Hello, all. I changed my mind about not updating till 20 reviews. I just have to get this story out of my head. I will be updating much more regularly, now that I've seen that people actually care about my story. This one ends on a cliffie too! I'm so evil...

Chapter 8: The Fateful Job

"It's a beautiful day," said Tobias cheerfully. His bullet wound had completely healed over the night, much to the surprise of everyone present. "I have a spring in my step, a song in my heart, and fragments in my frontal lobe. I'm rarin' to go. What's for breakfast?"

"Pancakes," said Mama. She was learning to take these things in stride. After all, Inuyasha healed fast as well. "I hope you like them."

"I'm sure they will be excellent. Where's the maple syrup?" Tobias sat down at the table and loaded up his plate. Inuyasha was tucking in when Kagome arrived and sat down. He gulped and almost choked on his pancakes. Her heat had not abated over the night, and without her usual scent to calm him, he could tell he had a long day ahead of him.

"Today's probably the last day I'll be seeing you guys," said Tobias through a mouthful of pancakes. "Like I said, I have a job to go to as soon as breakfast is over. But it's certainly been an eventful few days."

"A job?" murmured Kagome. "You mean...you're going to kill someone?"

"Oh yeah. Don't be so squeamish about it, Kagome. Whoever it is probably deserves what they're gonna get. Pass the butter." She still looked unsure, and Mama looked positively green. "Don't worry about it," Tobias said brightly. "Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'If a hitman shows up at your door, chances are you did something to deserve it'? Besides, I'm humane enough about it. I don't make them suffer like some folks do." He took a sip of milk. "It's at an abandoned warehouse on the edge of Tokyo. Some guy is waiting for a shipment of stolen goods, but I'll get there first."

They passed the rest of the breakfast with small talk. As Tobias was about to leave, he stopped and turned to Kagome.

"I've taken quite a shine to you two over the last few days," he said. "Maybe we can arrange to meet sometime after I'm done. I probably won't have easy access to a telephone, so I'll do the next best thing. Here." He handed her a small, jellybean looking thing. Kagome looked at him with a blank expression.

"It's a communicator. A wireless receiver of messages. You fit it into your ear like so." He took it and fiddled around with it for a minute, then placed it inside her ear. Inuyasha caught himself growling slightly as Tobias moved in close to place the thing inside her ear.

"I have one, too. Yours can only receive, and mine can only give. It lasts for about a minute then loses all its power. I can arrange to meet you someplace. If I contact you, you'll hear a beeping from inside your ear. Tap it to receive, and you'll hear me speak for a minute. When I'm done, you can throw it away. I don't think there's any way to recharge it." He walked out.

Kagome turned to see Inuyasha right in front of her. She jumped and hit him. "Inuyasha! Don't scare me like that!" She got ready to yell at him some more, but stopped when she saw the look in his eyes.

"Kagome..." he said softly. "We need to talk." Without another word, he took her hand and led her back to her bedroom.

"What is it you want to talk about?"

"About last night," he said abruptly. Kagome blushed. "Kagome, I've never been that close to you for that long in my entire life. And..."

"You were uncomfortable?" she said quietly.

"I liked it." She started and looked at him. "Kagome, we've been...more close these last few months. The last few days alone demonstrate that. Look what we did in the theater and the dance club...or at least tried to do, until Tobias spoiled everything." She giggled. She smells so good... he thought.

"Yeah, his timing does stink. He's not perfect, but I like him."

"That's a good question. Do you like him, or do you like him?"

She turned bright red. "Inuyasha! We're just friends."

"Then why were you fawning all over him when he was shot? And why were you having nightmares about it?" he countered.

Kagome was still a brilliant red, but soldiered on. "I can't control what I dream about," she shot back. "And yeah, I was upset. I thought he was going to die after all he had done for us."

"You mean all he had undone for us," Inuyasha muttered.

"Osuwari!"

Thud.

"What was that for, bitch?" he snarled.

"You know very well what that was for. Now stop being so jealous and stop having tantrums over the fact that one of my friends is a guy!"

"I'm not jealous!"

"Yeah right. It's written all over your face, Inuyasha." He looked puzzled and glanced in her mirror. Kagome sighed. "It's a figure of speech, Inuyasha. Now listen," she said, her voice growing less harsh. "I like him. He's my friend. But I'm not romantically interested in him at all." Inuyasha looked unconvinced. "You have to believe me," she said, her voice growing softer still. "The one I am romantically interested in is-"

"Who?" Inuyasha snapped. "Hobo or whatever his name is?"

"Inuyasha! Arrgh...I just can't talk to you today." Kagome stormed off and flopped on the couch. She turned on the TV.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha approached. "What did I say?" She glared at the TV, not saying a word. "Kagome?" he repeated. No response.

"Fine then!" he shouted. "Watch your stupid thing! I'm going upstairs, to talk to someone who actually understands me!" He ran upstairs and burst into Sota's room. Sota paused his video game and looked up. His cheerful expression disintegrated under Inuyasha's angry face.

