Author's Note: I started this for one of the LJ challenges several months back (don't remember which one, but I think the prompt was "Power"…thought my interpretation was pretty clever…lol…), but I didn't get around to finishing it in time. I ended up finishing it and just posting it to my own LJ in December 09 (people were complaining about an overabundance of angst and a lack of fluff in the fandom, so I thought it might cheer them up… *grin*), and I was just thinking it ought to go up here as well.

Dark House

"Kagome—this is amazing!"

"Mm-hm," she murmured distractedly, flipping another page of her textbook, not looking up at the clatters and clangs of the television that had Inuyasha so captivated. He had it turned up so loud that it nearly drowned out the sound of the rain pounding against the windows—she was amazed he could stand it, with such sensitive ears.

"No seriously, you gotta see this! This is awesome! Who the hell are these guys anyway?"

She sighed, looking up at last. Inuyasha was sitting on the floor, his nose barely six inches from the television screen, which was crowded with a flurry of moving bodies and weapons, everything a dusty orange color. Frowning in concentration, she recognized a bearded Russell Crowe as he flitted across the screen, screaming and brandishing a sword. "They're gladiators," she replied, returning her gaze to her book. "Back in Ancient Rome—on the other side of the world from here—these guys used to fight each other in a big stadium for other people to watch. It was sort of their version of theatre…except a lot messier."

Inuyasha glanced back at her in confusion. "Wait—so you mean this thing can show the past? Can it show you my time?"

Kagome laughed and looked up again. "Not exactly. This is just a movie—those people are actors, pretending to be gladiators."

"Oh," his ears wilted slightly. "So they're not really killing each other."

"Nope. Sorry," she said, suppressing an amused smile.

He glanced back at the television, thinking for a moment, and then shrugged. "That's okay—it's still pretty cool. Oh! Shit, he's gonna fucking—whoa!"

And once again he was entranced.

Kagome gave up on trying to study and relaxed back against the back of the couch, letting herself be drawn into the movie. It was actually pretty good—she'd never gotten around to seeing it before. It was a little on the bloody side, but somehow that didn't bother her as much as it used to these days. She supposed mopping Inuyasha up off the forest floor twice a day made Russell Crowe's imaginary stab wounds seem almost passé.

By the time it was nearing the end, she had moved forward to perch herself on the edge of the coffee table, leaning in as intently as Inuyasha was. They gasped in unison at every wound, made sounds of approval at every small victory, and stared horrorstruck as the moment of truth arrived—

And then everything went pitch black.

"Kagome! Put it back on!" Inuyasha demanded furiously, and she could hear him rounding on her, though it was still too dark for her to actually see him.

She sighed, rather annoyed in her own right. "I can't, Inuyasha—the power's out."

"Out where? Bring it back in!"

In spite of herself, she snorted. "It doesn't quite work that way. We're going to have to wait for the power company to fix it."

"Dammit! You and your damn futuristic gadgets."

"Well I didn't notice you complaining a minute ago."

"That was when the damn thing still worked," he groused, and she could just discern a bit of his outline in the dim ambient light from the windows as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Kagome got to her feet and started to feel her way carefully towards the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Inuyasha asked, and she heard him get up to follow her.

"Gonna try to find a flashlight. I know there's one in my pack, but that's all the way upstairs. There should be one in the kitchen somewhere."

After a little bit of digging and fumbling they managed to locate two flashlights and an old camping lantern, which they placed on the kitchen table to make it a little easier to get around. While Kagome fiddled with the lantern to figure out how to light it, Inuyasha was playing with his own flashlight, flicking it on and off and trying to inspect the bulb without shining it directly in his eyes. Having successfully lit the lantern, Kagome straightened up and glanced at him quizzically, just as he flicked the light on again in his own face and winced away from it. "What're you doing?"

He froze, looking slightly sheepish. "Nothing…"

Kagome grinned, but let it go. "Well, what do you want to do?"

"I dunno," he shrugged. "What is there to do?"

"I don't know. Not a whole lot without power, I guess." They both glanced around as though looking for inspiration, but none seemed forthcoming.

"I'm hungry—can we make ramen?" Inuyasha asked.

"Nope—sorry. The stove and the microwave are both electric—they don't work when the power is out."

"But can't we just make a fire like we do back home?"

"It's pouring outside, in case you haven't noticed. I don't think we'd have much luck building a fire in this weather."

"So—we'll build it indoors," he suggested.

