Thursday-

The Festival

Inu Yasha, Kagome and Ryo did nothing but watch moves on Wednesday. They spoke very little and never made eye contact. But, Kagome and Inu Yasha both heard 'it'd be cold for the whole week', so they shared Kagome's bed each night. On Thursday morning though, Inu Yasha woke up differently. Inu Yasha, from under his eyelids, saw a light gleaming at him (Ya know, when you know when it's dark or light with your eyes closed). He slowly opened his eyes. He looked and saw Kagome lying beside him, on her side facing him, her back against the wall this time. But what woke Inu Yasha up saddened him.

Inu Yasha saw Kagome's hands on his shoulder. But what woke him up, was the sun's reflection off the wedding ring Kagome got from Ryo. Inu Yasha's ears drooped down 'til they touched his head. 'Man, I wish she'd take that thing off. Doesn't sharing a bed mean WE'RE together? Maybe Kagome's different. Maybe Kagome's a…no, Kagome's WAY too pure to be…THAT! I know what she's doing. She's just trying to be nice to Ryo since she's up here with me. (sigh), Kagome's too good to be true. She's a perfect angel. She always put everyone before her…self.

'(GASP!) That's it! It's just like she said before. She doesn't want to be with Ryo 'cause she'll hurt my feelings. But she doesn't want to be with…me 'cause she'll hurt Ryo. I've GOTTA find a way to get RID of him! But…how? I better think of something soon, tomorrow's the new moon!'

Later that night at the Festival

Inu Yasha couldn't be happier. He was accepted, undercover, as a half-breed at this festival, everyone was happy and Kagome looked like she was a princess in the feudal era. She was wearing a light pink kimono with three magenta-colored lines swirling around on it. There were circles the same color as the swirls with small red and white fish in the middle with small morning-sky blue bubbles around. The wrap was a molten pink and she wore a headband that was the same color as the wrap. Inu Yasha couldn't help but drool a bit.

Kagome saw this and smiled to herself. 'Hey, I should wear this kinda thing more often.' Kagome thought happily to herself as they walked around the festival, having a good time. Suddenly, Ryo snapped both of them out of their naughty thoughts with something they forgot, "So, what does Inu Yasha do here exactly?" Kagome and Inu Yasha froze on the spot. They both looked at each other, then faced Ryo. "Uh, he, uh…" "I, uh, um, uh…" "He helps…" "Run the talent show!" Inu Yasha exclaimed. "Yeah, so I better get over there. See ya!" Inu Yasha waved as he headed towards the stage. As he passed Kagome, he whispered, "I should've listened to you more often before." And was gone.

'Heh. To bad he figured out too late.' Kagome giggled to herself, then turned back to Ryo. Ryo just smiled at her. "What?" Kagome asked, her smile still on her face. "Nothing," Ryo responded, "But I wanna show you something. C'mon." Ryo then grabbed Kagome's hand, coincidentally, it was the hand with the ring on it, and dragged her somewhere. Kagome's face then turned from happiness to curiosity. "Where are we going?" Kagome asked. "Somewhere we haven't been to in a long time." Ryo answered.

When Ryo finally stopped, Kagome had to catch her breath. "Okay," Ryo spoke softly, "We're here." Kagome looked around and gasped, then smiled. It was the same place Ryo had asked Kagome to be his girlfriend those few years ago. Everything was still the same, too. The only difference was there was no full moon and not as many stars. Kagome turned to Ryo and smiled. Ryo blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "So, uh," Ryo piped up as he pointed to a spot by the pond with his other arm, "Shall we sit?" "Sure." Kagome nodded and walked with Ryo over to the edge of 'their' little pond.

