Chapter 1 - Of Pins and Needles

"So what's this ...con business?"

"Oh, it's short for convention. It's an event where people gather for a few days to celebrate and share their interests."

Kagome was seated on her bedroom floor finishing the last few stitches on her costume for the weekend. Cross-legged beside her was the half-demon, peering curiously at the various materials strewn about. The Otaku-Con was in one day, and Kagome could not be any more excited about it. InuYasha, on the other hand, still had not fully grasped the idea. He did not understand how spending a weekend walking from room to room and drowning in other people's body odour could possibly be exciting. His idea of fun consisted of practicing Tetsusaiga swings and conveniently chopping off evil demon heads; but unfortunately, he was consistently informed by Kagome that this kind of behaviour would not be tolerated at the convention. Ho hum...

Inuyasha watched the girl make last-minute adjustments to various areas of her costume. Apparently, she would be dressed up as a princess with pointy ears – a character from one of her favourite video games. Initially, she had tried to convince him to dress up too, but one look at the white tights, silly hat, and pathetically tiny sword, and he had bolted. Even now, the thought of wearing that outrageously uncomfortable outfit haunts him...

So luckily, he was able to wear his normal garb to the convention. According to her, he'd fit in perfectly anyway.

"Are you done yet?"

"Almost, just let me fix up the hem here..." Kagome folded the bottom seams slightly higher before pinning it down with a few quick stitches.

"I really don't see any difference, Kagome. Nobody will care if your dress is slightly longer than it should be," Inuyasha tugged on the fabric boringly before having his hand slapped.

"Hey!" He quickly withdrew his hand, "What did you do that for?"

"Oh come on, like it even hurt," Kagome's voice was surprisingly buoyant, as if she found the situation amusing. "I bet you're just upset because I've been spending more time preparing for the convention than paying attention to you."

"What?! That's not true!" The hanyou crossed his arms. "I'm not upset!"

"Uhn... huh."

"Wait... what's that supposed to mean? Are you mocking me now?!" With every question, the youkai's voice increased in volume and pitch.

Kagome giggled and continued with the seam.

"You're ignoring me!" He protested.

"This proves my point. You clearly want my attention..."

"Well, you weren't answering my questions!" Inuyasha pouted, an appearance that Kagome could not help but laugh at.

"...Just like a child. Such an attention-seeker," Kagome muttered amusingly under her breath.

"I heard that."

"Don't worry, Inuyasha," Kagome said reassuringly, "with a face like yours, you'll be getting plenty of attention at the convention."

Inuyasha gulped. He wasn't sure if he wanted to ask and find out why he will be receiving a lot of attention this upcoming weekend. Furthermore, what was wrong with his face? Something about the way she said that made him nervous; maybe it was the twinkle in her eye when she said it, or maybe it was her over-enthusiastic tone. Either way, he supposed he would find out soon...

"Ah, all done!" Kagome leapt up, picking up the dress with her and spreading it across her body as if envisioning what it would look like on her.

Inuyasha had to admit, she had done a pretty decent job. The costume bore remarkable resemblance with the image they had used as a reference. And to be honest, he was actually looking forward to see her wear it.

"Not too shabby." The half-demon also stood up and watched her swish the dress about herself, "You sure you're not going to trip in it? It's still pretty long."

"Well, if I trip, you'll be there to catch me. Won't you, Inuyasha?" Kagome turned and smiled sweetly up at him.

"Uh, yea... sure..." A slow blush crept over his cheeks as he thought of catching the girl in his arms hundreds of times over the weekend. That's right, he will be the knight in shining armour, the one who will rescue Kagome from her treacherous, over-lengthed garb.

He was quickly snapped back to reality by her next instruction.

"Now, help me clean up this mess!" Kagome hung the dress over the back of her chair and began to scramble the scraps of unused material on the floor. Inuyasha, who really did not enjoy cleaning, hesitated a moment before joining her. If he did not help, they would no doubt get into another argument. And all he wanted right now was to get at least a few hours of sleep before the big day tomorrow; an argument would surely cut into that precious time.

"Hm... I can't find my sewing needle," Kagome noted as she scanned the carpeted floor. "It must have dropped somewhere when I picked up the dress. Be careful, Inuyasha, it might be sticking out of the carpet."

"Pfft! I can take care of myself," he stated as he began pacing in a hunched position searching for the pointy object. "It's you that should watch yo----"

Kagome's eyes widened as she saw the shiny needle sticking up in the trajectory of the youkai's next footing.

"Inuyasha, don't take ano---"

"YOWWCH!"

A/N:

So I just finished watching the series, and for some reason the first thing that popped to mind was Inuyasha attending an Anime convention. Now, I've never been to on myself, but I've seen enough pictures and videos to understand the gist of it (aka I'm aware of all the "interesting" practices of the fangirls, hehe).

Anywho, hope you enjoyed this 1st short chapter. I promise the subsequent chapters will be much longer :) And yea, keep reading if you want to find out what happens to our lovable half-demon.

PS. Cookies to those who can guess what Kagome will be dressed as and what she wanted Inuyasha to go as.