Kouga Steps In

Just after Kouga and InuYasha returned from their hunt the rain came down once again.  InuYasha restarted their fire from the night before and set some of the deer up to cook.  Kouga resumed his post by the cave door, Shippou and Kirara were playing chase, and Sango and Miroku were playing Go Fish with a deck of cards Kagome had given them while Kagome had settled on her sleeping bag with a book in her lap, studying.  

Out of the corner of his eyes Kouga continued to watch InuYasha and Kagome, waiting to see what would happen.  He noticed every so often, when she thought he wasn't looking, Kagome would sneak peeks at InuYasha but if he so much as shifted in her direction, she would turn away.  They still weren't talking and she didn't want to get caught looking at him.  She wasn't sure if she should go to him or wait for him to come to her considering he was the one who told her to stay away.  She decided to wait.  While she sat studying she kept her hand lightly over her heart, making it look like she was fingering the neckline of her shirt.  Her heart was pounding in her chest and she thought surely he could hear her heartbeat.  She figured keeping her hand over her heart would muffle the sound and help hide her anxiety.

Kagome was right, InuYasha could hear how hard her heart was beating, and keeping her hand over it didn't help muffle the sound at all.  When she wasn't looking he would steal glances at her while he built the fire and readied the meat, however, he just couldn't bring himself to approach her just yet.  He could tell by the way she held her body she wanted to come over to him but knew what he had said to her the night before was preventing it.  He was starting to realize Kagome would never treat him the way Kikyou had, but for him, the moment she zapped him the foundation of their relationship was shaken.  Common sense told him she would never hurt him because she never had.  She would never lie to him because she lied to no one, and she would stand by him because she had given her word.  So why couldn't he get over this?  Why had she not just sat him and been done with it?  Why did she have to take it so far?

As Kouga eyed InuYasha he could smell his apprehension.  He, along with many, many others, could not understand what the problem was between these two.  How they felt about each other was so painfully obvious to everyone else yet it was as if these two were blind to the only thing right in front of their faces.  It was a ridiculous game of cat and mouse that had to be stopped.  But, first things first!  They needed to talk.  Kouga needed to come up with a new plan.  A plan that would force InuYasha to let his guard down enough to save Kagome in some way.  Something that would cause InuYasha to charge in, sword drawn, to scoop Kagome up and carry her to safety.  Kouga grinned evilly.  What he needed was Sesshomaru.