A/N: I know the puppy/dog comments are corny, but I just couldn't help myself. :-)
Thank you Kagome M.K. for reveiwing this story! I'll try to update quicker!
AND thank you to all my reveiwers in general! You guys rock!
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Yasha made his way up the staircase towards Kagome's bedroom. When he reached the door he heard a faint sniffling inside and slowly knocked. He could hear some rustling around and what sounded like Kagome blowing her nose before the door cracked open and Kagome peeked her head out.
"Yasha? What is it? Do you need something?"
"Oh, well, I just came to apologize for asking about your boyfriend. I shouldn't have said anything about it, and I hate to see you cry because of me."
Kagome sighed and opened the door a bit farther. She would always mourn the loss of InuYasha and her friends in the other era, but she realized that she had to make the best of her situation. InuYasha's reincarnation had found her; she only had to wait for the others.
"It's alright Yasha. I'll always love him, but it's time for me to move on." As she said this she couldn't help but give him a shy smile. Yasha noticed her look and blushed a little.
"I...uh...I'd better get back downstairs. So, you're all right then?" Yasha awkwardly asked. He had dealt with students who had crushes on him before, but for some reason he didn't know how to deal with Kagome. It was the first time he had actually been attracted to the student as well.
"Ok...I'll come down with you. There's no use in me moping around up here." She stepped outside her door and closed it. Before Yasha had even thought to move, she grabbed his hand and pulled him back down the stairs.
000
When they came upon the kitchen, Yasha noticed the odd looks they were receiving. Kagome's family seemed really happy about something. He suddenly remembered that he was holding Kagome's hand and quickly dropped it, stepping a bit away from her.
"Well," Yasha said, "I think I'll head up to my room and get some work done before going to sleep."
Kagome's mother, however, had different plans for him. "Wait a minute Yasha. Isn't this your first time in Japan?"
"Yes..."
"Why, you've only been to the school and back! It's still quite early, dear. Why don't you have Kagome show you around? Maybe you two could go to a movie. It might help you brush up a bit on your Japanese, not that you're skills aren't excellent as they are." She said with a smile.
Yasha looked like he wanted to protest, but Kagome's mother would have none of it. She practically pushed the couple towards the door and thrust their jackets at them. "Have fun you two!" She remarked, before opening the door.
Kagome smirked at her mother's antics. Apparently she wasn't the only one plotting to bring her and Yasha together. Kagome linked her arm with Yasha's and pulled him out the door; which promptly shut as soon as they exited the shrine.
"We can walk through the park to the movie theater. It looks beautiful this time of year with all the trees in bloom." Kagome said as they walked down the long stairway. Her smile only broadened when she noticed that Yasha hadn't made any sort of move to unlink their arms.
Yasha had been too busy thinking about the morals of dating a woman who happened to be a student for only a month to even give a second thought to how cozy the couple looked as they walked down the street, arm in arm.
000
When they reached the park, it truly was a breathtaking sight. Pink trees lined the path they walked along and a warm zephyr made the stray petals dance around them. They came upon a bridge that continued the path over a small clear stream and stopped to take in the view.
Yasha leaned on the bridge railing and Kagome leaned her head on his shoulder out of habit. It was only then that he realized how close they were and that their arms were linked. He gently turned his head to gaze down at her without disturbing her.
She was definitely a beauty, with her cascading brown locks and deep chocolate eyes. He couldn't find a flaw on her smooth content looking face, and noticed how her lips were slightly parted. He mentally kicked himself for having the strong urge to kiss those very lips.
"Kagome," he said a bit more intimately than he had intended. "Yes?" She asked, looking up at him with those large enchanting eyes of hers.
"I...I mean...this can't go any farther." He said, frowning.
"What can't go any farther?" She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and waited for what he had to say.
"I know that you're attracted to me," he said, using his free hand to point towards their linked arms, "but nothing can come of this. I'm your teacher."
Kagome returned his frown, but shoved it aside for a more questioning look. "And when you're done being my teacher?" She asked.
"I'll be headed back to America. I'm sorry Kagome. You seem like a really nice girl, but I've always made it a point not to get involved with my students."
"You know, Yasha, I'm graduating in a month. I've already applied to colleges here and in America. What if I were to choose a college near where you happen to be?"
Yasha gave her a hopeful look and licked his lips before he had a rather disturbing thought. "Feh. Don't do this, Kagome. I know I look like your old boyfriend, but that's no reason to become obsessed with me."
