The Real Reason for Removal

With a long keening wail, Kagome climaxed, her convulsing, clenching inner walls dragging Inuyasha into blissful free fall with an enthusiastic howl that shook the walls of the abandoned hut.

For a few moments, they merely breathed, recovering from the flood of pleasure. Filled to the brim with contentment, Inuyasha let his head fall onto Kagome's soft flesh, his arms wrapping tightly around her as his eyelids drifted closed…

Kagome was equally happy, her skin flushed, her eyes misty, her eyelashes fluttering downwards, her entire body supple and pliant with satisfaction. Except, well, for one tiny, really quite minuscule detail…

Something small, and hard, and sharp was digging into her breasts. Actually, to be specific, many small, hard, sharp things were digging into her breasts and stomach.

Inuyasha had already lost consciousness, and she felt just as tired, so she didn't bother thinking much about what was bothering her, and merely, purely reflexively, reached down to gently remove whatever was preventing her much-desired blissful slumber.

Except that whatever these things were, they weren't coming off. She tugged a bit harder, annoyed. Still, they resisted, only rearranging themselves into more painful positions, if that was possible. One was even poking one of her nipples! Ugh!

Delicacy be damned, she wanted those things off! If Inuyasha woke up, he'd just fall right back to sleep again, it didn't matter!

Almost violently, she groped for the things, finally catching hold of a few, and started pulling with all her might, twisting and turning, trying to get some angle, to find some way to get the blasted things off—!

She managed, somehow, to pull Inuyasha's head up too, and then with a strange popping sensation, they were off. She sighed with relief, and tossed them aside, stroking Inuyasha's ears to put him back to sleep, and fell asleep herself.

--

The next morning, Inuyasha woke slowly. He felt unreasonably comfortable and happy, and yet…something was amiss. He blinked a few times, then stared at the wonderful sight of a bare and pleased-looking Kagome sleeping with him.

He squeezed her slightly, and smiled, and even indulged his urge to nuzzle her warm, wonderfully scented skin, his mind awash with the amazing memories of the night before.

It was as he pulled back some, to take her in better, that he realized what was different: a weight was absent from his neck. In abject surprise, he stared down at himself, even raising a hand to his rosary-less skin, just to be sure.

When did that happen? He wondered, staring at the girl. He didn't remember her taking it off…

Well…I guess she finally trusts me that much…he thought with a sense of awe. But as his initial joy at having the hated thing removed waned, he realized how much he didn't mind it anymore; how necessary it was. Perhaps it was the only thing that let him pass through the well… And also…

"Kagome…what were you thinking! Baka, what will happen if I turn full-youkai! How will I turn back?" he thought aloud (unintentionally).

"Mm? What's the matter, Inuyasha?" Kagome yawned like a cat, twisting a bit to see his face better.

"Oh, well, er," he stumbled. He hadn't meant to wake her up!

"I was just…well…Can you put the kotodama back on?" he blurted out.

"What? Wait, when did it come off?" Kagome asked, confused. But even as she said it, the memories of last night came back to her, and she realized: "Oh! That was the rosary? I—I didn't realize…It was an accident…"

He'd been the embarrassed one until now, but Kagome's blushing cheeks and inability to look him in the eye far rivaled his own.

"You did it…by accident?"

"Y-yes, because, well, you fell asleep on top of me, and it isn't all that comfortable, you know, and I was really sleepy, so I just wanted to get rid of it; I wasn't really thinking…"

He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. "Yeah, you sure as hell weren't…Anyway, can you put it back on?"

"What? Why? I thought you hated it! And you know, I really do trust you enough, I have for a long time, it's silly to make you keep it—" Kagome said, knotting her brows with confusion.

"I said just put it back on, ok?! Shit, what's the big deal!" he growled, not wanting to think about, let alone talk about what might happen if he turned full-youkai and she couldn't sit him out of it.

"Hey, what's all this noise about? Is something amiss?" came Miroku's officious voice through the door. "Inuyasha, did you get over-excited like I warned you about—"

"Shut up Miroku! And hell no, what kind of idiot do you take me for? This is none of your business!" Inuyasha yelled, leaping to his feet, torn between keeping the monk away and anger that his friend could think so low of him.

"Inuyasha, if Kagome needs a little medical attention, it is our business," came Sango's steely tones through the wall.

"Sango-chan, Miroku-sama, that's not the problem—" Kagome finally managed to interrupt, blushing from the roots of one set of hairs to the other.

"Kagome! If that jerk hurt you, even by accident—" Shippou added his voice to the mix.

"Will everybody SHUT UP!" Inuyasha roared, effectively cutting everybody off.

"And stop talking about me like I'm some sick bastard with no control over his own body! All I want is for her to put the goddamn rosary back on!"

"I won't do it!" Kagome shot back, the first to recover from Inuyasha's outburst.

"Wait…that's what you were fighting about?" a surprised voice asked from outside the hut.

"Yeah, and if she keeps refusing me, I'll just go and get Kaede to help me out!" Inuyasha growled, glaring at his new (and much too stubborn) mate.

A cacophony of laughter exploded just outside the thin sliding door.

"Did you—did you hear him? Get Kaede to—bwahahahahaha!"

"Oh, shut up you bastards…" Inuyasha growled to himself, successfully replicating Kagome's previous hair roots-to-hair roots blush.

Grumbling still, especially at his mate's chuckles, he collected his hakama, grabbed the kotodama, and headed out the door.

"Wait—he was serious! Inuyasha!" Kagome called, running after him, barely grabbing his haori in time for cover.

An impromptu chase that ended in Kagome's bedroom somehow erased the fight from the thoughts of both parties. And Kagome was very pleased that night to sleep without small, hard, sharp things poking into her flesh.

--

A/N: I generally try to steer clear of my characters laughing at my own jokes (as I'm often put off by this as a reader) but this time it was necessary for this facsimile of a plot. And I can't think of anything else intelligent to say about it. As for the fic itself, I'm rather inclined to the idea that the rosary would be removed for so normal and un-exciting a reason as it being uncomfortable...Because, come on, it can't be. For Kagome in that position, I mean. Underwire's bad enough, but fangs? Not fun. And to be (somewhat) serious, for a moment, all the different reasons to leave the rosary on or take it off (i.e., she trusts him! But he doesn't trust himself! Oh, whatever shall they do?) tend to balance each other out, which is why another, completely different reason needed to come into play for anything to be done about the matter.

Hope you enjoyed reading this...I know I was practically cackling while writing it. (And I don't want to know what that says about me.)