to remember how to breathe.

“Kago-! Holy shi- Fuckin' gah!” he panted, eyes pinched shut, blunt human fingernails clawing at the floorboards, his back arching off the ground.

That was the scene the real Kagome walked in on when she slid the door open to their room.

She had been on her way back from the latrine when a wicked demonic aura had suddenly surrounded her, and she'd tried her best to fight off the sensation of losing consciousness, but it was like she'd been submerged in a sweet smelling miasma that worked like a general anesthetic. She was going down.

Then as her conscious mind began drifting away, she'd been able to feel another mind riffling through her thoughts, and having been the victim of telepathic attack and control before that was what she had feared was happening, that she was being taken over, until she'd gotten the distinct impression that the presence in her mind was just reading her thoughts and was surprised by her awareness of its actions. There was even a compliment attached, of sorts, although there were no words per se. She'd just gotten the feeling that the entity was impressed with the strength of her miko powers, and also feared her because of them. She'd also gotten the sense that she was not its true target and that it already had what it needed from her, and that there was now an added sense of urgency about it, that whatever it was planning, it needed to hurry.

No, she needed to hurry. The youkai was a she.

Panic had consumed the future-born miko as realization dawned, just before her world went black.

Kagome had no idea how long she'd laid there, in the rain, tucked out of the way down a side alley where any other guests at the inn on their way to or from the latrine wouldn't see her. Soaked to the bone, she'd ignored her discomfort as she'd bolted awake with a solitary goal burning her to her very core. She had to get back to Inuyasha!

The townspeople had explained to them earlier that evening that the way this particular succubus seemed to work was that she would knock men's wives unconscious without the husbands knowing and then take their place in the bedroom, or alternatively single young men were then seduced by whomever was their secret crush, or even just their ideal version of the perfect woman if they had no specific love interest. Kagome hadn't immediately put two and two together because none of the other women had reported being aware of their own attack. They would just suddenly find themselves waking up in an unusual place without even remembering falling asleep. Apparently it was Kagome's miko powers that had allowed her to be aware of the attack even if she hadn't been able to fight it off.

This specific type of succubus could also apparently read minds, which the future-born miko realized made sense because then she could much more easily play the part of the women she mimicked, but it was more than that. Corroborated by the village men, she also seemed to exude some sort of unnatural power of seduction, because even after becoming fully aware of there being a succubus among them none of the townsmen had yet been able to resist her. There seemed to be no lasting ill effects for any of the women she attacked, but the men were slowly being drained of their life force.

As Kagome stood there, frozen in shock for a moment, she stared in a combination of mortification and horror as her doppelganger – her naked doppelganger – went to town on the human hanyou. As erotic a sight as he made writhing on the floor in ecstasy, the miko's focus zeroed in on the strange waves of energy she could see flowing through his whole body towards his groin, as if the succubus was literally sucking the life out of him.

Through his cock.

Snapping out of it, and dutifully ignoring the burning heat she could feel not only on her cheeks, but down her throat and across her chest as she turned bright red while a wave of unwanted tingles teased her nether region, the miko raced over to her bow and arrows, Inuyasha seemingly completely unaware of her presence. Shippou and Kirara also appeared to be unconscious, which was obviously the youkai's doing and she could only hope that they were otherwise okay, while mentally kicking herself for not having noticed earlier that their sleeping was unnatural, since they were in the exact same positions they had been in before she'd left to relieve herself.

Donning her quiver before drawing and knocking an arrow, Inuyasha remained oblivious to her presence, even as the holy glow from her arrow lit up the room well beyond the low light of the central firepit.