His sudden change in attitude sparked an all too familiar rage in Kagome. "Obsessed? I applied to those colleges BEFORE I met you didn't I? It was merely an observation. So what if you look like my old boyfriend? You'd be a jerk if you thought that's the only reason I liked you. Besides, I didn't see you fighting too hard against my advances!" She huffed.
Now that she was thoroughly angry, Kagome turned around and marched right back down the path they had come up.
At first, Yasha was too confused to move. 'How on earth did she turn that around against me?' He wondered before noticing that she had made it a fairly long way down the path. "Oi, Kagome!" He yelled after her before running down the path himself.
"Who does he think he is...makes it a point not to date his students my foot...you ARE my old boyfriend you stupid..." Kagome's frustrated muttering came to stop as she heard Yasha coming up behind her.
She swiftly turned around and put her hands on her hips, glaring at him. She wished desperately at that moment that she could use the subduing spell against him with a swift 'sit'. "You don't have to follow me home like a lost puppy, you know." Kagome said, inwardly pleased with her own inside joke. "The movie theater is at the end of this path, and the shrine is back the way we came. Go find yourself a girl that you aren't guest lecturing and have fun." She turned and began to walk away before a strong hand stopped her and turned her back around.
"Listen, Kagome," Yasha said with a mildly annoyed look on his face. "I guess my comments were a little out of line...and I guess I'm sorry." He muttered.
"You GUESS you're sorry?" She asked, her eyes squinting a bit farther in her glare.
Yasha growled a bit and added, "All right, I am sorry."
Kagome's face suddenly brightened. She smiled and walked back towards the movie theater. "Are you coming or what?" She threw over her shoulder. Yasha was once again left confused before he turned and jogged to catch up with her. She had to be one of the strangest girls he had ever met.
They reached the theater in due time and Yasha attempted to buy both their tickets before Kagome interjected. "I'm your student remember? Wouldn't want to ruin your spotless record and lead people on to the assumption that we're out on a date." With that, she bought her own ticket and headed inside the theater. She grinned, thinking: 'Since the direct approach failed I'll just have to play hard to get. That always seems to work for girls in the movies!'
Little did Kagome know, the hard-to-get-plan was working quite well. Yasha bought his ticket and grumbled the whole way into the theater about confusing women. He supposed it was his own fault for turning her initial advances down, and now she allegedly wanted nothing to do with him. He tried to think back to a philosophy class he took on moral problems. 'Date the beautiful student, or don't date the beautiful student...' He ran through his mind. It's not like he was really her teacher after all...more like her TA...and there was nothing wrong with students dating TAs, right? Especially since it was only a month...
Yasha was drawn out of his thoughts as Kagome waved a hand in front of his eyes. He blushed, embarrassed that he had been thinking about her. "Hello in there?" Kagome continued to wave until he looked her straight in the eye and muttered a "What?"
"Well, you grumpy puppy, the movie is about to start and I personally like watching the previews."
"Are you going to keep referring to me as a puppy?" He asked scrunching his nose, displeased at the new nickname he had received.
Kagome thought for a second and smiled. "Yes!" She said happily before walking into the theater. Yasha growled a bit and said, "Great," under his breath before following her. He wondered briefly if he had ever growled at himself before he met her. Was she turning him into a dog or something?
They sat down in the back of the theater near the middle. There was only a few other people joining them, so they didn't have to worry about anyone sitting in front of, or really any where near them. Yasha turned and noticed that Kagome had purchased a large popcorn and equally as large drink while he was mulling things over in his mind earlier. He reached over and pulled some popcorn out, expecting at challenge, but receiving none.
Kagome smiled when he started to share her popcorn. Unnoticed by Yasha, she tilted the bucket a little towards her and moved it closer to her stomach. When he reached for another handful of popcorn he ended up rubbing his hand against her left breast. He pulled his hand back quickly and gave her a shocked look. "I...um...-cough-...excuse me," he stammered, blushing and losing his appetite for the popcorn.
Kagome grinned and tried to stifle her giggles. Not only had she effectively stopped him from stealing any more of her popcorn, but she had inadvertently flirted with him making it seem like his fault for molesting her. There was no way this man was going to resist her without a fight. She was far too determined to capture his heart.
