Gambling with Ice and Fire

The group was uncharacteristically silent as they traveled back towards Kaede's village. Kagome was planning on heading home yet again, they still hadn't found any jewel shards, and Sango's rear was neglected due to Miroku being lost in thought. Finally it was time to stop for lunch. As soon as their usual setting up routine began, uncomfortable conversation strained to fill the gaps. Inuyasha immediately set out to a nearby stream to catch fish, grumbling at the lack of ramen supplies.

They ate their meal in silence. Kagome began to grow uncomfortable after awhile as she noticed that the monk was staring relentlessly in her direction. She wasn't the only one who had noticed the direction of his interest; Sango was getting furious.

“Wow, she's pissed,” Inuyasha whispered down to Shippo who only nodded in response. The hanyou quickly decided that he didn't like Miroku's attentions on the miko, either, so he directed his own glare in the monk's direction, a slight growl escaping his throat.

Kagome looked surprised to her Inuyasha growl at Miroku. So, she though, I wasn't the only one to notice him staring at me. Shippo ran over to Kagome, bursting into a pink bubble right between her and the monk. “Kagome, do you have any suckers left?” he asked, trying his best to be cute, and not be obvious that he was shielding her from the man's gaze.

Kagome smiled and reached into her backpack, pulling out the last candy. “Make that one last, it'll be the last one until I go home again,” she warned. Shippo popped back into his usual form, gleefully taking the candy and pulling off the wrapper.

As they set out yet again, Kagome still couldn't shake the feeling that Miroku was staring at her. The little hairs on the back of her neck were standing straight up, and Sango was still fuming. The two women and Kirara walked ahead of the others, hoping to get a few moments conversation without prying ears.

“Why is he staring at you?” Sango growled under her breath. She was surprised at her own reaction. After all, Kagome was like her sister, and she knew that Miroku didn't have any serious interest in her, plus they both knew that Kagome loved Inuyasha.

“I don't know! Maybe it has something to do with yesterday?” Kagome answered honestly. Sango sighed, releasing her clenched fists.

“Stupid houshi,” Sango muttered. Kagome smirked, watching the blush travel up her friend's cheeks. Kagome could only imagine what was going through her head, as a male voice calling from behind stopped any farther questions.

“Hey Kagome, can I ask you something?” Miroku called out.

“Sure,” she yelled back over her shoulder.

“Why did both Inuyasha AND Sesshoumaru want to get in your pants so urgently yesterday?” Kagome's feet fumbled as her mouth failed to produce any sound, her mind reeling. Sango's mouth hung open, her expression conveying the two words that Kagome finally managed to spit out.

“Oh. Shit.”

They were, of course, spoken moments after she had found herself laying on the ground, gripping her knee where she'd skinned it. Inuyasha ran up to her, bending down to look at the scrapes on her delicate skin. Miroku was close behind, but he was still looking to his companion for an explanation. Kagome sighed, resigning to her fate. She would just have to tell them the truth.

“Okay, look. There's this chemical called pheromones, which basically makes the member of the opposite sex attracted to you. Most being give off a type of pheromone or another, even humans, and in my time they found a way to extract the chemical and bottle it for use,” she began, thinking it best to tell them about how it worked before telling them the whole story.

Miroku grinned. “Like when Sesshoumaru said that Sango smelled like she was in heat?”

Sango turned beet red, but told this part herself. “Yes, the perfume Kagome gave me had pheromones in it.”

Inuyasha looked confused. “But, I wasn't really attracted to those kind, well, I could smell them, and it did kind of make my mind numb, but it didn't do the things that happened yesterday.”

Kagome took a deep breath, trying to explain something she really didn't know the answer for. “I think it was because those were human pheromones, meant to appeal to humans, it worked for the human side of you, but not the youkai side.”

“So you used this chemical yesterday?” Miroku asked her, his hand twitching towards Sango slightly.

“Yes, but not the same one. Sango's were meant for humans, the ones I used yesterday was for...”

“There aren't any youkai in your era! How would they be able to make fair-ah-moans for youkai if there aren't any?” Inuyasha interrupted her.

Kagome shot a glare at him before continuing her train of though. “As I was saying, the ones I used yesterday were meant for DOGS. They were the chemicals given off by a bitch in heat!” she spat out.

Several things happened all at once. Miroku's hand stopped its progress towards Sango as he cracked up laughing. Sango tried to hide a smirk, and her horribly red face, behind one hand. Shippo, who didn't quite understand all that was being said snickered a little at the memory of the two inu-youkai fighting for his adoptive mother. Inuyasha, however, paled.

“That was because of some drug?” he choked out. Kagome nodded.

“But you see, it shouldn't have been like that. You're only supposed to use one or two drops, but the entire vial of the stuff spilled in my lap.” Miroku fell to the ground, holding his sides that were now aching from his laughter.

