Disclaimer

"I do not own Inu Yasha, but I wish I did, 'cause then I'd own Inu Yasha's ears!" Ryoko

says and starts tweaking Inu's ears.

"Hey, stop that!" he yells. Kagome comes over and starts tweaking the other ear.

"Hey!" Suddenly, there are people all around him tweaking his ears. Inu screams.

Inu sits straight up on the branch he had been sleeping on.

"Oh good, it was only a dream," he says, putting a protective hand over his

sensitive ears, then removing his hands and lying back against the tree again. Above him,

Kagome roles over in her sleep and her arm falls down over the edge of the branch. In

her sleep, she tweaks Inu's ear.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Inu Yasha, help me down!" Kagome yelled from a tree branch twenty feet in the

air.

"Nope."

"Inu Yasha!"

"You got up there, you can get down."

"Fine then, I will," Kagome said and began carefully picking her way down the

tree, trying to avoid the more unstable looking branches. The tree was very old, but it had

seemed like a good place to rest last night. The forest they were walking through was

teeming with monsters, Inu and Shippo had become exhausted and opted for hiding in a

tree until morning.

"I'll help you, Kagome!" Shippo said energetically as he began to run up the tree

near Inu. Inu grabbed him by the tail and held him in the air.

"Hey! Lemme go!" Shippo yelled as he squirmed and tried to get away.

"Beat it, kid. You'd just get in the way."

"Well at least I try! Unlike you, you lazy, good-for-nothing, flea bag!"

"Why you little...!" Inu said and began to strangle him.

"Sit boy!" Kagome yelled. Inu hit the dirt face first. Shippo was released and

began to run off, turned around, jumped on Inu's head, then ran in the opposite direction.

"That was totally unfair!" Inu said getting up and rubbing his head.

"He was right about the flea thing, I've seen 'em."

"Are you calling me dirty?"

"Well, I guess you could use a bath, those fleas must get pretty itchy."

"I do not have fleas!" Inu yelled and resigned himself to sitting down and silently

glaring at nothing.

Kagome continued her trek down the tree, but was running out of steady

branches. Getting up here last night had been no problem, Inu had carried her in one leap

all the way to the top, but he already been at the base of the tree when she woke up that

morning, which was a little strange because she was usually the first one awake.

Inu listened to the sounds Kagome made as she climbed down the tree. She had a

tendency talk herself through situations that he found a bit annoying, if not weird.

The sounds she made when she was awake were not all that different from the

sounds she made while asleep, Inu reflected. A flashback came to him of the night

before.

Inu had been tired after all the fighting they had done, but was again unable to

sleep. Kagome had been lying on a particularly wide branch, since she had only slept in a

tree a few times before, and Shippo was curled up between two branches a little higher

up. The tree was ancient and huge, if a little dangerous. The branch she had been on was

about four feet across. Inu had jumped onto the branch and looked into Kagome's face as

he had done so many times before. He had long ago stopped seeing Kikyo's face in her's,

though he couldn't seem to break himself of the habit of looking into Kagome's sleep-

relaxed face. Tonight, however, Kagome's face was not relaxed and it seemed as though

she were having a dream. Inu watched as her sleeping form moved about a bit, getting

closer until their faces almost touched. Then her face changed from a sad expression to a

happy one.

All of a sudden, a hand snaked through the air so fast that Inu was taken

completely by surprise and was roughly pulled in by the hand. Inu found himself tightly

pressed against Kagome's chest. Inu slammed his eyes shut and waited to hear a shrill,

"Sit boy!"

It never came. As the seconds ticked by, Inu slowly opened hi eyes. He was still

tightly pinned to Kagome's chest, but it was Kagome's Arms holding him in the death

grip. Inu's face became a dark red, but he didn't dare move and hardly dared to breath.

He could tell Kagome was still sleeping by her deep and even breathing, but she had a

tendency to wake up and automatically hit him. He was positive that if she woke up, and

they were still in this position, he was in for a few big red marks on his face.

