Concealed in the darkness of petals and fragrance, a girl smiled.
****
Inu-Yasha yawned loudly. Miroku had just been lecturing him on 50 ways to land a girl. It obviously didn't work, as Miroku was often found chasing girls instead of being chased by them.
Inu-Yasha flicked a sleeping Myoga off his shoulder, and wished that Kagome would hurry back soon-not because he liked her, of course. It was just that she was his shard detector, he said to himself. But somehow, no matter how much he told himself that, his heart seemed to be unconvinced.
"INU-YASHA!!!" Miroku yelled. "Have you been listening to a word I've been saying?!?"
"Feh," Inu-Yasha replied with a condescending air, "it's all a bunch of crap."
A vein popped in Miroku's head, and a few seconds later, Inu-Yasha was found face- down in the mud, with several bumps on his head.
"Tell you what, Inu-Yasha," Sango added dreamily, "girls love flowers-especially roses."
"Eh?" Inu-Yasha said with a confused look on his face. "What does that have to do with me?"
Sango and Miroku lost their patience.
"It has to do with KAGOME, you idiot!!!" Sango shouted angrily. "Show her affection by giving her ROSES!!!"
"Kagome? Affection? Who says I like that girl?" Inu-Yasha retorted back, while blushing tomato red.
"Inu-Yasha, even I am smart enough to see that you care for Lady Kagome!" shouted Miroku, while waving his staff in anger.
" Feh," Inu-Yasha repeated, "I'm getting away from you weird people." Saying, he marched off, leaving Sango and Miroku seething in anger.
***
After he had gone quite a distance, Inu-Yasha stopped in the midst of an oddly silent forest. There were no birds to be heard, and only pale streams of sunlight shone through the branches of the trees. As Inu-Yasha's eyes followed an especially bright streak of light, his eye caught upon a beautiful red rose in a briar patch.
It outshone the rest of the roses in color and size. The reddish tone of the petals was bright red- almost resembling the color of blood. The size of the rose seemed larger than normal, and strangely enough, there were more thorns on this particular rose than usual.
Inu- Yasha stepped toward the rose slowly, and looked at it. It brought back memories of the previous conversation with Miroku and Sango, and he blushed. He wondered if he should give the rose to Kagome, after all, he did want her to know he sort of appreciated her help. It didn't mean that he loved her, Inu-Yasha reminded himself. It was only a gesture of thanks.
Still, there was something strange about the rose; a heavy, mysterious aura clung to it, like a spider on a spider web.
Inu-Yasha shook the thoughts out of his head, and carefully plucked the rose off its stem, the dew on the petals shining dangerously red.
Inu-Yasha skipped out of the quiet forest, and grinned when he thought of the smile on Kagome's face when she saw the rose.
***
Inu-Yasha's Lesson: Always listen to Miroku's lectures, or you'll get hurt.
***
AN: If you value the life of this fic, then REVIEW!!!!