Forgotten Snow
Chapter four

It had been a few days and Inu-yasha and Kagome were still very tense around each other. They wouldn't meet each other's gazes nor would they speak to each other unless it was absolutely necessary.

Kagome sat at her computer, typing her 'important stuff'. Contrary to popular belief, she wasn't a total busybody and actually did stuff on her free time. At the moment she was playing games on She cursed loudly as she made Samurai Jack fall off the cliff. She sighed loudly as the large words 'Game Over' came filtering across the screen with a laughing Aku in the background.

She clicked off the Internet and sighed loudly. It was a few weeks until Christmas and the Christmas blues were already settling in. she hadn't bought everyone their gifts yet, and her mother had come over to her apartment and they'd decorated together. But yet...she still felt empty. Maybe because today was the anniversary of the break up between herself and Inu- yasha. Or maybe she was PMSing, she wasn't sure.

Speaking of Inu-yasha, he came out of his office with a scone in his mouth and still looking completely jet lagged. He still hadn't gotten used to Tokyo time and on more than one occasion had seen him sleeping on his couch. She smiled softly to herself; he always looked so adorable when he was asleep. She remember when she was with him, how at night she would spend some time just looking at his face, you could tell a lot about a person by their face.

She snapped out of her thoughts when Inu-yasha tapped her head softly. She looked up at him in time to see him sport a huge yawn. She could see the small dog fangs in his mouth and remembered the feel of them scraping against her lip as they shared a kiss. She blushed softly and lightly shook her head.

Inu-yasha seemed to be a still asleep, his large amber eyes were drooping and he had a goofy smile on his face, like a little kid. "Good morning, Kagome!"

Kagome giggled and sighed, "Inu-yasha, it's not morning, it's eight at night."

Inu-yasha blinked and yawned again, "That explains why it took me forever to find this scone."

Kagome mentally sighed and fought back tears. She missed having these conversations with Inu-yasha. And she was only having this one because he was asleep at six in the morning (In New York at least). He yawned again and looked like a lost puppy. His ears twitched and turned towards her. He sniffed.

Kagome's eyes widened. He could smell her tears coming. He always could...

Inu-yasha stood and started staggering towards his office again. He didn't make it because he landed straight on his face and lay there like a sack of potatoes. Kagome observed him for a few minutes, wondering what was wrong with him. Only when he started to snore did Kagome crack a smile. She stood and walked towards him, making sure her footsteps were soft.

She dragged him towards his office and onto the couch. She brushed some bangs from his face and marveled at how soft his skin was. His beautiful molten golden gaze was hidden beneath heavy lids and his face was lax with fatigue. His usually scowling face was ironed out and his ears twitched on her head. He shifted slightly on the couch before falling into a deeper sleep.

Kagome stood and left the room, tears collecting in her eyes. How could she have been so stupid to let him go?


"Go fish, bastard," Miroku said with a grin as he kicked Inu-yasha from underneath the desk they were sitting at.

"Why must you insist on calling me 'bastard' you retard?" Inu-yasha snarled as he took a card from the small pile on the desk.

"Because, this is bastard fish!" Miroku said with a childish grin. "Got any jacks?"

"Go fish," Inu-yasha muttered with a sigh.

"Go fish..." Miroku waved his hand in a fluid motion as he smiled wickedly at Inu yasha.

"Bastard," Inu-yasha rolled his eyes as his opponent took a card from the pile.

"Got the card I wanted," Miroku said in a singsong voice.

"Let me see it!" Inu-yasha demanded. Miroku paled. Inu-yasha gave him a glare and Miroku waved a two of hearts at him. "That's what I thought. Got any twos?"

"You're no fun," Miroku muttered and tossed his new card to Inu-yasha.

"I win," Inu-yasha didn't acknowledge his employee and then grinned, sporting his fangs, "Bastard."

Miroku clapped, "Now you're getting the hang of it!"

There was a knock at the door and Miroku heard his boss sigh deeply and turn away. His almost happy expression dissolved into one of annoyance. "What do you want?" he barked.

Miroku turned and saw Inu-yasha's secretary, Kagome, walk in, she didn't look up from the pile of papers she held in her hand. "Mr. Takahashi, I have the papers you wanted."

"Fine, set them on my desk," Inu-yasha waved his hand and didn't turn to meet her.

Miroku brightened as the girl came nearer. "Hello Kagome!"

Kagome sighed, "Hello Miroku."

Kagome eyed the cards spread amongst Inu-yasha's belongings on the desk. "Well, I'll leave you two alone."

