To Be Alive Again

Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. I make no monies from my writing.

A/N: Sorry for the long pause between updates! I’ve been going through my stories, and this one grabbed my attention and even I want to know where it’s going. So, here’s an update!
A/N #2: -sigh- I am sorry, but I have to address the matter of a very inconsiderate reviewer who left no contact information and just signed their name as Anon. I really wish people like this would stop and think before leaving such reviews on other people’s stories. I also have to agree somewhat with reviewer {Reality Bites Deal With It}. If Anon is reading this, it would have been something else entirely to contact me via the many ways I can be contacted and give me specific examples to work with. However, the way you tried to make your personal opinion known was cowardly. There was no reason to leave a review like that and I honestly think that if you felt so strongly about your opinion, that you would have at least had the courage to contact me personally, instead of calling me a thief so blatantly. I do not steal other people’s ideas. That’s not how I operate and I take offence to be called one.
Unless you were a fellow author and thought I was taking your ideas from your story, you have no grounds to say such things. Nor are you a moderator or administrator for aff.net and I suggest before you decide to make another review calling me a thief, you get some concrete examples, and some courage and contact me through other forms of communication, and not spam up my review board. Good day to you!
Again, I am sorry for all of you awesome readers and reviewers out there who don’t do things like this, and are just here to enjoy other people’s stories. *gives hugs!*
Now that that is taken care of, onto chapter 4.

Disclaimer (erm, again!): All writing is my own! However, Inuyasha and Yu Yu Hakusho belong to their respective owners.


To Be Alive Again
Chapter 4
Dealing with a Broken Heart

Standing in the center of one of the many training rooms on Genkai’s training grounds, Kagome held her sword out to the side, spinning around gracefully as she jabbed and thrusted the weapon out towards invisible opponents, her power swirling lightly around her as a thin sheet of sweat formed over her skin, her blue sports bra darkening as it collected the moisture her body released. Two weeks had passed since Keiko had come out with her deception, and all of them were dealing with it their own ways. Kagome had increased her training, and often was found alone these days. Moving over towards a nearby target, she began her assault, making slashes in the burlap covering and releasing grains of rice onto the floor. She would have to clean them up later, but she didn’t care at the moment, and continued her vicious assault to the dummy target, actually wishing it was Keiko she was attacking.

The girl had the world and she pissed it all away because of her selfishness. The past once again came to haunt the miko girl, remembering time and time again when she would find Inuyasha in a tender or passionate embrace with Kikyou, seeing his betrayal. He promised her protection, but in battle proved over and over who was more important to him, and it certainly wasn’t her. Slashing at the dummy again, she tossed her weapon away to start physically assaulting the target, ignoring the blurring of her sight as tears forced their way from her eyes, her anger and pain at the past getting the better of her as she lost control for a moment, just launching punch after punch and kick after kick at the target, ignoring the protesting her fists and feet were doing as the pain shot through her body, evident that she would indeed have bruises later. Right now, however, she could care less.

Hiei watched for a few minutes as she beat the dummy target, before he stepped forward. Any more of this and she was bound to really hurt herself. ‘Kagome…’ he mentally spoke, making the young miko freeze a moment, only to turn to face him. His surprise was evident. She had been crying? Streaks remained evident down her cheeks from her fallen tears, and he almost growled at them. Who made her cry? They would pay with their lives. At that thought he paused, before gesturing to her katana. He would battle with her, maybe she would reveal why she was so upset. Without a word the girl retrieved the sword, coming at him aggressively.

~*~

At the same time Botan finally bit the bullet and made her way to Genkai’s shrine. She had to try and apologize to Yusuke and he had spent all of his time at the shrine since finding out about Keiko. She searched the grounds slowly, worrying her lower lip before running into the young toushin. He looked anything but pleased to see her.

“What are you doing here, Botan?” he asked his voice slightly stiff, and cold.

“I…came to apologize, for not telling you about Keiko.” She said softly, her eyes diverted to the ground. She couldn’t look him in the face, she knew she was in deep.