The succubus was fully aware of her presence, of course, but merely redoubled her efforts, slurping and sucking and running the tip of her tongue around the edge of his foreskin all while teasing his balls with her left hand. Inuyasha gasped and moaned and did a human version of a growl and sputtered out broken segments of Kagome's name – there went those blasted tingles again – and the real Kagome knew that she couldn't just stand there and watch like it was the naughty channel on the TV. Inuyasha was being violated, even if he was enjoying it. She knew he never would have consented to this if he were in his right mind, and the important part was that it was actually harming him. She could still see the waves of energy gathering from all throughout his body moving and flowing down through his penis and up into the succubus' mouth and then down her throat. She wasn't just pleasuring him. She was feeding.

“Leave him alone!” Kagome shouted then.

That got Inuyasha's attention, the sound of Kagome's voice yet again breaking him out of the spell he was under, even as his attacker still didn't cease in her assault.

Despite the sensations still rushing through him, as the woman on his cock never once faltered in her task, he managed to blink his eyes open and see…

“Kagome!”

The sight of the second miko, this one still dressed and armed with her bow and arrows, a holy glow shining brightly around the tip of the notched projectile, was all the evidence he needed to know who was who. With his memory intact, he realized with a tremendous flush of humiliation just who or rather what the woman sucking him off had to be, and even as he felt his climax rushing up on him he angrily shoved her away, the visible glow of his life force leaving his body dissipating the instant she was no longer touching him.

Unfortunately he was too late to stop his release, and he immediately fell back against the floor again with a loud groan as he gave in to the desire to grab his own dick, giving himself a final few pumps as he spilled his seed all over his chest and stomach. Gasping for breath afterwards, he belatedly realized what he had just done in front of Kagome but the miko had her eyes focused elsewhere.

The false Kagome, who had landed unceremoniously on her butt when he'd shoved her away, turned her head to glare daggers at the miko from over her shoulder when the hanyou climaxed.

“Now look what you've done!” she shouted angrily. “All my effort, wasted!”

Apparently the flow of energy Kagome had seen the succubus already consuming from him had merely been an appetizer, and she'd just been denied the main course.

Boo fucking hoo, the miko thought, Inuyasha's usual foul language rubbing off on her, at least in her head. She was livid.

Unsure of what the youkai might do, Kagome rushed around to stand protectively beside Inuyasha then, who had adjusted his fundoshi and hakama to conceal himself but otherwise remained lying motionless on the floor, his eyes pinched shut as he turned his face away from the two women. Kagome appreciated that he wasn't looking, as she aimed her arrow at the youkai who still sat on her ass on the floor before her, feet flat on the ground with her legs apart and bent at the knees. The real Kagome blushed scarlet as she tried to focus her miko energy because the succubus' disguise was...accurate.

The briefest hint of fear that flashed in her stolen blue-gray eyes was accurate, too. Kagome had seen that look in the mirror too many times to not know what badly concealed fear looked like on her own face. But then the youkai's features shifted, her cream colored flesh turning gray as she revealed her true appearance. A wrinkled hag with claws and fangs suddenly leapt at the miko, perhaps thinking of how the untrained girl had no experience using her bow in such close quarters. A bow and arrow could be used as a short range weapon, but it was true that Kagome's skills were lacking in that department, and the succubus knew that from having read her mind.

But it was also true that when push came to shove, her untrained miko powers were quite formidable in their own right. Kagome didn't release her arrow, caught completely off guard by the succubus' rapid shift and attack, just as the youkai had hoped she would be, but she'd still been holding said arrow notched and ready to go, and its tip had still been glowing brightly from her channeling her energy through it. When the youkai made to knock the bow out of Kagome's hand her reiki exploded outward from the longbow itself, incinerating the succubus until not even dust remained. Inuyasha would have gotten singed himself from such close proximity had he not been human at the time, and Kagome was immediately relieved that Shippou and Kirara were both on the other side of the room. The blast of energy was so intense it'd even instantly dried her! She was still a little damp but not dripping wet as she had been moments before.

The youkai's discarded copy of Kagome's school uniform had also disappeared, she noticed then, revealing it had actually been an illusion of sorts, or perhaps some type of extension of the youkai's body. It didn't really matter which. With the clothes gone there was no lingering evidence of the woman's presence.