“You... I...” Inuyasha choked, his eyes widening. “You did that, to win a bet?” Kagome looked at the ground, nodding slightly, suddenly feeling horribly ashamed of herself. “Is winning this stupid bet really that important to you?” his voice cracked. He didn't wait for a reply, he merely took off into the woods.

“Inuyasha! Wait!” Kagome called after him, getting to her feet. By now Miroku had the sense to stop laughing, and was shakily trying to stand.

“Let him cool off for a little while, Kagome,” he smirked at her, then reached to embrace Sango. “My, I didn't know that you were so fond of me as to try to mess with my mind to get me to be with you,” he flirted, his right hand slipping down from her back to her ass. Sango rolled her eyes as she knocked him over the head with Hiraikotsu.


It was starting to grow dark and Inuyasha still hadn't returned to the group. Kagome was getting worried about him, thinking that maybe he had been hurt or even worse, run into Kikyo.

She had just about convinced herself that it was time to go looking for him when she felt a pinch on her neck. Her hand instantly went up to slap at the annoyance, bringing back to her lap a flattened Myoga. “Where have you been?” she asked him.

“I was busy,” he huffed, looking around the circle. “Where is master Inuyasha?”

“He ran off earlier,” Sango told him, coming to sit beside Kagome to get away from Miroku's wandering hand.

Kagome lowered her eyes. “He's mad at me.”

As usual, Myoga wouldn't let it alone and got the group to tell him exactly what had happened, though Kagome did leave out the taiyoukai's odd actions after he seemed to return to normal. Myoga was shocked to say the east, and he stared at Kagome incredulously.

“Do you know what you have done?” he choked out. The three humans stared at him with identical confused expressions. Shippo had fallen asleep shortly after dinner, and hadn't noticed the flea's arrival. “How could you insult Master Inuyasha like that!”

“Huh?” Kagome blurted. She really didn't know what the big deal was with it, other than yes, it had been a rather sneaky and conniving trick.

“I keep forgetting that you're human, and as such really don't have any idea as to youkai traditions, let along Inuyoukai traditions. As you know, Master Inuyasha has spent the past years being somewhat a leader of this little group, which he would think of as his pack, or family to put it in human terms. While you all probably didn't realize it, he had subconsciously been determining the status of each member of the pack, determining who is more dominant than the rest. Now, he had established that himself would be the most dominant male, and Kagome the most dominant female, even though Kagome herself outranked him because she could control him.”

“So what would happen if say, Sango, could control Kagome, but Inuyasha could pull rank over Sango?” Miroku asked, intrigued.

“Well, that's where it can be complicated, but basically, it's a circle of dominance. But that's not where the transgression was. Inuyasha views his half brother as a threat to his pack, as being the 'leader' of his own pack, and as he has determined, stronger than himself. Now as a female in the pack is free to chose whoever she wishes within her pack, usually she choses the strongest male as to bear strong pups. It had been previously understood to himself that when the time came, it would he him that was the protector. When Kagome used that, stuff, on Sesshoumaru, it effectively told Inuyasha that you thought him too weak to bear your pups, or to even protect the pack.”

Kagome gasped. “I didn't know!”

Myoga folded his arms, looking up at the miko. “I know you didn't, and he knows that you didn't, actually, I'm not sure if Inuyasha himself knows the finer details of Inuyoukai society, but on an instinctual level, he does know that you somehow betrayed him. But, there is one more factor, if this fair-ah-moan stuff is really what you say it is.”

They waited, but Myoga didn't offer anything further. Sango, growing impatient as her best friend grew increasingly worried, grabbed the flea by his balding head and threatened to squeeze if he didn't “spit it out.”

“A hum, yes,” he continued, brushing the wrinkles out of his clothing after Sango set him down. “You see, a bitch in heat doesn't necessarily offer herself to a potential mate, she tests him to see if he can be with her, but she will not willingly be with him until after she has given her blessing, nor will the scent of the heat go away until after she had been pupped or the heat has passed.”

Kagome blanched. “So what you're saying is, Inuyasha thinks that me and Sesshoumaru...”

Myoga nodded. Miroku lifted his hand to hide his smirk, and Sango's eyes nearly popped out of her skull.

“W... wouldn't he be able to smell if I'd done that with him?” Kagome stammered, trying to think of something logical.

“Well, you had spent time at his home, and he had, as you said, carried you for awhile, therefore his scent likely rubbed off on you during that time. Also, you said that he was keeping his distance from you, not really getting very close, so he had likely not been close enough to scent out if in face Sesshoumaru's essence was present,” Myoga explained. It didn't make Kagome feel better.

“What can I do?” she moaned, flopping down onto her bedding.

“You'll probably just have to wait until he calms down and explain it to him, that you didn't mean it like it seemed,” Sango said, laying her hand on her friends head, trying to comfort her.

