Amehana: sigh this fic is starting to haunt me…the other day it wouldn't let me watch American Chopper…yes I am a girl & I love to watch that show. Blame my dad; he's a motorcycle freak, so I guess it's in my genes. I love bikes, although one would never know it if they looked at me. But…I surprise many people with my hidden points in my personality, hehe.

Anyway…I hope I'm not getting worse and worse in my writing by the chapter because most fics do that and I hate it…

Well, I'd best get started if I'm going to accomplish anything.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, but I own this story so ha!

Chapter XVI– Like Someone In Love

"Love, in other words, is transcending the ego to connect with another."

- Joan Konner

It was as if he had been covering his ears and keeping his eyes squeezed shut for days on end.

He saw Kagome after each fight she had had with Inuyasha, and every time and the girl had had tears in her eyes. But she always smiled at him when he approached, as Kagome would more than likely always do. It was kind of a tick, in that sense. But he wasn't fooled, nevertheless.

Shippo may be little, but he wasn't stupid. He tried to help, tried to stop the fighting that was going on between Inuyasha and Kagome, but he found that there was nothing he could do about it…

Even being the chibi he was, he knew that the dramatic duo had to end their scenes of tragedy by themselves, but that feat seemed very unlikely to ever ensue.

Then Sango and Miroku left, and Kirara too. He didn't blame them for wanting to leave. They asked him (being the only other full demon among them, as Kirara was required for traveling long distances, and would not willingly be separated from her mistress) to try and stop it if Inuyasha and Kagome started to kill each other. He agreed, of course. But a small part of him wanted to run after his three friends as their figures faded into nothing down the dusty path.

After they were gone, he was alone most of the time, mainly because it was simply depressing to stay around either Kagome or Inuyasha for extended periods of time.

Shippo noticed something. Inuyasha seemed to hate Kagome every time he saw her, but when he wasn't with her, he just looked sad. The chibi demon always knew that Inuyasha felt happiest when Kagome was around, but every time they fought Kagome usually stormed out of the space and wouldn't talk to him for hours…sometimes the rest of the day.

Well, that was stupid.

'Adults are stupid.' he had thought very often.

He felt like a child torn between fighting parents. Once Kagome had told him that was something called "divorce". Kagome wasn't his mother and Inuyasha wasn't his father… but they were the closest people he had to them.

He hated it, hated shutting his eyes and putting his hands over his ears every time he heard them, even if he wasn't in the same room.

Then one day…it just stopped.

It was strange….

They had had a particularly bad fight one day, and then that night they were both gone for hours. He didn't know what happened but…they seemed to have made up, because they didn't fight anymore, and if they did it was quickly ended. Those little disagreements didn't bother him, because the two would probably never be completely civil with each other. He remembered Sango smiling once –before Naraku was defeated– and saying it was cute when they had little quarrels like that because it showed how much they really loved each other.

They got along! No more screaming or tears. They saw each other a lot more, and seemed to smile more (even Inuyasha, which was amazing). Inuyasha said he would teach Kagome to use her powers. And there seemed to be something different about the way they looked at each other…

Shippo liked to watch Kagome train, he even got to help sometimes, which was fun, and it was on one of these sunny days in which we find our beloved couple…

Kagome sunk to the ground and sprawled out the soft grass, breathing heavily, sweat glistening over the unclad parts of her body and soaking through the rest. Thank God for deodorant, was all she could say about that.

She sat up slightly and removed her braided hair out from under her neck so that it wasn't as hot. Her efforts didn't make much of a difference, though, as she allowed herself to relax into the ground.

Inuyasha smirked and stood over her at her side, his sliver-white hair framing his face as he leaned over slightly. "Giving up? ". His bare chest was gleaming with sweat, the muscles flexing as he steadied his breathing, so sexy

Kagome grinned mischievously, placed her hands palm-down on either side of her head. She then swung her legs up with perfectly parallel straightness, and over her body so that her bare toes brushed the grass over her head, then swung them back down and used the momentum to bring her upright on the ground, barley missing Inuyasha as she did so (A/N: I know that was a horrible explanation but maybe you've seen it before, Goku does all the time). She was amazed how flexible she had gotten lately.