Well, almost.

Looking down at Inuyasha in that moment, who had sat up and was fumbling to tie his robes to conceal the mess still on his chest and stomach, Kagome didn't know what to say but she knew she had to say something. Were he in his hanyou form she imagined he'd have already fled the inn and would've been perched up in some tall tree hidden deep within the surrounding forest or something.

Of course, if he'd been in his hanyou form none of this would've happened in the first place. She just knew he had to be cursing his weak human blood, not to mention his human emotions.

“Inuyasha...”

The pain, humiliation and self-loathing in his eyes as he wordlessly looked up at her had her dropping her bow to clank on the floor as her body went numb. Dropping to her knees, next, she shrugged off her quiver and reached for his hand, desperate to let him know she didn't blame him, but he yanked it back, not letting her touch him.

“Inuyasha, please, we need to-”

An untimely moan from Shippou as the kitsune on the other side of the room slowly regained consciousness belatedly had Kagome realizing that this was actually not the right time or place for their much needed conversation. The look in Inuyasha's eyes shifted to one of panic as he realized what all the kitsune would undoubtedly be able to smell, and understanding the look in his eyes Kagome nodded and quietly whispered “Go.” Grateful, Inuyasha got up and quickly left the room just as Shippou and Kirara were waking up.

“Inuyasha…?” Shippou asked quietly as he blinked the sleep from his eyes to see the hanyou's retreating form closing the door behind him as he left. “Where's he going, Kagome?”

Shippou knew Sango and Miroku were out trying to hunt a youkai that was hurting the local village men, and they had agreed after dinner that Inuyasha would stay in the room with them since he didn't have his youkai powers that night. So where was he suddenly heading off to?

Then before Kagome could even think of an answer, Shippou's nose crinkled as he began taking in all the various smells in the room as he looked around. His eyes widened. She mentally braced for impact.

“Was the youkai here?!” he asked her then, panic clearly evident in his voice and eyes, and Kagome relaxed a marginal amount to realize he was apparently smelling the succubus herself over...other, possible odors, but she didn't allow her relief to show on her face.

“Oh, Shippou, I'm so glad you're all right! It all happened so fast!” Kagome improvised quickly. Perhaps a little too quickly, but the kitsune didn't seem to notice. “We were minding our own business when suddenly the youkai that has been attacking the locals here burst in on us, after Inuyasha. I managed to kill it with my bow, but before it all disappeared some of its disintegrated body got on Inuyasha's robes, so he just went to go wash the youkai bits out of his clothes.”

“Oh wow, go Kagome!” Shippou replied in pride that she'd managed to slay the youkai they'd been after all by herself. He then seemed to think of something else. “But how on Earth did I sleep through all that?”

He turned to meet Kirara's eyes and the nekomata gave her best feline version of a shrug, because she didn't understand it either.

“I noticed that, that you two were completely out cold,” Kagome said then, answering Shippou's question semi-honestly when she said, “I assume the youkai was able to put you two to sleep the same way they told us it could put the wives to sleep, so probably just anybody besides the target, except it didn't work on me because of my miko powers.”

Shippou accepted that answer well enough, and then noticing the discarded bag of potato chips over by the firepit, he happily snatched it up and started munching, while Kagome chuckled and sighed again in secret relief.

On top of being glad he'd bought her story, she was also relieved her little explosion of reiki had managed to mostly dry her off, because if she'd still been dripping wet it would have been hard to work that into her story, unless she'd thought to say she'd chased the youkai out into the rain, but then that would have ruined her explanation about Inuyasha's messy robes. As it was, she was grateful Shippou didn't seem to notice she was actually still a little damp. The water all over the floor probably hid the smell, and he'd chalked the mess up to the youkai being wet when she'd burst in on them.

