The next day, Kagome got dressed and couldn't stop smiling and humming to herself. Kiori grinned and shook her head, knowing that her daughter had finally been bitten by the love bug.

Making her way to school, she met up with Sango and Suki, who couldn't help noticing how bubbly she was, so Suki elbowed her.

"You have to tell me what's happened. I've never seen you like this, I mean, you're practically glowing!"

"Am I?"

She giggled nervously as they approached the school. There he was in all his half-demon glory, waiting for her at the top of the steps. He spotted her immediately and smirked, noticing the adorable blush on her cheeks. She ducked her head down as they passed, making sure to hide her smile.

"Higurashi."

"Mr. Takahashi."

He followed in after them and kept his expression trained into his usual lazy grin, nodding to the students who greeted him, but he was intensely aware of his girlfriend just a few feet ahead of him…and that ridiculously short skirt of hers. Before their 'moment' in his truck, he never gave the length of the skirts much thought, but he saw demon and human males instinctually turn their heads to watch the graceful upward swing of the pleaded material, hoping to get a glimpse of Kagome's panties. He stopped himself from growling and quickly made his way to class.

Kagome took down notes and acted as normal as possible but was so surprised about the things she could remember just because he was teaching it. Suki furrowed her brows as she watched Kagome; since when did she get so good in history? Of course! She must have a hot tutor and fell in love with him, that would explain the perkiness and glowing! That had to be it! Suki decided to wait until lunch to ask about it.

At lunch, InuYasha pretended to focus on the other teachers' conversations as he ate, but he was keenly aware of the wolf demon sauntering over to Kagome.

"Hey, babe, what day did you want to go out?"

Kagome tried not to flinch away from his touch when he wrapped his arm around her waist, "I've thought about it, and I don't think it's a good idea."

Turning to face him, she saw a spark of something in his bright blue eyes, something that made her hair stand on end. He schooled his expression and his grip on her waist tightened, "why would it be a bad idea now? You already agreed, so what makes you think you can back out now?"

He spoke low enough for only her to hear, but she could make out the restrained hostility and tried to stand up, but he held her in place, "let me go, Kouga."

His grip intensified to a painful level and Kagome felt tears form in her eyes, but refused to give him the satisfaction of making a sound, "I won't let you back out."

Looking up, she locked eyes with InuYasha and within seconds, he was behind them, "Ookami, take your hands off Higurashi this instant!"

Kouga lifted his hands up and Kagome slumped in pain, drops of blood staining her uniform on the sides. InuYasha fought for self-control as every muscle in his body tensed with fury, wanting to destroy the wolf demon that harmed her.

"Higurashi, let's get you to the nurse's office, and I'll tell the principal what happened."

Before she could reply, she fainted from the pain and InuYasha picked her up bridal style, not caring about the looks from everyone.

Slowly opening her eyes, Kagome felt the bandage around her waist and hissed as it stung.

"Be careful, Kagome."

Looking beside her, she smiled and reached out to hold his hand, "thank you for saving me, Inu."

Gritting his teeth, he glared at her bandage, "I hate that the wolf even touched you, but hurting you like he did…it took everything in me not to kill him."

"Yeah, but then you would go to prison and we wouldn't be together."

Smirking, he lifted her hand and softly kissed it, "you make a valid point."

Just then, Sango and Suki came rushing in and paused, staring in shock at the scene; InuYasha stilled, Kagome's hand poised at his lips and she was turned towards him looking quite cozy. Letting go of her hand, InuYasha got up and cleared his throat, trying to hide the redness on his face from being caught.

"It looks like your friends are here now, so I'll leave you in their care, Higurashi."

He made a quick escape, leaving Kagome to the strange looks and, no doubt, onslaught of questions from her closest friends, but Sango surprised them all.

Giving Kagome a big smile, she came over and hugged her, "I'm not going to ask what's going on with you two, because I know when the time is right, you'll tell us and we should respect that."

Suki seemed outraged, "But-"

"No buts! Kagome has a right to her privacy and I would want the same courtesy if I was in her shoes."

Groaning in disappointment, Suki slumped over the bed, "fine, then at least tell us what happened at lunch. Why did you faint?"

Kagome lifted her shirt and showed them her wrapped up sides, "Kouga decided to show me how unhappy he was with my decision not to go on a date with him."

Well, that answer started a huge 'hate Kouga' fan club and Kagome couldn't help but to laugh at the enthusiasm they both had in creating a scheme to take out vengeance on him.

InuYasha almost made it to his class when Sesshomaru stopped him, "I heard what happened."

Growling, the hanyou had to keep himself from punching the nearest wall, "that wolf demon deserves a fate worse than death. If I hadn't been there to stop it, who knows what could have happened."

