It was unusually noisy at Kaede's hut this morning and even people from the village were gathering to see what was happening. In front of the hut a certain demon exterminator was yelling angry at a certain monk, who was desperately trying to calm her down. The sight was very comical for the villagers but if they knew all the details they wouldn't even think of laughing.
"Sango, take it easy!" the monk held the furious woman's shoulders and tried to push her back. "You won't help anybody if you go and 'beat the shit out of him'." he tried to reason with her, emphasizing on his last words. "Besides, such speech is not for your beautiful..."
"Get out of my way!" the demon exterminator pushed him to the side and stomped toward the hut.
"Sango!" Miroku and Shippo, who was standing in front of the hut with Kirara, yelled and the monk caught her right hand to stop her.
"How can he be such an idiot?!" she yelled and turned toward the young man behind her.
"Well, he can be even a bigger one when it's about Kagome-sama." he said calmly.
"Yeah, nobody can beat him in that." Shippo called from his post in front of the door and Kirara mewed in agreement.
Sango sighed in defeat and hung her head down. Without saying anything, she went to sit on the stairs that led to the village's shrine, pulling Miroku after her. Seeing that there was no more danger for Inuyasha, Shippo and Kirara left their guarding place and followed their friends. They sat silent for a while and deciding to try and cheer them up, the small kitsune laughed.
"What's so funny?" Sango asked weakly.
"If we leave everything else aside, don't you think that Kaede is one sneaky old hag?" the kid asked and a small smile found its way to Miroku's lips.
"You're right, Shippo." the monk said and glanced at the woman next to him for a moment, to see her reaction. When she continued to stare at the ground indifferently, he spoke again. "It was very mean of her to leave us alone with Inuyasha."
"Yeah, she really ain't gonna get away with this when he wakes up. I'll make sure of that!" Shippo added and also looked at Sango.
"And you 'ain't gonna' live long if Kagome-chan hears how you talk about Kaede-baachan." the demon exterminator finally decided to step in the conversation.
"Inuyasha talks like that all the time." the small kitsune tried to defend himself. "She hasn't killed him, yet." he said with a hint of amusement in his voice.
"But she sits him." Miroku said absently, as if not really paying attention to what they were talking about.
"In your case, you probably won't get any chocolate from now on." Sango added.
"Oh come on, guys!" Shippo almost whined. "You're upset that you couldn't make Inuyasha sleep last night and now you're making me pay for that!" he said angry and turned his back on them.
"I'm sorry, Shippo-chan." the demon exterminator said softly and nudged Miroku to say something too.
"Y-Yea..." he stuttered. "We didn't want it to sound like that."
"Don't be mad at us, ok?" Sango picked him up and made him sit in her lap.
Shippo pouted for a while and he really had a good reason for that. If he was right for something, it was that his two human friends were the ones to blame for Inuyasha's oversleep. He had tricked them into falling asleep before him by pretending to be asleep himself. The stubborn hanyou had remained awake the whole night, afraid that if he falls asleep he wouldn't wake up in time and probably loose at least half of the day.
Although his friends knew him well enough to predict what his intentions were, they didn't do anything at all. They should have at least suspected something – after he agreed to rest so easily. If Shippo and Kirara hadn't been with Kaede to help her with that villager's sick wife, they would have noticed that their hanyou friend was pretending to be sleeping and would have done something.
When the two small demons had returned in the morning, Inuyasha was jus falling asleep and they couldn't do anything to keep him awake. Because of staying awake all night his energy hadn't been restored and he was still human, and on top of everything, whatever his friends did they just couldn't wake him up. Eventually, that was what caused Sango's anger and the noise in the hut. The people that had gathered to see what was happening quickly went away when everything quieted.
"Hey, Houshi-sama." Sango said after a while. Shippo had fallen asleep in her lap and she was whispering. "Did you tell Inuyasha how Kagome-chan must've been possessed?" she asked when he turned to look at her. "I mean, he deserves to know..."
"Do you really want him to freak out and probably ruin everything by getting embarrassed?" the monk asked incredulously, although he would've given almost everything to see the hanyou's expression if he knew that Kagome had kissed him.
"You're right." the demon exterminator agreed with him and bit her lip, imagining the same as Miroku – Inuyasha's reaction.
"Well, we must not forget that it's not necessary that Kagome-sama is possessed." the monk added thoughtfully. "Inuyasha may have been really exhausted and that's why he ofuda drained his energy so fast."
"That's an option too." Sango nodded and stroke Kirara's head, as the small cat demon climbed on her shoulder. "I just hope that he wakes up soon."
A few hours later Miroku and Sango were sitting in front of the hut, waiting for Kaede to return. Shippo and Kirara had gone to tell her to come back and to try to wake Inuyasha up. It was around noon and he still hadn't shown any sigh of waking up. The only good thing was that his demon powers were slowly restoring – his claws and fangs were back and his hair was white again.
"Houshi-sama," the demon exterminator said and waited for him to answer.
"Yes, Sango?" the monk asked, his voice muffled from his hands on his face.
