Dance With Me, Kagome?

Chapter One: The Invitation

Hello, this is yet another fic, and probably the most structured so far! I actually know what will be happening, and I already know how it will end! Gasp!

I am soooo pathetic…how many chapter fics do I have in the works now? Silver Linings, BTBL, Heart and Mind, and now this. By the way, Heart and Mind is what I like to call a "whimsy fic." I will update when I choose (or when I know what to write next). Kind of like Takahashi-san's Mermaid Saga. So please, don't hate me if I don't even post chapter two before the school year is up, because BTBL and Silver Linings are currently my priority fics.

Besides, this one's soooooo cute!

Disclaimer: No, they do not belong to me. Why are you still asking?

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"Hey, Kagome! You're back!"

"Hm?" Kagome Higurashi glanced up at her ecstatic friend, Yuka. Both girls had black hair, although Kagome's was wavy and reached the small of her back, while Yuka's was stick-straight, the ends just falling past her shoulders. "Oh, good morning!" She returned to perusing her incomplete math homework.

Yuka leaned over her friend's shoulder and studied the problem Kagome had gotten stuck on. "Here," she said, plucking the pencil out of her confused friend's hand, her other hand automatically reaching up to straighten her usual yellow headband. "You separated the fraction over subtraction, you can't do that. What you want to do is multiply by the conjugate. Then, up here you get…9-6i, and you get 3 in the denominator. Then, you factor three out of the numerator…"

"Aha! I was wondering what I was doing wrong. Thanks, Yuka!" She beamed up at her friend, who the entire class acknowledged as a math genius.

"No prob," she said, winking a dark brown eye. "After having pneumonia, anemia, and that brief bout of diabetes in just three weeks, I'm surprised that you get the concept of imaginary numbers at all!"

Kagome grinned nervously. "Yeah, well, studying pays off." 'Grandpa, you overdid it again,' she thought ruefully, imagining her mother's father quickly rattling off all the diseases he knew to the attendance office. Well, there wasn't much else he could do, not when she regularly disappeared into Japan's Feudal Era, due to the old, magical well in her family's shrine.

She shook her head a bit when she realized that Yuka was still talking. "—wants you to meet him at the fence during gym."

"Sorry, Yuka, I spaced out for a sec, there. Who wants to meet me?"

"Who else?" she said brightly. "Hojo, silly!"

Kagome, to her friend's surprise, sighed. "Again?"

"Well, yeah."

"Why?"

As Yuka was about to answer, the bell rang, and she had to scamper back to her seat. Kagome sighed again and passed up her still-incomplete homework, as she wondered what kind of date Hojo was about to ask her out on this time.

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"So, Kagome, how about it?" Hojo, a tall, brown-haired (and relatively good-looking) boy leaned against the fence, looking anxiously into Kagome's blue eyes. "You want to come with me to the Spring Dance?"

Kagome studied the tennis courts. Her eyes widened for a moment when Yuka and her other friend, Eri, waved at her from a nearby court and nodded vigorously. Then, she grinned to herself. 'I wonder what they would say if they knew that Inuyasha has already completely stolen my heart?' she wondered, conjuring up an image of the man she loved.

Well…he was physically (Genealogically? Genetically? Hereditarily? Was that even a word?) only half-man, and his maturity level was much closer to that of a five-year-old then that of most sixteen and seventeen-year-olds of his time.

...considering that, how old was he? Not even he seemed to know.

She sighed slightly and imagined his shining white hair, his deep amber eyes, and, of course, his crowning characteristic (literally!), his fluffy, white doggie ears!

Who cared how old he was? Inuyasha was drop-dead hot!

…not a thought she had often, despite the truth behind it all. Normally, she was so angry or exasperated with him that she wanted him to drop dead period.

She vaguely heard Hojo ask her something, and she mumbled noncommittally, "Yeah…"

"Oh, I see…well, then, I'll see you two at the dance, okay?" he said as he walked away, shoulders slightly slumped in dejection.

"Wait, what?" she asked, snapping back to attention.

"Why didn't you tell us, Kagome?" Eri said slightly indignantly, homing in on Kagome like a heat-seeking missile, Yuka at her side. "I mean, I can't believe…" she shook her head vigorously, making her short black hair fly out in all directions. "Well, make sure you introduce us, okay?"

"What are you talking about?" Kagome asked bewilderedly, looking from Eri to Yuka and back again. "Introduce who?"

"Introduce us to your boyfriend. Who else?" Yuka laughed a bit sinisterly. "I have a few choice words I'd like to say to him."

Kagome suddenly backed away from her two friends, stopping only when she felt the chain-link fence dig into her back. "Whoa, whoa, hold the phone! Who said anything about my boyfriend? Since when will I ever have a chance to introduce you guys? And besides", she added hurriedly. "He really isn't my boyfriend, you see…"

"Yes, we know he isn't, Kagome, he still drags around his feelings for that other girl…but didn't you just say that you were going to the dance with him?"

"When did I say that?"

Eri and Yuka exchanged a glance. "Um, about two minutes ago. When you didn't really answer Hojo, he asked if you were going with someone else. And you said, 'Yeah.'"

