Disclaimer: The only thing that I own of Inuyasha is the DVD collection. Oh and the stories that I have written.

Just Friends

Inuyasha watched her walk away from him the morning after and he knew that they had gone too far last night. What had happened? Was it the trauma from the last few days? Was it because of the wine he had used to try to relax her because she was tense? Was it because there was more there than they thought? Could it be all three of them? One thing he knew for sure, the line we're just friend's they had both used last night had been said for far too long and he didn't know if either of them actually believed it. It didn't matter that they both enjoyed it far too much or even the fact that they had enjoyed the cuddling session afterwards. He loved the fact that she was there when he woke up that morning. She was his best friend and had been from when they were in junior high but he didn't know how to fix it nor did he think he wanted to. She was beautiful in every sense of the word.

Kagome had showered while she was at Inuyasha's and that wasn't unusual. She had done that before, in fact, she even had clothes at his place as well. Last night was different and she didn't know how she felt about it. Her friend Sango was supposed to meet her at the mall. It was a girl's day out. They each took one day a month to get together because their lives had drastically changed after they finished college. They were always working, Sango had married her husband Miroku, and Kagome had taken on doing volunteer work at the local kitchen to help feed the homeless. Who had time to do any of this stuff anymore?

"Kagome!" A voice broke through her thoughts.

"Hi, Sango," Kagome turned around to face her friend, "sorry, I was thinking."

"Thinking about what?" Sango nosed around.

"Oh, about things or a certain person? I called your cell last night but you never answered." Sango teased.

"Gomen, I left it at home accidentally." Kagome smiled.

"So what did you two do last night?" It was good thing that Kagome had someone else to spend time with. Sango had been concerned about Kagome being alone after her grandfather died, her mother moved and Souta was off to a university in Hong Kong. Kagome had told Sango to go home to her husband of three months instead of staying with her.

"We watched a movie and we played a game." Kagome answered. It wasn't a lie; she just didn't tell Sango everything that she did. She was a little sore between her legs though.

"Did you do anything else?" Sango wandered to the rack with some racy lingerie she was thinking about surprising her husband with later that night.

"Nothing important." Kagome prayed that Sango didn't notice the bright blush on her cheeks.

Sango looked to be scrupulously contemplating the pink satin number but that didn't mean anything. "That's it, Kagome; we need to find you some inspiration to do more with your life than just work. This department is good for that." Sango picked up the night gown she was looking at and dragged Kagome to various parts of the store. By the time they had left Kagome had two bags filled with quite a bit. She was still protesting and very red looking. Thank God that the bags were discreet.

"Where am I going to wear all of this stuff? It's not like anyone actually sees what I am wearing." Kagome sat down on a bench. "You do realize all of this cost over a hundred dollars." Sango smiled at her friends rant.

"I think that a certain someone might appreciate the view if you two can get past the 'just friends' line you have been using since junior high. You two haven't been just friends in like forever."

A week passed but for some reason neither Kagome nor Inuyasha could ever catch each other on the phone and the world seemed to know that they wanted to talk to the other person. Inuyasha's job, unknown to Kagome called him out of town for the last two weeks and he had brilliantly left his cell charger at the house. Kagome worked as a nurse in the local hospital and they were severely short on hands this week. Whenever her cell phone rang it was in her locker and by the time she called to see who was calling her she received a hotel. She suspected who it was because she had already by his house to see that his car was there but not him. That meant she had to wait because the cell phone charger never made it to his bag. Once she had found him gone, she had snuggled down on his bed to sleep. She had trouble sleeping the night before. Since then, however, she had slept in her own bed. The phone broke her out of her restless sleep.

"Hello," she croaked out.

"Hey, Funny Face." Inuyasha's voice rumbled over the phone.

"Where are you? Why did you leave the cell phone charger at home?" Kagome asked.

"I just arrived home. I was hoping to see you." Inuyasha chuckled.

Kagome arrived at his house in about fifteen minutes but she didn't get very far. Inuyasha looked very busy at the moment with a woman he didn't seem to be fighting off. Kagome didn't stick around but left quietly with tears in her eyes. She dead bolted the door because Inuyasha couldn't in. She didn't want to see him right now. Why did he even invite her over if he had someone with him? She heard him knock on the door but she didn't answer.