As soon as she was standing Kagome dropped into a fast crouch then swung one leg around and –he being completely off guard– tripped Inuyasha.

Kagome gently sat down on her defeated rival's lower chest, as he was now on ground, and smiled that same reserved smile once more. "Nope".

The demoness leaned back and placed her arms on Inuyasha's knees, then titled her head up to yellow-green canopy of leaves above them. She watched the sunlight flicker like fairies as the leaves swayed in the light breeze. Kagome sighed. "It's hot"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, " 'It's hot'" he mocked her in a falsetto voice that was nothing like Kagome's, but he smiled all the same after saying that; it was hot.

He was surprised at how fast Kagome caught on to things, that probably was do to the fact that she was intent on stretching her hanyou-ness out to its full extent. She was getting faster and more liquid in her movements with every try. He was starting to wonder if it was a good thing helping her like this, for she might end up kill him the next time they had a row. (A/N: ha! I used a British word, but then again I always do that in order to fool people. It means fight) But he couldn't help but think he was enjoying the way her body was feeling on top of his at the moment, so this wasn't a complete waist of time after all. (A/N: .v)

"Well…it is…" Kagome protested in an undisputable tone.

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows in a guyish way as Kagome shed her white haori off so that she could be cooler in her white, spaghetti-strapped shirt, which had been under the long- sleeved top.

"That's better,"

'That it is' was the first think Inuyasha's mind computed.

She said while stretching out her arms. Kagome found that she loved learning how to fight without using weapons. The hanyou girl now knew all the basics, a few advanced movements and tactics, and she was now working on polishing them by sparring with Inuyasha. It was fun being with him.

The teenager looked over the length of her arms. Lately she had found that her muscles were now hardening so that she was strong, not just thin. It didn't look gross or anything (like body builders –ick) just more sculpted.

Inuyasha's eyes strayed up to the trees. "You know…" he said, "This may create some complications if someone sees us in this position"

Kagome smiled nostalgically, "We've been caught in worse."

He mused over this. "Yes we have…"

"Take off your clothes!" "BEG me to"

(A/N: That's from the manga after the battle with Yura…I hope you know that.)

He smiled slightly, then sat up, causing a giggling Kagome to slip into his lap. Inuyasha gently leaned his forehead on hers and looked into her blue eyes, still smiling a little.

Then he titled his head down and ran his tongue up the length of Kagome's neck. She closed her eyes in reaction to it, shutting off the sense of sight so that touch could take over. (A/N: Thank you Mr. Minnik!)

The miko smiled at him when he had pulled away. "What was that for?"

He smiled back, "I dunno…do I need a reason?"

"No" she whispered, then leaned closer and kissed him, her lips slightly parted.

After what seemed a minute Inuyasha's keen white dog-ears flicked when he heard a sound. He pulled away from the kiss, and by the disappointed look on her face, he could tell Kagome had heard it too. It was Shippo coming to get her from the house. He would tell her that Kaede wanted her to come to the village to study her stupid scriptures and priestess stuff, just like he did almost everyday at around the same time.

He placed his head on her shoulder. Kagome sighed and circled her arms around his shoulders. "I have to go," she whispered into his hair, though she seemed like she had to force herself to say so.

Inuyasha shook his head slightly, and then realizing that their parting couldn't be prevented he sighed and sat up.

Kagome kissed him one more time and whispered "See you later".

She moved out of his lap, stood and grabbed her shirt just as Shippo came into view of the clearing to accompany her.

The girl smiled. "Hi, Shippo."

"Hi Kagome!" he answered cheerfully.

Inuyasha watched her as they left, and just before disappearing in the woods Kagome turned around and looked at him, the longing to stay just a little longer written all over her face.

Her braided black hair and blue training pants (A/N: they looked like a long skirt if you stand still, but they are really pants. Just like the priestess hakama but blue…lesse…Kaoru off Rurouni Kenshin wears them, so does Kenshin for that matter.) blew in the breeze as she just stood there, looking beautiful as ever.

