I don't own Inuyasha or any of the other characters. I wish I did, though. That would be awesome...

She knew Inuyasha was in the room even before she woke up.

Cracking an eye open, she blearily glanced around before sitting up. There he was, leaning against the wall by her bed, sleeping. He still slept with his mouth half open, she noticed, smiling as she watched the way his ears would twitch as he dreamed.

"Kagome..." He growled softly. "You're staring at me."

Okay, so he wasn't asleep. He still looked awfully peaceful, though. Despite the half-open mouth.

"I just woke up." She said softly, lying back down on her stomach near the edge of her mattress, propping her chin up on her crossed arms. "You could've slept in the spare bedroom, you know. Or the couch downstairs."

"I like the floor." He smiled lazily as he opened his eyes. "It's familiar."

"And you certainly do like your things familiar, don't you?" Kagome teased, relishing the way the sunlight from the window warmed her face.

"Well... I like you." Steady gold eyes met hers. She wasn't sure if he was teasing her or not. She just woke up! It was too early to decipher his cryptic statements.

No, he was teasing. He was teasing! He wouldn't say something like that and actually mean it.

"That's because we spent all those years together searching for jewel shards. I'd better be familiar after all of that." Yawning, she sat back up again and pushed down her blankets. "Ugh. I fell asleep without changing my clothes. I hate that. It always makes me feel dirty."

"Are you all right?" Raising her eyebrows as she pulled her tousled hair back into a quick ponytail, she nodded.

"Uh... yeah. Nothing a shower and some coffee can't fix."

"No, I meant about yesterday. You never came back downstairs last night."

"Oh, right." She pressed the heel of her palm against her forehead for a moment, gathering herself, before climbing out of bed. "I looked though these last night," she said as handed him some of the books she had looked through. "I didn't find anything that would be useful to us, but if you have time, maybe you'll see something I missed."

"Sure." Inuyasha nodded, staring down at the books she had handed him. "This is what you were doing for so long?"

"Yes. And... thinking." He stared up at her, obviously waiting for her to elaborate. "I'm going to go take a shower, now. And you," She leaned down and tapped one of his ears. "Can start reading."

> > > > > > >

Okay... So... she wasn't mad then. She wasn't upset. So what the hell was going on?

Eyeing the pile of books she had given him, he noticed the marked passages were each only a few pages long. How could this have taken her so long to look through? He had smelled the salt; he knew she had been crying. Kagome wouldn't lie to him, would she? Maybe it was just a female thing.

"'And... thinking'." He muttered to himself. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

The sound of rushing water had his ears pricking forward; Kagome was in the shower.

He was on his feet and halfway across the room before he realized what he was doing. Pausing mid-stride, he reached up to touch the necklace that hung around his neck. If she saw him... he was going to be in for a world of hurt. She would probably sending him crashing down through the floorboards themselves. But then his body took over again, and he crossed the remaining length of the room and slowly pushed the door open.

It was the scent that hit him first. Soap, and lavender, and Kagome, all blended into one intoxicating cloud that hit his senses like a hammer. His grip on the door tightened until he could feel his claws tearing the wood, but he really didn't care. The glass on the shower doors was cloudy, but he could still make out the outline of her body as she rinsed the soap off of her skin.

His mouth went dry. Gods, she was beautiful. He was certain that until this moment, he had never seen true beauty; hell, he would never see anything as breathtaking as this again.

But then all too quickly, he could see the outline of her hand reach down, and then the water ceased to run. Silently, he closed the door and stepped back into her bedroom.

Picking up one of the books, he sat down on the edge of her bed to wait for her to come out. Noticing one of the pages was marked, he opened to that page.

"Feh!" He snorted a moment later. Miroku, a wise and steady monk? Sango's description was pretty accurate, and the part about him was dead-on; all except for the part about his temper. He did not have a quick temper. And Kagome...

He sat up straight. Kagome, his wife?

"You have the strangest look on your face, you know that?" Whipping his head up, he met Kagome's gaze as she walked back into the room, towel-drying her hair. Her eyes lowered to the book he was holding. "Oh, you don't want to read that one." She moved quicker than he would have given her credit for; the book was out of his hands and in her desk drawer before he had a chance to react. "The others are much better."

"Alright." She smiled briefly, then headed back into the bathroom. He wasn't going to tell her he had already read the marked page.

