When school comes around again, my life gets thrust into a hectic tornado in a way I never thought possible. Yuka, Ayumi, and Eri are all demanding to know who this new guy I'm supposedly seeing is – Sango practically kidnaps me during lunch break every day to take me to the rooftop with her so we can exchange gossip – Inuyasha has started skipping classes now – and on top of it all, every piece of information I'm actually attempting to retain is just bursting out of my ears!

I can hardly manage. I space out all day in each class and get made fun of by my teachers and classmates. I wish more than anything I could be back with them in the world beyond the well, 500 years ago when stupid things like homework and tests didn't exist.

No wonder Inuyasha plays hooky all the time…when I see him, I don't bring it up, until one day he intercepts me at the main entrance of the school and tries to persuade me to leave with him.

Of course, I know you're thinking, duuuhhh, Kagome, your crush is trying to get you alone with him - you'd be an idiot for not going along with it!

I at least try to play the fool. He won't have any of it.

"You're too studious," He says this like it's an insult, and I feel this weird angered amusement overtake me.

"Unlike you, I wanna pass my classes! Now you have an idea of how hard it was for me going back and forth between the well!" It's almost like I could cry at the thought that he still. Just. Doesn't. Get it!

"Come onn," He groans. "Live a little."

"…Where do you even go when you're skipping anyway?"

"How about you find out?"

He's smirking now and I sigh. I knew from the moment he asked me I'd give in, and there I was, hiding behind his back as he lead me out one of the side doors of the building so we'd be less likely to get caught. Naturally, being half-freaking-demon, he runs so quickly I doubt it'd be an issue anyway.

"Say, Inuyasha," I start to ask him as he does his usual thing – running around with me on his back. "Have you come across any signs of Naraku or anything…?"

"Unfortunately not," He growls over his shoulder to me. "And Kikyou won't talk about it either."

"Now that you mention it…I don't see her around anymore," I ponder out loud, and he doesn't reply and I know it's better to just drop the subject – it didn't leave either of us happy.

He takes me past the woods behind the school and then I have an idea. "Hey, how about you show me the place you're staying at!"

"Huh? Of all the places we could go you wanna go there?!" He sounds so judgmental! "No food or causing trouble or anything fun?! Tch! Well, I guess I have ramen at my place…"

Ramen, huh? Guess he's enjoying living the bachelor's life, I think to myself while rolling my eyes. At least he could get as much of it here as he wanted and not wait on me to always be bringing it back to the feudal era. I imagine him having a pantry full of squares of ramen and cup noodles and nothing else substantial, and I want to laugh.

He changes courses seemingly, and then heads over to a part of town that's actually not too far from where I happen to live, either. I wonder how, along with Naraku's curse, everyone was so normalized to modern life…when we get to the apartment complex, he takes out his keys from his pockets and opens the door and I'm just amazed, somehow still expecting him to be unfamiliar to anything that came into the world after the sixteenth century.

In a way…I kind of like him, all modernized, like this.

"Kagome-chan!" Shippou comes running up to me and jumps into my arms, and I hug him excitedly and can't believe I almost forgot he was still staying here!

Then…oh God. I see who's sitting stretched out on an armchair with a thick novel and I choke back a cry of surprise. Guess who? It rhymes, actually – Sesshoumaru.

He looks over the book at me with great disinterest. "Oh, it's you," He mutters drily, then flips the page to keep reading, giving a slight sigh of boredom and tilting his head to rest on his hand.

"Don't talk to Kagome," Inuyasha snaps at him, and his older brother just smirks. Oh? Not don't talk to Kagome 'like that'? Just don't talk to me at all? I mask the giggle that wants to come out.

"H-h-how…how did Sesshoumaru get sent here too?!" I finally gasp. "And why is he living with you! That seems so wrong!"

"It is wrong," Sesshoumaru answers before Inuyasha can speak – the younger one is fuming. "But do not have concern over my living situation. I am removing myself from this hell-hole as soon as possible."

