This is based on two things. One: a "phantom quote," if you will. Meaning: I was thinking of this quote I'm sure I've seen somewhere before, but just can't seem to find anywhere, when I wrote it. And since I couldn't find the quote I was thinking of when I wrote it, I've been going back and forth as to whether I should just post it as a one-shot or as a "chapter" for The Quote Me Collection, and finally I decided I'd just post it as a one-shot. And two: It's getting cold now, and I have the coldest room in the house so my hands are always cold nowadays so sometimes gripping a pen and writing is such a pain in the ass, and as I was warming them up one day, I thought of the Phantom Quote and, well, this little moment was born.

I've been meaning to get this up for a few days now, but my neighbors have these pit bull puppies - two left out of five or six; they sold the others and have been trying to sell these last two for a while now, but so far no luck - and we keep kidnapping them 'cause all my neighbors do is yell at them when they wanna play. Sometimes the puppies escape on their own, though. Like this morning, there was some scratching and whimpering at our back door, I opened it and they just waltzed in and started jumping all over me, wanting me to play with them. So they made a jail-break today. They're in our kitchen right now. Sleeping in a box on top of a couple towels, curled up with each other. They're so freaking cute! I would so buy them if I had $350… Anyway, I've been busy with them this past week or so and by the time we return them I'm so worn out and tired I don't feel like doing anything, but we haven't played much today, so I thought I'd take advantage of them sleeping and finally take care of this.

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha. I wish I did, but, as Kyo would say, "If wishes were horses, beggers would ride." 'Least, I think that's how it goes. I'm not sure; it's been a while since I read Fruits Basket…

It was just the beginning of winter then. No snow fell to the ground yet, but the leaves had long since flown from the branches to seek shelter on the ground, away from the long, cold fingers of the winter chill. When people went out and about, they made sure to bundle up tight and only travel when the sun was out to ease the chill ever so slightly. Nighttime was another matter, however. Firewood was becoming scarce and hard to come by as more and more people kept their fires burning all through-out the night in an attempt to stay warm. For some, the heat of the fire and warmth of the blankets they remained bundled in was enough. For others… Not so much. Especially if they were time-traveling mikos used to being inside a warm, safe house when temperatures outside dropped to such frigid conditions.

Kagome sat up in her sleeping bag and scooted closer to the dying fire, holding her hands out towards it. It was winter now, and it was getting cold out, so most nights they tried to find lodgings of some sort to get in out of the cold. And it helped. To an extent. Sango, Miroku, Shippou, Kirara, and InuYasha all seemed to be completely fine and totally comfortable with it, but Kagome just couldn't seem to warm up!

The others were all used to this, she reasoned, that's why it was so easy for them to adjust to the changing season, but her… She had never had to put up with temperatures this low; at least, she never had to sleep in them! Anytime she got cold in the middle of the night, all she had to do was turn the heat up, but here… Well, that just wasn't an option.

She drew her hands back and cupped them at her mouth, then blew into them, rubbed them together, tried to warm them up even a little. She had more or less given up on sleep at this point, realizing there was no way she would be able to fall asleep when she was this cold! She was just going to have to suffer in silence, then…

"Kagome?" The girl in question jumped slightly as the object of her affection, a silver-haired hanyou by the name of InuYasha, sat down next to her, slipping his haori off in the process.

"Kami, InuYasha! You scared me!" She hissed, careful to keep her voice low, just because she couldn't sleep didn't mean she should suffer her friends to the same fate.

"Sorry, I just… You cold?" he asked gently, slipping his haori around her before she could answer and tucking it close to her. She smiled at him warmly, thankful for the extra warmth his haori provided her. "You shouldn't…" he stirred the fire with a stick, not meeting her eyes, though he could feel them on his head. "If you can't handle this kind of weather condition… Maybe you should…" he faltered, his words lost in his throat. No. He couldn't tell her to go live in her time for the whole winter. It just didn't work that way.

He looked up at her, even with his haori on on top of her sweater, blanket, sleeping bag, and flannel pajamas - which she swore was the warmest pair she owned - she still looked cold; he could feel her shivering next to him. Sure, it was rather chilly, but he didn't find it unbearable or hard to sleep because of it. The only thing that made it hard for him to sleep was it being hard for her to sleep - how could he sleep knowing she could not?