The action movie they had picked turned out to be more romantic than Yasha had thought and he watched the screen as the main characters started to make love. He glanced over to Kagome who, now rid of her popcorn, had her hands cupping her cheeks with a dreamy look on her face. He chuckled quietly at the look of her, Kagome too far gone to notice his amusement.
As he watched her he couldn't help but once again notice her beauty, even in the shadows of the movie theater. He brought his arm up and placed it lightly around her shoulders. To hell with morals; he had suddenly remembered a paper he did on moral nihilism anyway. Besides, he wasn't really her teacher; he was just another, more advanced student helping her class for a little while.
Kagome smiled when she felt an arm rest across her shoulders. Although she loved the feeling of him getting close to her again, she was having too much fun with her hard-to-get ploy. He would just have to suffer a bit longer.
"I have to use the bathroom." She whispered to him, grabbing the wrist of the arm around her shoulders and pulling it off of her, setting it down in his lap. Kagome got out of her seat and walked over to the side of the theater where there was a wall between the hallway out and the seats. She knew that he couldn't see her there. She didn't really have to go to the bathroom and she didn't want to miss any of the movie!
Yasha sighed after she left. He wondered how much damage he had done with his earlier comments. Was she even interested in him anymore? He felt like a moron for possibly ruining his chances with the only girl he had ever felt a real connection with. It was a strange sort of feeling—like they had always been together, and belonged that way. Yasha didn't know how to explain it as it had suddenly hit him when he put his arm around her.
A few minutes later, Kagome sat back down in her seat and they watched the rest of the movie without incident.
They idly chatted about the high points of the movie as they followed a small crowd of people back into the street.
"Well, without a car we can't really go sightseeing. As a matter of fact, most people come to sight see at the shrine. I don't really like riding the bus at night...we can go get something to eat if you want?" Kagome said, remembering how close they were to her friend's favorite hang out spot: WacDonalds (A/N: spelling? I don't remember).
"Actually, I'd rather head back to the shrine. It is a school night." Yasha pointed out with a smirk. As much as he'd rather be out with her at the moment, he needed to at least get a little work done before crashing for the night.
"Ok." Kagome said, hiding her disappointment.
000
They walked back to the shrine in relative silence and entered to find a very alert Souta run in from his spot in the living room. "So, are you guys going out yet? Did you kiss?" He bluntly asked as Kagome hung up there jackets.
"What?" Yasha said blinking a couple times before his cheeks turned rosy.
"Souta," Kagome's mother joined the group as she walked down the stairs. "What those two do with each other is none of your business." She said and winked at them. Souta pouted and walked back into the living room as Yasha stuttered a reply. "I...we...no..." he started before Kagome cut in.
"Thanks mom, that kid needs to learn some respect for his elder sibling." Kagome's mother laughed at her daughter's antics and the still embarrassed Yasha.
"Well, I think I'm going to head up to bed now; Night mom, night Yasha." Kagome said. She gave Yasha a peck on the cheek and hugged her mom before heading upstairs. Yasha just stood and watched her go. 'I've only known her for a day and I'm already crazy about her.' He thought as he unconsciously brought a hand up to where she had kissed his cheek.
As if reading his thoughts, Kagome's mother walked up next to him. "I don't think she realizes what kind of effect she has on people," she told him. "She has a big heart, try not to break it again, ok dear?"
"Er...all right." Yasha replied, quickly pulling his had back down to his side. He hadn't quite caught the 'again' until it was too late to inquire. Kagome's mother smiled brightly and pushed him towards the staircase. "Now, get upstairs and get some sleep! Come on Souta! It's time for you to call it a night as well."
Yasha walked up the staircase and heard Souta grumbling as he hugged his mother goodnight. Souta sped up and caught up with him at the top of the stairs. Before Yasha opened the door to his room, Souta tapped him lightly on the shoulder. "Yes Souta?"
Souta didn't reply as he stepped forward and gave Yasha a brief hug. He then stepped back and jogged into his room.
Yasha stood frozen for a minute, and stared dumbfounded at where the boy had stood. He didn't know what to make of Kagome's family; they treated him as if he was a part of it. He shrugged his shoulders and walked into his room. 'It's probably because I remind them of Kagome's deceased boyfriend that they were so fond of.' He thought, but he couldn't help feeling that they actually loved him, past who he reminded them of. He smiled and sat down at his desk to revise his dissertation for the 100th time and work on his lesson plan for the next day.