"Inuyasha started acting strange even before he got possessed." she started and Miroku stiffened, knowing where this conversation might lead. "Haven't you noticed?"
"Mhm..." was the only answer he gave her without lifting his head from his hands, he didn't really want to face her right now.
"I think you know why." that, let's say accusation, caught him completely unprepared and he almost choked and started coughing. "I knew it!" she said in triumph and gave him a threatening look that left him no chance to deny.
"I-I don't think I-I should talk to you a-about that." the monk stuttered and tried to stand up but she caught his hand and held him down.
"Don't test my patience, Houshi-sama." she smiled at him and he gulped.
"Inuyasha loves Kagome-sama." Miroku said it so fast that Sango almost didn't understand him...almost.
"What?" she squeaked, her eyes wide in shock.
"You heard me." the monk nodded his head firmly.
"How do you know that?" the demon exterminator eyed him suspiciously.
"He told me and asked me what he should do." he explained and Sango held her head with one hand, the other on his shoulder.
"I just can't believe it!" she exclaimed. "So, until now he's been trying to tell her? And that's why he was acting so idiotic?" Miroku nodded at her questions and then Kaede, Shippo and Kirara appeared at the far side of the road.
"We'd better not tell them" the monk suggested and Sango nodded her head several times.
Inuyasha really didn't have luck these days – either the Gods hated him or he was cursed, or maybe it was both. Kaede was a good Miko, there was no doubt about that, but she was also a human and humans sometimes make mistakes. Being over-exhausted because of not sleeping for two days and two nights, instead of boiling an awakening herb she boiled one that makes people sleep. The smell that the herb gave off made everybody in the hut fall asleep.
Sango woke up first. She immediately bolted up and frantically started to shake Miroku. After a few minutes he also started to wake up. She let him come to his senses and gather his thoughts and that's when she looked outside. It looked like it was early evening and she almost fainted – they had lost the whole day, well the bigger part of it.
A weak groan caught her attention and she turned to look at Inuyasha. She nudged Miroku to stop complaining and to be quiet and he also looked at the hanyou. When he stirred and shifted to lie on his left side, facing them, they immediately rushed to him. After a few minutes the hanyou was violently shaken out of his dreams and practically kicked out of the hut to go and save Kagome.
Inuyasha ran toward the well at top speed, cursing loudly his stupidity. Miroku and Sango had told him that he had slept the whole day and if he didn't have to go to Kagome he would have gladly smacked his head in some tree. At least he was in his hanyou form now and it would be easier to help the girl from the future, if she was in danger. Yes, he still hoped that she wasn't possessed and that was giving him more strength.
When he exited the well on the other side, there was nobody around. He sniffed the air and caught Kagome's scent – she was coming come. He sighed in relief and rubbed his sweaty forehead. For him there was no other place that she must have been except to her school and the fact that she was actually able to go there, by herself, was calming enough. He thanked God that she wasn't hurt and then he caught another scent.
He quickly exited the small well-shrine and walked toward the stairs. That scent was kind of giving him the creeps and he involuntary shivered when it got stronger the more he neared it. When the stairs came in his view he halted and hid behind a small storage house. That reaction was absolutely unexplainable and he even wondered if he wasn't going insane. But one thing was for sure and it made him growl – an about 16-years old boy that had Kagome's scent on him was standing at the stairs.
Inuyasha was so lost in his thoughts of why the hell was his girl's scent on this stupid weak human, that he didn't notice when the boy had started going down the stairs. Hearing the sound of his footsteps move away, he snapped his head up and fallowed him. What he saw made him angrier than he had ever been in his entire life – the boy had caught Kagome's arm and was dragging her toward the street and she was yelling him to stop. As Inuyasha was about to leap after them, they suddenly disappeared.
"What the hell..." he looked around and when he didn't see them he started to panic. "Kagome!" he yelled but nobody answered him.
Inuyasha fisted his hands and held them trembling by his sides. It took a great deal of his control to keep his temper. He closed his eyes and bent his head down. 'Concentrate,' he thought. 'It must be me... I'm just still not well enough...' he took a deep calming breath and shut his eyes tighter, then released it. 'Now, when I open my eyes they will be there.' with that he opened his eyes but didn't lift his head. Instead he stared at the black stands of hair that were hanging in front of his face.
"Oh, fuck you!" he yelled and looked at his hands – there were no claws on his fingers. "Give me a break!" he shouted toward the sky and an interesting thought went through his mind.
'What if that boy is a demon and did something so no human could see them?' this sent cold chills down his spine and he closed his eyes trying to concentrate enough to be able to hold his anger under control. It was obviously that the more emotional he was the more energy he spent. As he stayed still he felt a strong pulse in his body and opened his eyes just in time to see Kagome and the boy cross the street.
Inuyasha nearly lost it again when he saw that a car was about to hit them, but it went right through their bodies without hurting them and he relaxed. Then they disappeared again but at least their scent remained and he fallowed it without a second thought. The only thing that he could think of was that he had to save Kagome.
TBC