Kagome brought her hands to her mouth and blew on them once again, his haori had helped, but she was still cold as hell. Well, as cold as hell would be if it wasn't so hot… Was it wrong that she was a little envious of the dead at the moment, simply because they were warm for all eternity and she was not?

"Here, let me," InuYasha said, taking her hands and sandwiching them with his own before she could protest, not that she would have. Despite the frigid temperature, somehow or another his hands were very warm and when they met her near frozen ones, her whole body warmed up in a state of…

"Thank you, that… helps." She said, swallowing that thought in an attempt to keep it from materializing. He nodded at her and moved closer, rubbing his thumbs over the backs of her fingers.

"Anytime…" he mumbled. "Are you… Aren't you, you know, tired?" he asked curiously, every nerve ending he had - and even ones he didn't know he had - tingling. He liked having an excuse to touch her like that, liked having a moment of peace with her, but she had to be tired, if not exhausted, by this point.

Kagome nodded, sheepish. "Tired" didn't even begin to describe how she felt at the moment, but at the same time, she wasn't ready to pull away and freeze her butt off in her sleeping bag. At least here, she was semi-warm and had someone to talk to. But… he wouldn't understand if she told him, so she just looked at him, smiled slightly, and stretched everything she could without actually moving. The moment was too perfect…

"You're exhausted…" he clucked, seeing right through her. He sighed, eyed her sleeping bag under her, then bit his lip, contemplating. After a minute, he sighed again and stood up, dropping Kagome's hands and leaving her sitting confused on the ground. He rolled his eyes; she didn't think he was going to just leave her sitting there like that, did she? Regardless, he motioned for her to stand up as well and when she did, he pulled her sleeping bag closer to the fire, smoothed it out, then pointed at it with a single clawed finger.

"Get in." he told her to keep his haori on and just get in the damn thing before she protested too much. Too exhausted to argue, she unzipped it and crawled in, she didn't expect to get much sleep, but still, she had to at least humor him, the big baby.

She was about to zip it up and gripe about for whatever warmth she could when he held up his hand, halting her actions.

"What - "

He gently pushed her over and slid in next to her, zipping the contraption up and bringing his arms up awkwardly to encircle her waist and bring her head to rest in the crook of his neck. Her hitched breath tickled his neck as his tickled her ear and for a moment, she didn't dare move. She forgot about being cold as he shared his warmth with her and felt herself begin to fall into sleep, knowing he soon would follow her to the realm of dreams and that they would remain in this very position until morning, the likeliness of their friends waking and discovering them like this high indeed.

But she almost didn't care.

And she almost didn't say anything. But this nagging feeling it was leaving her with was preventing her from slipping away completely, leaving her with no choice but to speak up.

"Inu… Yasha… What about the others?" she yawned, knowing he would know what she was talking about. And he did. He knew even before she opened her mouth just what she was going to say from the way she seemed to be fighting off sleep. He knew what she was going to say, what she meant, and what he was going to say in response to her unasked question of "What will the others think if they find us like this?"

He twirled a strand of her hair around his index finger, pulled back and flashed her a reassuring yet delightfully cocky smirk/smile and whispered, "Who the hell cares what they think?" before pulling her close again and willing her to sleep, safe and warm in his embrace.

And she did.

And then so did he.

And both got a better night's sleep than they ever had before on either side of the well.

This has probably been done before. Infact, I've read other fics that are somewhat similar to this, only difference is: most of those end in lemons; this one, obviously, does not. Anyway, I just wanted to try my hand at a situation like this, and I think I did pretty good. Though the ending is kinda weak in my opinion, but it's the only one I could come up with at the moment and everytime I go back and try to change it, I wind up banging my head against the computer desk from my sheer sense of stupidity, so I left it like this. I wanted to put a line in there somewhere that said something about Kagome looking forward to the rest of winter if this was what would come with the cold weather, but, again, everytime I tried squeezing it in, my head got injured by the computer desk, so I left it alone. I've been really picky about what I write lately. I mean, before, I got an idea, I wrote at least some of it down, then disregarded it or kept working on it depending on how interesting it seemed to be getting, but lately I've disregarded most ideas right off the bat. Now that I reread this, the ending kinda reads like a Fairytale. I'm surprised I didn't just end it with, "And they all lived happily ever after. The end." None of my thoughts seem to be flowing today… There's no pattern or anything here, it's just… Total randomness. I hate it, but I love it.

So be sure to let me know what you think!

Peace out,
~Hisa-Ai~