Thinking of Inuyasha, then, Kagome knew she couldn't postpone their much needed conversation any longer and decided to go follow after him in that moment. She also knew that Miroku would have probably sensed the burst of reiki from her bow when she purified the succubus and that he and Sango were probably on their way back right now, which meant she needed to hurry up and get out of there before they arrived. She and Inuyasha would deal with them and Miroku's probable teasing later.

Grabbing her body wash out of her backpack, then, she made the excuse that Inuyasha might need use of her futuristic soaps to help with washing off the 'youkai guts', a believable ruse considering he had in fact used her soaps in the past for just that purpose. Telling the kistune to stay behind and wait for Sango and Miroku who were surely on their way back, so that he could explain to them what'd happened, and telling Kirara to stay and make sure Shippou and the others stayed and waited for them to return – the nekomata subtly nodding to let Kagome know she understood – the future-born miko grabbed her bow and arrows “Just in case,” and headed out the door.

It didn't take her long to find Inuyasha, knowing he wouldn't have gone to the bath house at the inn but rather, to the back of the property, facing the forest, where there were plenty of puddles thanks to the still pouring rain. Her delay meant he had already taken care of the quick task of wiping himself off, and his robes and hakama were tied properly when she came up beside him. His hair was dripping wet, but the demonic robes were already barely damp and drying fast, as he stood under the extended edge of the roof, staring out at the treeline he couldn't really see with his weakened night vision.

He didn't attempt to move away from her at her appearance, but neither did he look at her, and when she handed him the body wash he accepted it on autopilot before casting her a silent, quizzical look that she could barely make out in the dark.

“I told Shippou that the youkai just barged in on the two of us, after you of course, and that I killed her with my bow,” she explained then. “Told him that before the youkai totally disappeared some of her 'youkai guts' got on your robes, and that's why you left, to go wash up, so I brought you the soap to help with that.”

Wordlessly nodding his understanding and gratitude, Inuyasha poured a small amount of the floral smelling body wash into his hand and rubbed it into his suikan. Without his own youkai sense of smell he'd had no way to know for sure if he'd fully gotten all the evidence of his debauchery wiped clean, so the floral soap was definitely appreciated.

“Are you never going to speak to me again?” Kagome asked then, trying to keep her tone of voice gentle, but he cringed all the same.

“What's there to say?” he asked her so quietly she could barely hear him over the rain, as he handed her back the body wash.

“Well I hope you know I'm not angry with you,” Kagome volunteered.

It's not like he was really cheating on me, she thought, conveniently ignoring the fact that they weren't even technically together in the first place.

Their relationship status was...complicated. They both knew how the other felt, as far as she knew, but it was just one of those unspoken things. In the past, she had forlornly thought that while a part of him might care for her, Kikyou would always hold the number one spot in his heart, but now that Kikyou had finally passed on Kagome had felt that the only true obstacle standing in their way was Naraku. Sango and Miroku were waiting until after he was defeated to get married, after all, and so while she knew that she and Inuyasha didn't have any specific plans like the monk and slayer did, she had assumed they too were just waiting until after Naraku's defeat to figure things out.

She dreaded the possibility of one day needing to choose between the two worlds, between Inuyasha and her family, but Kagome knew beyond any doubt that she did not want to imagine a life without the hanyou in it. If she was forced to choose one day…

She was pulled from her worrisome thoughts when the hanyou in question spoke back up again.

“Of course not,” Inuyasha agreed softly, and it took her a minute to remember just what it was he was agreeing with her about. Oh yeah, that she wasn't angry with him.

“You fucking pity me, which is worse.”

“I...” Kagome started in surprise before closing her mouth again. What should she say? He was very emotional right now, so she needed to be careful, but that also meant not patronizing him. It would be better to just be honest.

“Yes and no,” she answered then. “Any pity I feel is just from a place of sympathy, because of how...embarrassed, I'm sure you are. But don't forget I have a reason to be embarrassed, too.”

The naked succubus had looked just like her, after all.