"Then…where's Rin-chan?" I ask, hoping the answer is a good one.

He just looks at me and doesn't respond…as mysterious as ever. I wonder where his little demon vassal Jaken was too, but I'm not as worried for him as I am the human girl.

Anyways – I follow Inuyasha into the kitchen, still gawking at Sesshoumaru appearing to be so peaceful and not actually trying to kill his little brother as soon as he walked into the room. I can't imagine how hilarious it is with the two of them sharing quarters like this – or, rather, how terrifying, probably.

"Do you want anything?" Inuyasha asks me gruffly.

"I'm good," I tell him, and he just walks off into another room and I follow him a little shyly. We go into his bedroom. He doesn't close the door. I'm a bit surprised Shippou doesn't follow us.

Hmm…interesting – he has a twin sized bed against the wall, with a small and old TV in front of it – with a gaming system attached, the same kind my little brother Souta has. The rest of the room is pretty empty. There's some random magazines strewn about on the floor and nothing really on the walls except for a calendar that has puppies as its monthly theme…oh my God, how much cuter could you get?!

"How adorable!" I say, flipping through the pages.

"It was the only one I could find," He defends himself and throws his hat off – his ears go backward. I laugh but then stand there a little awkwardly as he sits down onto his mattress facing me. He's blushing just slightly, but definitely not as badly as I am.

"Uh…I have Tekken, or Street Fighter if you want to play a game or whatever."

"Oh! S-sure," I say, and he leans down to the turn the TV on and pull up two controllers. I'd played Tekken a few times with Souta. I don't spend a lot of time trying to get good at video games, though – Inuyasha seems like the type who would be skilled at it – and of course he only has fighting games…of course…

I sit down next to him and he gives me one of the remotes. The game screen loads up and we start to play. Several miserable rounds of me failing awfully go by and Inuyasha keeps laughing hysterically.

"Ughhh! This is so frustrating!" I moan out halfway through the next one.

Inuyasha pauses the game to glare at me, but move closer. "Here, look, you're just spamming the buttons. You have to do combos and stuff to be good." He takes my hands in his and moves my fingers for me to show me which ones to press. "That's just for a few of the simpler ones – the more complex ones take a bit more time – do you get it now?"

He's talking me through it and hasn't taken his hands off mine. I can't nod right away, I'm too busy trying to catch my breath while staring at his hands – ah, they're so big, like twice the size of mine – he seems to realize what he's been doing and his face turns bright pink, and he pulls away and unpauses the game. "R-right! You try it now."

"Okay. Ohhh! Look! My character is beating up yours!" I shout at him, trying to force away some of that nervousness by getting excited about the game again.

"Keh! You wish," He yells back – I feel my body fill up with determination and I have to beat him at least once! I try mashing a few extra random buttons while using the ones he had showed me, and to our utter shock the game blares out, "K.O.!"

Inuyasha drops his controller. "What…? You…you beat me?"

"I did it!" I cry out cheerfully. "See, see?! I might be pretty good at this!"

He frowns and tries to reach for my controller. "Hmph! I'll put in another game then!"

"Inuyasha! Don't be such a sore loser!" I scold him, but he keeps reaching for my remote anyway – I hold it out in the air as far as my arm can reach and he lunges forward for it, predictably shoving me down onto the mattress roughly.

I cry out a little as his weight comes down onto mine – it's not like he body slams me, but he was really stupidly intent on getting his way and apparently using force against such a small girl like me was necessary – the moment he grabs the controller out of my grip he seems to realize yet again what he was doing, like with the hands earlier, but now, way more extreme.

