These characters do not belong to me.

Choosing a Partner

Chapter 11

By Kenzie Kennedy

Kagome worked on her homework for at least an hour and a half after dinner. During this time, Inuyasha sat in his room. He did nothing but stare at the wall.

Kagome climbed into bed and re-read one of her older mangas. Something was bothering her at the end and she couldn’t figure out what it was. Realizing what it was she had forgotten, Kagome bonked herself on the forehead. She scrambled out of bed, put on her slippers, and walked through her room to the door. She opened the door and padded down the hallway. She found the door she wanted and knocked.

She heard footsteps and soon the door opened. "Can I come in for a few minutes?" she asked.

Inuyasha nodded and she stepped in. "Is there something you want me to do for you, Kagome?"

Kagome tilted her head puzzled. Was that a tremor in his voice? "Yeah, I wanted to come and talk to you. Do you mind?"

He shook his head. "No, Kagome."

Kagome took a seat on the end of his bed and looked around the room. "Maybe we ought to find you a couch or a chair or something," she murmured. She looked up at him standing by the door. "Aren’t you going to sit down?"

Inuyasha shut the door and sat down on the floor. Kagome raised an eyebrow. Does he always have to remind me that I’m the master? "Please sit on the bed, Inuyasha." He moved. She looked around. "So… Do you like your bed?"

"Yes, Kagome."

Why, Kagome thought, do I get the feeling even if he hated it he’d say it was great? "Is it different from the center?"

"Yes, Kagome."

Okay, now what, Kagome asked herself. I said that they weren’t stupid. There’s got to be a way to get them to open up. She brightened. "Thank you for rescuing me today."

"You’re welcome, Kagome."

Kagome looked him right in the eyes. "Seeing as how you probably saved my life, I’d like to reward you. I can reward you right?" Inuyasha nodded slowly. "All right. Anything you want. Within reason," she amended. "Don’t go wishing for the moon or anything."

"Slaves cannot have possessions, Kagome," Inuyasha reminded her.

Kagome waved a hand at him. "Sure, sure. What do you want? Make sure it’s something you really want and I promise to give it to you."

A light flickered in Inuyasha’s eyes. He licked his lips. "Anything, Kagome?"

Kagome nodded. "Within reason."

He looked down at his lap. "Will you please not send me to the sexual education course?"

Kagome frowned. "Why would you ask for something like that?"

"Would you please not send me to the sexual education course?" Inuyasha repeated.

Kagome nodded. "Inuyasha, I promise not to send you to the sexual education course. Will you tell me why?"

Inuyasha swallowed. "I’ve seen them when they come out of there, Kagome. They change, Kagome."

Kagome saw the way Inuyasha was shrinking in on himself. He’s just a hurt boy, she realized. How would I feel if Sota acted this way? She reached out and touched his hand. He yanked it away from her. Then he gulped and reached his hand forward.

Kagome pulled her hand away. "I won’t touch you if you don’t want me to."

"But you want to touch me, Kagome."

Kagome’s hands balled into fists. "I wanted to comfort you. How did they change? Was it a bad change?"

"Something happened to them in that room, Kagome. I heard them talking about it, Kagome."

Kagome’s eyes widened. "They weren’t forced to…?"

Inuyasha shook his head. "No, Kagome. That is against the world laws, Kagome. It was explained that our knowledge would be put to the test and our masters could use us like that, Kagome."

Kagome sighed. So her Inuyasha was afraid of learning about sex. Probably didn’t know a thing about it. Masters could have sex with a slave but only after they were married and the slave could say no. They didn’t know to say no was the problem.

"Okay," she said slowly. "How about we lay down a few rules?"

"If that is what you want, Kagome," Inuyasha said quietly.

"Some of these might be hard for you to follow so I want you to talk to me if any of them confuse you." Kagome smiled at him. He nodded. "You really can’t stop calling me Kagome after every sentence, can you?"

Inuyasha looked puzzled. "I do not understand."

"I know you have to call me some form of master after each sentence. You can’t change that, right?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha shook his head. "Now do you remember a few minutes ago when you were talking about the course and there were a few sentences in there? Do you think you could speak those sentences and just tack on a ‘Kagome’ at the end? You’re still calling me master but it’s not as annoying."

Inuyasha considered that and nodded carefully. "Yes, Kagome."

Kagome eased a little bit. Just a little at a time, she told herself. He just has to be trained out of it. "You’ve still got the eating and bathing ones in there, right?" He nodded. "And change your clothes after your daily shower, brush your hair, etc?" He nodded. It came with showering and cleaning yourself up.

Kagome sighed inwardly. So she was just adding rules. She wanted to make sure he got all of them. "Do your…claws need to be filed down?" she asked. Kikyo had said something about it.

