I wrote this for and am dedicating this whole story to Inuyashamegagirl, one of my amazing reviewer fans! I felt bad about focusing entirely on my KagomexSesshoumaru pairing story, especially when she's such a big fan of KagxInu. So!! This is hereby dedicated to you, I really hope you enjoy it! ^_~*

Out of sight, out of mind- wasn't that the way it was supposed to work?

Kagome snarled and pulled at her long black tresses, scrunching her aqua-blue eyes to try and remove the mental image from her view. Naturally, this didn't work, and only served to make her mental image of Inuyasha that much more discernible. Scowling, the young woman threw her head into her pillow and screamed her frustration.

She was always picking the unavailable males to fall for. The only problem with her 'crush' this time: Kagome wasn't entirely sure it was only a crush. It was too soon to tell if he felt the same way, and he was too gruff and confident most of the time to really tell what he was truly thinking.

Letting out a whimper, Kagome gave up on the attempt at shredding her innocent pillows, and settled for strangling them into silent submission. As though the pillows would sprout legs and walk away from her. With her current luck, Kagome wouldn't have been completely surprised. Really shocked and sure of having a hallucination, but not really surprised. She was sure the gods were having a grand time mocking her heart.

She soon loosened her grip on her poor pillow and snarled in the direction of the open window...

the open window...

She was sure the window had started closed, when had it been opened? Or maybe she was just imagining things. Her mom probably was airing her room out so it didn't get stuffy.

Her eye decided to interrupt her mental explanation of things by landing on the last red-clad demon she wanted to see in the whole world. Or maybe the only one she wanted to see, she was having trouble deciding on that.

He stood from his crouched position in the corner, having gotten her attention, and not suffered her indignation or fury at his intrusion.

Kagome narrowed her gaze in his direction, and she was pleased to see him momentarily flinch before the familiar expression of haughty confidence took over his face. It was at this moment that Kagome realized what she really ought to have recognized many months before: It was a mask, born of the necessity of survival, with the name 'confidence'. He wasn't always as confident as he acted. This gave Kagome hope.

Maybe he has times where he's uncertain about things too...

His mouth opened and she listened for anything at the beginning of his voice that could possibly prove or disprove her theory.

"Oi Wench!"

There it was!! His voice wavered once in the beginning of his exclamation, I heard it!

Her triumph leaked onto her face in the form of a smile, which confused the hell out of the poor dog-demon. She'd never smiled at his name-calling, and he hadn't expected her to start. Luckily for him, recognition of the name-calling hit her brain and her smile shifted into the scowl he was expecting.

Kagome snapped, "What, dog-boy?" slipping into one of the more entertaining, though uninventive, insults she'd heard Kouga spring onto Inuyasha. She meant it as a demeaning endearment, but she was also irritated. "I have a name, you know!" she added on as an afterthought.

"Right, whatever. You need to come back to the village now," he didn't provide the explanation she was expecting, but he wasn't tense or stressed out about an attack or a jewel-shard, either.

Kagome was confused. "Why is it something I need to do?" she asked, putting emphasis on 'need'. As she saw it, she needed a decent bath and a night on a real mattress.

Inuyasha was silent for a second, and Kagome saw the flicker of an emotion bubble up to the surface before being smothered by the appearance of irritation. "No reason," came his defensive retort.

She was suspicious, and thought he must be hiding something. If she indulged herself, she admitted that she wanted to spend time with him so it wasn't an entirely bad idea. Snarling to show her disapproval at his less-than-satisfactory answer, the young woman pointed to her backpack in a silent command.

If she looked hard enough and told herself she wasn't imagining things, she could be sure she'd seen the hint of a smile before his hair disappeared behind the veil of his hair. By the time he stood back up, his face was back to as emotionless as it could ever be, so she let it go and chalked it up to her imagination leading herself on.

Kagome walked down the stairs and found her mom in the living room with Souta playing a bit of 'Go'.

"Good bye mom, Souta! I'll be back in a little while," She announced as she entered the room.

Her mom's expression was of surprise and worry, "You haven't been home very long, are you sure it's alright to leave already?" Beneath her mother's words were the concern of a good friend. Her mom had been the one to receive her just earlier that day with frustrated tears streaming down Kagome's face.

She'd staved off the tears just long enough to not leave a scent trail in the feudal era, but as soon as her feet touched the ground in the well-house, the tears also began to fall towards the ground. Frustrated and hurt, Kagome had run home away from the insensitive hanou and his comments regarding Kouga and her lack of rejection towards the wolf.

She didn't understand demon ways. How could she? She hadn't grown up in their world, she was only an accidental (and now forced) member of their culture. Nobody had given her a crash course of demon-cultures yet, but already she was in trouble for not being forceful and clear, and had ended up playing 'hard to get' for a demon she wasn't interested in, and had gotten her 'more-than-a-crush' tangled up in her mess-of-a-relationship with Kouga.

