I was laying in my bed back in my world, scratching Buyo's belly and thinking about the conversation I had with Yuki earlier that day.

It was more like obsessing over it, I hadn't been able to focus on anything else that whole night. Not only was I unable to complete a more than half page of homework, but I couldn t sleep. I wondered agitatedly if this was because of that stupid talk and before long I felt my face flushing.

The agitation recessed and was replaced with embarrassment as my thoughts shifted back to what we had been talking about. I groaned so loudly that I startled Buyo, who jumped with surprise and then clumsily toppled off the side of the bed. Ignoring him, I rolled over onto my stomach and pulled my pillow over my head as if I could muffle my thoughts that way. "What is wrong with you tonight?" I asked myself futilely.

Ignoring the heat flaring in my cheeks, I thought of the conversation once more, hoping to somehow figure out why I was having such an intense reaction to it.
Yuki and I were sitting in first period that morning, about 10 minutes before the bell. She had turned around and asked me about my weekend the way she usually does so I gave her a vague tidbit about a fight I had with Inuyasha over sleeping arrangements.

No matter how careful I try to be, I always manage to slip up when I say anything about Inuyasha to my curious friends.

"You stayed the night with him?" she gasped, and I cringed.

"Not like that, only because he lives kind of far away," I improvised while fighting back a twinge of guilt, "It's just easier to see each other when I spend the night at his place. And it doesn t happen very often!" My cheeks were burning and knew they were an incriminating shade of red but I chanced a peak at her anyway to gauge her reaction.

Her expression was surprisingly mild, in my head I sighed with relief.

"So you're not hooking up with him?" she asked with nonchalant innocence.

My mental sigh of relief sucked itself back in and I felt my cheeks betraying me again.

"No way! We're not like that at all, we're too busy to even consider that. We're not even close to being in that stage yet!" I grimaced, imagining ways Inuyasha could somehow over-hear this.

"No way, do you even kiss him?" she inquired with more excitement.

I shook my head somberly and she squealed.

"I can t believe he doesn't even try kissing you! Do you think he might be gay?" Her face was so serious, I couldn t help but giggle.

"No, Yuki! He's not gay. I guess I never thought about why he doesn't ever try to kiss me." I said that and then frowned unintentionally.

"I'm sure you're right, I just don't know why you wouldn't turn him on, you have the biggest breasts out of all our friends." She said thoughtfully.

"Yuki!" I giggled.

She was quiet for another moment. "Maybe he's more of an ass guy."

We both busted out laughing.

After we settled down the thought stuck in my brain and I frowned.

Yuki had a point, not the part about my breasts, but about him not finding me desirable enough to make any advances. Kaede had insinuated before that there had been a physical aspect to his relationship with Kikyo, if that were true then what was different with me? Did he not find me attractive? I know he has feelings for me, I don't know much about them or understand them at all for that matter, but I know they're there. Yuki then interrupted my thoughts and asked me point-blankly, "Do you even want him like that?"

That question was what had me stuck. Did I want Inuyasha physically? I had to admit, I had never given it any thought before. Sexual attraction had always been an exclusively guy role. Of course I've noticed how handsome Inuyasha is, with his silvery-platinum hair and the hard fix of his warm amber eyes. His skin is tan and his body is lean, sharply etched with hard muscle that doesn't necessarily bulge so much, but drastically defines his build, stressing how healthy and athletic he is. The inhuman strength and very human passion he has.

A fire had ignited somewhere deep inside of me, I concentrated hard on extinguishing it before I began to smolder. It was making the curiosity almost unbearable as I wondered if he ever struggled with a similar fire for me.

~*~

That morning I woke up as antsy and restless as I had fell asleep. I was absent minded through my morning rituals and must have came off as noticeably in a rush, my intuitive mother picked up on this early enough to have packed me a breakfast to-go before I had even made it downstairs. She handed it to me as I slipped on my shoes and headed for the door.

"Are you feeling well enough for school, or is that nasty throat cold still bothering you?" she asked me facetiously.

"It is cold season, after all," I winked.

She kissed my forehead and told me to be careful as she always did.

I was thankful that she wasn't aware of how little being careful counted for in the feudal era.

~*~
I had barely pulled myself over the edge of the well when a hard pair of hands grabbed me by the waist and lifted me out of it so swiftly I felt weightless until they roughly dropped me on the ancient ground.

"Ouch!" I yelped, grabbing my aching butt. I looked up at the figure standing over me indignantly.

Inuyasha sneered, "What are you doing sitting around? We've got shit to do!"

"Well if you want me to be more productive maybe you should stop hurting me!"

That made him scoff, "Just because you act like a baby doesn t mean I'm going to treat you like one."

"You don't know how to be gentle, you can't toss me around like you do with Shippo and expect me to bounce right back like a demon would!"

"You must be joking with me! I'm plenty gentle enough with you, you'd just rather sit around!" Inuyasha barked, almost literally.

His testy, arrogant demeanor did a 180 as he took in how livid I was.

"Inuyasha," I said in a caustically neutral tone, "It can be your turn now," I watched him grimace, "SIT BOY!"

Inuyasha crashed to the ground and moaned loudly.

I glowered as I stood up and brushed off my skirt. Glancing down angrily at him, I was startled to find that he was looking at me curiously.

I stared down at his body that was still pressed to the earth, suddenly realizing how easy it would be for him to see right up my skirt.
The fire flared up inside of me and my face flushed bright red. I thoughtlessly squealed "SIT, SIT, SIT BOY!"

"Kagome!" he bellowed, agonized.

TBC