I lay there on my back with my arms out above me, looking into his face with my heart racing so hard I'm sure his downstairs neighbors can hear it thudding through the mattress's frame down into the floor. His eyes implore mine, with his arms and upper body stretched out above me like…like how they do in movies. He had jerked himself away when he noticed how close he was, but now it's as though…he's being drawn closer…

Ahh…do I close my eyes now? Is that how this goes? Do I shove him off of me and scream bloody murder? Do I cry like a baby? How do normal high school girls handle something like this?! He was being so selfish about the dumb game, does he even deserve this? Deep down I know I can't resist him. I think of that night he took me home and all my desires override my temptation to withhold myself from him instead.

He reaches up above me and takes his pillow – wait, what? He throws it at his door so hard it gets shut even from this distance – ah, I get it now. Privacy, duh. I'm glad he didn't get up to go do it. And then he comes down to greet my mouth with his.

His lips seem urgent at first – the kiss a bit messy, like that time at Miroku's party last weekend…yet different, too. He's not grabbing my face but his hands are holding my own down on the bed, the controller has since fallen onto his floor. I try to kiss back; it's kind of hard when you don't have a lot of skill, but it's not like Inuyasha was super experienced with girls, either, as far as I knew. He breathes very softly through his nose and it tickles my cheeks. His lips part open my lips, and slowly I feel his tongue reach for mine, and now my face feels too hot to concentrate. It's weird and wonderful and feels amazing.

Our bumbling attempts fill me with excitement but also make me want to completely vanish into thin air out of embarrassment for not having a single idea of what to do. I could open up every book on geometry, chemistry, English, whatever, and memorize the contents – but there were no textbooks on properly making out.

Our tongues sort of feel like they dance across one another and it sends shivers down my spine – I had never known I could crave the taste of the inside of someone's mouth so badly, and it's like he's reading my mind as he lowers himself onto his elbows to come closer and brings the rest of his body across mine. Somehow, even if he's heavy...it feels nice to have him on all sides like this, surrounding me.

He's since let go of his hold on my hands, and I bring them up onto his shoulders, trembling. He breaks the kiss and looks at me with an expression I've never seen before.

"Kagome…"

I wonder how my face looks to him, right now. I just know I'm out of breath from holding it for so long. I exhale through my open mouth and he's still gazing at me adoringly. I always knew he was a softie deep down, somewhere, sometimes at least – but this kind of gentleness was brand new. Yet I could tell from his touch, he had a propensity to be rough as well, and knowing his ferocious nature makes anxiety flood my body at the thought of what he'd be like doing other things—

I can't bring myself to say his name back. I'm too excited and scared - I part open my lips to say it, but it doesn't come out. When I blink he starts to kiss me again, more intensely now, his hands coming onto my shoulders and along my sides. I'm wondering how many times this exact scenario has run through his head before happening now...but could I admit how many times it'd run through my own? Thinking of his hands touching me like this and kissing me like his life depended on it...oh, what wouldn't I have given, 500 years ago.

Gaahhh! And then suddenly, while his hands are making their way all over and about me, I remember all those times he'd seen me naked on accident! Oh God, what a horrible time to recall that! I could never take baths on the other side of the well without being worried as hell over him seeing me, but it was often too late for that; it'd happened more times than I'd like to count. I wonder if he's thinking about that now while kissing me?!

Wah! Probably!

One of his hands has moved to holding the back of my head, and the other is traveling down my waist to the side of my hip now, his fingertips pressing hard through my clothes. His fingers are playing with the waistband of my skirt, his touch feeling like sparks on my skin underneath. Our long hair is in each other's faces and I feel like a hot mess. I need to get over myself! How long had I lusted for this to happen, just for me to be a coward in the end?! I challenge myself to be braver like I ought to, like I want to, and wrap my arms around his shoulders and neck – I feel him sigh into my mouth and then his free hand is on my left breast now while he's pressing himself onto me entirely. He gropes it softly, firmly, and I involuntarily let out a sound I wish hadn't escaped, and he moans kind of quietly in return. It feels awesome, with him doing this and our chests pressed so tightly together I can feel our hearts beating like crazy through our shirts-

Ah – I feel like, I feel – like this is better than anything I could do with myself in my alone time - his hips are doing something otherworldly on mine and even though he's making an obvious effort to hold himself back, I now feel how hard he is through his jeans and I gasp at the sudden and unfamiliar scary sensation and push him off of me, and away.