He pinched his eyes closed and turned his head to face away from her at her words, a blush staining his cheeks that she thankfully couldn't see.

“But Inuyasha,” she continued, beseeching him to understand with the tone of her voice. “I mostly feel guilty, because it's my fault you were attacked.”

That earned her his eyes locking with hers again, as he turned his head back to stare at her incredulously. She could feel the 'what the fuck are you talking about' he was just about to blurt out and didn't let him. She wouldn't let him deny her responsibility in this.

“Please can you find it in your heart to forgive me?” she asked, but then still didn't give him an opportunity to speak. “It was my job to protect you. The one night a month when we switch roles, and I failed. Because I was too stupid to realize that if I drank too much tea I would need to use the latrine. I knew I wasn't supposed to leave you alone. I knew the succubus cast spells on her victims. You could have been more seriously injured. You could have been-”

“Stop,” he interrupted, his tone of voice and eyes both gentle.

He knew what she was doing. As his gruff hanyou self he probably would've fallen for it, too. Placing the blame on her would certainly be easier on his ego. He knew he normally just loved to call her clumsy or stupid, but really, it was only because he wanted her to learn from her mistakes because he knew she had the potential to become so much better. And in truth she already had. She was a much better shot with the bow than she used to be, and her miko powers were a lot more powerful than they used to be, too. But while technically, he supposed she actually was right in this instance...she had left him alone and thus gave the youkai the opportunity she'd needed to attack him...he wasn't going to berate her for it. Not this time. Not when, in his mind, he was just as guilty as she was.

“I should have realized it wasn't you,” he countered, and she opened her mouth to argue but it was his turn to not let her speak.

“Yeah, I know, the bitch 'cast a spell' on me.” He snorted. “But a husband being comforted by who he thinks is his wife even while knowing there's a succubus on the loose is different,” he insisted. “You're...we're not...I should have known it wasn't you.”

“Because I never would have randomly thrown myself at you while we knew there was a succubus on the loose,” Kagome supplied while nodding in understanding.

She was just about to argue again, though, that because 'the bitch' had cast a spell on him, he wasn't expected to have been able to reach such logical conclusions, but then the next words out of his mouth stopped her cold.

“Keh, like you'd ever fucking throw yourself at me like that.”

It felt like her heart had stopped beating, and she had to remind herself to breathe. Did he...not know how she felt, after all? She'd thought it was just one of those unspoken understandings type of things but...was she wrong? Steeling herself, she was going to get to the bottom of this, one way or another. She had no idea when they'd next have an opportunity to speak like this, and while it might be a little underhanded, she also knew he was more emotional as a human and wanted to take full advantage of that fact.

“I would...if you wanted me to.”

He gaped at her, and then as he looked at her fully his mind decided to provide an overlay of what she looked like naked thanks to that fucking succubus and his already mild blush burned scarlet, though Kagome thankfully still couldn't see it in the darkness. They were both barely able to make out each other's faces.

And Kagome could indeed recognize the look on his face, just barely, even though she was colorblind to the redness on his cheeks.

“Why so shocked?” she asked him then. “And you had better not say something stupid like I would never want to 'sully' myself with your touch or how 'nobody' would want a hanyou, or any of that nonsense.”

He just continued to stare at her, dumbfounded.

“You...really?” He cleared his throat. “I mean, you would really...want to? With me?”

“I thought you knew how I felt,” she stated softly. “After all, I knew you felt the same way,” she admitted. “I thought we'd both just like...silently agreed we shouldn't distract ourselves while still trying to find Naraku and purify the jewel.”

She chuckled quietly at the stunned look on his face, then added, “What? You don't see me being completely shocked here that the succubus chose to use me as your fantasy woman, do you?” Meeting his wide eyes with a sincere look in her own, she added, “Maybe I would have been surprised a few months ago, for reasons, but not now. I knew you cared, but just figured it wasn't the right time.”

