Recap:
"Hey Chunks."
"Buff! Woof!" She responded back.
"Chunky, what are you …" It was Natsumi, she sounded different. She came to the window to pick up Chunky. Her eyes followed the gaze of her dogs and met Inuyasha's dark eyes. For some reason he stood up. He wanted to apologize but the look in her eyes stopped him. There was a new look. She nodded her head and picked up her pup and walked out of view.
"What was that expression?" He muttered to himself. He remained like that until her bedroom light went out. Only then, he allowed himself to go to sleep.

Chapter 11

A few weeks after the first meet, Inuyasha came over in the morning as usual. He ate breakfast, she drank juice. He was about to tell her to actually eat something but he remembered the last time he told her to eat something. On their walk to school, he stops listening to her music and gets her attention.
"Hey, your mother called you Summer the other day. Is that like a nick name or something?"
Natsumi looked up at him with a bit of a smile. "Mmm, yeah. In a way I guess."
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean in a way? Where do those names come from?"
"Meanings."
"What do you mean meanings?"
Natsumi giggled while watching Inuyasha get worked up. "My name." She wanted to see how far and long she can keep this up.
Inuyasha let out a frustrated grumble. "Good job, now you just made a full circle."
"I know, aren't circles great? They have no end and they can keep going and going and goi—"
"Alright! Enough. I get it; you don't want to tell me." Natsumi giggled and Inuyasha sighed.
"You're giving up already? Well no matter…you could always try to guess." She gave him a smile.
"Guess?"
"Yeah, using the clues I already gave you, try to guess where it comes from. But honestly I don't see any fun in that because I just told you already." Natsumi stuck out her tongue playfully.
Inuyasha thought for a few minutes. He mumbled under his breath and looked over at her. She just kept watching him.
"You said in a way it's a nick name. And it comes from a meaning?" Natsumi just nodded as he continued. "Oh, okay so I guess your name, Natsumi, has a meaning, or like a translation." He looked back over at her again.
"Ding ding ding! Your right."
"So your name means Summer?"
Natsumi bobbed her head back and forth, "kinda, the word natsu means summer, and mi is beautiful. My mom is into names with meaning. She has told me time and time again that she just couldn't name me Mary, or Susan, or any other name. She wanted one with meaning. So then she chose that one. She said that it fit perfectly considering the time I was born and all, saying that it really was a beautiful summer." Natsumi let out a bit of an embarrassed laugh. "Kind of silly huh…"
Inuyasha shook his head. "Nah, not really. Now that I think about it, a lot of names have meanings. And the ones that do usually have the most power."
Natsumi looked up at him, "huh?"
Inuyasha chuckled and shook his head. "Nothing."

They went back to listening to music while they finished up their walk from school. During math class, the two math groups decided to meet up in the library after school to work on their projects. Natsumi was able to leave practice early so she could meet them. She sat next to her partner and they started getting to work. About an hour later Inuyasha showed up too. He sat across from Natsumi and he begins to work on the assignment as well. He very quickly gets bored and starts messing with Natsumi. She would give him a stern look but all he would do was give her a genuine smile which she would instantly scoff at. Finally she took a piece of scratch paper and started scribbling on it. Then she passed the note to him.
"What are you doing?"
He quickly writes his response and they continue for a while.
"I'm bored."
"You never act like this when we study at home."
"Well duh, I never show you I am bored because when we study together I can look at you and watch the faces you make while trying to solve a problem. I can also look around in your room when were at your house."
Natsumi blushed a little.
"So all those times you watch me… Wait, I make faces?!"
Inuyasha chuckled, nodded and wrote his response. "Yeah, it's kinda cute sometimes. Especially when you space out."
"Great…"
There was a pause before Inuyasha wrote back.
"About the other night…At Luigi's. Why didn't you say something?"
"What do you mean, that was a fun night."
"I can smell it when people are lying."
"You have a weird sense of smell then."
"You know what I mean."
Natsumi got up from the table and whispered to the group, "Sorry, I have to use the restroom." The others nodded and Inuyasha watched her for a few seconds before following without saying anything.