"Yes, Ookami will be disciplined accordingly, but I wanted to speak to you about a way to get Higurashi off your mind."

Fat chance of that.

"What way?"

"I have set up a date for you tomorrow night."

"No can do, I have too many papers to grade and not enough time to do it in."

"Well, how about next week?"

"I'll have to check my schedule. I had to take a rain check on a double with Miroku too, so I'll have to make it up to him first."

"A double with Miroku? I didn't think the pervert kept steady girlfriends."

InuYasha smirked, "neither did I, but he's really taken with this one."

The dog demon just nodded his head, "good, now, how is Higurashi?"

"Her side has puncture wounds and bruises, but it'll heal."

Sesshomaru walked away and InuYasha breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God, he didn't suspect anything between him and Kagome.

Getting home, Kagome ate, showered, and dressed in her pjs when her cell phone rang.

"Hey Sango!"

"Hey! So, I was trying to think of something for us to do that would cheer you up, or take your mind off what happened today."

"Okay, what did you have in mind?"

"How about we go out tomorrow night? We can go wherever you want."

"I would honestly like to, but…um, I have plans."

"Plans, like with your secret boyfriend?"

"Maaaaybe."

"Okay, okay. I get it, just have fun with your man and I'll talk to you later, chica."

Giggling, they said their goodnights and Kagome was laying in her bed, thinking about InuYasha. Just then, the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Kagome?"

Smiling wide, she tried to contain her joy, "InuYasha, it's so good to hear your voice."

"How are your wounds?"

"They sting, but it's not too bad."

"Thank goodness."

"So, what are you doing?"

"Nothing really, I was just laying here on my bed, wishing you were with me."

She giggled, laying down on her bed and bit her bottom lip.

"Aww, I wish I was too."

"Just you wait, Kagome. One day, I'm going to bring you here, lay you down, and make sweet passionate love to you. And when morning comes, you'll be curled up against me with my arms around you."

"It sounds perfect."

"That's what I've thought about every night when I look at the empty side of my bed, how beautiful you would look laying there beside me."

"And you just couldn't keep it to yourself anymore, so you had to finally tell me?"

"That, and I'm curious if you have similar thoughts."

Biting her lip again, she turned her head to the other side of the bed, "I do, in fact, I go to bed and dream of you every night, only to wake up and know you aren't here."

"God, Kagome, I'm going crazy with wanting you…just four months."

"Four months?"

"Four months until you graduate, and then I can finally have all of you."

Laughing uncomfortably, Kagome gulped, "well, about that. If you heard everything my Mom and I talked about, then you know that she wants me to wait until marriage before making love. Of course, I'm not saying that I'm expecting you to marry me or anything, wait this is all coming out wrong."

"Kagome."

"Yes?"

"I wouldn't be with you if I didn't see it going somewhere."

"Really?"

"Yes, and I see a future for us. I've dated girls before, but you're the only one that has gotten under my skin like this. When we kissed in the club, it was like something dormant awakened in me and I knew then it would be a fight with myself to keep my distance when every part of me wanted you in the best and worst ways possible."

Her heart beat rapidly in her chest, so excited and nervous at the same time.

"Oh, Inu, you have no idea how happy that makes me. I've never had a boyfriend before and I was never interested in anyone, until you. And I know that I'm falling for you."

She heard him let out a deep breath, "wow, it's nice to hear you say that."

"I guess you were worried about how I felt?"

"Yeah, because it hadn't been very long at all, and I didn't want to scare you off."

"What made you think that?"

Smirking, he sighed, "well, most of the time, humans do the whole casual dating and if they fall in love, it isn't always at first sight. I didn't want to send you screaming for the hills."

Kagome stayed silent for a minute, and InuYasha was starting to worry, "Kagome? You there?"

She couldn't keep her giggles in any longer.

"Oh, Inu, I'm more into you than you realize if you think that would scare me away. My attraction to you is so intense I was losing my mind trying to stay away. Now, you can run for the hills."

He rolled his eyes, "actually, I want to do the opposite. I just want to run straight over to your house, wrap you in my arms, and never let go. But I guess I'll settle for going out with my lovely girlfriend this weekend."

Smiling, she giggled, "that would be wonderful."

"It's a date then. Well, you better get some sleep, I… uh… sleep well, Kagome."

Her face fell a little, "goodnight to you as well."

Hanging up, Kagome rolled over and closed her eyes, maybe she confessed too early? After all, they had only been dating a couple of days. Still, maybe he was in love and just didn't feel comfortable saying it. It's okay though, he knew she loved him and that was enough for her.