Shippo rolled his eyes at the couple then grabbed Kagome's hand with his own and dragged her away. Kagome gave in resentfully.

She sighed sadly and stared at the forest floor as she and Shippo -at her side- made their way to the village. Kagome didn't know why Shippo liked to go with her, but she didn't mind.

"Kagome?" his curious voice snapped her from her trance.

"Huh?" she said, looking at Shippo.

"You and Inuyasha are friends now, aren't you? 'Cause you two talked about stuff, right?" He had this hint of anticipation in his voice that made him sound like he wanted the two to get together more than anything.

She smiled. "Yeah."

"Cool." he replied then went back to walking with his eyes transfixed before them. Quickly he changed subjects for no real reason. "What is Kaede teaching you about being a priestess?"

The hanyou sighed. "Well, incantations, and–"

"What's that?" he interjected.

"Erm…spells and chants." she said after racking her mind for an explanation.

"Oh."

"Yeah…and I purify the jewel some days and study scriptures and runes…" she trailed off and got a sad sort of look in her eyes.

"Is it that bad?" Shippo asked hesitantly.

"No, not really." she said quickly, realizing all of a sudden that she wasn't very good at hiding her fears. "Its just…the thought that's depressing…"

Shippo looked at her questioningly.

"Well…I mean no wonder Kikyo wanted out. It's a lot of responsibility for one person. I mean, you're like a nun. You can't get married or have kids…

'Or fall in love…' her mind whispered to her softly.

…or do anything else, because it would distract you from your life's work…" As she talked she suddenly caught the realization of her own words. It scared her, yet she kept on going. "It's dangerous and…its your whole life…this little Jewel, this thing, can control you."

Usually Shippo would go back to their house after walking with Kagome to her lessons, but a few select times he had stayed just to watch. He remembered once he witnessed her purifying the Shikon No Tama. It didn't seem like that much, but if one were to take a closer look they would see that it was a detailed process on the inside.

Kagome just held the jewel in the palm of her hand. She would stare at it, sometimes for hours on end. She wouldn't say anything, but the Shikon seemed to bend to her will regardless. It glowed when she did that.

The chibi remembered watching her, watching the Shikon No Tama getting brighter as Kagome bored into it with her eyes. What was scary about it was that while purifying the jewel Kagome's eyes would go out of focus until they were dark and pupil-less, with the light and emotion that usually shone so bright completely gone.

The miko looked down. "That's why I hope someone comes along and makes it disappears, but…it doesn't seem too likely…"

Then she quickly looked up. "But, don't tell anyone I said that. Even Inuyasha…I don't want him to worry about me."

Shippo smiled and got this wise, knowing look in his blue eyes. "Okay…if you say so…"

(A/N: Kami, I open in media res a lot don't I? I'm sorry, I just like to.)

Sango sighed exasperatedly as she lowered Hiraikotsu to the ground beside her. The tip of the weapon disturbed a small amount of dust on the dirt road on which the slayer now stood.

Even away from the village there was still trouble, fortunately, this little town's inn had three travelers who knew how to get rid of a dangerous demon.

True, the centipede had come down easily, but not too easily. It never was easy to slay a demon.

The overwhelming amount of black dust from the fallen youkai's dissolved body had just blown away with the wind.

With her spare hand, the girl reached up and wiped away the sweat from her forehead with the black sleeve of her fighting gear.

Sango smiled a little, realizing that her traveling partner would probably use this battle as a sly way to get them yet another free night at the local inn. He had such a nice way of doing that.

She saw Miroku smiling at her from not too far away down the street where he had helped bring the giant centipede down from the rear.

He held up a hand in a wave to signal that he was all right, then–

"Ack!" was the only word that could be made out from his general direction as no less than ten girls tackled the priest in a "hug", cooing praises.

"Oh, houshi-sama you're so brave…"

"First you rid our inn of an anonymous ominous cloud and then you save our town!"

"Thank you so much!"

"It was so daring of you!"

