Inuyasha really couldn't remember a time where he had ever truly shown compassion to a normal human. There was perhaps his mother, whom he had lived with as a small child. She had been on the receiving end of his childish love and devotion, right up until the day of her death. He had adored his mother, that much was clear enough to him despite his fading memories of the simple times he had shared with her. Yet, though he had loved his mother, it was more of a one-sided respect for her that he had felt, partly due to the fact that she was his mother, and the only human he had known at that point that hadn't tried to harm him for what he was. HIs mother, on the other hand, had been the one to share the most compassion for him, a half-demon in his own right. In fact, she had been the only person from his childhood to show him any sort of compassion or returning love.

There was Kikyo, but honestly, Inuyasha couldn't really count her as a normal human. Though Kikyo longed to be considered an ordinary woman, even Inuyasha couldn't ignore what she really was deep within. Kikyo was... No, had been, the equivalent of a goddess in her lifetime. Once she had come under the possession of the Shikon Jewel, she had given up her right as an ordinary woman to become the protector of legend. Whether she gave that up willingly or not, Inuyasha could not consider the compassion and past love that he had felt for her to be sent towards an "ordinary" human. Kikyo was simply not as such.

Miroku and Sango were humans. Yet, no matter how much Inuyasha thought about it, he couldn't even describe them as ordinary either. Miroku was a skilled monk, trained in the ways of exorcism. There were other priests like that, of course, but none of them had the curse of Naraku's Wind Tunnel to go along with these powers. That itself put Miroku out of the running, in Inuyasha's book. If you had a supernatural power about you, then you simply weren't ordinary.

Sango, despite looking ordinary (Inuyasha involuntary cringed, making a mental reminder to never say such a thing like that in front of the woman herself), had a past that put ordinary people to shame. Hell, her own brother had slaughtered her remaining family while a demon had destroyed the rest of her village. That alone was enough to make any ordinary human crack under pressure. Sango was extraordinarily strong. That put her out of the running.

Inuyasha finally swept his gaze across the dark cabin to look at the last human on his mental list. The dark haired girl was fast asleep, her face making gentle grimaces as she dreamed about something he couldn't help but wonder about.

Kagome. Now there was someone he had to really think about. Kagome was a girl of unfathomable mystery. To start, she came from a completely different era than the half-demon did. She was someone from the future. She could return to her era and then come back brandishing objects, foods, and even medical supplies that Inuyasha and the others of his time period could only gawk at. She wore strange clothes that would have never been acceptable in his era (though most didn't seem to care much at this point about her appearance. Gotten used to it, Inuyasha supposed). Kagome seemed to also lead something of a double life. She was always jumping back and forth between that era of hers annoyingly often to go to this "school" thing, whatever that was. Inuyasha had seen it before, where a bunch of teenagers he and Kagome's age all sat in rows and stared up at an adult that seemed to be brainwashing them at the front of a sealed room. What the appeal was of such behavior, Inuyasha would never know. There were other things about Kagome that Inuyasha could have listed, but just those few alone made him certain of one thing.

Kagome was about the farthest away from being ordinary on his list.

"So then," the hanyou frowned in confusion, whispering to himself, "why is she still sticking out to me this much?"

It was true. Even though his mental, pointless list demanded that he try to think of an ordinary person he had truly liked, he couldn't seem to get his mind off of the one person that was, quite literally, the furthest from being anywhere in that number one spot. He couldn't quite put his clawed finger on it. The question demanded an answer, yet he was certain that Kagome was the right one, when it was obvious that she wasn't acceptable. Inuyasha bit back a growl of frustration, then flinched when the woman he thought so intently about shifted in her sleep with a grumble of his name. He braced himself, expecting her to wake up and find him in such a state, and only released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in when she shifted away from him and fell back into a state of deep sleep.

Inuyasha sighed, turning back to his internal predicament. Why was he thinking so much about her lately?

Perhaps I'm asking the wrong questions?

Inuyasha had absolutely no idea where the thought had come from, but now that it was there, it had his gears working again. Maybe that was it…

Kagome was the furthest human away from being ordinary. Yet… He still showed her the same amount of compassion he had shown his mother. He showed her more compassion than he had shown either Miroku or Sango. If he dared to venture down those thoughts, he could even say that he had shown Kagome a side of himself that he hadn't even tried to show Kikyo.

The half-demon spared a grin and allowed himself to close his eyes.

Yes, Kagome was definitely the farthest human away from being "ordinary."

But it didn't change the fact that Inuyasha liked her the most.

AN: This oneshot is unedited and will be reviewed when I have time. I just wanted to post it before I went to work.

I hope you all enjoy this collection. It will not be updated on a specific schedule, just honestly when I feel like writing something Inuyasha related. I'm going to be writing mostly InuKag, I think, but there may be some more in here. There will also probably be a bit of every type of universe in here, whether it be Canon or AU. We'll just see where it goes!

Till next time,

-EA