Inuyasha was a few bookshelves behind her before he finally caught up to her. He grabbed her arm. "Hey." She turned around and looked at him.
"Yeah?"
"Why didn't you say anything? You mother told me…"
"Oh…"
"Yeah, so why didn't you say anything? I didn't mean to make you sick…or eat something you really hate."
"Why are you caring so much? Its fine, no big deal."
"Yeah it is, you got sick because of it!"
"You don't know that I got sick from it, plus if it was really a big issue I would have been more adamant over things. Plus why do you even care?"
Their whispers now becoming a little louder. Inuyasha looked at her. He was angry. She just looked at him with her arms crossed. As she was watching Inuyasha's face, she noted an expression that reminded her of the meet. "Does he really think I am important? Does he really care about me? Well, his reactions right now point to yes…" She thought. She took a step back, her arms down at her side. She looked down for a second then back up at Inuyasha and when she saw the change in emotion on his face it startled her.
"Are you okay?" He asked. He had concern all over his face.
"Do…" Natsumi fought with herself. She wanted to ask but she was too embarrassed to say anything.
"Do?"
She crossed her arms again and looked to the side. Her cheeks pink with embarrassment. "Do you…" Her mind was going to war with her emotions. She just wanted to ask him so bad. "Do you care…a..." She couldn't ask him. Inuyasha took a step closer to her. She cleared her throat; he was making her nervous. She couldn't keep her emotions or thoughts contained. "I need to pee!" She blurted. She turned to walk away but only to get stopped by Inuyasha. This time, an arm rested on a shelf blocking the way to the bathroom.
"Ask what you were going to ask. Don't just blurt out nonsense." He looked down at her and paused. "What were you going to say?"
Natsumi leaned up against the shelf, crossed her arms and looked away. She sighed and mustered everything in her to give her the will power. "Do you…care about…me?" She mumbled. She looked up at him from the corner of her eye.
"Even though I have excellent hearing, nothing could have heard that mumble…" Natsumi sighed. Her eyes closed and she asked again, just a little bit louder this time. She opened an eye and his expression made her blush harder.

It was just a simple smile, a kind smile; one that she has not really seen from him before. "Yeah, I do. Is it just now taking you this long to figure it out? Man, Kagome said I was dense."
Natsumi ignored his last comment and just asked why. He paused and just looked at her. "Well for starters, there is just something about you that attracts me. I don't know every single detail of your past, but you have been betrayed by a lot of people. I care about you and I want to always be there to protect you in a lot of ways. And also in a lot of ways, we are the same."
"How do you know I was betrayed? Did Kagome and Sango tell you?!" Natsumi started to get upset. "Do you only care about me out of sympathy? Because if so, I don't need it; I don't need false leads or false hopes."

Inuyasha let out a smirk and shook his head. He ducked his head down so his eyes were low enough to look at her eye to eye. "No, plus I only found out a few days after the meet. Kagome told me a little and I found out a little more about you from you mom after Luigi's and what not." Natsumi looked down quickly and back up, she was about to say something but he cut her off. "But from the very beginning, I could just tell that you have gone through a lot. And you were also interesting." Inuyasha smirked.
Natsumi was just caught being confused and speechless. She was so caught up in the moment and caught up in their closeness. Inuyasha just looked into her eyes.
"I still have a hard time saying things like that…but I always mean what I say." Despite Inuyasha's expression, he too was battling his own emotions. And now at this point he could not control himself any longer. He leaned forward slowly. His empty hand placed itself on her cheek, his thumb stroking her cheek a little. He leaned in a little more and grazed his lips with hers. Her lips soft against his. Within the second his lips touched hers, he backed away only to claim a full kiss. Natsumi's emotions were haywire now. She just finally managed to comprehend that Inuyasha actually cares for her and it wasn't based on sympathy. It wasn't out of have to because she was his neighbor, but because he genuinely felt something. This kiss also showed her another side of him. His first kiss was full of power and passion with some type of possession. But now, it was pure passion, need, loyalty, want and comfort. She was so touched, so happy, anxious, so everything. A tear made its way to the surface and fell down her cheek. It hit Inuyasha's hand and he pulled away startled.
"W-what's wrong?!" His hands cupped both sides of her face and he made her look at him. Tears just started falling on their own accord. She just shook her head and smiled. Her legs gave out a bit and she started to slide down to the floor. He placed a hand on her knee that was propped up and squatted down in front of her.
"I'm fine, sorry…I am just …I am not sure, but I am really happy or something." Natsumi let out a soggy chuckle; Inuyasha smirked while letting out a chuckle of his own. She looked up at him for a moment. He paused from wiping her tears away to look back at her. They stole a few more kissed from each other; both of them completely forgetting that they were still in the library.

On their way home, Inuyasha told Natsumi that Kagome actually yelled at him when she found out about the first kiss. She called him thoughtless and careless; especially after she told him about what happened to Natsumi. Natsumi laughed and sighed. "Well yeah, I do have a lot of baggage and my past relationships with friends and other people have created my barrier now."
"Your old barrier to me." Inuyasha smirked. Natsumi just playfully pushed him.
"Yeah right, you were just the first person to actually find the hidden door without being told about it. Only because you have had that hidden door before."
"So, you didn't get sick after Luigi's?" He asked.
"Oh, yeah I totally did." Natsumi laughed at Inuyasha's expression, he was hoping for her to say 'just kidding' or something. "I'm not kidding." Inuyasha's expression became depressed and it just made her laugh more. "Don't worry, I am fine." Inuyasha shook his head and gave a smile after playfully knocking her on the head.

Authors note:

Wow! I cannot believe that I got two reviews and comments in a row! It really made me speed up on my updating :3

This chapter originally was going to be super long, but I decided to cut it in half :3

Anyways! Please read and review and tell me what you think! :3 more comments = more quick updates. And it also equals to better content.