“You knew, Botan, and you didn’t say anything. I thought you were my friend!” Yusuke shouted, growling slightly as his voice rose in pitch. He couldn’t believe that she knew and never told him. That she would even keep something like this from him questioned him on their friendship. Her coming to try and apologize for it just opened the fresh wounds and rubbed salt into them. The spirit guide looked guiltily to the young toushin and couldn’t manage a retort, but said, “…she made me promise…and she was unhappy in the relationship…”

“That doesn’t matter, Botan! You have broken promises before, and this was about Keiko! How could you? I trusted you!” he shouted back, his ire fading into deep hurt.

“I’m sorry, Yusuke, I am! But I couldn’t…” she cried out a little, her eyes full of guilt and hurt; she hadn’t known how much it would hurt him to keep the secret, but now she regretted it.

“Forget it Botan, I’m tired of hearing your excuses.” He said in a hard voice, before he walking away from her and into a nearby training building, pausing momentarily to watch Kagome work with her sword with Hiei. Surprising to all of them, he had agreed to teach her a more in depth study of the weapon, as Sango had taught her a little bit about using a sword.

Kagome’s raven hair whipped around lightly as she struck down with her sword that was easily blocked by Hiei. “Come at me like you mean to kill me!” he shouted, his crimson eyes locking onto her sapphire ones that were still filled with anger and betrayal. ‘Damn Keiko. Damn her.’ The young miko cursed mentally, as she growled. Moving forward she slammed down with all her strength only to find that he was gone. She looked around quickly, before feeling the cold steal of his blade in her back, and sighed.

“Looks like you win again.” She said wryly, before sheathing her sword. A soft clapping got her attention and she turned, seeing Yusuke. She quickly wiped at her eyes, before saying “Hey! These sessions are supposed to be private…” she managed a smirk, looking to him.

Returning her smirk, he shrugged his shoulders. “You know me and authority. We just don’t get along.” He said, before looking to Hiei who remained silent.

The fire apparition returned Yusuke’s stare, before looking to Kagome. She truly was beautiful, no matter what she did. Right now the sweat glistened over her skin in the poor lighting of the training room, and her chest was moving rhythmically slower as she caught her breath, and that small movement held his attention a few moments before he broke away his gaze and looked to Yusuke, who was also staring at her. A low growl slipped from deep in his chest, and both looked to him with confused eyes, before dismissing it. He had to stop that. She was a ningen onna. Nothing more. She may have had power, but she was still human. Quietly, he melded with the shadows and disappeared to the surrounding forests.

Kagome shrugged off the growl she heard from Hiei. She was becoming used to it, and it always happened when Yusuke was around. With a light frown, she sighed and moved towards the toushin. “How are you doing?” she asked, putting the sword back up on the wall until later.

“I’m alright. You?” he replied, watching as she moved. She was pretty and always seemed to have a smile on her face, though he knew that she had precious little to smile over.

“Finished for the day!” she exclaimed, giving him a bright smile that she no where near felt inside. But for him, she would always have a smile and a kind word. “Hungry?”

“Always.” He replied, smirking.

“Let’s go into town and eat. I want a cheeseburger…ooh, and fries…” she went on, earning a soft chuckle from Yusuke. Blushing lightly, she turned back to him. “Food like that is seriously lacking in Feudal Japan. People in this era don’t know how good they got it.” She smirked, earning a small grin from the toushin.

“Not like I’m complaining. Most girls I know are addicted to salads and what’s the point of going out to eat if you’re just going to eat rabbit food?” he replied, earning a laugh from Kagome.

“I know, right? Anyway, just give me a few minutes, I definitely need a shower now.” She grimaced lightly at her sticky skin, sticking out her tongue a bit.

“No problem, take your time.” Was he honestly saying that? Something must be wrong…usually he was telling Keiko to hurry up as she was taking too much time getting ready. He doubted that Kagome would be like a typical girl though, and wouldn’t take forever to get ready.