His eyes were still as wide as saucers as everything she said slowly sank in. He hadn't even thought about how it looked from that angle, that the succubus had chosen her. He'd just been focusing on the fact that he'd fallen for it. She'd tricked him. And how stupid he was to have believed it because of course the real Kagome would have never acted that way. But the fact that it had been a fake Kagome...it did make it rather obvious that he wanted her in that way, didn't it? He lowered his eyes, unable to hold her gaze any longer.

Not forcing him to meet her eyes, grateful he was at least still listening, Kagome continued.

“We already knew she could read minds, so she must've sensed your feelings for me and decided to go for it. You must have been too tempting for her to pass up, all strong and healthy when the other men here look like they're already on death's door. She decided to take the chance, even after sensing my miko powers.”

She thought about something else, then added, “I think...I think I woke up sooner than I was supposed to, and it's gotta be because my powers fought her off at least in part. I'm just glad I was able to get to you before she-”

“We don't...need to revisit those details,” Inuyasha interrupted, peaking back up at her again with a wry grin.

It was Kagome's turn to blush.

Ducking her head a moment, she cleared her throat, then met his eyes again.

“My point is, there's no point in denying you feel that way about me, or else the succubus wouldn't have used me to seduce you. So I'm just letting you know it's okay, because I love you, too.”

Eyes widening again at her words and confession, something broke inside the temporarily human hanyou, and the next thing Kagome knew, Inuyasha yanked her into a kiss. She was understandably surprised, but she mentally scrambled to catch up and kiss him back before her lack of reaction could possibly give him the wrong impression. Dropping her bow and quiver for the second time, along with the bottle of body wash she'd been holding, she wrapped her arms up and around his neck and lost herself fully to the moment. His tongue explored her mouth and she reciprocated, wondering idly what it would be like to kiss him when he had fangs. She hoped to find out soon.

Of course, that thought had her worrying that he would clam up again when he turned back into a hanyou, but she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

Inuyasha's mind was also a whirlwind while he kissed her, and the first thing he noticed was how different this kiss was compared to the one he'd shared with the false Kagome. The real Kagome's kiss didn't cast a spell on him, for one thing. Or at least not a literal one, although he still felt a few things stirring down below. He gripped her a little tighter on instinct, his hands staying in safe locations on her back even as he pulled her against him a little too close. When they finally broke apart from their mutual need for air Kagome couldn't mistake the bulge she felt pressing up against her.

“I-I'm...I'm sorry-” he started to say as he pulled away, but a finger to his lips silenced him.

“We don't have the time right now,” Kagome reasoned logically as she reluctantly backed out of his embrace. “Miroku and Sango are probably already back in our room, and the longer we're gone, the worse he'll tease us both when we return.”

Inuyasha grimaced at that thought, knowing she was right.

“Plus, well no offense, but I'd really rather our first time was in a nice warm bed, and I'd much rather you were your normal hanyou self.”

He just stared at her again, and the look on his face was definitely not one of taking offense at her not wanting to shag outside against the back of the building in the rain.

“You're serious,” he stated in disbelief.

Kagome offered him her most sincere smile yet.

“I love you,” she said again, more assertively. “That means all of you, which does include your human self. You're very cute as a human. But I don't want you getting any weird notions in your head that we could only ever be together on the new moon, and I'm worried a part of you would worry about that if our first time were during your human night.”

He released a shuddering sigh, and somehow barely resisted the urge to kiss her again.

“I...I can't guarantee how I'll act when I get my youki back,” he confessed then. “Sometimes I say or do things that I don't really mean. So I want you to hear it now...I love you too.”

He grinned at the way she absolutely lit up with her own beaming smile at his words.

“I know you already knew that, what with your damn logic...”

She giggled.

“...but you still deserved to hear me say it.”

“I hope I'll also get to hear you say it when you're hanyou.”

“Me too.”

Inuyasha wasn't quite sure if he meant he too hoped he'd be able to say it to her while in his hanyou form, or if he hoped to hear her say it to him while hanyou, but he figured both were true, anyway.

