Fuyuko: So, I'm doing psychology homework a while ago, and I get this random fic idea. Said little idea started itching me, and I decided to type this up.. You know, sometimes you just have to scratch an itch right Inu?

Inu: Keh. You're not funny, wench.

Disclaimer-Bot: Fuyuko says for me to inform you that she does not own Inuyasha or Kagome or anything else that Rumiko Takahashi does. Thank you for your attention. This has been a decreed test of the disclaimer system. Please return to your fiction reading enjoyment.

&

Dogs Dream

It is uncertain whether animals dream or not, although they do experience REM sleep. Thus far, only humans report, or have been recorded to have the sensation of dreaming. –Excerpt from Psychology for Young Explorers, Kagome's textbook.

&

It figured. She spent all that time hunting shards in the feudal era, trying not to worry too much about writing this paper, but couldn't help wondering how she'd get it done by the deadline. When she finally had gotten a brainstorm though, she'd had to sit her way home, which made her angry, which made her forget her all her ideas, which put her where she was now. And where was she now? Now, she was sitting with her head in her hands, having not even touched the keys of her desk's computer.

"Rrrgh." Add to that the certainty that she could expect him to disrupt her thoughts again when he came to drag her back to his world in no time, and Kagome knew she was. So. Screwed. There was no possible way for her or anyone else for that matter to type a research paper under that kind of pressure.

"…unhh.." She wished her paper was on mental illnesses, then she could at least have humored herself by writing about how her life and a particular hanyou were driving her insane. "There's no way this could get any worse," lamented Kagome as she slumped in her petite pink swivel chair, "but I might as well just grin and try to slap something out. Ugh." Turning to her keyboard and pulling out her textbook, Psychology for Young Explorers, to review basic dream theories at least, she should have been expecting to be proven wrong about her dilemma worsening. She should have realized he'd be coming to retrieve her or settle their argument about exactly when she could go home and why and who had control of this going home 'privilege', and she should have just given up. But Kagome was, if nothing else, hopeful.

"Kagome! Ka-go-me! You'd better be here, wench, because if you and I have a few things to discuss! Now!" In her room, the girl's head hit her desk with a thump. She might have known. It was going to get worse. 'Better to deal with him sooner rather than later, I guess.' Trying not to be too angry at the poorly-timed hanyou, Kagome proceeded to her window, unlocking and opening it for the hanyou currently stomping around the shrine grounds below. 'Although, y'know, he's not paying attention right now, maybe I could just close the window quietly and…' The gods must have deemed her court jester for the day, because Inuyasha's head swiveled around, his nose and ears still twitching from their tracking of her. '…I thought not.'

"Earth to wench, are you listening top me? Or is your weak human brain still trying to figure out basic command?"

"I'm an educated person, Inuyasha, so I doubt that my brain is still figuring out basic command. Although I am wondering where you got that one from. Souta and the TV, most likely."

"Keh. Don't try to dodge the subject, wench." If arguing with Inuyasha had been a sport, Kagome would have been awarded points for the hanyou's snippy response.

"I wasn't dodging the subject, Inuyasha, I was responding to your first comment. And before you go any further, just remember, my life is my own, and I can't sit around waiting for shards, when I have equally important things to do in my time here."

"Oh, believe me, wench, I know you 'can't sit around' for the shards, that's why we have to go hunting for them! And we're going hunting now, because I said so!"

"That's so dumb, Inuyasha! Besides, I really do have something important to do while I'm here!"

"Keh! What could be more important than hunting shards and killing off Naraku!"

"The paper that I have due in three hours!"

"Paper ain't important, no matter how much you owe for it! And we can hunt a bunch of shards in those three hours if we. Leave. Now!"

"What are you talking about? I meant that I have to write a report, for school, and no, we can't spend my three hours hunting shards in the feudal era, because I have to do the research, type the paper, and send it in! And we're already wasting my three hours, which wasn't enough in the first place!" They were both red in the face now, glowering at each other, practically butting heads for real, and they were wasting time. Time that she needed to write her report. There was only one thing to do.

Inuyasha opened his mouth to bark something else at her at the same time that Kagome gave him the look and opened her mouth. Expecting to be sat, he cringed and growled half-heartedly, but instead, she turned away from him, sat down at her pink chair and quietly told him, "Inuyasha, listen, I can't waste time arguing with you over something that neither of us needs to argue about, but if you'll let it slid like I'm going to, then maybe I can get this paper done in two hours. But only if you can chill out somewhere and be quiet enough for me to concentrate on my work. Deal?"

For his part, Inuyasha keh'd to let her know that he could do something that simple, because 'as long as she holds up on her end, its better 'n getting sat.'

So the girl in the pink chair swiveled around with her face set, and the boy with nothing else to do flopped on a pink bed, that he secretly thought was the best in the world, enjoying its smell and drifting off without a care. The girl was relieved, 'It really worked, maybe I should use that tactic more often', and set into her work, thinking that if he could do his part so easily, she could at least make a real effort to fulfill her own part. The boy slept deeper and deeper, tumbling into dreams, 'I could get used ta this, maybe I should try this tactic 'nother time,' and slipped into the realm of dreams, unwittingly becoming a subject for her paper.

