Note: Posted on ED for their Halloween thingy I really wish other people would participate in. I uploaded it on the 16th, my two year anniversary of writing (yay!). Just a head's up, this is the first (and possibly last) thing I've written without some sort of sex. I was limited to under 2k words which made me sad and I cut out nearly everything from the original draft. Enjoy.

The candles flickered ominously around the circle of salt that bound him, the immortal one. Their glow seemed muted through the tendrils of mist that had escaped with him from beyond, bringing with them the sweet smell of souls in torment.

"For what purpose have you summoned me here?"

The child with mousy hair stared up at the demon's floating, cloaked figure in awe and fear, though there wasn't enough of the latter to satisfy his otherworldly guest. Swallowing once, he managed to control his stutter long enough to make his demands.

"I-I need your help, Inuyasha-sama. I'm in love with a girl who doesn't know I'm alive and I need her to come with me to the Halloween party next week."

Inuyasha suppressed a growl. He badly wanted to throttle the little boy kneeling in supplication for even daring to call him, but things had been slow the past few decades and the truth was he'd welcome any excuse to walk the earth again. Whatever happened to summoning demons for the purpose of revenge, war, murder, chaos? Whatever happened to just fucking talking to a girl yourself? But the world below the earth was crowded and at times he felt like he was trapped in a submarine on chili day with a crew full of IBS sufferers. Fire and brimstone, indeed.

"You are familiar with the terms, Hojo?" The boy nodded rapidly, mouth dropping open in surprise that the being had known his name. Inuyasha rolled his eyes. The kid's underwear had ridden up while he had been bowing, revealing his name written in black marker on the band. "I will own nine-tenths of your body until the week is up. Everything but your heart. In exchange, you will be my eternal slave in the hereafter."

He looked confused. "But the heart isn't a tenth of—"

"The human heart also has spiritual properties attached to it that would take too long to go into detail about," Inuyasha interrupted. Already he could feel the pull of hell and he itched to seal the deal.

The mouth-breathing boy seemed to shake himself into confidence. Rising to his feet, he stuck out his soft, sweaty hand.

"It's a deal."

Inuyasha grinned, exposing his fangs as he enclosed the small and shaking hand in his own large clawed one. "Perfect."

O\o/O

Inhabiting a human body had its drawbacks, like the reduced senses and awkward boners, but being able to walk on earth for more than fifteen minutes at a time was worth it. For the first time since he'd attended the fallen angel academy, he was at a school. He very much doubted they taught temptation and torture, so being out of his element was a thing he was going to have to face. It shouldn't be too much of a problem to turn on the charm. One little human girl would be easy.

Without a warning, Hojo's heart rapidly sped up, shocking the demon into stillness. She was here. Somehow, his eyes found her easily, zeroing in on the beautiful girl with the blackest hair he had ever seen waving gently down her back, almost to the top of her tiny skirt. She was surrounded by three worshipers, girls who were cute but seemed plain when in her presence. Inuyasha knew that she was in most of Hojo's classes and had been for years, though the two of them had never once spoken. The bell rang and the human children began to scatter, scurrying off like rats in a familiar maze.

He sat behind her in each of their classes. Even though he didn't have his normal nose, Inuyasha could smell how sweet she was. However, his fascination began to wane the longer the day went on. One, he was bored. Two, he was hungry and had forgotten his money. Three, the girl called Kagome was a snotty little know-it-all. While that seemed to be a plus for the currently mostly dormant Hojo, it annoyed Inuyasha. A fucking human thinking it was anything more than a talking worm? Ridiculous. Still, he had a job to do, so he followed her hour after hour.

The last bell of the day clanged in his ears and he was grateful for the human hearing. Lingering behind and carefully putting away each book in his backpack, he waited for Kagome to finish exchanging pleasantries with the dried up hag of a teacher and leave so he could follow her home and stare inside her window for a few hours.

To his surprise, she didn't leave the school but instead went straight for the gym. Inuyasha generously allowed her to change without looking even though he was fairly confident he could peek without being caught. Hojo had a gift of being entirely unnoticeable. After a minute, she came back out in a disappointingly modest bathing suit, hair tucked into a bathing cap. She dove gracefully, the water streaming over her body, welcoming the water nymph back into its element like—

"Hojo, you pervert!" she shrieked, huddling by the edge of the pool, far away from him.

Shit. It seemed as though he had overestimated Hojo's powers of invisibility. Forgetting to act as his host in his panic, Inuyasha sneered at her. "It's not like there's much to look at, anyway."

Her mouth dropped open and twitched, looking like it was about to form words but couldn't quite figure out which ones.

Shrugging, he walked over to her. "What're you here so late for?"

He didn't think she'd answer, but she sighed and got out of the pool to sit down. "I'm not like the rest of you rich kids. If I can't outswim the best, I lose my scholarship. After this, I go to the library and study."

That explained the annoying false perfection she'd coated herself in.