"If you wanna stay here a night longer you can with stay me…"

"No, me!"

"Ahem, its obvious he wants to stay with me"

"Er…thank you ladies but–" Miroku began desperately when a certain Demon Exterminator walked up.

"He can't." she cut in, glaring daggers at the hoard of girls, holding her massive bone boomerang behind her back, although it would've been perfectly fine to keep it on the ground…

Miroku flashed a thankful smile at the young woman, but she didn't seem to catch it.

One of the admiring girls suddenly turned nasty and looked at Sango in disgust. Maybe even jealously. "Who are you to decide what he does?"

"Yeah, why would he want to go with you anyway?" another, who just happened to latched on to the monk's arm sneered.

"You haven't got any claim on him." Said yet another girl, her garish pink kimono shining in the midday sunlight.

Sango glared once more. "Well…maybe I do." she said coolly.

With that she spun away from them on her heels and walked away, wondering why she had even bothered to get those girls away from Miroku. They were right and he probably was enjoying himself thoroughly, the pervert. She hated it.

The girl didn't even hear the girl's shrieks as Miroku suddenly shoved them off him and forcefully stepped ahead so hard that some of them hit the ground with force. But it did surprise her when Miroku ran after her and gently grabbed a hold of her arm to stop her.

She turned to him and saw a bewildered look in his sapphire eyes.

"What…did you mean just then?" he asked skeptically.

Sango sharply drew in a breath. Oh great, she had said that she claimed him hadn't she? That she had some sort of hold on him? Or wished it was so. Not that it was untrue, but now she had made a fool of herself in front of him; she knew that she loved him… somehow…but with his ways, how could he ever love her back? How could she ever feel secure in a relationship with him?

"It's nothing." she muttered, and shook him off her, then picked up her walking again, this time faster.

Yet he didn't give up, and had soon caught up with her.

Miroku slid in front of Sango from his run, and she stopped. "No, it's not 'nothing'…"

"I–" Sango began but then cut herself off, knowing it wouldn't make a difference. She began walking away once more.

Miroku kept his pace next her. "That girl said that you didn't have a claim on me and you said you did."

Sango walked faster as if she was trying to escape him, she looked down and said "Yes." very quietly.

"Hey, Sango how long have we known each other?" she heard him ask.

Suddenly she stopped and looked at him, suspicion written all over her beautiful face. Instead of saying, "What does that have to do with anything?" which made sense to say, she calmed down a bit to answer:

"About three years."

Miroku smiled. "That's a long time for someone to keep something a secret, isn't it?"

'Oh god…' thought Sango miserably 'now I'm going to get it'.

"Thank you for saying that, dear Sango." Miroku said softly.

She looked at him, wondering if she had ever heard such underlying emotion in his voice. "Why?" she asked, wondering what he was getting at. Was he going to make her confess?

"Because it's showed that you are the braver out of the two of us," he replied, smiling again.

"What do you mean?" she demanded as softly as possible.

"I love you, Sango." Miroku said.

She blinked at him, her brown eyes wide.

Kagome came back that night with a monstrous pile of old papers that turned out to be ancient scriptures at Inuyasha and Shippo's questioning.

As soon as she had stepped inside she had sat down in her room she went straight to work. The yellowing and very fragile pages were scattered about on the floor around her.

The rest of the day she continued to bend over them, occasionally stopping to quickly scribble something in one of her spirals, apparently taking notes. The girl only stopped to eat dinner and then retreated to her room once more.

She didn't even notice as the daylight faded into the orange glow if evening.

Inuyasha turned away from the fire he had built in the fireplace in Kagome's room, brushing the shavings of wood from his hands.

He saw Kagome staring intently at a scroll, looking like she wanted to burn a hole in it with her eyes or something or the sort. The inu-oni unconsciously cocked his head to one side, wondering what it was exactly she was doing (and had been doing all day, for that matter).

He sat down next her on the floor, carefully not to disturb the unorganized chaos of papers. "What are they, exactly?" he asked once settled at her side.

Kagome sighed and put the paper down on the floor; she seemed very grateful for the distraction as she did so. "They're spells that I have to memorize."