Kagome estimated that a little more than an hour had passed, and as she looked up from her computer to rest, she realized that she was mostly done with her paper. She just needed to add in the data from her own required dream diary, draw conclusions about it using the dream theories she'd written about, and she'd be done. Figuring she could afford a snack break, Kagome turned to ask if Inuyasha wanted something, who she now noticed was still blissfully and oddly silent, and found that he was curled up, asleep on her fluffy pink twin bed. She giggled at the cute, paradoxical scene, wondering if he meant to fall asleep like that. It was so unlike him to let his guard down, especially here, where she knew the lack of open forest and dirty cityscape made him anxious. She sighed, and got up, deciding to bring him a glass of water and a bag of chips, just in case, when she noticed his ears twitching. 'Is he really not asleep? That jerk, I'll get him if he's faking it just to mess with me. Not that it isn't still cute, it's just not nice to use that cuteness against me.' But since he didn't open his eyes, and his ears stopped twitching rather abruptly, Kagome reasoned that he really wasn't awake. Shrugging it off with a smile, Kagome proceeded downstairs to raid her family's kitchen.

When she came back upstairs with a plate of cookies, bag of chips, and two glasses-one milk and one water-she was greeted by the sight of a still slumbering Inu on her fluffy, comfy, pink bed. Setting her armload down, the miko wondered what the hanyou was dreaming about. It didn't seem at all unpleasant, that was for sure. 'Maybe he's dreaming about running. Isn't that what people always say dogs dream about? Chasing rabbits and stuff?' Kagome frowned at that thought, it really wasn't fair to label him like that, he wasn't a real dog, afterall. He was more human than animal, and honestly, he probably just had weird dreams about falling off of invisible skyscrapers and never hitting the ground just like she did.

Cracking her back slightly, Kagome looked at her computer screen. She had about thirty minutes of work left, assuming she could find the dream diary she'd been keeping. It was probably in her yellow bag. She looked over at the monstrosity she carried between times, getting the sinking sensation that the aforementioned diary was probably at the bottom. Wasn't it always like that when you needed something, she thought to herself as she began digging through the contents of the yellow monster's stomach. She had barely grasped something she thought was her dream diary when there was a growl from the bed above her.

Face the definition of confusion, Kagome peered up at the obvious source of the sound. Inuyasha was lolling half off her bed, his clawed hands gripping a satiny blue pillow she'd never liked much, while he grumbled something incomprehensible from where she sat. 'Ookay, then, I guess that confirms the idea that he has weird human dreams…about what I'm not sure I want to know. Probably strangling Sesshoumaru or Kouga with a silk kimono. Or stuffing Shippo into a pillowcase.' Yeah, those were probably things he dreamed about, considering she'd read a theory that said dreams were based in our repressed desires, something by Freud most likely.

"Rrrrrrr…Mine! Ish mine…fluffy…my 'eddy! Keh! …no like you, bashard…like me, mine," Well, at least she could be pretty certain he was dreaming about fighting with Sesshoumaru about something, now that she was practically breathing down his neck to hear him, "Grrrraa-arf! 'Eddy ish mine…'n 'e lesh me chew on 'im. Rrrrr…." Right. That was a pretty weird dream, maybe it stemmed from a mix of the dog in him liking to gnaw things and the human in him not wanting to share what was probably a toy. 'Not too abnormal though, I bet lots of kids dream about their toys. I know I dream about my cat, Buyo.' Frustrated that she'd wasted time with nosy curiosity, only to find her hanyou friend was as normal as either of them got, Kagome got up, sighing and gently flicking one white, fluffy, triangular ear as she went back to her pink computer chair.

She was glad, though, in a way, that she hadn't heard anything that might be embarrassing to both of them. Not that he probably dreamed about her like that, just that she didn't feel like getting mad at him for anything he might say about her in a dream. 'It's not like he can control what he dreams about, and anyways, it would be weird to hear him dream about me, even if he was yelling at me to find shards in his sleep.'

"Kagome…yawn…Did you just…er, were you just sitting here?" Great, now she was going to have an impatient hanyou standing over her while she tried to finish her work. 'Guess, it's just desserts for flicking him for being normal,' she sighed.

"Yes, Inuyasha, I was just sitting there. You were mumbling in your sleep, so I was worried you were having a nightmare or something." Maybe she could satisfy the remaining curiosity in her about his dream, it did sound like it was something childish, something that might make them both laugh. Inuyasha looked a little terrified, though, gulping as he tried to look unconcerned with his inquiry.

"Yeah? Did I really mumble? Must have been something about whacking that bastard brother of mine in the head with something, that's what I think I remember dreaming about." He hoped it was something like that anyway, he couldn't take it if she'd heard him dreaming about her or something. There'd be no getting around that, it'd be better to jump out the window now, getting a running start before she tried to sit him for anything she might have overheard, his dreams about her weren't exactly appropriate for the relationship they had. 'They're not dirty or anything, they're just, well…Keh! I don't really like her, anyways, it's just my brain being weird!'

"Only if you were whacking him with something called " 'eddy", Inu. Sounded kind of like you wanted to keep a grip on a stuffed toy, and I don't remember those ever being useful for hitting people," Kagome smiled despite herself, the thought of the two violently opposed to each other brothers fighting over a stuffed toy was just too oddly cute. Inuyasha blushed, and keh'd, not sure how to get around her claim. He decided to change the subject instead.

"Are you done with your stupid paper yet, wench? It's already been a long time, and we need to hunt shards."

"I'll be done in a minute. I just need to put in some conclusions about my own dreams from the theories I cited." Still typing, Kagome smiled to herself, thinking maybe she'd tell her teacher to get the class a new textbook. Afterall, this one was wrong, dogs did dream.

&

Fuyuko: Whoo! Got one thing done today, at least! This has been in my brain for quite some time, I only recently finished typing it up and posting it. Hopefully it isn't too weak. It's just a silly little one-shot, afterall. Well, leave a review, please, no matter what you thought. Maybe I'll post another one-shot. I was thinking of making a series of them, but this got long so, nah.

Later!