Inuyasha glanced down at his hands. "If you wish it, Kagome."

"Inuyasha, I’m asking if they hurt." Kagome held out her hands so he could see her trimmed nails. "Mine don’t hurt. I keep them this way. Do yours need special care?"

"No, Kagome. They do not hurt. They are normally this long. When they get longer I will trim them, Kagome." He said carefully.

Kagome smiled. "That’s exactly how I’d like it. No more Kagome’s after each sentence, right?" She pursed her lips. What else?

"Is there anything you’d like to ask?" she asked him while she was trying to buy herself some time to think.

Inuyasha shook his head.

"Oh, come on. Nothing about what that inspector did this morning upset you? Geez, picking up your sword like that. Wasn’t she rude?" Kagome huffed.

"Will you send me back, Kagome?" he asked.

Kagome smiled. "No. I’m not going to send you back." Inuyasha continued to stare at her. "Oh," Kagome breathed. "That’s what you’re worried about. If I promise not to send you back, unless you kill someone in my family or something drastic like that, will you talk to me? I mean, Inuyasha talking to Kagome not slave talking to master?"

Inuyasha’s flickered with a bit of fear and his face went white. He slowly shook his head and watched her carefully for her reaction.

Kagome slumped. She had been so sure that was what the problem was. Or… "You don’t believe me?" she said very slowly. "You won’t talk to me because you think that if you do something wrong I’ll send you back no matter what I say?"

Inuyasha nodded and continued to watch.

Kagome sighed. She looked at Inuyasha and saw his golden eyes were warily watching her. "Inuyasha, I said I was thinking about marrying you in front of Kikyo. What makes you think I’m going to send you back?"

"I don’t understand. You want me as your husband, Kagome?" He looked at her shocked.

Kagome shook her head. "I didn’t say that." She spread her hands. "You’re not what I thought you’d be."

"I am a hanyou. Wasn’t it on the sheet, Kagome?" he asked.

Kagome smiled wanly. "It was on the sheet. It’s not that. You’re…" She tried to grasp the words. "You’re meek, quiet, and you take orders like a sponge soaks up water. If I thought it was normal for you to be this way I wouldn’t have a problem. I just don’t think it’s your nature to be this," she said, gesturing to him. "You jumped across a room to perch on a chair. You ripped a bookshelf apart. You could be a gentle giant, but," she looked into his eyes, "maybe you’re something more."

She looked away, vaguely embarrassed. "I was expecting someone I could learn to love as a friend or maybe a husband. How can I be in love with someone who doesn’t even know who they are? You don’t know if you enjoy video games like my brother or computers like Sango. You don’t know who Inuyasha is. Why would I take you as my husband when you won’t talk to me?"

Inuyasha tilted his head to the right to peer at Kagome. "I won’t talk to you because you will send me back to the center as defective, Kagome."

Kagome looked up at him suddenly. "So you do have opinions!" Inuyasha looked through her. Kagome shivered. It was as if Inuyasha wasn’t there anymore.

She began slowly. "I will not send you back to the center unless you do something such as kill someone. This does not apply to things like you saved me from today. I won’t send you to the sex education course. I won’t beat you, starve you, or force you into sexual activity. I ask that you protect me like you did today." Kagome got up and walked to the door. "Good night," she said softly and passed through it.

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Okay, we're going to go over a few things before I respond to the reviews.

The story is already finished. What that means is the only way this story will not be completed is if I get killed. And I'm sure ArtemisMoon would take over for me since she has a copy. I am posting one chapter a day usually in the morning when I get up. I'm planning on 30-something chapters.

Thanks to everyone for not writing that annoying phrase.

Victoria Wolf: Don't kill yourself because there isn't any more of my story to read. There are a lot of other great stories. I'll point you in the right direction, if you want. Chapter 2, I said I would post 3 pages a day, not three chapters.

Like-anyother: Inuyasha does have thoughts, I’m just not writing them down. As the above chapter says, he's not going to talk because he'll be seen as defective.

Vorsith: Shippo…kind of got left out of the story. But Naraku has a walk-on and so does Hojo.

Ame Tenshi: I'm planning on 30-something chapters.

An Inu Yasha Fan: I did update once a day. The 13th it went down, but I posted. The 15th it came back up but it was late when I caught it, so I posted the 16th. The story is already complete.

Onna-chan: Hm… Am I thinking about Sango and Miroku marrying? The answer is no. Now, there are two reasons I would answer no. One, they're not getting married or two, they're already married.

shiconenotama@msn.com: I got your message. There will be some cool stuff with Inuyasha. Did you hit the review button 5 times or was that ff.net?

Mimiko: Romance between Sesshoumaru and Rin? Oh, just a little bit.