~*~CHAPTER ONE ~*~

A Broken Heart

"Inuyasha, SIT!"

Inuyasha crashed into the ground as Kagome stalked away fuming in anger. That Inuyasha could be so…so…stupid!

"Damn it Kagome, why'd ya have to do that!!" Inuyasha bellowed as he scrambled from the ground rubbing his lumpy head. "Why I otta—"

"SIT!" Kagome screamed again as she turned to face him, sending Inuyasha into a puddle of mud.  Sango, Miroku, and Shippo all gathered behind Inuyasha and watched Kagome nearly trample his head further into the ground. "You can be so selfish sometimes, Inuyasha!" She snapped at him. "I am going home right now and you better not follow me!" She turned on her heal and headed straight for the well.

"Kagome, wait!" Shippo called scampering after her.

"Kagome, please reconsider!" Miroku pleaded, grabbing hold if Shippo by the tail before he tripped right into the abyss of the Bone Eaters Well.

Kagome stuck up her head with a huff of rage and jumped down the well before anyone, especially Inuyasha, could stop her.

Everyone stared at the empty space that Kagome had been just moments before. Inuyasha pulled himself up from the ground with a grim look on his face. "Kagome…"

Shippo yanked away his tail from Miroku's grip and gazed down the well with pearly teardrops in his eyes. "Wh-why did you have to do that Inuyasha? Now Kagome is mad! Wha-what if she never comes back!?" He sniffled, wiping his tears away with the sleeve of his shirt while Kirara rubbed her soft head on his arm in comfort.

"Oh, Inuyasha! You—you—BLOCKHEAD!" Sango screamed, driving her fist into his head in rage. "I can't believe you would do that to Kagome!"

Inuyasha shoved them all away, knocking everyone to the ground as he glared at the Well. His eyes traced along the darkness where she had fell to her own world. His thoughts swelled in shame. "Oh Kagome…"

~*~      ~*~            ~*~

Kagome threw her bag onto her bed carelessly and all her things spilled out over the floor. Her hand found its way to the Shikon jewel around her neck and clutched it so tight her knuckles were blanched white. "I don't care." She whispered, shaking her head. "I don't…I don't care!" Without even realizing it, tears began to pour from her eyes. Her breath rattled in her throat, and she angrily dried them from her face. "It doesn't matter! I don't care about Inuyasha!" She seethed to herself. Her hand held the jewel so tight that the skin on her knuckles tore into a cut, and blood trickled down her arm. She cried out in frustration and heaved the necklace off from her body and tossed it to the ground. More tears streamed from her eyes, and she collapsed to the floor sobbing.

"Why Inuyasha…why?"        

(Earlier that day)

"Kagome! Kagome!? Oiy! Where are you?"

"Right here Inuyasha." Kagome said matter-of-factly as she rummaged through her bag looking for the small traces of food she had left behind him.

"Oh." Inuyasha turned around. "Would you stop looking through that thing? We have work to do!"

Shippo popped up from inside her bag merrily with one of Kagome's misplaced bras on top of his ears. "No way! Kagome is trying to find me one of those yummy…whatchamacallits!"

Kagome blushed violently and snatched her bra away from Shippo's head so fast that he fell out of her bag with a crash to the ground. She jammed it into her pocket but Inuyasha seemed to be indifferent to seeing her undergarments.

"Well quit fooling around, I cant sit here all day long!"

Kagome rolled her eyes, though her cheeks were still red, and handed Shippo a bar of granola that was lying on the ground. Sitting up she brushed off her pants and stretched delightfully in the morning sun. He unwrapped the bar and munched on it happily, granola chunks stuck in his fur all over his face. "Mmm, mmm, mm!"

 Kagome laughed and turned to Inuyasha. "What's the big rush? I don't sense any jewel fragments for miles."

Inuyasha growled as he looked off into the distance. "I have a bad feeling." She irked an eyebrow at him but said nothing. Over the past months she'd learned not to doubt his instincts. "Like what?"

Inuyasha lowered his eyelids to dangerous slits, narrowing his eyes in the horizon. "Like danger. I smell wolves."

Kagome's eyes went wide and she sighed heavily and walked away from him, "Why am I even here. Knowing you, you'll just go chase after them for no good reason at all." She said irritably.  

He ran up to her and grabbed her arm firmly and turned her around to him. "I don't trust them!" He barked at her.

 She pulled her arm away and gazed at him in the eyes. "Do you trust me?"

