Kagome sat on one side of the fire. Inuyasha sat in the tree above her. Miroku had wisely decided to take Shippou fishing. There was a storm in the air, and it had nothing to do with the clouds above.

"Do you know how I felt?"

Inuyasha's ears twitched and his eyebrow cocked itself in irritation. "What?"

"Do you know how I felt, when you shoved me back through the well? When I couldn't get back?" Kagome asked again, voice rising from the carefully controlled growl into a higher pitched sound just this side of a scream. Inuyasha glanced down at her in concern too brief to be noticed, and snorted.

"Do I care?" He asked rhetorically. Kagome's fists clenched.

"That's just what I wanted to talk to you about. So you'd better listen up." She stood, hair falling from her shoulder to cover her back to the waist. Inuyasha shifted slightly on his branch. It showed he was listening, though she wouldn't have been able to tell by the bored expression on his face.

"Hate me all you want, Inuyasha, and moon over Kikyou all you want - but never, ever think you have the right to take me away from the friends I've made here." She hissed. "Even if you'd rather I went off and died in a ditch somewhere, even if you didn't need me to find the Shikon shards--" Here there was a sound suspiciously like a supressed sob. Inuyasha cringed. "--don't you dare think that you can take Shippou-chan and Miroku-kun and Kaede-baba away from me! And another thing - who the hell do you think you are, hugging me like that and then just pushing me away like a discarded toy?!"

Inuyasha jumped down from his tree and landed not two feet from her, eyes narrowed, ears flat against his head. "I had a reason for doing that."

"Yeah, getting your stupid Shikon no Tama!" Kagome returned spitefully. "Well, you can have it. It sure hasn't done me any good. All it got me was you." She yanked the tiny jar on a chain from around her neck and threw it at him, then sat down and closed her eyes, breathing heavily. She heard a soft clink as Inuyasha picked up the jar. Checking on it first... making sure none of the shards are lost... it all comes before me, doesn't it, Inuyasha? She felt tears stinging her eyes and screwed them shut even tighter.

She sat suddenly bolt upright as she felt hands on her hair. Inuyasha made a soft sound of annoyance as the clasp of the chain slipped away from his fingers again. "It's hard enough with these claws, wench. Stop moving."

Kagome's jaw clenched. "You have about ten seconds before I say it."

Inuyasha grimaced, but finished up with the necklace. He was on the verge of pulling away, and she was just opening her mouth, when he nuzzled her cheek gently and said, "I'm sorry."

The admission startled only silence out of her. Silence and a blush. "What?"

Inuyasha sat next to her and leaned against her gently. "You heard me. I don't think I... conveyed my reasoning too well, back then." He looked away into the night. "I... wanted you to be safe. Shard-hunting was getting too dangerous, so..."

"So you wanted me to go back to my time, to be out of danger?" Kagome asked softly, not quite believing it. Inuyasha nodded slightly and continued looking away. His ears twitched in agitation. Finally he turned back to her, face grumpily apprehensive.

"Those ten seconds are awfully long."

Kagome stared at him for a few moments, and a slight smile crossed her face. She rested her head on his shoulder, eyes far away. "I... changed my mind."

Inuyasha's shoulder sank beneath her head in a small sigh of relief. "Good." She frowned slightly.

"Unless of course you just said that so I wouldn't say 'sit'--"

Inuyasha made a small whimpering sound as he was slammed into the ground. Kagome experienced the brief wish to beat her head against the tree. Instead, she reached out and stroked Inuyasha's ears gently.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

Inuyasha made an extremely rude muffled noise.

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