Inuyasha paced the hall in front of Kagome's room restlessly. She was getting dressed. No one had commented on the fact that she had shown up to breakfast in undergarments, but his parents did send him a lot of questioning glances. Then they started winking a lot, which was worse. Sesshoumaru didn't say or do anything, but that was pretty typical. After the meal, she excused herself to go change and she had been in her room ever since. It had been four minutes already. What was taking so long?

Once again, Inuyasha cursed his fate. He had basically stayed up all night coming up with a plan to get this issue taken care of as soon as possible. That was why he had been waiting at her door since four in the morning ready to whisk her off to a place that was emotionally significant to him and aesthetically pleasing. Chicks loved emotions and aesthetics, didn't they? But just when he got her cuddled up against him and steered the conversation to their relationship, his stupid brother showed up and ruined it. And now he needed a stupid Part Two to his stupid plan.

The door opened and he started.

Kagome was wearing pants. They were clearly made for men and yet they somehow hugged her in all the right places. More than that, they suited her. Her whole demeanor and stance was more relaxed in them, and she came off even more confident and self-assured than usual. He liked it.

Unfortunately, his brain's appreciation, as usual, did not translate well to his mouth, because the comment that came out of it was, "Pants!?" Like he'd never seen a pair before. He mentally slapped himself. Way to amp up the romance, mouth. You're on probation.

"Yup. Pants," she replied, as if his comment were normal. Bless her. "So far we've engaged in hand-to-hand combat and tree-climbing, both of which would have been much easier had I not been wearing a billowy cloth tube, so I figured I'd put them on before I find myself at a disadvantage a third time in a row. Will your mom mind if I wear them? Or anyone?"

Still not trusting his mouth, even with a simple yes/no question, Inuyasha mutely shook his head. Kagome grinned. "It's awesome here," she said. "So what's the plan?"

Great question. What was the plan? With his brain coming up with no answers, Inuyasha spontaneously decided to switch allegiance. Your move, mouth. Don't mess it up again. "You only brought one pair of those, right?" Oh come on, mouth, where are you going with this?

"That's right. And I argued for days just to get these. I had to promise never to wear them in front of anyone, just in the privacy of my own room. So... don't mention my blatant promise-breaking when you meet my mother, ok? Or the undergarment thing. She didn't explicitly forbid that, but I have a hunch she'd at least frown on it."

"Well you're going to be here for a while. One pair of pants isn't going to last you. I could loan you some of mine if you want. They're in my room."

Her eyes lit up. "Really? I'd love that!" Nice. I was wrong to lose faith in you, mouth. My room may not be as nice to look at as the tree, but it's way more emotionally significant, and, more importantly, way more private. High five. Wait, can a mouth high five? Would it just be a kiss? That's kinda weird. Inuyasha decided to stop mentally talking to his mouth.

"Let's go, then," he said.

A few minutes later, they were standing in his room, and Inuyasha realized that he hadn't quite thought the Plan Part Two through.

"Is your room always this messy?"

"...yes..."

"You're so lucky. Maids are always cleaning up mine, and it makes me feel like it's not really my space." Crisis averted. Kagome was cooler than everyone.

He walked to a chest of drawers and randomly selected a few trousers, tossing them at her. She of course caught them deftly. Because she was perfect.

"You can try them on in here and I'll wait outside," he said, heading towards the door even as he spoke.

"Ok. I'll call when I'm ready." He nodded.

Back in the hallway once more, he resumed the pacing that had become his constant habit since the previous evening. What if she was snooping through his stuff? He supposed that would be her showing an interest in learning more about him which would inevitably further the progression of their relationship... but, then again, what if she found something really embarrassing? He wracked his brain for items in his room that would fall into this category.

"I'm ready!" Relieved, he burst back into the room, half expecting to find her holding up some long-forgotten failure he'd been hiding under his bed. What he did not expect was to see her sitting on his bed wearing his pants. Obviously, that's about what he should have been expecting, but nothing could have prepared him for how intimate the scene looked. He liked the way his clothes fit her. He liked it a lot.

"So what do you think?"

"It... uh... you look good." She flashed her megawatt smile at him again.

"I feel good."

"Yeah... hey, Kagome?"

"Yes?"

He coughed, and sat down next to her on the bed. She looked at him innocently, waiting for his next sentence. It made him feel a bit uncomfortable to have her look at him that trustingly. Did she really not suspect him of anything? And was that trust something he alone had earned, or was she just generally not suspicious of anyone? Could another guy have invited her to his bedroom and gotten the same response? Had another guy?

That was not a road he wanted to go down. Realizing that she was still waiting for him to speak, he tried to focus. It was now or never. "You have a stray hair," he said quietly, smoothing her always-loose hair behind her ears. Then he swallowed nervously and began to lean in.

There was a loud knock at the door. Inuyasha froze, and sniffed the air. Then he dropped his hands from Kagome's face and stood up, crossing his arms like a petulant child.

"What do you want, Sesshoumaru?"

"Lunch. Now. Come."

"We just had breakfast!"

"That is true."

"So how is it lunch time already!?"

"We had breakfast late. Because you were late. I came to find you to make sure that you were not late again."

"I'm not hungry."

"...But it is lunch time."

"Fine! You win again! Kagome, we will continue this later! Again!" He angrily pushed open the doors and power walked to the dining room, determined to get this second interruption over with as quickly as possible. Both his parents were already waiting at the table like a couple of traitors. He sat and began to scarf down food without discernment. Moments later, his vision of beauty and his soon-to-be-dead half brother entered as well. It was then that Inuyasha remembered that Kagome was still wearing his pants, and that that meant... yes. The winking was back. Joy.