> > > > > >

Later, leaning back against a tree, Kagome glanced at Inuyasha over the top of her sunglasses. Souta was trying to teach him how to play soccer; despite the frequent spurts of cursing, it looked like he was having a pretty good time. Although, anything involving kicking seemed to amuse Inuyasha in general.

He was wearing another one of the t-shirts she had bought him, a black one today, and although he still refused to wear jeans he had consented to a pair of sweatpants. It was still kind of odd to see him wearing modern day clothes, but she was quickly growing attached to the sight.

Turning back to the book she was holding, she continued to scan for any references to the sacred jewel.

"Kagome! Over here!" That was Ayumi's voice.

"Inuyasha, put on your hat." She whispered, knowing his sensitive ears would pick up her voice. "Ayumi, hi."

"Kagome, guess who I ran into today." Kagome pushed her sunglasses further up onto her nose as she stared up at a grinning Ayumi. "Go on, guess."

"No."

"No? What do you mean no?"

"I don't want to."

"You can't do that! You have to guess!"

"How about you just tell me, and I can get back to my book."

"What's wrong with you?" Ayumi crouched down, snatching the glasses off from her face. "Hojo! It's Hojo! And he's here, now, waiting for you to guess it's him."

"Hojo? Why on earth is he here?"

"You two are going to go out. Remember?"

"No," Kagome said slowly. "I never agreed to that."

"Yes you did."

"No, I didn't. You told me you ran into him, and that you gave him my number. Then we started talking about all my prior relationships and I got extremely uncomfortable. And then we saw a movie." Ayumi stared at her for a moment.

"But, it's Hojo! And he's here!" Kagome's eyes strayed across the yard. Souta was kicking the soccer ball against the wall of the shrine, while Inuyasha stood staring at her. "Who's that?" Ayumi asked. Kagome felt her face flush when she realized Ayumi had followed her gaze.

"That's Inuyasha. Remember? I think we discussed him that day, too."

"Wow, he's really hot. But why is he here?"

"Maybe for the same reason as Hojo. I'm reaching my expiration date, and all the bargain-hunters have come out to play."

"Kagome, be serious. What am I supposed to do with Hojo now?"

"I don't know." Snatching her sunglasses back, she snapped her book shut. "I never said I was interested in him. You're the one always trying to push him off on me."

"Well, he's a great guy." Ayumi said defensively. "Who wouldn't like him?"

"You're right." Kagome smiled slowly. "You should go out with him."

"Me?" Ayumi looked truly shocked at this. "I can't do that!"

"Why not? You said yourself he's a great guy. You always used to get along fine, and you don't currently have a gorgeous man standing in the middle of your lawn hanging on every word you're saying."

Inuyasha's 'feh!' echoed throughout the yard.

"He is awfully cute." Ayumi said slowly, standing back up.

"Yes, he is." Kagome climbed to her feet, patting Ayumi on the shoulder. "I think you should go back out there and tell him that. And that I'm unavailable. Completely, and utterly unavailable."

"I think I will." Ayumi walked back towards the street as though in a daze, although Kagome saw the smile cross her face before she turned away.

"Who is this Hojo?" Kagome turned to find a scowling Inuyasha, arms braced on his hips.

"No one, Inuyasha. Someone from school, a long time ago."

"Feh!" He snorted. "He needed a woman to help him court you. That's not a man."

"He's not courting me," She said slowly. "And my friend just wanted to see me happy. She thought I'd like him."

"But... you didn't want this Hojo."

"Right. I didn't want him." Inuyasha fell silent, and she saw a muscle in his jaw twitch. Then, suddenly, he was smiling. A full blown grin was crossing his face.

"I'm the gorgeous man standing in the middle of your lawn."

"No, I was talking about Souta."

"What?"

"I'm just teasing you." She reached out to lightly push his shoulder. "That was a joke."

What happened next, she wasn't exactly sure. She felt her hand touch his shoulder, but then she was being pulled forward, one hand wrapping around her wrist and the other delving into her hair to grip the back of her neck.

"Who is the gorgeous man you were talking about?" He growled softly. They were face to face, so close she could feel his breath on her skin. All she could see was the golden irises of his eyes as he looked into hers, and the flare of heat when she whispered "You".