Nodding, she bound up the stairs, and went into her bedroom, pulling out a pair of low cut jean shorts, and a light blue tee with a picture of a cherub on the front that said “Heartbreaker” and had the little winged baby holding two pieces of heart from her dresser, as well as some clean underwear. A few minutes later, after a quick shower and getting dressed, she put on her flip flops and quickly brushed out her hair before putting it up in a pony tail. She paused, looking into the mirror a moment, biting her lower lip lightly. She couldn’t help but think of Kikyou and how she was constantly compared to the miko.

~*~

Quietly, Hiei watched as Kagome looked at her reflection, her stray thoughts reaching him easily. Even now, she was dealing with her past and how she was constantly degraded and compared to someone who was among the undead. She still couldn’t see how much worth she had as herself. Not Kikyou or Midoriko…but Higurashi Kagome.

He couldn’t help but feel the bitter rage that grew in him as her thoughts reached him, and he once more vowed that should he ever come in contact with the hanyou that had degraded her self image so much, that he would not hesitate to kill him and would take great satisfaction in the hanyou’s blood on the end of his katana.

Again he was puzzled as to why he felt the need to exact revenge for her. She was a human, and a miko at that. However, she was also impartial to judging, no matter the race, be it hanyou, youkai, or even himself…hybrid. She had given her trust to him, and even put her life in his hands as he taught her to use a sword. At any time, he could have killed her without a second of hesitation, but she trusted him not to, trusted him to teach her, and in turn, she gave him her complete attention and devotion as she trained. No one else had ever given him that level of trust or respect except Yusuke. Even Kurama still had trouble trusting the little hiyoukai completely.

Turning his attention away as she walked out of her bedroom door, he sighed, left alone with his own thoughts.

~*~

“Ready!” she called out happily, bounding down the stairs quickly. Yusuke turned, and smiled, but blinked as he saw her trip. Flip flops weren’t the best things to run in, and the smooth surface of the bottoms slipped on one of the stairs, pitching her forward unexpectedly.

Before she could even manage a scream or reaction, he rushed forward, catching her in mid fall. It was a good thing he had his balance, or both of them would have fallen the rest of the way down the stairs.

Blinking, Kagome looked up into Yusuke’s chocolate brown eyes. They were dark, and intense, as if they were swallowing her up even as she looked into them. The toushin was both mesmerized, and slightly unnerved by her eyes. The sparkling sapphire orbs pierced into his soul as he saw all her emotions flitter across them, leaving him to wonder how someone could feel so much at one time. It was nearly impossible to decipher all of them, and after a brief second, he stopped trying to, and just relented into looking into her eyes.

Her heart was racing as the moments passed, and she wasn’t sure what to do. She needed to get away from him. She wasn’t ready for a relationship, or even to care about someone with her heart already…was she? Inuyasha had her heart for over four years, but he never took it for his own, always taking it and damaging it before tossing it back to her, like a recurring nightmare.

Slowly, she got back to her feet. "Thanks for catching me..." she said softly, looking to his eyes briefly before looking back down to her feet, a light blush now staining her cheeks.

“No problem, Kags.” He managed back, giving her a quirky little smile. He just came up with that nickname and he wondered how she would react to it.

Blushing a bit more, she pushed past him and headed down the stairs, trying to calm her racing heart. “And since when have I been ‘Kags’?” she asked, turning to look to him, smirking lightly now.

“Since I just came up with it. Got a problem with it?” he asked, looking to her as he came down the stairs too.

“No, just…no one’s called me that before.” She replied, moving to pick up her purse, pulling out her wallet and fitting it into her back pocket.

“Then I’ll consider it an honor.” He smirked wider, eyeing her as she bent over, giving him an ample shot of her derriere. He was beginning to really like the view she provided.

Blushing further, she whirled around, seeing him stare intently at her, before looking really embarrassed. ‘Was he just looking at my ass?’ she questioned mentally, her blush deepening.

“Something the matter, Kags?” he smirked again at her blush, his eyes twinkling mischievously. Opening her mouth to reply, she shook her head ‘no’, turning away from him to head to the door, with a softly muttered, “Hentai” under her breath.

Chuckling softly, he followed her. “So, where do we want to go?” he asked, coming up to walk beside her.

“I don’t know…someplace good, that’s all I care about.” She replied, getting over her moment of total embarrassment.

