Under the Pale Autumn Moon

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Kagome fidgeted, suddenly getting second thoughts about telling Inuyasha. She couldn't, if he knew, then he might not help her.

"Never mind, it's not important!" she quickly said as she stood up and tried to leave by going around Inuyasha, he blocked her way, unfortunately.

"No way, you're telling me it's very important!" Inuyasha gripped her shoulders but her eyes grew that hazy look again and she slipped right past him. He blinked in confusion and cursed.

Kagome rushed outside of the house and towards the backyard, a place she rarely went, and if she did, only in the spring or summer. It was summer now, which meant that it would be the perfect time to look at the plants.

She stopped in the garden. The garden she had planted so many years ago, before Kikyou came into her life and made it a living hell. That woman, first she had the nerve to look like her, then she had to ruin her life by making her what she was today.

She peered at her hands and felt the salty tears run down her cheeks. She couldn't stand the thought of Kikyou and all she'd done, all she would do.

She fell to her knees amid the roses, the sweet smelling flowers helping her sobs stop. She wiped them away and looked up into the sky, clouds were forming overhead and she could feel it deep within her that there was going to be rain.

She picked a rose and stroked the petals, picking them one by one and throwing them into the wind. She sighed.

"What are you doing?"

Kagome jumped and looked up at Inuyasha, who stood over her, holding an umbrella over her head. She peered up; it had started to rain, and after her storm prediction. She shrugged and continued to stroke the petals and releasing them into the rain-covered wind.

"What does it look like I'm doing," she said with her fake sweetness. She shrugged to herself and dropped the now petal less rose stem.

He smiled softly and dropped to his knees, holding the umbrella over her head, not caring or seeming to notice that he was becoming drenched by not covering himself.

"A wench like you shouldn't be out in the cold, it's bad for you, even if you are unnatural," he said jokingly, trying to sound tough but failing miserably, she laughed.

"What do you mean, unnatural?" she said pushing him playfully. He growled and pushed her slightly back, "Do you mean a freak show with elf ears? A three eyed monster, someone who can control plants? Someone who can spring a sword from her hand made completely out of energy? Or maybe shooting a gun made of energy from your fingertip?"

She laughed again and Inuyasha noticed how it sounded like ringing bells. He chuckled along with her.

"Nah, I was talking about transforming into a demon at will, or maybe growing an extra arm where your belly button would be. Or being able to fly up five miles into the sky. Or turn into a baby or a teenager at will," he shrugged.

Kagome raised an eyebrow, "Turn into a baby at will? That's weird."

Inuyasha snorted, "Well, apparently I'm crazy, so it doesn't really matter now does it wench? Now come inside, I'm not leaving my room, and I'm guessing you aren't either, so I don't want your sneezing keeping me up all night."

Kagome smiled, "I don't get colds." Just as soon as it left her mouth, she sneezed. She looked up sheepishly at Inuyasha, who gave her a smug look, "Oh, be quiet."

Inuyasha sat on his couch with Kagome floating over his head. Inuyasha stared in awe. Even if he'd been living in this house for three days, he had yet to discover anything that his room didn't have. A huge bed, a couch, a mini bar, a fireplace, a TV, Hell, there was even a pool table that folded out when you opened a door.

Inuyasha clicked off the TV with a huge sigh and just sat in the darkness with Kagome, who would sneeze every so often. Even if it had happened two days ago, she was still sneezing.

"Don't get sick, huh?" he teased, breaking the silence.

"Oh hush," she snapped from her position in the air.

"I've been meaning to ask you," Inuyasha looked up at Kagome, who looked back down towards him, "in the garden, why were you crying?"

Kagome stiffened and looked away, fidgeting with her fingers she tried to think up a good lie, "I, uh, was just thinking of something depressing."

She smiled with fake cheerfulness, but Inuyasha shrugged, "Fine, don't tell me, its not like I care."

"You're so rude," she scowled at him and floated over to his large bed," good night."

"No way in hell are you sleeping on my bed, wench," Inuyasha jumped from the bed and tackled Kagome before she could pull her see-through stunt. He straddled her hips and stared evilly at her, "The bed is mine."

Kagome blushed, "Um..."

Inuyasha suddenly blushed as well as he suddenly realized what he was doing, he got off her quickly and sat, poking his two index fingers together.

The two sat in silence for a long time, neither speaking nor daring to look at the other.

Inuyasha cleared his throat and stood up, "Well, I guess I'll go sleep on the couch."

Kagome watched him travel across the blue carpet and plop onto the huge couch, large enough in width, but his legs hung over the side, showing the muscles through his pajama bottoms, they were long and lean.

Every part of him was lean, muscular, but not too muscular. His long black hair billowed out behind the arm of the couch. Kagome watched his hair with curiosity. 'Why does a guy have such long hair?' she asked herself as she floated over and touched the hair softly.

She looked up at Inuyasha's face to make sure he was asleep, his face looked calm, she liked that calm, the kind of calm you only witness when one's asleep.

His hair slips between her fingers, its silky texture tickling her fingers. For a moment, the black hair became silver at the base, almost like the black hair was dyed, but she pushed it aside as a hallucination, because the moment she focused on it, it was gone.

She floated over him, watching his face with a faraway look on her face. Reaching down she trailed her fingers along his jaw line, his nose, his eyelids, and his lips. She paused on the lips, they were soft, tender, not to thin and not to fat.

Very kissable.

She shook that thought aside and floated over to the bed that Inuyasha had allowed her to sleep in. closing her eyes she huddled up into a ball, much like a cat, and slept the rest of the night away.

Kagome floated around the house, Inuyasha being the only one who can see her made it very handy to get around without being noticed. All she had to do was avoid Inuyasha. But today she was searching for him; as soon as she awoke he was off the couch, somewhere.

She yawned, for a human he sure could move quietly, Kagome was usually a light sleeper and the slightest thing could wake her up, but somehow Inuyasha had snuck off the couch, across the room, opened and closed a door, and walked down a hall without he awakening.

"Maybe he's a ninja, that would be a cool job," she spoke to herself, ninjas were the only people she really had to listen for, not that she'd met many ninjas, she'd met a band of them right before she and Kikyou had their disputes.

She floated around the third story looking for him, she'd never recalled him actually coming here, but she figured he'd go anywhere to get away and have some alone time. Too bad she was going to be interfering soon enough.

She finally came and floated outside, searching the front yard, the back yard, and the yards on the side. He was nowhere.

"He wouldn't actually leave without saying goodbye would he?" she asked herself as she peered around. Her sights settled on the forest. The dark forest that resided near her old house, before her home landed with Sango.

Kagome landed on the ground softly, anyone who was looking at the blades of grass would have seen them bent and then go back to normal position as Kagome ran across the lawn towards the forest.

Rushing in she shot up into the sky with a sickeningly high jump. She gasped loudly, she hadn't known she could jump that high, peering over the forest's canopy, she searched for Inuyasha. She began to descent but was too lazy to make herself float and allowed herself to land in a clearing.

She peered around the clearing and gasped again.

She wasn't alone.