"You wanna go to the dance?"

Startled, she finally looked him in the eye (Hojo's eyes, he reminded himself). "Uh, o-okay."

Inuyasha smiled at her. "Let me walk you home."

She lived in a shrine at the edge of town, a five mile walk from the school. Kagome seemed less confident now, for some reason. Feeling suddenly shy, he coughed.

"So, what made you interested in swimming?"

Looking up at him through her lashes, she replied, "When I was eight, my family went on vacation to a nearby lake. I wanted to be just like my dad, who had been a competitive swimmer, so I went into the water by myself when my parents weren't looking. The water was cold and churning. It was too much for me. Dad saw and came to help. He pushed me toward the shore and I kicked and swam. It wasn't until I was on the sand that I realized he wasn't there with me." She paused and shrugged. "I guess I thought it would be a good way to remember him. To thank him for the double gift of life."

Inuyasha felt a pain in his chest, a punch so hard it left him breathless. His eyes widened when he realized that it was his own heart that had beat for the first time in centuries, not his host's.

They were already at her door. Kagome's smile was a shining sun. "I was surprised you talked to me, Hojo. I thought you were a completely different sort. Having you take the initiative was nice."

"See ya at the dance," he mumbled.

He didn't turn around to see the perplexed expression he knew she wore. Hojo was blissfully happy even in his state, but Inuyasha the demon was barely paying attention. Hojo's house was another three miles away and he made the walk in record time, skin covered in a cold sweat from mental exertion.

"The deal's off!" Inuyasha growled, slamming the door to Hojo's room behind him.

As soon as he spoke the words, the boy and the creature became two separate beings once more.

"Kagome said yes!" Hojo shouted in joy before looking horrified. "Oh god, I'm gonna puke. How do I talk to—blrrrrrgaaaahhhh!"

Ignoring his idiot summoner, Inuyasha faded away back into hell. This was not good.

O\o/O

Halloween night was widely known as a time when spirits such as himself could walk the earth. Still, Inuyasha did not feel confident. He was dressed as a human, the upper part of his face covered in some Mardi Gras mask he'd stolen. He was holding a cup of punch that no one had even thought to spike, the crowded, dimmed room filled with disgusting human weaklings he could easily rip apart. But he only wanted one of them tonight.

Inuyasha had spotted Kagome about ten minutes ago. She was dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. Hojo was next to her in a leather jacket and appeared to be attempting to mimic James Dean. Inuyasha felt insulted for the dead man. The only thing keeping him from going crazy was the fact that Kagome looked to be bored out of her mind.

When Hojo finally offered to get his date a drink, Inuyasha swooped in, grabbing the girl by the arm and tugging her away until they were in a closet that smelled of mildew. No one had heard her protests over the loud, pounding music.

"Who the hell are you?!" she demanded.

Inuyasha shuddered in self-disgust when he realized he found her adorable even when furious. Taking her face in his hands, he pulled her lips to his before she realized what was happening. The kiss was brief, but for just that moment, everything stopped and became warm, happy, and right. He allowed her to slowly pull away from him.

Kagome touched a finger to her lip, eyes wide and wondering. "W-who are you?"

Steeling himself, Inuyasha took off his mask, for the first time revealing his demon form to a human who had not summoned him. Kagome's eyes took in his ears, his fangs, his claws, his coloring.

"I'm Inuyasha, the one who asked you to the dance. I love you."

There was a short, heart-breaking silence, and then the girl screamed, shattering the small peace they'd created in the closet. She rushed out, leaving him to retreat. Inuyasha's shoulders slumped. Well, it had been worth a try.

O\o/O

A year. A year of passionlessly going through his duties and answering summons, all the while wishing he could hide away in his palace of unearthly delights and forget Kagome between the thighs of one of his many slaves. No matter how much he wanted to, he just couldn't. Inuyasha needed to torture himself with remembering her.

All of a sudden, he was literally jerked out of his pity party by a summons. His cloak of darkness collected around him and he sighed, trying to get into character. His summoner was a young woman with a nice figure, bowing until her head touched the ground. Her scent drifted up to him and he swallowed a groan, his mind running through all the pleasant false memories he'd created of the girl in front of him during the time they'd spent apart.

"I-I need you to find another demon. His name is…Inuyasha."

Startled, Inuyasha collected himself, trying to keep his voice steady. This could be it. She was summoning him back to tell him she was sorry, to say she loved him too. "Why?"

"I… Just do it, okay?!"

Remembering the reality of his lady love and not the fantasy, Inuyasha rolled his eyes and descended, removing the hood of his cloak as he did so. Kagome gaped at him and her face colored beautifully. He couldn't stop himself from smiling.

"I'll need to possess you," he murmured, trailing his claws through her hair.

"I know about the nine-tenths thing."

He shook his head. "I want to possess all of you, Kagome."

She kissed him this time. The cloak of darkness enveloped them both and he spirited her away, not the first or last demon to take a human bride.