“But either way,” Kagome promised then, “even if you're not as emotional when it comes to the mushy stuff,” she stressed with a teasing wink, “we can still plan our little rendezvous. And when I say plan, I mean any spur of the moment opportunity that presents itself is fine with me.”

She saw the lingering hesitation in his eyes, and was sure it probably just had to do with worries regarding being with her in his hanyou form, but pretending his worries were about something else entirely she decided to give him a much needed reassurance in any case.

“Also, just so you know, we won't have to worry about me accidentally getting pregnant. Because remember those pills I started taking not long after our quest began?” she asked. “The ones to help regulate my monthly cycle because knowing exactly when that would start was so much more convenient while hunting for jewel shards?”

He just nodded mutely, gaping at her again.

“Well, in the past I didn't think mentioning it was a good idea. You'd have probably jumped to all sorts of conclusions, some including Kouga...”

She giggled at the fake indignant look he shot her at his name.

“...but the primary function of those pills is actually to prevent pregnancy.”

He gave her a playfully suspicious look, then, and teasingly said, “Are you sure Kouga didn't have anything to do with-”

He didn't get to finish as she playfully slapped his chest while calling him a baka, and then they both laughed.

“My primary reason for taking them really was to regulate my cycle,” she insisted. “But...after I started to fall for you, I must admit a little part of me did daydream that we would get together, and I knew I at least wouldn't have to worry about getting pregnant.”

She waited a breath, not wanting to try deciphering all the various emotions in his eyes, then added, “That definitely needs to wait until after we defeat Naraku.”

He gasped again, and suddenly jumping on him, she swallowed his gasp in another kiss. He kissed her back almost roughly but then pushed her away, much sooner than he'd have liked, his renewed erection having calmed back down during their brief talk. He wanted to keep it that way.

“W-well...” He cleared his throat. “Like you said, we'd better get back to the others, because the longer we wait the worse Miroku will be.”

They'd said all they needed to say for the time being.

Nodding her agreement, Kagome slung her quiver back on, grabbed her bow and the bottle of body wash, and together the two of them made their way back around the compound towards their room, staying under the covered walkways to avoid getting rained on again. Inuyasha's hair was still wet, but his robes were almost completely dry, and Kagome could now blame the weather for the lingering dampness to her own hair and clothing that Sango and Miroku were sure to notice.

Just as suspected, the monk and slayer were indeed already back and waiting for them in their room at the inn when the hanyou and miko returned, and Sango expressed both her worry and relief to see that the two of them were both all right after Shippou had told them that the youkai had attacked while they were gone. Miroku had indeed sensed Kagome's burst of reiki, and thankfully his teasing was limited to joking about the succubus finding Inuyasha so irresistible she'd braved facing a powerful miko in order to get to him.

Sango thought it odd that the succubus would have approached Inuyasha with Kagome in the room, but then in keeping with the story she'd already told Shippou the miko quickly and expertly ad-libbed with a shrug that, since they knew the succubus was capable of knocking human women unconscious, she must have thought that she had knocked Kagome out along with Shippou and Kirara, whatever spell she'd planned on using on Inuyasha then making him unaware of her unconscious form in the room, but luckily for them all the spell hadn't worked on her and so she'd still been wide attack when the youkai attacked.

If either the slayer or monk suspected she was lying, neither of them called her out on it, but the discreet congratulatory look Inuyasha shot her when nobody else was looking told Kagome he had found her lie so believable they had probably not thought to question it.

The only thing Sango questioned Kagome on, the following morning, was when she discreetly and teasingly asked why helping Inuyasha to wash the youkai guts out of his fire-rat robes the night before had taken so long. She rightly suspected the two had lingered in order to have an intimate conversation alone just the two of them, and deciding not to deny that part, since Sango didn't know what had really transpired regarding the succubus, Kagome said honestly that yes, she and Inuyasha had talked for a while afterwards.

