A/N: Oh, I love this chapter! Probably one of my favorites! Kagome and Inuyasha kiss after having a nice little conversation in the kitchen late at night. I love it even though the kissing stops when Kagome remembers Sesshoumaru. . I shoulda just made her forget him and have her and Inuyasha elope ^.^ Anywho, it's one of my faves and it's pretty fluffy so I'm damn proud of it since I can't write fluff at all (ask anyone, they'll back that). I had been feeling so depressed and not myself lately and this chapter cheered me right up so I hope you enjoy ^.^

Disclaimer: If I ever, by a stroke of good fortune, come to own the Inuyasha characters, you all will be the first to know, I promise.

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Old Feelings Die Hard

Chapter VII

Kagome's stomach sank as she heard the doorbell ring, knowing that that would be her parents.

'Gods, this was going to be so embarrassing! Please let them have forgotten Inuyasha or something,' Kagome prayed, 'though I can't see anyone ever forgetting someone like Inuyasha. I didn't after all. Well, if they haven't forgotten him, please gods, don't let them bring up the fact that they had walked in on us making out in the living room far more than once. Gods, that would make everything so much worse!'

Then Kagome drew herself up determinedly. So what if she used to make out with Inuyasha in the living room? He was her boyfriend then so she had every right to. And if anyone said otherwise…well Kagome would just have to point out that he had been her boyfriend then. And if they asked why she didn't tell them to begin with…well then she'd just say that it didn't seem important.

Kagome's shoulders slumped again. 'Gods! I can't just say that it didn't seem important with Inuyasha sitting right there! I'd hate that! He'd think he hadn't been important to me when he had meant the world to me. Geez, I can't just say it didn't seem important! Well…whatever happens, happens I guess…'

With that thought, Kagome opened the door to the smiling faces of her mom and dad. They both took turns hugging their daughter and then Kagome invited them inside. No sooner had they stepped inside, Moriko and Inutaisho came to the door and greeted them.

"Mom, dad, you know Moriko and Inutaisho?" Kagome introduced. "Moriko, Inutaisho, you remember my parents? Kaede and Kakashi?"

"Of course we remember them dear," Moriko said, smiling warmly. Then she gestured for Kagome's parents to walk down the hall to the kitchen. "Come come, dinner's just about ready."

Sesshoumaru came down the hall and put an arm around Kagome's shoulders, giving her what she guessed was supposed to be a comforting smile, but only seemed emotionless.

'Weird,' she thought absently, 'why didn't I ever notice how lifeless his eyes are?' She let him walk her into the kitchen and then they took their seats at the table. As soon as she was in the seat, she started to panic again. Any minute now, Inuyasha would walk in and her parents would greet him like he was their son, just as they had when she and Inuyasha had been dating and if her luck kept up the way it was going now, they'd share embarrassing stories about how they had had to stay away from the living room after one of her and Inuyasha's dates or they'd interrupt things.

Moriko set the food on the table and began to serve everyone and Inuyasha was still missing. Kagome noticed that Miroku was missing as well. Kagome leaned over to Sango and whispered, "Where's Inuyasha?"

Sango frowned at her. "You didn't know? He must not have told you. He and Miroku went out for dinner. They said they wouldn't be back for a few hours since they were going to a movie afterwards too."

Kagome felt all the tension in her shoulders dissipate and her heart soared with gratitude. So he did leave and she was incredibly grateful for it. 'Gods, he's great,' Kagome thought to herself. She wasn't ready to tell Sesshoumaru and his parents about her and Inuyasha just yet since she was feeling overwhelmed with the engagement enough as it was.

"Oh, Sango, I didn't know you were staying here as well," Kaede said cheerfully.

"Moriko and Inutaisho invited me over since Kagome was staying here and I'd be by myself in our dorm room," Sango answered politely.

"That's wonderful!"

For the rest of the dinner, Kagome's parents and Moriko and Inutaisho talked politely with each other and Kagome was relieved that the engagement didn't come up. But then they all moved to the sitting room where they had tea, and that was when the engagement and wedding plans were brought up. Moriko and Kaede were speaking about the wedding arrangements, trying to include Kagome, who didn't really feel like talking about it right now and instead talked to Sango, while Inutaisho, Kakashi, and Sesshoumaru discussed business and such.

Kagome fervently prayed that the floor would open up right then and there as Moriko and Kaede discussed where to have the wedding, wedding dresses, flowers, and guest lists. Then she fervently prayed that lightning would strike her when her mother started crying hysterically as she hugged Kagome to death.

