Kagome really liked roses. They were so majestic and pretty and feminine. Her boss's son reminded her of roses. Every time she looked at him, she had a mental image of a rose. With wide, gently curving petals and a long, soft stem- and dammit, that just brought on weird thoughts.

Kagome was not supposed to harbor such thoughts, especially not about her boss's step-son. That never noticed her. He was very used to ignoring random love-struck girls, after all, not that she was a random love struck girl. She was pretty random, and a girl, but love-struck didn't fit her description.

No, just addiction.

"Roses are great," she mumbled under her breath, eyes staring down sightlessly at the packet in her hands.

"Really? I think so too," an amused voice commented.

She bit back a yelp and glanced up in shock. "M-Minamino-sama!" she gasped in surprise.

He chuckled, moving by her to use the copier. Oh, right. She'd been standing in front of it, hadn't she. "S-sorry. I'll just... go bother some random person," she grumbled and escaped, mortified.

As soon as she sat down in front of her desk, she zoned out again, remembering the vaguely curious look she'd caught on the redhead's face as she ran away. Oh, look... A lady-bug... Kagome frowned and quickly set down her pencil, abandoning her doodling - on her work packet, no less - as she realized how incredibly distracted she was.

It might have had something to do with lunch. Ayumi and Eri had cornered her into going to WacDonalds - for old times' sake, of course - and got onto the usual topic of boys. Kagome had insisted that there was no one in her life anymore - Inuyasha was a thing of the past, both figuratively and literally, so he hadn't even come up in the conversation - and she was quite happy with it. Until Yuka showed up - they worked together - and asked her if she'd 'made any progress on the Minamino front'. Ten minutes later, they all had the juicy details.

Or rather, they all knew that Kagome was just as shy as ever around guys she really liked - again, Inuyasha didn't count; that was more platonic than actual love - not that she'd ever had anyone she 'really liked'.

For some reason, Kagome looked up. Her eyes landed on Yuka, across the large office room, talking to none other than Minamino Shuichi. The two glanced in her direction, his gaze curious and calculating, her's elated and mischievous, and Kagome turned bright red. She abruptly shoved her chair back and got up, stomping from the room in search of the nearest bathroom.

She was just reaching for the handle of said room when a hand caught her wrist. She yelped at the vague brush of yoki and jerked away, spinning in preparation of attack. Her jaw dropped and she took in the curiously tilted head, the narrowed eyes, the amusement dancing in deep forest eyes.

"You're a miko," he accused good-naturedly.

"You're a demon!" she retorted, wide-eyed. Gee Kagome. You're sure a bright one, aren't you? "I mean- how?! I never knew!"

He huffed lightly, the sound dangerously close to a laugh. "Of course not. Honestly, I'm a very old demon; as if I'd allow anyone to sense such. There is a point to hiding, you know."

"Oh." Well, Kagome was floored. She hadn't thought of that, but then, she had the annoying habit of not thinking while in this man's presence. Or while thinking of this man. Or looking at him or- "I really didn't know that."

"I gathered." A quirk of his mouth showed his amusement, but she couldn't seem to be offended.

Even as he was backing her into the wall, she couldn't help but stare up at him, slack-jawed. Thought fled from her mind - this is ignoring the fact that she had difficulty thinking in the first place - as his body caged her in, lightly pressing her against the wood of the door. Her mouth went dry, her breath hitched, and an ache began to pool in that area down below. You know, the one she wasn't supposed to think about, since she was a good girl. Yes. Kagome, you are a good girl. You are a very good girl. You are not thinking perverted things about Minamino-sama and his... thing. And you are most definitely not staring up at him like an idiot.

Because Kagome, you are a very, very good girl.

"I think I'm going to vomit," Kagome muttered, opening the door behind her only for them to both tumble in, his eyes widening with surprise.

And then the door was swinging closed behind them, and he was sprawled on top of her. Her knee was digging into his side, and his hand was trapping her hair against the floor while the other pressed heavily against her chest - her boob, to be precise. Her left hand was resting lightly on his waist, and her right was trapped underneath her butt. And by God, his mouth was inches from her nose, eyes slanting down slightly to stare at her in stunned surprise.

His fingers flexed and something connected. His hand was on her boob. Her boob was underneath his hand. Her face twisting with anger, she pinched his waist as hard as she possibly could, causing him to yelp and attempt to leap to his feet, only to realize that their legs were tangled together. He stumbled and fell hard to his knees, straddling her stomach now, and the only thing that kept them from bonking heads was her hands suddenly planted against his chest and his bracing himself on either side of her head.

He was still trapping her hair, thus making her unable to move.

Of course, as the fates would have it, it was then that the door opened again, knocking into Kagome's feet. "What the- Oh, my god, Minamino-sama?!" A further shocked gasp. "And Kagome-chan?"

Kagome's eyes narrowed to slits, and Minamino swallowed, looking decidedly nervous. Neither bothered looking to see who the woman who'd caught them was as she fled, likely to spread this over the entire office. Or floor. Or building.

"Get. Off. Now."

He didn't hesitate to obey the furious order, failing to point out that this was her fault. She quickly got to her feet and glared venomously at him as she tugged on her inadequately short skirt, deciding she was wearing pants to work from now on. "Five very good reasons I shouldn't purify you right now."

"I'm half human so it wouldn't work?" She held up her hand and lowered her thumb. He swallowed. "I work for Reikai." Geez, that complicated things. Still, she lowered her pinky. "It was an accident?" She didn't move, and he hurried on. "Um... I haven't killed a human in... twenty five years?" Down went another finger, and Kagome was calming, not that she'd admit it just yet. "You're very attractive?" She twitched. "I'm very attractive?" Another twitch. "I know your cousin?" Down went a forth finger, though she'd already known that he and Yusuke were high-school buddies. "I love my life very, very much and I don't want to test to see if I'd really be purified enough," he added.