After all, even her version of events was pretty intense. If they really had just been minding their own business alone in the room when suddenly the succubus had burst in on them, mind set to attack Inuyasha, and Kagome had had to scramble to get her bow and arrows and fight the youkai off, well that was frightening in its own right. Plus everyone obviously knew what the succubus' intentions towards Inuyasha had to have been, even if they thought she hadn't gotten anywhere before being blasted to bits. That was certainly a valid enough reason for the hanyou and miko to want a moment alone afterwards to talk, away from young kitsune ears.

It was also a valid enough reason for Miroku to continue teasing Inuyasha, the monk decided that morning, as he tried to get a rise out of the hanyou, saying how it was certainly a good thing the Lady Kagome had been there to save him, and what a horrible fate it would have been to be forced to endure the succubus' attack.

Inuyasha, for his part, gave nothing away, his hanyou features showing only the mild annoyance he always felt at the monk's relentless teasing about one thing or another. Then he quirked his lips and said, “You're just jealous she came after me instead of you,” and that shut the houshi up because it was true, but he couldn't very well admit as much in front of his fiancée.

Kagome did her best to act normally the following day, but just how normally Inuyasha was acting, ever since sunrise, really began to unnerve her by lunch time. She'd tried to flash him a few secret looks shortly after he'd transformed, to give him the opportunity to 'look' back, or even just wink or something, but nothing. It made her fear he'd retreated back inside himself, and that he was hoping she'd just drop it and pretend the whole thing had never happened.

It reminded her terribly of that time long ago with the spiderheads, when they'd had such an intimate moment the night before, Inuyasha sleeping with his head on her lap, only for him to act the following day as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired. She could only pray this wasn't really a repeat. She knew the two of them obviously hadn't had any opportunities to speak in private again since leaving that town after breakfast, but he'd yet to even shoot her any secret glances that would have let her know all was well.

He made his usual fuss about stopping for lunch, and eating was a quick affair before it was time to get back on the road again.

“Keh, we're losing too much daylight at this slow pace. The next town's over two days away. I say we run for a while.”

Sango grinned what she thought was a knowing grin Kagome's way – she knew, she just didn't know – and then said, “Sounds good to me. Kirara?”

The nekomata mewed her agreement and transformed into her saber form for Sango and Miroku to climb on board. Shippou hopped up onto Inuyasha's shoulder, but the hanyou glared at him in his usual way without too much heat and said “Beat it runt, go ride with the others.”

Shippou pouted but didn't otherwise complain, the kitsune joining Sango and Miroku.

Kagome felt her heart start beating a mile a minute, and then when she briefly met his eyes as he squatted down, he looked at her. It was the most intense, most sincere look he'd ever given her, and it was gone in an instant, before the others could notice. Suddenly, he just looked like his usual impatient self as he waited for her to climb onto his back. Swallowing thickly, she got behind him and climbed up, her heart skipping a beat when he grabbed her legs in the usual place.

She was sure he had to be aware of her physical state, and she suddenly wondered about his own, but he didn't say or do anything out of the ordinary as he waited for her to get settled, and then once she was ready he took off, telling Sango and Miroku to take the lead since Miroku was the one who knew where the next town was located.

“Inuyasha?” Kagome dared to voice, ever so quietly but plenty loud enough for him to hear her even over the roar of the wind in his ears, as he ran as fast as he could along the road to keep up with the flying nekomata overhead.

He didn't answer her with words, but then she gasped when she felt both of his thumbs start to caress her legs where he held her. It was a simple gesture. He'd never be so bold as to try anything more naughty than that while running with her. Well, at least not until after they'd already done a few other naughty things that he suspected just might help bring out his inner hentai. But for right now, in that moment, it was enough. Completely agreeing, Kagome made sure nobody was looking and then kissed his cheek, before whispering “I love you,” into his fuzzy ear. She couldn't see it, but she knew he was smiling, and he was.