Inuyasha went home with his head down afterwards. He had been set up; Atoya had met him at the house. It didn't matter that he hadn't shown any interest in her in months or that when she randomly showed he was busy doing something or getting ready to leave. He already knew that Kagome wasn't going to answer her phone and that she was probably not going to sleep at all tonight.

Miroku greeted his friend with a pat on the back. "How was the trip?"

Inuyasha answered with his usual shoulder shrug. "It was productive. The deal went through and my company has another account that will help keep us busy. They seem to be very thorough in what they want."

"Great, are you going to be available tonight for drinks?" Miroku queried and Inuyasha seemed to contemplate the answer to that.

The 'keh' was answer enough that he would be there. "So did you meet anyone while you were on the trip?" The translation, "Did you have some fun while you were there?"

"Sure, there were two gorgeous ladies that couldn't seem to keep their hands off of me."

Miroku's face was priceless, "You did two of them at once? Be still my heart," Miroku patted his heart with a dreamy look in his eyes wondering if Sango would ever be willing to allow a partner to join them.

"Oh hell no! One of them actually had the scent of about five different guys on her and it wasn't from being hugged on by her friends. The other had one primary scent on her besides her traditional fruit cocktail mix. It was a wonder you could pick out a scent from her that belonged to her or anyone else." Inuyasha scrunched his nose and itched at it thinking of the myriad of smells.

"Oh," the look of Miroku's face was downright sad. "Did you see Kagome last night? She hasn't been sleeping well at all." Of course, Miroku knew that Kagome hadn't been sleeping well in a while actually. He wondered if Inuyasha actually knew that little tidbit of information. The drooping ears on the top of Inuyasha's head said it all. He had definitely seen her. "What happened?"

"Atoya came over last night. I don't know how she knew that I was home but she was so excited to see m e that she threw herself on me. Kagome arrived when Atoya kissed me. I only got to see Kagome's back while she walked away." Inuyasha sat down in his seat.

Miroku shook his head sadly. "Do I need to lock you and Kagome in a room to talk this through again?"

Inuyasha shuddered. The last time Miroku had done that there had been no food or water in the room. Most importantly there was no RAMEN! "No, I'll talk to her after I finish with work today. She'll be at work or in the kitchen."

Kagome sat down finally after a full 12 hours without a lunch break because there had been a huge wreck on the highway that afternoon. It had taken all of them to keep up with everything. They even had to call some non-emergency nurses that were currently on duty to help with the backup. She laid her head on the table in the break room. "Hey," a quiet voice said behind her.

"Who let you in?" Kagome groaned.

"Nurse Ratchet shrugged and said you were in here." Inuyasha answered. He touched his hand to her hair and ran his hand through her silky hair. She smelled like cherry blossoms. "I'm sorry about last night."

"Why did you invite me over? Was it so that we could be reminded that all we would ever be is friends?" her weary eyes said how much she had slept. That was it he was going to move them into the same apartment. He had smelled her in his bed when he finally went into his room last night it had been fading. She hadn't been sleeping and this was senseless.

"Atoya threw herself at me last night." Inuyasha answered. "I was waiting for you to come over. We've got to stop this. We either end up at my place or your place half the time and we spend more gas to come see each other than we do on each other."

Kagome looked at him incredulously trying desperately to comprehend the quickly changing subjects. "What?"

"We need to move in to the same apartment or find an apartment that we both like with two bedrooms." Inuyasha reiterated. "We'll save on gas, rent and the time that we spend together will be more substantial."

"Oh," Kagome shook her head in acknowledgement in what he had just said. "What about…"

"Kagome, if we end up being just friends I'll be alright with it. I'd like to see where this would lead us if it's alright with you and we don't have to do anything that neither of us wants to." Inuyasha said all of this quickly.

"Inuyasha, I would like that very much." She rested her tired head on his chest. "I need some sleep now." She mumbled. Inuyasha smiled to himself. He was going to help make sure she started to get enough sleep since she didn't seem to get a lot of it sometimes.

One of the nurses walked in to get some coffee. "It's about time you got back. Will you please make sure that she gets enough sleep tonight and tomorrow as she's off?"

Inuyasha chuckled. "It will be my pleasure."

The nurse watched him escort Kagome out. "Maybe she'll actually get something other than sleep."