This story was inspired by the song Strange and Beautiful by Aqualung. (:

How I got to love her, I'll never know. And that's honesty. She used to be this stubborn little brat, who couldn't handle a mere crow demon. The same brat that shattered the jewel and made me go on this journey in the first place.

But I'll never look back.

Even being that stupid brat, she was a strange girl. I didn't understand her or her customs. Hell, even her clothing was weird. And as odd as it seems, that is one of the things that just attracted me to her more. That I knew nothing about her, and I wanted to find out. Of course, this secret was only known to me.

While at first she was just a kid, or she seemed to be. 15, I was told that she was. And later I find out that she had just turned 15 on that day. Her birthday, she said it was. (And how I was finally able to pronounce that is a mystery to me.) She was young, and she still had her childish features, look and personality wise.

But during the course of our journey, she grew. She became a beautiful, gorgeous even, woman. I remember calling her less pretter than Kikyou. While I was right at the time, when she was growing, I hadn't told her, but her beauty had surpassed even Kikyou's.

True, she was different. I'll dare to say that she was nothing like any woman in this era. (Maybe that's to say because she came from another time!) I couldn't possibly tell her how I feel about her now, for my feelings have grown from annoyed, to okay, to protector, to liking, and even passed love. If I was ever even asked why I loved her, I wouldn't be able to say a thing. I love her for many reasons, but I guess to sum it up, I just love who she is.

She is simply Kagome, the girl who has lit up my life, healed my old scars, and even mended my heart. She changed me from being the angry, bitter person I was in the past to someone that she could be proud of. Hopefully, anyways.

I guess that if you were hearing this from me, it wouldn't sound like something I would say at all. Hell, I wouldn't even be telling you a damn thing about Kagome. And I realize it sounds out of the ordinary, but that's simply the doing of Kagome. She has just changed me, but she changed me for the better. Who I was in the beginning wasn't good. Kikyou had angered me, murdered me, and I felt that giving my heart, or merely my trust to anyone else would have been a fatal mistake all over again.

With Kagome, I don't think I gave her my heart purposely. And I know for a fact she didn't steal it immediately. Over time, my barrier slipped away, revealing the soft inside. She kinda muddled around the softness of me for a while until she found what she was looking for, the heart. Then she snatched it, but didn't run away. She merely sat there and tended to it as she saw fit, as she saw would help me. And I let her, because I knew that somehow, she wasn't going to be a Kikyou. She wasn't going to hurt me in any way.

Saying all this mushy crap makes me realize if she ever things the same thing. I would assume so, because she acts the same way towards me as I do her.

But she's still so opposite from me. In every way. While I am still a rude, bit uncaring jerk, she's a kind, pure, wonderful soul. She helps people in need, she takes her barrier down momentarily to let them in, and then when she is done, she walks them out and puts it back up again. I believe that is partially due to me for one too many incidents with Kikyou.

I know she is afraid to love me, but I feel it. I can't be the guy who is all sad and depressed over whether or not she does. Believe me, I just know she loves me. I guess I'm just waiting until I am completely sure.

As I did the same for her, she did for me. She let me in and I stole her heart too. I know that at first you wouldn't even imagine this ever happening between a miko and hanyou, but what can I say?

We're just different.

To me, she's strange and she's beautiful,

Making her perfect for me.

Oh jeez, after the first few paragraphs, I was going downhill with this. ;; So blame me if it sounds suckish towards the end. I didn't want it to be a really short one shot, and I didn't want to make it into an essay. And really, the only part of the song that inspired me was the line that I used for the end. "To me, you're strange and you're beautiful. You'd be, so perfect for me …" Really, I am not going to reread the story because I know the whole thing sounds lame. I just wanted to get this in as a tiny treat because I haven't written in a while. (Which is probably the reason this sounds so stupid.)