As they sat down, Kagome gasped. Ryo was worried. "What? What's wrong?" Ryo asked. "Oh, nothing's wrong," Kagome assured, now smiling, "It's just…look." Kagome pointed to the pond. Ryo looked at what she was pointing at and smiled. Two of the fish they had released into the pond were still there. One was orange with giant black spots all over it's body and the other was like a silver color with light blue giant spots all over it's body. They looked like they were playing a fun game of tag. Ryo then pointed to the orange one. "Ya see that one?" Ryo asked Kagome. "Yeah." Kagome answered. "That's the male fish. The silver-like one is the female."

Kagome stared at him in shock. "How do you know?" Kagome asked, astounded that Ryo could tell the difference. "Well," Ryo began, "The male fish is always bigger then the female fish and as you can see, the orange one is bigger." Ryo then turned to Kagome to see her confused. Ryo then let out a sigh and answered her thoughts; "In America, I took a class in marine biology." Kagome's face then looked blank and she looked out at the water, then the sky. Ryo followed her gaze to the sky and smiled to himself. 'Even though it's practically empty right now because the moon's almost disappeared,' Ryo thought, 'She still enjoys it like it's a painting of beauty, like her.'

They sat there in silence for a bit, just gazing at the sky. Then, Ryo finally did something he thought he should've done a long time ago. Ryo faced Kagome and moved in a bit. "Kagome," Ryo whispered, almost in her ear. Kagome turned to face him. "Yea…" was all she could say before Ryo's and her lips met. Kagome's eyes opened wide in shock, but Ryo just sat there, eyes closed, enjoying the moment. He tried to put his arm around her, but Kagome put her hand over his and pushed it to the ground. Ryo smiled and intertwined his fingers with hers. Kagome finally closed her eyes, but broke the kiss after a few seconds after that. They both caught their breath and looked at each other.

"I've been waiting so long to do that, Kagome," Ryo explained, "But you seemed like it was nothing except for those few little moments. What's distracting you Kagome? I mean, this whole week, all you've done is avoid me." "No I haven't!" Kagome protested. "Yes you have. You don't sit near me at the table or on the couch; you sit beside dog boy. You don't help me with the video games; you help silver hair over there. You didn't let me pick more then one move but let festival boy pick FOUR! Is he distracting you from me?" Ryo asked, sadness could be seen in his eyes. "NO! Of course NOT!" Kagome boomed.

'But, he does make an excellent point.' Kagome thought to herself, 'I DO always sit beside Inu Yasha, I DID let Inu Yasha get more movies then him at the store when he doesn't even know what the heck they are, AND I'm secretly letting Inu Yasha share my bed with me at night behind Ryo's back! And here I said I should be fair to both of them when the truth is…I've been siding with Inu Yasha this whole time. Ryo's even still my boyfriend if you look at it the right way.

'I mean, when he left for America, we didn't break up. And even though I gave up waiting for him with my mind and body, I didn't give up in my heart. Even though at the beginning I seemed said, but when he first walked through that door, I did hug him because I was glad to see him. I just acted sad because my head was so confused. My heart's feelings and my mind's thoughts and conscious were having a war inside me. One side saying 'Be glad', the other saying 'Kick him out the door while you still have a chance', but I couldn't decide, and I still can't. I still love Ryo, but I'm now in love with Inu Yasha. They both love me, and I love both of them, but I've been neglecting Ryo. I REALLY owe him now.'

Ryo now thought that Kagome was ignoring him again, so he got up, put his hands in his pockets, took one last look at the sky and started to walk back to the festival. "Ryo," Ryo heard Kagome call. Ryo sighed and turned around to look at her. He saw Kagome run over to him with a sad and guilty face. Kagome then ran right up to Ryo and kissed him on the lips. Ryo was shocked, but didn't have time to respond because it was like a quick kiss. When Kagome let go, Ryo looked at her with happiness written all over his face.

"I'm sorry." Kagome finished, still looking sad and guilty. Ryo just smiled, wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her hair back to behind her ear and whispered into it, "Hey, I could never get mad at you Kagome. Now c'mon, let's go see how Inu Yasha's doing." With that said, they walked together to the festival, happy that the other one didn't hate them.