Maybe. I didn't mean it, did I?

Kagome sat up as a cold breeze chilled her. “Sango, can I borrow Kirara? I want to go home for a while, I have some tests coming up before winter, and I need to study,” she looked desperately at her friend. Sango understood that Kagome was likely trying to go home to forget the whole deal, and maybe try to come up with a solution without the interferences of youkai.

“Of course,” Sango smiled, looking to Kirara for her consent, which she mewed in response.

Kagome smiled down at the little neko, then proceeded to gather up her belongings and pack them for the journey home. Before she left, she looked to her friends, feeling a wave of relief wash over her at the thought of going home, but a small regret that she would be leaving them.

“Could you do me a favor?” They nodded. “When Inuyasha gets back, tell him I went home, and if he could please come to my side of the well, I need to talk to him.”

They agreed, telling her that they would start their trek towards Kaede's village once Inuyasha, and Kirara, returned. Taking that as her signal, Kirara transformed, taking one last glance at Sango as Kagome crawled onto her back before taking off.


Kagome waited at home for a week. Her mind was not on her schooling; she kept wondering when Inuyasha would come to get her, if he ever would. Maybe he doesn't want to see me anymore? she thought to herself sadly as she doodled in the margins of her notebook. She was thankful that winter break was coming up, but she had a lot of homework that needed to be completed before she could rush off to the Feudal Era.

Kagome's tried to focus on the lesson, but her mind kept betraying her best efforts and wandering back to what had happened, what had almost happened, and what she had done. She kept telling herself that while she had decided to use the pheromones to attract Sesshoumaru, she hadn't intended to actually have sex with him.

Her cheeks reddened as her mind wandered to deeper, darker places, places that elicited a response that was entirely unwelcome at the moment. Kagome's eyes glazed over as she stared at her notebook, trying to picture just what a certain taiyoukai would look like naked, and what other areas might have those tantalizing stripes.

Kagome suddenly realized just what she was thinking, and squeezed her eyes shut. When she re-opened them, a muscular male torso was sketched into her text, complete with darkened stripes surrounding the ribcage and stopping at a loosely tied hakama, the knots just begging to be released. She closed the book frantically, hoping that none of her classmates had noticed that her attention had been focused on that of a rather heavenly male body and not her history lesson.

Class had seemed to drag on forever, but by the time the bell finally rang, Kagome was confidant that while she hadn't been able to pay attention, she had all the assignments she had missed to take home with her. She hoped that she would be able to find the concentration to study while she was at home, but was expecting Inuyasha to be waiting. She could never concentrate with him staring at her back.

Unknown to Kagome, she had flown right over top of Inuyasha on her journey home. He flattened his ears to his silvery mane as he watched her leave, almost thinking that she had gone back to his brother before he noticed that she was heading in the direction of Kaede's village. Knowing that she was gone, he returned to the group soon afterwards. Sango immediately told him that Kagome wished to speak with him, but he refused to go.

It had been a long time, each day Inuyasha grew more irritable. He wasn't used to going so long without seeing the miko. He hadn't realized just how much he enjoyed her companionship until she was gone. He knew that he should go and see her, but Inuyasha honestly thought that she wouldn't want to see him, and that he might not be able to control himself around her.

He didn't know what to do.

While the humans and kit stayed with Kaede, Inuyasha spent his time in the forest, mostly sitting in the same tree he had been pinned to for fifty years. He felt close to Kagome there, almost like they were connected through time. He could almost see her sitting in the grass at the base of the tree in her own time, school books splayed out around her as she tried to finish some assignment. He smiled at the memories of being with her in the future, and in his own time.

He swore, jumping down from his perch in the mighty tree. He knew he had to go talk to her, but he didn't want to. He was hoping to avoid the talk they would have to have about what had happened, plus, the longer he kept putting off going to the future, the worse it seemed to make his delay. He knew that Kagome knew that they were only a couple days journey from Kaede's village, so he had no excuses for being so late.

He found himself walking the familiar path to the well. He hadn't consciously made the decision to go there, he just followed where his feet led him. He stopped when the familiar wood structure invaded his view. “Well shit,” he muttered before leaping down, closing his eyes as the time warp enveloped him.

**********

Author Notes and Review Responces:

I know I said in the teaser, I would make it 10 pages, but I kinda got lazy after 6, so here you go, 6 pages of story update.
I apologize for taking so bloody long to update, this chapter really wasn't agreeing with me. Now, I know that you all will probably HATE me for this, but I am planning on something... something BIG is going to happen during winter break (I did mention that it was coming up in this chapter)
But, you'll have to wait to find out what. I apologize in advance for what might happen.

Okay, this is weird... For some reason chapter 7 AN's weren't showing up when I posted it.. they were there, they just couldn't be seen! Humm... Well, lets hope this works!