“How about Mike’s? They have huge burgers and their food’s really good.” He suggested, having gone to the establishment many times before.

“I’ve never been there…sure, why not?” she wasn’t opposed to trying a new place out. Smiling to her, Yusuke walked closer to her as they came to the bottom of the shrine steps and started walking towards the city. It was clear outside, but the sky threatened that it wouldn’t stay that way for long, though neither seemed to notice.

“So…how are you doing…really…I mean…” Kagome asked, tilting her head to look at the young toushin. She was still kind of worried about him. He hadn’t spoken much in the past two weeks, and she was afraid that he was just trying to spare everyone what he was feeling. She didn’t want him to suffer like she had, virtually alone with her feelings with no one she really wanted to confide in. Sango was helpful but she had her own struggles to deal with, like her younger brother, and the other inner demons she dealt with daily.

Glancing back to the ebony-haired girl, he debated honestly answering that question, before sighing softly, tilting his head up to look at the sky. “I’m alright, I won’t break.” He answered softly, blinking as he felt her hand touch his shoulder.

“…Yusuke…”

He turned to look at her fully now, seeing that storm cloud of emotion in her eyes resurface. Again he questioned how someone could feel so many things at once.

“Kagome, I’ll be alright. People get cheated on everyday. Really, I’ll be fine.” He tried to reassure her, only succeeding in earning himself a doubtful look from her. Was he honestly trying to be strong during this, or was he just pushing everything away, like she had? After years of Inuyasha abusing her heart, she was still dealing with the repercussions.

“…you’re stronger than I am, then.” She replied softly, pulling her hand back as she continued to walk beside him, not revealing anything more than that.

He blinked, before frowning lightly. “No…you’re strong too.” He didn’t really know what she was talking about when she had said that. He only heard parts of her story, and nothing really in depth. He knew that she had traveled in the past, and had many friends, but she hadn’t said more than the major details, not going deep into her story when he had eavesdropped on her conversation with Yukina.

She smiled weakly before shaking her head. “Not strong enough, though. I never have been.” She replied softly, looking ahead now, not meeting his glance.

“Kagome…” he stopped, not sure what to say. What had happened to make her think so little of herself? ‘Was it something I said?’ he thought quickly, before seeing as she turned to face him.

“Yeah?”

“…never mind.” He replied after a moments pause, storing this conversation back in his mind to work out later. “We’re there.” He managed to smile, gesturing to the restaurant. Grinning now, Kagome moved towards the door, surprised momentarily when he opened it for her, allowing her to go in first. “Such a gentleman.” She smirked, just teasing him a little.

He laughed lightly before following her inside, getting a booth near the back and out of sight. He didn’t feel like competing over the other noises in the restaurant to hear her.

Taking a seat, Kagome picked up her menu, her stomach grumbling in protest that she hadn’t eaten yet. Yusuke’s laugh made her blush, as he picked up his own menu. “Sounds like your stomach’s demanding attention.” He smirked, laughing as her blush deepened.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t eat breakfast, and skipped straight to my training for the day.” She retorted slightly, before looking to the waitress, her voice softening now. “Dr. Pepper, please.” She ordered her drink, while Yusuke ordered the same. Nodding, the girl left to get their drinks, and left them to order.

“This burger sounds good…I’ll get it, what about you, Kags?” Yusuke asked, looking to her.

“A salad and some baby carrots.” She smirked, completely kidding as she looked to him, earning another laugh from the toushin.

“And I’ll translate that into the same as me, with some French fries. Sound good?” he asked, his entire manner more relaxed than he had been the past couple of weeks.

“Sure.” She smiled back to him, setting down her menu as the girl came back with their drinks. Yusuke ordered for them and she was off again, leaving them alone once more.

“So…tell me more about you, Yusuke. I mean, we’ve hardly seen each other since we met. You come barging in on my training sessions with Genkai, I see you at mealtimes, but other than that…” she was slightly kidding with him and slightly curious as well. What did he do in his free time? She was training almost straight through, and didn’t have a lot of time to herself. This was one of the first times other than at the mall that she had free time to enjoy.