He flinches and makes a surprised sound. "Wh-what?! Why!"

"You're!" I can't bring myself to say anything about it and I'm blushing so hard my face literally hurts, and my lips are burning from the prolonged kissing. I'm upset I can't help how my voice sounds - it's coming out all breathy and in moans since he'd put my head into such a daze. "Inuyasha…you're…"

I think he gets it – he covers his flushed face with his hands and groans out in frustration, pushing away from me so he flops down onto the bed beside me.

"I can't help my body doing that," He mutters in an annoyed way, his arms sort of muffling his voice. "If I do this sort of thing with you…it's unpreventable."

"…I'm sorry," I eek out, too embarrassed to handle it. My lips still feel like they're on fire. He turns his head to the side to keep looking at me – and still, I wonder what he sees? He sighs forlornly, and reaches his hand to touch my face and I put my own hand on top of his. He doesn't try to kiss or touch me otherwise, and we lay there for a while, clearly unable to speak.

Then, he gets up with another sigh, more exasperated this time, stretching slightly. "…I'll take you home."

Oh? Home? Not back to school?

I still lay there on the bed, looking up at him, selfishly wanting him to keep trying with me even though I'd pushed him away. Blushing more than ever, I force myself up too, remembering the light that shot through me where his hands had touched…and how lovely it was. I want that again. I want more. But I can't ask.

We start to walk out of his room. "You're not mad, are you?"

He looks at me with an obviously disappointed expression. "What? No."

You are SO totally mad!

I don't push it though. I follow him out and Shippou comes running over again. "Kagome! Are you leaving already?"

"Yea, sorry, Shippou!" I ruffle the thick red hair on his head. "I already was bad and missed class, but you'll see me again soon," I grin.

Oh no. What if he doesn't invite me over ever again because I didn't let him keep fooling around with me?! Inuyasha leads me out of the apartment and I avoid eye contact with Sesshoumaru, too humiliated to even think about glancing into another pair of eyes the same color as just moments ago…

Inuyasha doesn't talk at all while he takes me through a shortcut through the woods, back in the direction of my place, carrying me on his back. Yet again, or really, as always, I'm aware of the grip he has on my bare thighs while carrying me like this and I feel now a bit of that pain it probably caused him to endure such a thing.

The final tree we land in is one I recognize as the goshinboku. He leaps down and I hop off his back, letting out a sigh, and he's already turning away to walk off, before I get mad with his attitude and grab onto the back of his shirt before he can totally leave.

"Come on, talk!" I demand.

He whirls around and pouts at me for a moment before looking so increasingly mad he slaps his hands onto his eyes. "Grraaaghhh! Kagome, you're killing me!"

I'm taken aback by how much more furious he is than I am, and I blink in silenced surprise. "I…I just didn't know what to do with myself! I was scared," I frown. "B-besides, it's my first time doing anything like that with a boy! Can't you be more understanding?!"

Inuyasha just looks at me blankly for a moment, like he's not sure how to think or act anymore. "I guess I get it," He mutters, looking down at the ground, then back up at me. "Just so you know…I'd be only beginning at it, too," He sends me off with this, his face red – from embarrassment? Or anger? Who even knew anymore? And he jumps up into the tree and disappears.

I let out a long and heavy sigh. He'd only be beginning at it too, huh? Is it that hard to say "first time" in such a way?

I guess so, for someone as proud as him. I head back into my house and lie to my mama and jii-chan about feeling sick. I flop down onto my bed, running my hands over my body where his own had been, and I'm miserable at the fact my own touch isn't enough.

So I make a promise to myself. I'll get him back! I'll show him for sure next time.

Show him what, exactly…? How far could I even take it past that? Even I don't really know – but was excited to see!