The red and silver outline of Inuyasha's body flashed against the afternoon sun as he dashed from the Bone Eaters Well to the roof of the nearby house. Peering down from his perch next to the rain gutter, Inuyasha twisted his body to gaze into the open window of Kagome's room.
She was not there, and yet the fragrance of her lingering smell clung strongly to everything it had come into contact with; and as Inuyasha breathed in her scent, he knew that he had made the right decision to come after her. There was something about the way she smelled that always reassured him that putting his heart out on the line was always worth the risk; the strong scent of hairspray and citrus orange moisturizer barely masking something softer, and natural.
Grasping his hand against the bolting of the rain gutter, Inuyasha swung his body into Kagome's room through the open window. Quietly nudging the door open, Inuyasha moved out of Kagome's bedroom and followed her scent down the hallway towards the closed door at the very end of the corridor.
Upon realizing that it was locked, Inuyasha dashed back towards Kagome's room and leapt out through the window onto the roof. Tiptoeing across the shingles, Inuyasha judged the distance towards the locked room and let his body fall from the roof onto the window ledge. Although a large piece of fabric lay against the glass preventing Inuyasha from looking into the contents of the room, the window had not been properly latched shut, and by sliding it upwards, he managed to slip in.
"Sit Boy!" Kagome screamed as she buried her body into the creamy white bubbles of the bath.
"What the hell did you do that for!" Inuyasha roared as he picked his throbbing red face off the ground.
"What are you doing here!" Kagome roared back.
"I came looking for you, but if this is the kind of reaction I thought I was going to get, I never would have wasted my time coming to get a stupid moron like you!"
"I heard screaming," Kagome's mother said through the door of the bathroom. "Is everything alright in there?"
"Yes mom," Kagome calmed herself down to say. "I just stubbed my toe," she lied.
"I'm glad that is all it was," she responded through the door. "Do you think that you will be alright while I go pick up grandpa at Souta's soccer practice."
"I'll be fine mom," Kagome said as she peered towards the defiant Inuyasha. "Get out of here," she half whispered, half hollered at him.
"Only you can detect the jewel shards, so I'm not going anywhere until you come back with me," Inuyasha said once he had heard Kagome's mother shut the front entrance and leave the house.
"That's fine, but could you at least leave the bathroom long enough for me to get dressed." Reluctantly, although he didn't show it, Inuyasha turned to leave the room.
With his back leaning against the wall next to the bathroom door, Inuyasha waited for Kagome to finish. After a few short moments, Kagome opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, her body covered in a pair of light pink sleep wear, a cartoon bunny smiling from cheek to cheek across her rear.
"Are you wearing that," Inuyasha blurted. "I would like to see you try and run in that back in my era."
"Who says I'm coming back to your era?" Kagome scolded. Then, raising her head high above herself and glaring down at the annoyed hanyou out of the lower corners of her eyes, Kagome spoke with passive aggressive pride, "I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore."
"What! Don't be stupid Kagome!" Inuyasha fussed.
"I don't believe you!" Kagome hollered as fire began to burn in her eyes. "I'm not going anywhere until you apologize for what you did back in the feudal era, as well as what you said just now."
"Fine, I'm sorry!" Inuyasha yelled as he grabbed Kagome's arm and began to pull her in the direction of the bone eaters well.
"Let go of me!" Kagome yelled back as she tore her arm out of Inuyasha's grasp. "I'm not going anywhere until you apologize; and mean it!"
"Alright then," he said before taking a short moment to calm himself, and to soften the expresion in his eyes. "I'm sorry that I hurt you Kagome, and I should hope you know that I would never want to do anything that would make you question how very much you matter to me," he said, his voice gentle and sincere.
"You still don't mean it."
"What the hell do you want from me wench!" Inuyasha lost his fragile sense of control.
"I want you to stop protecting yourself from me!" she screamed in anger.
Kagome's words caught Inuyasha completely off guard, and for that brief moment suspended his emotions in midair. "I'm sorry," he said before pulling his eyes away from her. He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't bring himself to look at her.
"Inuyasha," Kagome softly said as she raised her hand to let it rest against his shoulder. "Thank you."
"Feh," Inuyasha said, his voice low in gentle solitude.
"I just want to spend one night in my own comfy bed, but first thing tomorrow I promise I will go back. Is that alright," she asked.
"I suppose that's ok," Inuyasha answered before he turned his back to Kagome and started to head in the direction of the bone eaters well – by himself. Then, as if frozen in time, Inuyasha stopped. He could sense the smell of evil hanging in the air.