He looked down at her for the longest time. At first his face was full of rage, but his anger soon melted away and his eyes became gentle. "I trust you." He whispered. "I'm sorry I said that."

She dropped her gaze down to the ground. "Okay…"

He gripped her shoulders, "You mean a lot to me, Kagome." He said quietly. He pulled her into a gentle hug. She soundlessly gasped as she was pulled to his warm crimson kimono, her hands at his chest. He lingered as he held her, and Kagome smiled, closing her eyes.

"Oh Kikiyo…"

Her eyes snapped open. The very fabric of her heart felt as if it may tare into a thousand pieces. She slowly pulled away from him, her body stiff as she looked at him.

His eyes were frozen in shock as he locked gazes with her.

She backed away from him one step at a time, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, but she wouldn't allow herself to cry. Not now. Not ever again.

"Kagome, wait! Please! I didn't mean it!" He begged, stretching his hand out to her.

She shook her head at him, speechless. Her lips quivered in silent sobs as she shut her eyes. Her face twisted in agony as her heart tore and ripped at the very sight of him.

"Kagome!"

She whirled around and ran as fast as she could; unspoken tears streaming as the wind rushed past her face.

"Kagome!" 

Kagome opened her eyes to the rug on her floor and sighed deeply, sniffling in her tears and dried her stinging eyes. She struggled from the ground and sat on a chair and took in another deep breath, plucking a tissue from the box on her desk. She forced herself to smile and dried the last of her sadness from her face.

A soft knock came to her door and her mother peeked in her head, holding a basket of laundry. "Kagome? I didn't expect you to be home so soon. Are you feeling alright? Would you like some cinnamon rolls? I just made a batch for breakfast."

"No, mom, I'm okay."

Her mom gave her a sympathetic smile and picked up some of the clothes that were scattered all over her floor from her backpack. "You know dear, a hot bath always cheers me up when I'm down."

She smiled at her mother.

Her mom grinned back at her, tossing the last of her clothes into the overflowing hamper. "I'll go run you some nice hot water with some lovely lavender bath oils." She turned to close the door but gave her daughter a look over the shoulder, her eyes twinkling in insight. "I've learned over the years that lavender is the perfect scent to forget broken hearts."

Kagome smiled again. "Thanks mom."        

She picked up the last of the mess in her room and overlooked it with her hands on her hips, eyeing the Shikon jewel nearly rolled under her bed. She took it and headed to the bathroom where she found a steaming bath ready for her, candles and lush lavender beads circling the rim of the bathtub. She undressed herself and slowly slid into the water, the steam collecting in droplets to her hair and dripping down her neck as she settled into the bath, letting the searing water consume her skin.

Turning over, she picked up the shikon jewel from the floor where she left it and studied it in the pale candlelight. The soft glow ran over its smooth edge in a crescent smile of light to her, she smiled back and released it in the water, watching it fall to the bottom of the tub. She settled back and laid down her head on the edge of the tub and closed her eyes.

"No more tears." She whispered to herself. "No more sadness."

~*~            ~*~            ~*~

Kagome awoke early the next morning, before the sun had come up and the world was still dark. For a few moments she lay still in the darkness of her room with her eyes open and wondered whether she was doing the right thing.

Last night she decided that she would at least give the Shikon jewel back to Inuyasha. The thought of seeing him again made her grimace, but the idea of staying home under her mothers all-knowing eye seemed just as bad.

She swung herself over the edge of her bed and got dressed. She pulled on a pair of pants and looked around for a shirt to wear. If she gave the Shikon jewel back to him, then she wouldn't have to ever see him again. And Kagome was just fine with that. She spotted a slim fitting tank top and slipped it on and examined herself in the mirror, pulling at the bottom of the shirt to cover her stomach. She didn't even want to wear her school uniform, just looking at it reminded her of all the fun times that she and…

She shook her head. Somehow with dark denim jeans and a white tank top, she felt bolder than she was the day before. 

Taking her backpack, she stuffed a few things in it, including some extra bars of granola she still had laying around in her room and took the shikon jewel from her cabinet desk and clasped it around her neck. Making sure to make each step as quiet as possible, she sneaked from her room to the front door and turned the doorknob carefully, locking it once she got outside. She took one last look up at her house and ran to the well.

She gripped the strap to her backpack tightly as she looked down the black abyss of the Bone Eaters Well. She took a deep breath and jumped over the walls and plunged into the shadows of the past.