Kagome chuckled. "We don't have a fireplace, Inuyasha, and I'd rather face down Naraku with a pebble and a slingshot than face my mother after we set the house on fire."

"Fine then, you come up with something," he grumbled.

She gave a small sigh and said, "Sorry—it's just sort of a nuisance, this blackout thing. I hate it when the power goes out."

"But we don't have any power at all in the feudal era, and you're there most of the time," Inuyasha pointed out.

"I know—but it's different here. Everything is set up to rely on electricity. When there isn't any, life sort of grinds to a halt."

Inuyasha nodded and glanced away into the darkness, uncrossing his arms and resting his palms on the edge of the counter just behind him. Kagome pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and slumped into it.

"Well," Inuyasha said at last, "what do you want to do?"

Kagome thought for a moment, pondering the wood grain of the table as it flickered in the lamplight. "We could play a game," she suggested, looking up to gauge Inuyasha's reaction.

He looked over at her, eyebrows twitching inward. "What kind of game?"

"Oh, I don't know, like a card game or a board game or something."

"I guess. I don't know how to play any of those kinds of games though."

"Don't worry about it—I'll teach you," Kagome replied, feeling herself cheering up significantly as she trotted off to track down a deck of playing cards.

It took a bit of explaining to get him accustomed to the construction of the deck, so she decided to start with a simple game of War. Once he had more or less mastered that and was getting bored (as was she—all her life, she couldn't remember ever actually completing a game of War), they moved on to Slapjack, which he quite enjoyed—and then, feeling a bit more ambitious still, she upped the ante to the slightly more complicated Egyptian Ratscrew.

They were both perched on the edges of their chairs, every muscle tensed as they flipped cards at a nice clip, both of them fixated on the pile, ready to spring. Nine, seven, three, six, ten, three, two, two—whack! They both lunged at it, and Kagome squealed with delight and shot him a gleeful grin, her palm trapped between Inuyasha's hand and the stack of cards. "That would be mine, dog-boy," she taunted, gathering the cards toward her and adding them to her pile as he glared at her, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"No fair—you've been playing this longer than I have."

"And you've got hanyou reflexes—I'd say we were pretty evenly matched."

"Feh."

They fell back into their rhythm. Kagome won a face card draw, then Inuyasha won another slap, then a face card draw of his own. They kept flipping, their competitiveness rising with each victory as their respective piles remained nearly equal. Then another pair, and they both dove for it.

"Ouch!" Kagome flinched, yanking her hand back to find a long, thin line of red slashed across the back of it.

"Oh, shit," Inuyasha breathed, glancing at his claws. "I'm so sorry—Kagome, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm—" but she broke off when he grabbed her hand and yanked it across the table towards him to inspect it himself anxiously. "Inuyasha, don't worry about it, it's just a scratch." But he didn't seem to be paying her any attention, and her mouth dropped open when he ducked his head and started licking the scratch. "Um…" she mumbled, squirming a bit at the strange, ticklish sensation, "what are you doing?"

He paused and glanced up. "I'm cleaning up the blood," he said matter-of-factly.

"With your tongue?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"I don't know. I just usually use a washcloth and maybe a little antiseptic."

"Too much trouble," he replied with a shrug, and went back to licking her hand.

"Inuyasha stop it," she muttered, twisting her hand gently out of his grip.

He frowned up at her, something like hurt flickering in his lamp-lit eyes. "Why?"

"Just…let me take care of it," she said, getting up from the table and crossing to the sink to clean the cut properly and put a bit of antiseptic on it. It wasn't really all that deep, so she didn't think it was worth trying to bandage.

When she had finished at the sink, she returned to her seat and collected the cards she'd just won, adding them to her deck. But as she glanced up at Inuyasha, ready to resume play, she faltered; he was glaring at the table silently, arms folded over his chest, and hadn't moved to pick up his own cards.

"Hey," she prodded, "want to keep playing?"

"No thanks," he replied sullenly, getting up from his chair with a slight shove and stalking off into the living room. Kagome watched him go with a frown, then sighed, tossed her deck back onto the table, and followed him.

She found him sitting on the couch, still staring moodily into space.

"Hey. What's up?" she asked, taking a seat beside him, a few feet away.

"Nothing," he replied, not looking at her. "Just don't feel like playing anymore."

"Well, what do you want to do then?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should just head back."

"I can't," Kagome said. "I have a test in the morning, remember?"