"Oh…all of them?" he asked, somewhat astounded, his amber eyes wandering across the mess.

She smiled weakly. "Yep, crazy huh? But this is nothing compared to what I have to memorize for school…"

Her smiled faded and she sighed again, but not a whining sigh; a sigh of someone who is tired, but must stay awake because of what they are stuck to.

But before she could regain her determination to stay awake, she had closed her eyes and had softly leaned over onto Inuyasha's shoulder. She wrapped her arms around one of his lovingly. The past few days had been bliss; one week they were fighting, the next falling face first into the crazy things love makes people do.

Slowly he smiled and picked her up bridal style. He walked over to her futon and gently laid her down upon it.

"Iie…I have to finish…" Kagome protested as she was his arms, but she made no move to follow up on her spoken intention.

Inuyasha smiled and bent down, balancing on his feet next to her. "If the question comes up, then I'll say you fell asleep…and I just couldn't wake you up." He said, and the playful tone of his voice also said to her, "No one cares if you don't finish."

He stood to leave, but was interrupted as Kagome took his hand. He looked back at her; she was smiling and sitting up slightly, propped up on her arm.

"If you're going to tell that story then you better make sure its true." she said composedly.

At first he didn't understand, but it clicked into place as Kagome lay down once more and closed her eyes. He smiled.

A second later Kagome heard Inuyasha as he moved behind her, and then she felt him at her side then he laid himself down next to her. Inuyasha curled up beside her, her back to his chest. He wrapped his arms around her slender waist.

She smiled without opening her eyes as he kissed her neck. He laid his head down next to hers.

Kagome slowly rolled over to look at his handsome face in the glowing firelight, the night now black outside.

She smiled. "You know what, Inuyasha?"

He opened his eyes "What?" he whispered softly.

"You can be really sweet sometimes." Kagome replied while still smiling.

"Whatever." he said lightly, as he switched the position of his arms so that one was draped securely over her waist.

Kagome took his free hand in hers and enlaced their fingers together. She snuggled into his warmth and closed her eyes, breathing in his scent that she had loved instantly since the first time she had caught it. The scent of the world before a storm, when the rain is still clinging to the clouds.

"Oyasumi…koi" Kagome whispered and soon was drifting into a deep sleep.

Owari Chapter Jūnana

Amehana: awwwwwwwwwwww, see what a sucker I am for fluffy cuteness & cherries (that the term me friend Kakarot-chan a.k.a. Aoi Hoshi coined. It means romance without lemons or limes. I love to use it even though I don't mind citrus stuff). sigh sorry if you don't like it because I do & I'm the author so I win. Teeheehee the romance isn't stopping…

Anyway, the last thing Kagome said there was "Goodnight…my love" I know I should've translated it then and there but I didn't want to ruin the moment.

"Like someone in love" is a song by Björk, who is brilliantly cool! I love her to no end…she's from Iceland you know.

I am sorry if I don't end up posting a chapter for some time…I try my best to post one every Friday, but either the internet isn't working, or I just forget…despite that millions of post-it notes I have up everywhere.

When I read your reviews, I notice that some of you have questions, and I will try my best to answer them…more often then not I refuse to check my e-mail, as I am afraid of flames, to be perfectly honest. I think of myself as a pretty strong person, but I suppose out of the many things I can be sensitive about is my writing…now this does not mean that I do not want to know where I can improve. I am an avid perfectionist, --()

I can't exactly remember most of the questions that you asked but in my crazy memory I do recall one of you asking me when I am going to switch to Inuyasha's P.O.V. Now, this one I can answer. The style in which I write is called third person omnificent, a.k.a you see everyone, and you hear everyone's thoughts. I apologize if it seems that I am using Kagome in a first person limited sort of way, for I am not trying to. I suppose, if I am, then I am doing it because I myself am a girl. I am not nearly skillful enough to try to express life through the eyes of a boy, as I have no idea how they think and it is a well-known fact that they are insane (but wonderful at the same time).

Well, that's all for now just stick with me and remember to review.