She seemed to float in the air of nowhere for only a few moments before she found herself on the supple grass outside a dirty well centuries in the past. The morning was still dark and she found it hard to see anything without the lights of a city to guide her way. She senses shards not far from where she was…Inuyasha and the others couldn't be far off. So she walked into the horizon where her intuition told her to go and waited for the sun to come up. After about an hour of walking her stomach started to grumble in hunger, and the sun began to peek over the mountains with rays of light streaming across the sky.

It was then Kagome was trapped.

"Hello little girl…" a voice crackled in the tree's before her.

She froze in her steps.

"What is that around your neck? May I have a taste?" It seethed, crawling from the dawn shadows. Kagome muffled a cry of terror as it approached her, a disgusting creature with a twisted gray body of a spider slunk towards her. "I'm so hungry…let me have your pretty jewel…with your head!"

It lunged at her and she threw herself out of the way as it opened its jaw of dagger-like teeth—one of its claws snagging her jeans and ripping a hole at her thigh. Kagome hit the ground hard and her leg was on fire with pain as blood oozed from her wound. But she wasted no time and immediately put a hand to her back to grab an arrow from her quiver. Her face paled in horror as she swooped her hand through thin air.

"No way to survive my pretty jewel" the creature sneered, "Your life is mine!"

The spider dived for her, and she shielded her eyes with a scream expecting to be torn into pieces, when suddenly, a howl ripped through the air and the spider squealed in agony. Kagome saw in the flash of a moment, a wolf pin the spider down on its back and eat at its throat as it writhed under the wolf. She had only a second to gasp in astonishment before a powerful voice cried out her name.

"Kagome! Watch out!"

She turned her head to see who had called her just as the demon threw the wolf off its body and struggled up with blood pooling all around it. It shrieked in fury and caught her with a snare of web; she desperately fought to untangle her arms but it was useless as she smashed into the ground.

"I must have that jewel!" The spider foamed in a craze and bared his dripping fangs over her. She franticly struggled to free herself but only tangled herself worse in the cocoon the demon had spun.  

"Don't you dare touch her!" a voice screamed from the air high above. A body flared in the rising sun with a vicious cry and descended on the spider demon with a dagger made from bone—the shadow figure blurred with speed as he raised his dagger high, the bone winking in the sunlight, and bore it into the demons back with one powerful thrust. It heaved him off as it threw back its body in anguish. He landed on his feet and swooped Kagome from the ground in his arms and ran off with a pack of wolves following close behind yowling with triumph as the spider collapsed in death. Kagome felt the cold rush of air against her ears and found her captor stopping in a clearing of forest, the wolf pack left far behind.

"Don't you ever do that again, Kagome! You nearly got yourself killed!" He let her down to the ground and she swayed a bit in dizziness. She trembled on her feet and almost fell down, but strong hands gripped her shoulders. She cleared her vision and looked at the hands that touched her. Her stomach quivered in fear. Inuyasha?

"What were you thinking going out into a forest alone, without anything to protect yourself?" The voice scolded more, his grip tightening around her. "When I find that filthy dog mutt I'm gonna rip his heart out!"

Kagome finally looked up. The dark eyes of Kouga met hers. "Kouga…?" she whispered.

His face did not change as she looked at him in wonder, but his eyes gleamed as he took in the sight of her. "Don't you ever do that again. I almost thought you'd died." He said angrily through gritted teeth.

"Kouga…" she murmured again, when a rapid pain shoot through her leg and spread quickly throughout her whole body. Kouga caught her as she lost her strength and noticed the deep gash in her leg that had turned white at the edges from poison. He swore under his breath as she passed out from the venom, and picked her back up in his arms and called to his wolves.

He looked down at her as she trembled in his arms and smoothed away the hair from her face, and then ran to the west where his wolf tribe's den lay.

*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~* 

I'm so happy to be writing this story! J I love Kouga as a character and just adore Kagome and Kouga as a couple. There aren't enough K/K stories on fan fiction so I knew I had to contribute for all Kouga fans. I'm going to have so much fun writing this… ^_^ anyway, please read and review because I do love hearing from readers and their opinions. I'm open to all suggestions and ideas (even if all you have to say is how hot Kouga is, but hey, that's fine by me ^_~)

Update very soon!

Much love to you all J

~setting fire to the world of darkness~:

-Ixion_Goddess