"Fine. Then maybe I'll just head back." He started to get up from the couch, but Kagome caught him by the elbow. He shrugged her off, but remained in his seat.

"Inuyasha—come on, why are you so grumpy all of a sudden."

He glanced over at her, lamplight from the kitchen flickering in his inscrutable gaze for a moment, and then he looked away again. "I told you, it's nothing."

"It's not nothing—three seconds ago we were having fun, and now you're all closed off. What, is it because I didn't want you licking my hand?"

He shifted his gaze further away. She took that as a yes.

"Inuyasha, talk to me."

He said nothing.

She sighed. "Inuyasha…"

"Just drop it, okay," he grumbled at last. "You don't want me touching you, that's just fine. I won't."

She rolled her eyes. "I never said you couldn't touch me, I just told you not to lick me. I don't think that's an unreasonable request."

"Course not. No licking. Got it. Don't worry, my tongue won't ever come near you again. No hanyou germs."

Kagome made a frustrated noise, cheeks heating slightly with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "Inuyasha, cut it out! You're acting like I—I mean—look, this isn't about germs, okay? I'm not disgusted by you or anything; it's just, the whole 'licking my wound' thing seems sort of…intimate. You know?"

Inuyasha remained stoically silent, and as Kagome surveyed his faint profile in the dim light from the kitchen and the windows it occurred to her that maybe he did know. Maybe he had known even as he was doing it. Maybe that was why he was so angry. She'd pushed him away because the sensation of his mouth against her skin had made her feel things—things she wasn't used to feeling, and things she knew she shouldn't feel, especially for Inuyasha. Not only was she not sure she was ready to deal with that kind of feeling, but she was damn sure that Inuyasha didn't feel that way about her, and thinking of him that way when he didn't think of her—well, it was just something she tried to avoid wherever possible. But maybe she'd been wrong. Maybe she'd made a very big mistake.

"Inuyasha," she murmured, reaching out to touch his shoulder. He shrugged her off, so she returned her hand meekly to her lap. "I—I didn't mean to…push you away."

He snorted.

"I mean, it's not that I don't like you…touching me. I just didn't think you wanted…and maybe you don't, I don't know. Maybe I'm totally off-base here, but I…"

She could see his eyes reflecting the yellowish light leaking in from the kitchen, and there was a curious confusion in them. "What are you talking about?"

She swallowed, suddenly afraid that she'd been right in the first place, and that she was making a total fool of herself now. "Nevermind. Just forget I said anything. I'm gonna go see if there's any ice cream—it'll probably melt if we don't eat it." But he caught her wrist as she got to her feet, preventing her escape. She swallowed, unable to face him. Then she jumped slightly when she felt his lips press a tentative kiss to the back of her hand. Turning back, she found him looking up at her nervously, ears slightly lowered as though expecting to be sat. But instead, Kagome sank back down to the couch beside him, her eyes never leaving his. There was something flickering in their depths that she had never seen there before, alongside the fear and the nervousness, a kind of longing. She wondered how long he had been hiding it.

She held her breath as she leaned in ever-so-slowly, her eyes gradually drifting closed, until she could feel his shallow breath against her lips. Just a fraction of an inch more—

And all at once, the room was flooded with light and the screams of fighting, dying gladiators, making them both jump back, hearts racing.

"What the fuck?" Inuyasha breathed, blinking in the sudden brightness.

Kagome took in the TV—which was playing what must have been an encore showing of the same movie they'd been watching before—and the many re-lit lights and pressed a hand to her chest, trying to return her pulse to normal. "The power's back on," she said in answer. "They must have fixed it."

"Perfect," he said wryly. Kagome glanced over at him out of the corner of her eye, and found him doing the same. They both glanced away again. Kagome ran a hand through her hair and straightened out her skirt. Inuyasha scratched the back of his neck. Their eyes were dragged back to one another again, but flicked away just as quickly as before.

And then…

"Oh screw it," Inuyasha said at last—and before she knew what had happened, his palm cradled her cheek, turning her face to meet his lips in a crushing, impassioned kiss. When she recovered from the shock of his boldness, she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his passion with equal measure, dragging him down on top of her and giving in to all those frightening feelings she'd been keeping at bay for so many months. Now that they'd been unleashed, she wondered how she'd ever kept them chained up in the first place. And from the looks of things, Inuyasha was wondering the same thing.

In the background, the battle for the freedom of the gladiators raged on, smothering their grunts and moans and cries of pleasure—but they were both too preoccupied to notice.