She hurried out of the room and the tension in the air automatically left and Inu-yasha breathed out a sigh of relief. He turned back to Miroku and cleared his throat, "So...want to play Egyptian rat slap?"

"What was that?" Miroku asked.

"Well, its really simple once you get the hang of it, you just place the cards down like this," Inu-yasha started to shuffle the cards.

"No I mean...right there with Kagome," Miroku asked, confused.

Inu-yasha's shoulders tensed for a second, and he clenched the cards in his hand. His golden gaze flickered to the door and his dog-ears twitched lightly. He growled deeply in his throat and gave Miroku a smirk. "Nothing, there's nothing."

"But-"

"I'm leaving, I'm late for my lunch break. See you around, Miroku," Inu- yasha shouted as he raced out of the door, grabbing his jacket as he left. Kagome blinked as he practically threw himself out the door and out of the sight before returning to her filing.

Miroku stared after his boss and grabbed the cards. He stared at the plastic covered cards for a long moment before slowly shaking his head. If it wasn't a big deal, why did he grip the cards so hard they shredded in half?

He shrugged and scooped up the remains of the cards and placed them in the paper shredder for fun. He always loved seeing things get shredded.

Cracking his neck and stretching considerably longer than necessary, Miroku moseyed his way out of the office and leaned seductively against Kagome's desk.

Kagome didn't look up from her filing, "What do you want, Miroku?"

"A hot date with a hot chick," Miroku winked at Kagome.

Kagome sighed and pushed the boy off her desk, causing him to fall on his butt and get hit in the head with a manila folder.

"Miroku, I'm not in the mood for your perverted self today," Kagome muttered darkly as she leaned back in her chair.

"Will you ever be in the mood?" Miroku asked hopefully as he wiggled his eyebrows.

Kagome glared at him and threw down her filing. "That's it, out! Go bug Sango and leave me be!"

Miroku, muttering to himself, sadly left the room.

Kagome watched him go and made sure he was really gone before standing and entering her boss's room with another pile of file work. Honestly, how many files did this company go through?! It seemed like that's all she ever did anymore.

She placed the files on Inu-yasha's desk and lingered for a few moments, looking at the mementos amongst the paperwork.

Her fingers traced the small dog bobble head on the desk and giggled when its oversized head jiggled.

Everything about the office screamed Inu-yasha. Even after all these years, it was so obvious that he hadn't changed much. In fact, the only thing that really had changed was his attitude.

She glanced at the door with her heat racing. Inu-yasha would skin her alive if he caught her in here. She shrugged, 'oh well.'

She sat herself down in the chair and began to left through the random pages. Most of the stuff was the daily revenue and the profits and stocks and crap and more crap and stuff she really didn't care about.

"Kuso," Kagome cursed darkly as she gave herself a paper cut. She placed the injured finger in her mouth and sucked lightly. She searched the drawers promptly for a tissue. Her eyes widened when she opened the top drawer on the left side.

She felt tears spring to her eyes as she bit down on her finger in shock.

There in that drawer, was a picture of herself.

It was the picture she'd given him for Christmas. Their last Christmas together. One year before they broke up.

But...why had he kept it?

"What are you doing?" Kagome automatically slammed the drawer shut and looked up guiltily to meet the eyes of Inu-yasha.

He looked angry, but she could see confusion in his smoky gaze. "Why are you digging around my desk, Higurashi?"

"Sorry," Kagome said and bit her lip, "I was searching for a tissue or Band-Aid...or...something." She held out her bleeding finger.

Inu-yasha rolled his eyes and stalked towards her. For a brief second she feared that he would hurt her. Instead, he tenderly grabbed her bleeding finger and examined it. Sighing and rolling his eyes again, he opened the middle drawer that normally held pencils and pulled out a Band-Aid.

Kagome stared at the pink band-aid. She looked at Inu-yasha with a raised eyebrow.

"It's my niece's...I had to baby-sit her the other day," Inu-yasha blushed and wrapped the thing around her finger.

Kagome took her hand back hesitantly and looked at her finger.

"Uh...thank you," Kagome said softly.

Inu-yasha snorted and flopped down in his chair. He turned from her. "Don't mention it," he muttered more to himself than to her.

"Well...I guess I'll be leaving."

"Yup."

"Out this door."

"Yup."

"I'll be at my desk."

"Yup."

"You'll know where to find me."

"Yup," he started to sound annoyed.

"Bye."

"Yeah, see ya," he said and Kagome closed the door, clutching her hand delicately. The electrical charges still ran through her body and she felt warm and tingly all over.