After two hours, Kaede and Kakashi finally announced that they should be getting home and Kagome breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. She wasn't really on good terms with her parents to begin with and having them talking about a wedding that she wasn't really sure she wanted was really beginning to make her feel stressed. Not to mention the fact that any minute, Inuyasha and Miroku could walk through the front door.

But then Kagome's parents were gone, the headlights on their car already disappearing around the corner and she felt exhausted. All she wanted to do was go upstairs and fall into her bed, which she did after changing into her pajamas, Sango coming up soon after her.

'That could've gone much, much worse,' Kagome decided as she drifted off to sleep.

Kagome woke up when her stomach started growling. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was one o'clock in the morning and she groaned, cursing her stomach. She couldn't blame it though, since at dinner, she had been too nervous and tense to do more than just nibble at her food. She kicked off her blankets and walked out of her room, careful not to step on Sango laying on her futon on the floor.

Reaching the end of the stairs, she saw that the kitchen light was on and she frowned, wondering who was still up at this ungodly hour. Poking her head barely into the room, she saw Inuyasha sitting at the table with his back to her, a piece of paper in front of him. He looked like he was drawing something and began to sneak up on him to try to see his work, but then changed her mind, deciding that he would show her his work when he was ready to.

Kagome quickly debated about what to do as she stood in the middle of the kitchen and she finally snuck back to the entrance of the kitchen and yawned loudly as she re-entered. Inuyasha glanced up and quickly shoved the drawing into black folder on the table.

"What are you doing up?" she asked him, feigning grogginess though she was wide-awake now.

Inuyasha shrugged, twirling his pen in his fingers as he leaned back in his chair. "Couldn't sleep. You?"

Kagome grinned sheepishly. "Hungry." She went to the refrigerator, Inuyasha studying her while she poked through the refrigerator. She was wearing a pair of black gym shorts ('And they are short,' he thought absently) and a white tank top. She finally pulled out the leftover fruit salad from dinner and sat next to him at the table.

'Gods she's still gorgeous,' he thought to himself, still watching her.

"Your portfolio?" she asked, nodding towards the black folder.

"No," Inuyasha replied shortly.

Kagome sighed, noticing that he seemed to be acting a bit cold with her. "Listen, Inuyasha, I'm sorry about what happened earlier. I really didn't mean for it to come out that way at all, you know that, right?"

Inuyasha nodded. "I probably just overreacted. I knew you didn't mean it like that so I don't know why I took it like that."

Kagome smiled. "And I wanted to thank you. It…meant a lot to me that you left even when I was making a mess of everything."

Inuyasha shrugged again. He had never liked to be thanked for things he did. He never really knew what to say. "It was nothing."

"You may have thought it was nothing but it meant a lot to me." Then Kagome grinned. "You want to know one of the main reasons I didn't want my parents to see you?" she asked, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

Inuyasha smiled. "What?"

"I thought they were going to whip out 'the stories.' The entire time from when I called my parents to come to dinner until the dinner, I could only hear my father," Kagome said, and then deepened her voice, trying to imitate her father, "'why I remember it like it was yesterday, yes sir-ree. We used to walk in on these two slobbering in my living room. Happened more than once too, to the point where we had to stay clear of the living room most of the time lest we interrupt things.'"

Inuyasha snorted, grinning. "He never said that."

"He did too, to my so-called sister," Kagome told him.

Inuyasha studied her. "Still don't like your sister too much, eh?"

"Hah, never did and never will," Kagome replied firmly.

Inuyasha looked up to the ceiling and then chuckled.

"What?" Kagome asked.

He glanced at her. "I should've stayed for dinner just so the whole family could enjoy your father's stories. I'm guessing he has more than one? I'm sure the family would have enjoyed it," he said, grinning wickedly.

'Does he know how sexy that grin is?' Kagome asked herself and answered her own question, 'probably.'

"It would've been amusing just to see the looks on all of their faces," Kagome said giggling slightly.

"Besides, don't tell me that you and Sesshoumaru never made out in your dormitory or anything," Inuyasha said, though the image of Sesshoumaru touching her like that disgusted and pained and angered him all at the same time.

"Err…" Kagome said, thinking. "Actually, we haven't done anything like that."

