Under the Pale Autumn Moon

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Kagome struggled to get out of his grip for a moment before staring into his deep, depressing violet eyes. She sighed in defeat and nodded sadly.

Inuyasha noted the sadness in her expression and released her, he smiled softly and held out a hand to her, she took it and her heart did a drop straight to her stomach at the tingling feeling she received when Inuyasha smiled in relief.

"Kagome?" Kagome felt that dropping feeling again when he called her name, "what's wrong?"

Kagome tensed and turned away slightly looking at her feet as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

Gulping loudly she forced a totally fake and somewhat unnerving smile on her face, "Nothing why do you ask?"

Inuyasha backed up a step when Kagome smiled her oh-so-evil smile but soon gave her a dry look, "I think the moping around and crying slightly was a sure sign, plus, you aren't looking me in the eyes, which you usually do, and also, you haven't said a wise-crack or fucking annoying comment. Something's up."

Kagome sighed, "Do you make it your hobby to try and memorize what I do when I'm depressed, happy, excited and so on?"

Inuyasha beamed proudly, "Yup."

"Why?" Was Kagome's dry response.

"Because I care about you," Was Inuyasha's plain and blunt response, saying it as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Kagome's heart leapt into her throat before it came crashing down into the pit of her stomach. She blushed softly and looked away from him, trying to make her heart stop beating so fast.

"Now tell me what's wrong."

Kagome made no reply for a while, "I can't tell you."

Inuyasha seemed a little disappointed but nodded, "I understand if you don't want to talk about it."

He smiled lightly and walked over to her. He reached around her shoulder and pulled her into a one-armed hug before walking off and out of the room, before shutting the door he looked over a Kagome and smiled, "And Kag, if you want to tell me, I'm here for you, remember that."

Kagome could do nothing but nod stupidly.

Inuyasha walked down the hall. 'Why the hell did I just fucking do that?' he screamed to himself. Walking numbly around he dodged the maids who were scurrying around trying to clean before Sango got up and did her rounds.

Walking into the kitchen he searched around for some food. That was all Miroku was good for in his opinion. Plus, he was too busy chasing skirts to notice when he stole food from his working hands.

Grabbing an apple he turned to leave, sighing softly he noted the smell of some kind of soup. Good. Kagome liked soup. He blushed softly, now that he stopped to think about it, he knew a lot about the floating girl.

He looked around the room; everything always seemed so normal in Sango's house. Except Kagome, who had gone unnoticed for a long time it seemed. He looked at the fridge, where little pictures drawn by Shippou hung loosely with the cheep magnets that were only worth 25 yen. Then he saw something that almost made him drop the apple.

Miroku and Sango making out!

"BAD IMAGE!" Inuyasha yelled. But he noted with disgust that the couple seemed oblivious to him, he quickly made his exit.

What was this feeling in the pit of his stomach?

It was very annoying.

"BAD IMAGE!" Kagome looked up from her apple to hear Inuyasha scream and heard a door slamming. Sighing deeply she concluded that he'd seen Sango and Miroku.

Her heart did that weird drop again. It was very infuriating how it kept doing that. The lifting itself up only to drop down into the bowels of her stomach thing.

The door slammed open to reveal Inuyasha, with the look of someone who'd just watched 'the ten greatest animal lovers' on the animal planet.

Slouching onto the couch beside Kagome he muttered things that she couldn't hear before he finally realized that she was looking at him intently, "What?"

Kagome shook her head, "No." she smiled softly, "it's nothing."

Inuyasha placed his chin in his hand and rested it on his knee, staring at her, "Sometimes, Kagome," he said softly which caused Kagome to stop munching her apple to look at him, "sometimes, 'nothing' really is a way of saying 'something'."

Kagome almost choked on her apple chunk residing in her mouth at the cool, enlightened look in Inuyasha's eyes. She gulped down the apple and stared back into his calm eyes.

Kagome hesitated, 'All right, time to say something that will prove your fine.'

"Huh?" Was Kagome's intelligent response. 'Oh god, Kagome...' she thought to herself.

Inuyasha chuckled softly and sat up, scratching the back of his neck, but never leaving eye contact with Kagome. Violet with Blue.

"Kagome?" he said almost too softly. Kagome wondered what had gotten into Inuyasha. Why was he so gentle, so kind?

"Y-yes?" she asked timidly.

"Have you ever wanted someone you couldn't have?" he asked, his eyes glazed over with an unknown passion.

Kagome almost gasped at the irony. Who the hell could Inuyasha love so much?

Who could Inuyasha want? Kikyo? Most likely, but that didn't explain why he didn't let Kikyo kiss him. She shrugged mentally.

Realizing Inuyasha was waiting for an answer she nodded, "I have."

Inuyasha nodded lightly and stood up, "Okay."

And he walked out of the room again, leaving Kagome to ponder whom he could want.

She looked up at the ceiling and smiled sadly at the chipped paint flecks that floated into the light of the window, "If only you knew how much."

Inuyasha walked out of the room because he felt the heat rising in his cheeks. He would not let Kagome see him blush, and over such a dumb question too.

He cursed silently to himself as he climbed the staircase to the attic. He slipped into the dusty box-filled area. He had found it a few days ago, when he had to be alone for a while, and he discovered that by grabbing the overhanging on the upper part of one of the windows, he could swing himself completely onto the roof.

And he did so whenever he wanted to be alone. Or away from Kikyo. Or away from Sango. Or Kagome. All right, away from people.

Sighing softly he grabbed the overhanging and swung himself onto the tile-plated roof, leaning against a chimney and staring off into the sunset.

The only problem with the roof was that it reminded him of Naraku. He was so busy with his thoughts that he didn't notice when Kagome slid through the roof and into full view. Leaving her hazy form she watched Inuyasha skeptically, him still in his trance.

"Damn you, Naraku," Inuyasha muttered to himself.