He blinked, looking to her, before nodding. She had a point. “Well, I like fighting.” He smirked, that playful side of him coming out once more.

She laughed. “I got that much, Mr. Tough Guy. I meant what other things do you like? Favorite color? Food? Anything at all that you want to tell me.” She was trying to establish a closer relationship with him, if he wanted it. She knew things from Inuyasha by observation only. He never really told her anything about himself, preferring to keep to himself and keep his many secrets that he had. Including the times he was gone to be with Kikyou.

Looking to her curiously he began to talk, interested that she wanted to know more about him. “I’m partial to the color green...” he started, gesturing to his uniform. “…and I like anything that doesn’t eat me first.” He smirked, giving her a soft grin. Laughing again, she shook her head, before diverting her attention back to him. “Anything else?”

“Well, you know the important parts already…so that doesn’t leave much else.” He said, referring to his demon heritage that she already knew about.

Looking to him she shook her head. “No, I don’t know the important parts. Like, your family? Other friends? Life changing events?” she knew about his demon heritage sure, but that wasn’t important to her. To her, it was only one part that made up the being known as Yusuke Urameshi. She wanted to know the rest.

Blinking with wide eyes, he just stared a moment, wondering where all of this was coming from. Not that he minded, actually, it made him more curious about her. He never had conversations like this with Keiko. Growing up with the girl, he probably knew more about her than she really knew about him. They hadn’t talked in length like him and Kagome were doing now in a very long time.
“Well…” he started, but was interrupted as the waitress came back with their orders. Taking their plates, she quickly munched on a fry, before looking to him. “Well…? Continue, I’m listening.” She smirked lightly, before smiling to him.

“Well…I have a mom. Her name is Atsuko, and she’s the only parent I’ve really known since I was little. My dad wasn’t around at all, so I spent a lot of time away from home. Most of the time with Keiko.” He replied softly, taking a short pause. She was a large part of his life, and he never expected that she would hurt him like this.

Kagome paused in taking a bite of her cheeseburger, a light wince on her face. She hadn’t meant for him to bring up painful memories. “…what about your friends?” she asked, trying to get the topic of conversation off of Keiko.

He looked back to her before taking a bite of his own sandwich. “Well, I’ve known Kuwabara since Middle School. He’s always tried to beat me in fights, but I was always the better fighter. I think he’s stopped trying to beat me lately, and instead decided he’d rather spend his time with Yukina.” He smiled lightly, relaxing again in her presence.

She giggled, before nodding. “I’ve noticed that too. He’s really nice though too. And what about Hiei and Kurama? How did you meet them?” she asked, liking their conversation.

“Well, that’s a long story in itself. Sure you want to hear it?” he asked, looking to her. He trusted her not to freak out, considering she had some pretty unbelievable stories herself.

“Sure, I’ve got nothing but time.” She smiled, taking another bite of her cheeseburger.

From that, he began to explain all about the three artifacts of darkness, each of their chance meetings, and finally how they came to work together for Koenma. Kagome followed the story, enraptured by it. It was an amazing story, and if she didn’t know about the existence of demons, and dealt with situations of death and coming back to life, she would never have been able to believe him. It gave them common ground, and for that she was glad. By the time he had finished the story, both of them were done with their food, and the sun was starting to set.

Looking to him, she just stared a moment before saying, “Definitely some life changing events there, Yusuke.” She grinned. “But kind of good life changing events.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I couldn’t imagine life without Hiei or Kurama around. And we’ve been all growing stronger and learning to work together. Even Hiei, who is the most antisocial person I know.” He smirked.

“Aw, he’s not that bad, I think he’s kind of cool, in his own way. You just have to learn to figure out what he’s not saying aloud.” She said, giving him a smile.

Blinking, he looked to her with curious eyes. “Uh huh…and how would you know?”

“You just have to watch him. He says plenty without actually “saying” anything, you know?” she shrugged, looking to the darkening sky outside. “We might want to head out. It looks like it’s going to rain any second…” Kagome added, looking to the storm clouds that were gathering.