As the minutes passed, Inu began to relax a bit, he even began to enjoy being so

close to Kagome(hey, he may be a demon, but he's still a man!). The way she smelled,

the warmth of her body, the sound of her rhythmic breathing, all soothed him until he

began to drift to sleep, forgetting that Kagome would seriously hurt him in the morning.

Kagome shifted position and mumbled something, bringing Inu fully awake with

a start. Kagome hadn't woke up, but she had moved her hands so one was on his stomach

and one was... a little lower. All thoughts of sleep fled his mind, to be replaced with

some less-innocent ones. Alarm bells rang in Inu's head. To Hell with hurting him, if

Kagome woke up now she'd kill him!

Inu carefully reached down and gently peeled away Kagome's hands from his

body. He turned over and sighed in relief a moment too soon, as Kagome's hands

snapped back around his neck and chest, making it hard for him to breath. For a moment,

Inu though some evil force might be using Kagome to try and kill him, again. But then

the hands loosened and moved a bit lower so that they both rested on his chest and

Kagome hugged him closer, burying her face in his hair.

"Fuzzy bunny," Kagome mumbled. Inu frowned. What the heck could she mean,

I'm nothing like a bunny! He thought. Kagome scooted herself closer so that her body

was pressed up against his back. Well, maybe being a bunny wouldn't be so bad, he

thought to himself as he placed one of his hands over one of her smaller ones. Time

passed and just as Inu thought Kagome had drifted into a dreamless sleep, she moaned

and rolled away from him. Inu felt a little disappointed, but quickly decided it was better

that Kagome never knew of this incident. Inu turned away and jumped back to his

branch, when he heard Kagome moan again. He turned around and found her rolling

toward the edge of the branch!

Inu scrambled down to her branch and threw himself at her. He was only able to

catch the back of her shirt, so Kagome ended up hanging, twenty feet in the air, from a

piece of fabric. Inu had pulled her back up and went back to his branch. Unfortunately,

her dreams had continued on through the night, and Inu had found himself constantly

jumping out of the tree and from branch to branch to catch her. She seemed to be

sleeping unusually deeply, because she hadn't woken at all when falling toward the

ground. By morning, he had given up and sat on the ground, just awake enough to catch

her if she fell. So it wasn't that he had gotten up early, it was just that he had never gotten

to sleep.

Inu was suddenly brought back to the present by the almost inaudible crack of a

tree limb breaking. Inu was already on his feet when the branch gave way and Kagome

screamed as she plummeted toward the ground. Inu tried to guess where he should aim

his jump, but a collage of tree limbs blocked his view.

Kagome was falling fast and couldn't see Inu, either. She tried to grab onto

passing limbs with her hands, but only managed to skin them. Finally, in desperation, she

tried to throw one of her legs over a branch. Kagome cried out in pain as a piece of wood

ripped into her thigh but did nothing to slow her fall. In the next instant, Kagome cleared

the last of the branches and saw Inu beneath her.

Inu looked up to see Kagome falling toward him. He barely had time to register

what he saw, instinctively putting his arms out and watching as Kagome fell into them.

They both fell to the ground with a thud.

Inu stood up and dusted himself off, then looked at Kagome and winced. She had

cuts all over her hands and legs, a few small scratches and a bruise forming on her face.

"I would have come and got you sooner or later! It's not like I was gonna leave

you behind!" Inu yelled in anger though he was really feeling guilty for what had

happened.

"Well how was I supposed to know! Ow!" Kagome yelled and flinched as the

outburst caused her to move her injured leg.

Inu looked down and noticed the cut on Kagome's leg. It was right above her

knee and up her thigh, about six inches long and a couple inches deep. Inu leaned down

to have a closer look and saw a puddle of blood forming around Kagome's leg.

Oh Hell, he thought, what have I done?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PLEASE REVIEW ME!!! I am the first story-child of Ryoko, she needs her ego fed or flattened! I don't care if you flame me, just tell me what you think so I know people are reading this! Oh, but don't be mean please, it'll make me cry. Anyway, if I get three reviews and at least one that says some good things, I'll continue, if not, I quit. (P.S. I did get three reviews Hee Hee *Really Big Smile* Keep Reveiwing Anyway)