She sighed and dropped her hand, not really that disappointed, and he slumped in relief. "Get out of the girl's bathroom," she muttered.

He nodded hurriedly and darted off, pushing past a crowd on his way out. Kagome's glare quickly dispersed the smarter females and all the males, and Yuka stepped into the room with a smirk. "God, girl, I don't think I've ever seen anyone that scared," she chided with a grin.

Kagome poked her best friend's chest. "This is all your fault, Yuka," she growled half-heartedly. "And he touched my boob!"

"Really?" Yuka snorted, impressed. "Didn't know he was the perverted sort."

"... it was an accident."

"Right. So..." Yuka idly toyed with a lock of Kagome's hair as she set to smoothing it out. "Why are you so mad?"

Kagome let out a sigh and shrugged, pouting moodily into the mirror. "I'm more embarrassed than angry," she admitted dejectedly. "And now he's really gonna hate me."

"No he isn't," Yuka reassured. "Just explain to him that you were embarrassed and he'll understand."

"No, Yuka, he won't," Kagome deadpanned. "He will hate me forever because we are exact opposites and I just threatened to kill him."

"But everyone knows you have a temper..."

"I've never shown him that!"

"Kudos?" Yuka sighed at Kagome's angry glare. "C'mon. Let's get you a latte."

"... okay." Kagome couldn't very well resist the lure of a latte, after all.

xXx

Kagome stared down at the white foam on top of her favorite drink, idly stabbing it over and over with her straw as she half-listened to Yuka prattle on about some guy she'd met at an Italian restaurant last week. They were seeing each other, or so Kagome gathered, and he'd apparently gotten her a tasteful fake snow leopard jacket.

However, Kagome's mind wasn't on Yuka's guy-of-the-month. She was thinking about the wide-eyed look Minamino had given her when the door opened behind them, and then the curiously surprised expression on his face as he flexed his fingers. And there was the look of half-horror, half disbelief when she threatened to purify him out of existance.

"... and you're just head over heels for Minamino, aren't you? Not that I blame you..."

"Yeah..." Kagome hummed absently, the casual inquiry inserted so neatly into her thoughts that she didn't realize it was actually from Yuka until the brown-haired girl snorted. Kagome blinked and thought back over the past few seconds before turning beet red. "That's cheating, Yuka," she accused, though it was without heat.

Yuka smiled and blithely continued. "But then, you probably can't help it. I know he can't. He always stares at you, you know. And he doesn't even start working for the day until he's sure you're there, and if you aren't he usually gives me the day off to tend to you if you're sick."

Kagome stared at her friend in shock. "... he does?" Now that she thought of it, though, Yuka always seemed to be there when she most needed her. When she was sick, or injured... Or emotionally scarred... "And after... him?" It wasn't possible... right?

"Yeah. We did sorta go to the same high school, Kags," Yuka pointed out, but Kagome had never known.

She had never even noticed that behind the scenes, Minamino was pulling the strings. It all made sense now. How she'd gotten such a good job so closely after high school; how the college she wanted accepted her with the vague excuse that they had enough money for a scholarship student, if she worked hard.

She was appalled by both the level of power he'd had over her life, and the fact that she'd never even noticed how much he'd done for her, and still did for her. And she'd threatened to kill him.

"Oh, my God," she whispered, standing abruptly. "I'm sorry, Yuka, I have to go."

Yuka nodded, eyes hooded. "It's fine, Kagome. I knew it was coming."

But Kagome was already gone, the door of the cafe closing behind her.

xXx

Slap! Kurama stared in shock at the teary-eyed miko standing on his front porch, shaking in the rain. It had only started to rain a few minutes ago, but she was already soaked and he... His cheek stung, but in his slow-thinking process, he couldn't figure out why until she lowered her hand and clenched it into a fist. Oh. Right, she'd slapped him.

"Higur-"

"Kagome," she said, voice tear-stained and stress-choked.

He found his body moving entirely without his consent, folding her into a hug. "I'm sorry, Kagome," he murmured against the top of her head, sighing. Yuka must have spilled, though he'd known it would happen eventually. "I had no intention of hurting you. I didn't want to be involved; I suppose it snuck up on me."

"Why were you doing it in the first place?" she asked his chest, clenching his T-shirt in her hands and refusing to meet his gaze.

Kurama shrugged, closing his eyes; maybe it would make this easier. "It was an assignment from Reikai. Koenma asked me to keep an eye on you. Apparently, they'd been doing so since you showed signs of Miko powers at the age of six. You stopped soon, though, and repressed them when your father died." He felt her nod; she understood. "I didn't get the assignment until I was a senior in high school; you were a junior then."

"Yeah." She tightened her grip on his shirt and shifted. "Look at me." Hesitantly, he obeyed and opened his eyes, green meeting blue. She smiled. "What's your real name, then?"

"Minamino Shuichi," he answered honestly. "That is my real name, and it will be for the rest of my life." His eyes gentled on her. "But I used to be called Kurama."

"It suits you," she said decisively and lay her head against his chest once more. "It suits you." As if she were trying to convince herself that it was real, and he was here, but he always had been. He always would be; there'd be no changing that.

"Roses are great," she murmured suddenly, laughing.

As confused as he had been when she'd said the same thing that morning, Kurama quirked a brow. "What?"

"Nevermind," she said with a grin, shaking her head. "I'll tell you someday, maybe."

So he'd wait for 'someday'.

xXx

Another KurKag. Light and fluffy. Aww... Kurama's so sweet.

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