Diverted off topic for the moment, he just nodded, before moving to pay for the check. Kagome stood too, pulling out her wallet to pay her share. “Nah, I got it Kagome.” Yusuke smiled, making her heart flutter a moment. He had an amazing smile, and it caught her off-guard a second before he went ahead and went up to the cashier to pay, leaving her momentarily stunned. Shaking it off, she moved forward after him, at least leaving the tip for the waitress.

Walking to stand by the door, she looked out to the people who started to walk quicker, trying to avoid the rain before it fell. Looking back to Yusuke, she watched him walk up behind her. “You think we can make it back to the shrine before it starts to pour?” she asked, a glint of challenge in her eyes as her sapphire eyes locked with his chocolate ones.

“We’ll see, won’t we?” he grinned back, before opening the door and running in the direction of the shrine.

“Cheater!” she shouted, laughing as she ran to catch up to him, her flip-flops still not being the best things to run in. After a few minutes of running, she tripped, one of her flip flops breaking as she fell forward harshly onto the pavement, scraping up her knee and hands.

“Damn it…this just isn’t my day for walking…” she cursed to herself, pulling up her knee from under her to inspect it. Pieces of gravel were imbedded in her knee, and she gently picked at the stones, trying to pull them out as painlessly as possible.

She didn’t notice Hiei coming closer until he was standing in front of her, his shadow blocking the little remaining sunlight that there was. She looked up, blinking at his indescribable expression. Was he worried about her?

~*~

Hiei had watched Kagome and Yusuke walk off together towards the city, and had opted to stay behind, choosing to take some time to think. She had given him much to think about lately, especially concerning his life of solitude. He toyed with the idea of telling her about his past, but once more, he pushed it away. He had known her only a little over a month and that was nowhere near enough time to trust her with his most heavily guarded secrets. Kurama knew bits and pieces, and he was the only one who could come close to knowing about the little hiyoukai’s real past.

Sighing softly, he shook his head. The girl was slowly becoming a stable figure in his life. When he woke up in the morning, she was there with her cheerful personality and smile. He could feel that she didn’t feel bubbly and cheerful, but she still portrayed happiness, even when there was deep sorrow lingering within her. When he went to sleep, she was in his dreams, holding his head on her lap as she had done before with both him and Yusuke. During the days that passed, he watched her practice with Genkai, and on other days he spent time in closer contact with the girl, sparring with her and teaching her the way of the sword.

Shaking away the thoughts, he sighed. She was slowly growing to be an enigma to him. She was curious. Everything she did had to have been done for a reason, and he had yet to really figure out this strange, ningen onna. A priestess at that. That was something else that he had been struggling with. She was supposed to destroy all of his kind, the demon race, but she was friendly with all of them, even building strong friendships with each of them. He could bet, that if any of them were in danger, she would run in headfirst, and think about the consequences later, if any situation that arose came to that.

She was once more at the forefront of his thoughts and he shook his head again, hopping down from his resting place in one of the many trees in Genkai’s forest. It had been awhile now and Kagome and Yusuke weren’t back. Moving swiftly, he began his own trek towards town to see what they were up to.

As he moved down the steps, he could smell rain in the air, and moved a little quicker. He knew that Kagome didn’t take an umbrella with her, and was most likely trying to beat the rain now, if she was even paying attention. The way she had been looking at Yusuke lately made him want to attack his friend and teammate, but because of recent developments, he had refrained. He had never really trusted Keiko, but her most recent actions had just been more proof that he couldn’t trust her, or any other humans for that matter other than those in the team. Could he trust Kagome? He didn’t know, but she hadn’t given him a reason not to trust her. Not yet, anyway.