"Inuyasha? What happened?" he asked, a little fearfully.

"It's just Kagome. She can be a real jerk sometimes." Inuyasha sat on the bed. "How do you play this one again?"

Sota instantly regained his cheerfulness. "It's easy! I'll show you. The A button punches, the B button kicks..." They worked on the game together.

Downstairs, Kagome was staring a hole through the television, but not actually seeing what was on the screen. Arrgh! He can be such a blockhead! If he hadn't interrupted me at that second...I would have told him that the one I'm romantically interested in is HIM! But now, I'm not so sure. If he's gonna get jealous every time I even come near a guy, then maybe... She drifted off into further thought.

Upstairs, Inuyasha was being mercilessly beaten at the video game by Sota. His thoughts, however, were not on the game. Stupid wench. She is interested in Tobias. I see it every time I look at her. Not to mention the fact that he's trying to seduce her all the time. I want to be with her! I want to spend all my life with her! But she just can't see it. Feh. Women. Not to mention her scent is pushing me to my limits. I can even smell it from up here. It had better go away soon, or...

A few hours later, Inuyasha was sitting in Kagome's room, sulking. There was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Inuyasha snapped.

Kagome opened the door and timidly walked in. "In-Inuyasha?" she said. "I wanted to talk..."

"We already did. Look how much good it did us."

"No, Inuyasha." She slammed the door behind her and locked it. "I'm not going to be put off by your comments anymore. We need to talk seriously. And for once, don't interrupt me."

Inuyasha was about to respond angrily when Kagome silenced him with a 'say-one-word-and-I'll-sit-you" look. She continued. "Tobias is a nice guy, he took us to the movies and the club and gave us money and stuff. His job is a little gruesome, but I can look past that. But he is my friend. Like Miroku is my friend. I'm not interested in him in that way at all. Can you believe me?"

Inuyasha gave a slight nod of assent. "Good. And about Hojo. He constantly wants to make me his girlfriend by sending me flowers and giving me presents and all that stuff. He is also my friend. Nothing more. He may think otherwise but we are not involved in any way. Can you believe me on that?"

Inuyasha nodded again. A gleam was beginning to come to his eyes. Kagome continued. "Did you think that all that we shared over the last few weeks have been pretend? That I really didn't mean it? You can be real thick sometimes, Inuyasha. Why would I do all this stuff and not mean it? That would be cruel."

"Yeah...cruel..." Inuyasha seemed to be lost in thought.

"My point is, Inuyasha, there's only one person in the world who I'm romantically interested in." Her voice grew so soft that even Inuyasha had trouble hearing her.

"It's you, Inuyasha. Not Koga or Tobias or Hojo...you."

Inuyasha sniffed the air. Was it his imagination, or did her scent just intensify? Kagome was staring at him with a great longing, waiting for an answer. Inuyasha fumbled over a few words before coughing and starting over.

"Kagome...you have no idea how long I've waited to hear that from you. I'm...I'm interested in you too," he said slowly, picking his words carefully. He didn't want to frighten her with love or mate, that would be too much too soon. "And I have been for a while."

The rush of emotion made Inuyasha's control slip just a notch. And that was enough. He lunged forward and grabbed Kagome, holding her to him tightly. She gasped, but then sighed as she leaned into his hold. Regaining his control, Inuyasha pulled her away a bit and looked into her eyes. She returned his intense gaze. They lowered their heads to meet each other.

BEEP

"What the hell is that?" Inuyasha growled, angry about that stupid beep breaking the moment.

BEEP!

"I think it's that little communicator dealie that Tobias gave me," Kagome said. Her mind was still reeling from Inuyasha's embrace.

BEEP!

"It's not that important," purred Inuyasha. "Now, where were we...?"

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

"Hold on a minute," said Kagome, annoyed at the stupid beepy thing. She touched it lightly like Tobias had showed her. It was meant for Kagome, but Inuyasha's keen ears caught it too. They were both shocked at Tobias's voice. It had a tone of desperation and fear that they had never heard him use.

"Kagome? This is really, really important. The job was a trap. The abandoned warehouse was not so abandoned. The second I stepped in, these demon-things started attacking me. I was carving them up good but then one of them knocked my sword from my hands. I don't have time to explain it now, but if I'm don't have my sword on me, I'm powerless. The strength, the speed, the healing, gone. I become a regular human. They've been torturing me for a while now. One of them, the one who disarmed me, heard me mention Inuyasha's name and now he's asking me all these questions about the shards of a jewel or something. He's wearing a baboon skin, so I don't know what he looks like. Do you know what he's talking about? Even if you don't, it doesn't matter. Bring Inuyasha and get me out of this. The warehouse is at 6775 Hotsuma Drive, at the outskirts of the city. Get here as fast as you can. Running out of time. Tobias out."

The device went dead.

Once again: I'm so evil. REVIEW AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT! Because if you don't, I'll get demoralized and never work on the story again. So pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease review!