Inuyasha was so surprised that he nearly fell off his chair. He did drop his pen though. "What? And you're marrying the bastard? Lemme guess, Sesshoumaru didn't want to? Ice Queen I swear," Inuyasha muttered, though he was glad she and his brother hadn't done anything like that. It gave him an odd sort of satisfaction to know that he was the one of the two brothers she had done such intimate things with.

"Don't you mean Ice King or prince or something?"

Inuyasha smirked as he glanced at her. "No, no, the bastard's pretty girly if you haven't noticed."

"So have you talked to your dad recently?" Kagome asked, deciding that a change of subject was in order.

"Yeah, just yesterday."

"Is he okay? I always liked him," Kagome said, and she had liked Inuyasha's father. He was loose and fun, like Inuyasha, yet was serious when it came to being Inuyasha's father.

"He's doing good. I should've stayed with him during high school," Inuyasha muttered bitterly, scowling at the table. "Would've been able to stay in the same school, stayed with you, and I wouldn't have had to go through hell here."

"I think we both had hell after you left. I was left with my so-called parents and my so-called sister," Kagome said, stabbing at a grape with her fork. "Does Miroku have a girlfriend?" she asked suddenly and the question took him by surprise.

"Wha-? Well no, him being the pervert that he is? Not a chance," Inuyasha said, chuckling and shaking his head. "Why?"

"Well…he and Sango seemed to get along pretty well, or at least they were until he asked her to bear his child. Besides, if anyone can keep him in line, it's Sango," Kagome mused and then sat Indian style on the chair as she turned towards Inuyasha, a mischievous grin on her face and Inuyasha quickly looked away, seeing that he could look down her tank top since she was leaning forward and her shorts were riding up on her shapely legs.

"You know, I bet we could get them together," Kagome said confidently.

Inuyasha grinned as he looked intently at the wall (he figured he probably looked like a moron). "Think we could pull it off?"

"Are you kidding me? I know so, they're almost there already. They just need to be pushed, see?"

Inuyasha's grin widened as he still stared at the wall.

"You okay, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, worry in her voice as she grabbed his chin and turned his face towards her.

'Oh, shouldn't have done that…' Inuyasha thought as his eyes softened when he looked at her.

'So close…and his eyes are wonderful…so alive…' Kagome thought absently, her heart beating faster and her breathing becoming shallow at their close proximity.

Afterwards, she couldn't remember who started what but she did know that soon Inuyasha's lips were on hers, his chin still in her fingers. He gently nipped at her lower lip and her lips reflexively parted. She moved her hands to splay her fingers on his chest, leaning forward, trying to get closer to him. His tongue slipped into her mouth and he slid his arms around her waist, pulling her from the chair she was sitting in and onto his lap so that she was straddling him, her legs on either side. He reached around her neck to weave his fingers in her soft black hair, pulling her head closer to his as he deepened the kiss and a wave of heat and light-headedness washed over her and she melted into his kiss. If she were standing, her legs would've given way beneath her because of the intense emotions he stirred within her. He made her absolutely and entirely breathless, just the way he had before. It was like fire and ice and wind all at once.

'Gods he makes me feel so good. If only his brother could make me feel this way and then-' Kagome thoughts cut off right there as her eyes shot open and widened. Sesshoumaru! 'I shouldn't be doing this!' Kagome pulled away from Inuyasha, disappointment obvious in his face. "We…we shouldn't be doing this," Kagome mumbled and then climbed off his lap as he disentangled his fingers from her hair and then she hurried back upstairs, thanking the gods that everyone else had been asleep.

Kagome noticed that she felt considerably colder the moment she climbed off of Inuyasha's lap but she ignored that and hurried as fast as she could up the stairs, quietly getting back into bed so as not to wake Sango. She couldn't sleep though and ended up staring at the dark ceiling. What had she been thinking? Kagome rubbed her face in frustration. That was her fiancé's brother for kami's sake! His brother! And his brother wasn't exactly nameless or faceless. It was Inuyasha, the guy she had loved in high school. And he still made her feel dizzy and breathless and wonderful. But now she loved Sesshoumaru, she was marrying him so she had to love him right? Suddenly she wasn't so sure. She felt like all of the feelings she had had for Inuyasha before were returning to her tenfold. Or maybe they had just never left?

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A/N: Grr…baka sister makes me angry. She's bothering me while I'm writing, chikuso. She won't do that again though ^.^ Not after seeing how I reacted this time. Anywho, like I said, one of my favorites. Erm…That's all I have to say, so review! Review!