Kagome wanted to groan in noncomittal resignation, but knew herself well enough to know she'd never allow herself such an easy way out.

Nodding confidently to her mother, who still didn't know why she'd come home with tears in her eyes, Kagome smiled, "Yep, I'll be alright! I'd offer to send you a letter, but I'm sure it wouldn't get to you, so I'll just see you later!"

Kagome and Inuyasha jumped down into the well, she in his arms and the bag on his back, relaxing when the blue light surrounded them gently and deposited them in the clean air of the past.

She took a great breath and smiled to herself, it was swiftly becoming a home for her, and if she let herself admit it: laying on her bed earlier, Kagome had experienced a flicker of homesickness for this era. It didn't bother her as much as it should have, but she wasn't about to tell anyone. Especially not Inuyasha who was difficult enough to convince to allow her extended visits home. If she let on that she missed this era as well, he might use that as a reason for her swift return. She was not about to give him any more ammunition against her returning home.

With a gentle smile, Kagome reasoned that it might be him expressing his dislike for her extended absences. Shippou did mention that Inuyasha was usually sulkier and always more irritable when she had been gone for a while. She giggled aloud, which got Inuyasha's immediate attention.

"What are you laughing about?" his tone was offended, but his words were sincere.

Not knowing which to trust more, and she wasn't in the easiest position to read his expression from, Kagome answered as evenly as she possibly could, "Just thinking about shippou." It wasn't entirely false, she reasoned, and it was guaranteed not to get him defensive. In order to prevent his probing curious question that was poised to slip from his tongue, she added innocently, "Do you think he's missed me?"

Inuyasha's snort was enough to convince her, he thought she was being silly, 'of course the brat missed her,' was what the sound meant. His words only backed her suspicion up, "That brat is always whining about how much he misses you."

Kagome had to give him props, he was complimenting her and insulting shippou in the same breath. It was a little sharper than she had expected of him, but she suspected that she'd been looking a little too shallow and not really giving Inuyasha the sort of intellectual consideration he deserved. She smiled contentedly in Inuyasha's grasp, having not prompted for her freedom when it had not been offered, and only protested in a token manner, "He's not a brat." Her protest wasn't exactly forceful, and it didn't have the sort of bite he was used to, and it gave him measurable pause.

"Kagome?" He ventured, worriedly.

"Hmm?"

"Are you sure you are alright? You haven't been yourself today..."

She was touched by his concern and was prompted to worry about him as well, it wasn't natural for him to show such gentle concern, AND he'd called her by her name. He only did that when he was really serious. So, she decided to respect his seriousness, and respond in kind, "Yes, Inuyasha. I'm fine, I'm just noticing things I've never noticed before."

He tensed, "What kind of things?"

"Nice things, unexpected, but nice all the same."

"..."

She could tell he was still confused, but she had no idea how to explain it to him without insulting him or going into great detail... neither of which were very high on her list of preferences. So she settled for the middle-ground, which would probably still leave him a little confused, "Things about you." She flushed pinkly, and was glad he couldn't look down to scan her face when he was running on the treetops.

His rhythm faltered for a moment, and he simply replied "... oh..." a few jumps later he added to the silence, "what sort of things?"

Kagome wasn't sure if it was curiosity or male pride that prompted the question, and she guessed that it was probably equally fueled on both sides. "Like you being considerate, kind, concerned, and gentle," came her honest reply, even if it sounded strange without her explanations.

His stifled guffaw still came out, even though it sounded a bit choked, swiftly followed by doubtful and concerned tones, "are you sure you didn't hit your head on something?"

She laughed again, "Yes I'm sure I didn't suffer a delusion-inducing head wound."

He proded, "No head wound at all, right?"

She wanted to giggle, he was being quite thorough in making sure she wasn't hurt, and decided to use it to prove that she wasn't having delusions. "No head wound," she affirmed, "But see, just now: that was you being concerned and gentle."

He snorted and kept silent the rest of the way to Kaede's (which wasn't far), but Kagome knew she'd won that tiny little battle. She was almost completely sure by now that he felt at least somewhat similarly to her as what she felt for him, but she couldn't be sure. She would make a point of bringing up demon-culture up at the fire tonight. There were several things she wanted to learn and then act upon.

It's one of my lazier styles, but I think it flows a little smoother, especially for telling it from just one person's point of view. I will include things like Italics and Bold in the next chapter, to designate the difference between thoughts and regular narration, and emphasized words in both.

So, I hope you are ready for much fluff! This story is practically bleeding it. XD enjoy!

~YaslanaGirl