"Oh my," Kagome murmured. "I didn't hear the question," she confessed. "There's no way that he would be able to come…although…hm. What date is the dance?"

"The sixteenth: this Friday. Planning to ask him to come? Cutting it a bit close, aren't we?"

She nodded absentmindedly. "Isn't that a new moon?"

"I think so," Eri answered. Then, she snapped her fingers. "Right it is! Because it always comes one week after…you know. And it started last Saturday."

Yuka sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Too much information, Eri."

Kagome nodded. "I agree. What time does the dance start?"

"At nine 'o' clock."

"So late?"

"Well, the Spring Dance is the only sophomores-only dance that goes until one in the morning," Yuka said drily.

"Yes, that's good…" she mused. "Maybe Inuyasha really can come…although it'll probably take forever for me to convince him…"

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"I'm going."

"Inuyasha, please I—excuse me?" Kagome asked incredulously. Had Inuyasha the stubborn, the one who normally furious and mortified at the merest hint that they were in any relationship beyond that of friendship, acquiesced so quickly?

He shrugged his shoulders, the red cloth of his haori rustling gently. "You'll be surrounded by males, and it seems that the only way they won't harass you is if you take me along."

"Well, Inuyasha, it's not like they're going to…" she trailed off, suddenly realizing two surprising things.

First: she was actually making an argument against his coming to the dance, when that was what she had wanted in the first place.

And second: those guys at school really weren't as trustworthy as she automatically assumed they would be. Guys in her time did unexpected things. Who knew what they were capable of? Rape was a bit of a stretch, but harassment, unwanted attention, drugging…

"Well, I'm glad you agreed so quickly," she said to Inuyasha with a smile. "It means a lot for you to come with me."

"So tell me," he said lazily, inspecting the hilt of his sword, Tetsusaiga. "What exactly is the point of a dance?"

"Well…it's a time for a lot of people to get together and have fun, basically. They play music, they serve snacks. You can go with your friends if you want, but most people want to go with a date."

"A date? Why would they want to bring food to the dance when they already serve snacks?" Inuyasha cocked his head, one ear raised higher than the other, lending him the image of a curious puppy.

Kagome tried not to giggle as she answered, "Not a date as in the fruit. The date I'm talking about is…well, someone who you generally have special feelings for. You know…a prospective mate, you could say…" The barely repressible urge to giggle was replaced by an undefiable need to blush, which she did.

Inuyasha sat bolt upright. "What?"

"C-calm down! We're just going as friends…although my friends are convinced that you're my boyfriend."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You mean they know about this?" He waved a hand to indicate the scenery, a forest clearing that would become the street in front of the Higurashi family's shrine 500 years into the future, where Kagome had been born and where she still attended school. Now, however, she was falling further and further behind in her classes, thanks to a certain, clingy half-demon who happened to be sitting right in front of her.

"No, they only know that I can't date this guy named Hojo, and that another guy (meaning you) is involved in the reason why. My friends just jumped to conclusions," –'conclusions that are partly true,' she thought ruefully— "and think that you're my boyfriend. Just…see, you don't have to act lovey-dovey, just don't be…"

"Don't be what?"

"Well, don't be a jerk, okay?"

He snorted. "Feh." Kagome didn't know if he meant that he really believed that he never acted like a jerk or that he would act however he wanted.

"So what are we going to do about my ears?" he asked, pointed to said fluffy appendages. "You mentioned that there is stuff about dressing formally, and I somehow don't think that they'll let me wear that stupid hat of yours."

"Well," Kagome said with a smile. "The dance conveniently begins long after sunset, and, even more conveniently, takes place on the night of the new moon."

He sat bolt upright. "You mean I'll be in my weak human form in front of all those people?"

"Hang on," Kagome soothed, placing a hand on his arm when he made to rise. "Those people will probably never see you again anyway. None of them know that you're really a half-demon, and besides, I doubt there's anyone around who hates you enough to want to kill you anyway."

He grumbled something unintelligible and shrugged her hand off. After a moment of thought, he gave her a half-hearted glare and grumbled, "Are there any other options?"

She grinned at him. "Nope."

Inuyasha sighed. "Fine. It's not like I can risk some horny male getting his paws on my…my shard detector."

Kagome shot a sharp glance in his direction. "What?"

"Nothing," he said quickly.

"Hmf. Anyway, let's get going."

"Huh? But didn't you say that the dance is in four days?"

"Yes, but we have a lot of stuff to get ready. Your suit, my dress, your dancing—"

"WHAT?" Inuyasha roared. "I have to dance? No way, no can do. Absolutely. No. Way!"

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And that, folks, is where we end for today. Please read Demon of the Opera under my favorites list (we will restart regular updates in one week, cuz arwentheelf02 is in the musical, and it's crunch time!).

Please note: I am only using Eri and Yuka as Kag's friends because a) Ayumi isn't in the manga, and b) it's just easier to keep track of people (lots of names to make up!).

If you have any other questions, whatever, please let me know. Via review. You know the drill. BTW, this story does not have a real plot, with real villains and stuff. It's meant to be the account of a romantic little night, with our favorite couple going one on one. Of course, it being our favorite couple, there will be some tension, but whatever!

I can guarantee fluff!

OK? All good? No problems? Okay then! See you around!