As he got closer to town, he smelt something that made his heart race, and his blood boil. Blood…and he knew it was female by the scent of it. Racing faster, his suspicions were confirmed when he saw Kagome kneeled down on the sidewalk, a trail of blood going down her leg. He hadn’t felt like this before, except when Yukina was in danger. This girl had worked her way into his heart. For some reason, he cared about her welfare. Pushing that realization away, he briefly wondered where Yusuke had gone.

~~~~~

“Hiei? You okay?” Kagome spoke up, wondering why he was looking at her like that. He seemed to be feeling too many emotions at once, and they were all coming out on his face, confusing the miko. She hadn’t really seen him show emotion, and now he was showing quite a bit of it.

“Fine…but you’re bleeding. How.” It was a statement more than a question, and sounded a little more demanding than he had meant, but it was too late to soften his tone now.

Blinking, she sighed gently, before pulling out another stone from her knee. “I was running to miss the rain, but I tripped, and fell. Yusuke ran on ahead…did you see him when you were coming this way?” she asked, wincing as the blood gushed lightly from the hole in her knee.

He kneeled down beside her, taking her hand away from her knee to inspect the damage. “No, I didn’t.” he replied simply, before reaching to take out another small stone he saw buried in her knee. She really did a number when she fell.

Kagome watched, a bit entranced as he pulled her hand away gently, and even more so as he began to help her dislodge the gravel from her knee. Her heart began to race slightly, wondering why he was doing this. His hand was so warm as he held onto hers, and he was so gentle, nothing like he portrayed on a daily basis.

Hiei could feel her pulse quicken, and he wondered why, and if it was an adverse reaction to his touch, but one quick, unseen look told him all he needed to know. She was anything but scared, if anything, she was shocked, and curious. Holding in a small smile, he gestured for her to show him her other knee, also pulling out a piece of rock from that knee as well.

“Can you walk?” he asked, moving to stand as he held onto her hand, going to help her up.

“Yeah, sure…I’ll just have to watch the blood…” her knees were still bleeding somewhat, and it was trailing a little down the front of her leg, making her grimace. She wasn’t a big fan of blood. It was supposed to stay inside the body, not outside. She had seen too many injuries with bloodshed that were close to taking the lives of the ones she loved.

“Hey, Kagome! You alright?” Yusuke’s voice called out, getting both her and Hiei’s attention.

She smiled warmly to him. He came back for her. “Yeah, I’m fine, just tripped is all.”

“You should ditch those flip-flops and get some tennis shoes, seriously.” He smirked, shaking his head at her.

She huffed, before being helped up by Hiei. “Thanks…” she gave him a smile, before rolling her eyes at Yusuke. “Baka. I happen to like these flip-flops, thank you very much.” She stuck out her tongue at him, moving to walk beside him and Hiei towards the shrine.

“Don’t stick it out unless you’re going to use it.” He smirked, as she blushed furiously. “Yusuke, you Hentai!” she hissed out, not angry, just embarrassed. He waited for her to hit him, but it never came, as he looked to her, admiring her cute blush. Keiko usually hit him when he said something perverted, but Kagome just blushed prettily and kept walking, muttering under her breath. “I swear, you and Miroku would get along better than anyone…”

“Who’s Miroku?” he asked, a little flare of jealousy coming forth. He wasn’t the only one, as Hiei listened closely to their banter. He may have sifted through her memories when they first met, but he hadn’t pulled everything from her mind, and had yet to really know what her relationship with her teammates was like.

“Oh…I haven’t told you about my friends…have I…” she bit her lower lip, turning to look at him, then at Hiei, who’s expression was blank, but his eyes told her that he was indeed, curious about her.

Both took in her expression of mixed emotions, sadness being the most prominent. Did this Miroku person hurt her? If so, they were apt to do some damage to his person, already both demons were trying to picture him.

Before another word was spoken, the heaven’s opened up and the rain poured down. Blinking, she shook her head, giving them each a smile. “Let’s go home, guys. We can talk there.” She may have not liked getting caught in the rain, but she wasn’t going to let it dampen her spirits. They were low enough without the weather involving itself.

Each demon watched her facial expression’s change. She was such an emotional creature, and neither had met anyone like her before. They walked with her in the rain and back towards the shrine, eagerly anticipating anything that she was willing to share with them, both anticipating learning more about the miko known as Kagome.

A/N: Wow…..long chapter. I hope you all enjoy it! I’ll try to update more soon.
Kudos, loves!

Next Chapter: Revealing the Past

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