Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi I am not.

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When I was little, I used to think about true love all the time. Wonder how you'd know it was true, wonder if it would ever happen to me, wonder who it would happen to me with, and so on and so forth. The fairytales said true love happened to everyone, no matter who or what you were, and for the longest time I believed that. One day, my prince would arrive – or maybe I'd be someone else's prince.

Yeah, that's right, I'm a guy who likes other guys. Gay. Homosexual. To quote a few of my less-than-kind classmates, faggot, assfucker, dick licker, joy-boy (which is not true, by the way). I think I know every last offensive name for guys like me by now.

But anyway, my belief in fairytales started wavering around the middle of kindergarten. The fact that I had no attraction at all to girls, and lots, and lots of attraction to boys had made itself very clear very early. At age five, though, I had no idea that other people might think it was wrong. I went after other boys in my innocent kindergartner way, and I was very confused to see how put off they were by it. 'Jakotsu germs' was the most popular game on the playground between all the other boys in my class that year. It consisted of one of them poking me, or waiting for me to brush past, then turning to the nearest boy, rubbing his hands off on him, and saying, "Jakotsu germs, no return!". The one who'd been 'infected' would turn to the next nearest boy, saying and doing the same thing, and he'd turn to the one nearest to him, and…well, I think you've got the gist by now. The girls were in on it soon, too.

In November, I met the afternoon kindergarten class. I was in the morning class, as you can probably guess. That day, all of us were putting on some sort of kindergarten Thanksgiving thing at ten, so the afternoon kids had to come to our class. I wasn't expecting to make one friend that day, much less six.

But there was Bankotsu. Soon followed by Suikotsu, Renkotsu, Ginkotsu, Mukotsu, and Kyoukotsu. Bankotsu saw the boys in my class playing the 'Jakotsu germs' game, and amazingly, instead of joining in, he walked over and started talking to me. The two of us became fast friends, and I got along with the other five really well too. After that, I almost lived for the other days when the afternoon class had to join us, or us them. Of course, my mom arranged play dates too – she looked almost comically relieved when she found out I finally had some friends.

But I didn't consider any of them more than that. I love them…and in retrospect, I guess it's 'true love', but not in the way that makes me want to yank them aside and kiss them passionately for hours and hours. Not in the way that makes me wish this place let homosexuals get married.

That was reserved for someone else.

I met him about two weeks before the start of first grade. It was nice outside that day, so I thought I'd go do something out there. Stuff that involved running and sweating, like kicking a soccer ball around, got old quickly. I didn't want to go inside yet, though, so I got out a pink bouncy ball and started rolling it up to the side of the house.

That's when I met the boy who stole my heart.

I'd seen the moving vans arrive a little earlier, but I didn't pay them much mind. Not until I became conscious of someone standing stiff as a statue right behind me. He looked almost…flustered. Did he like me, maybe? Scanning his entire body, I came to the conclusion that this was the cutest person in the whole world. His ears especially. I still love those ears. In an odd way, they remind me of the dog we used to have, before Musou started learning to drive and poor Flopsy became a pile of dog guts in the middle of the driveway, that is.

I asked him what his name was, and he answered very promptly. The name Inuyasha has been on my mind ever since, and I don't think it'll ever leave. I stared at him a while longer, just taking in that cute face. Finally, I realized he must've thought I was being really rude, so I said, "My name's Jakotsu. Wanna play?"

He stalled, made an 'ummmgh…' noise, and glanced over at a lady I assumed was his mom. He was shy! How cute! Finally, he sat down and said, "Ok." I think he was trying to keep the excitement out of his voice, but went a little overboard, and instead sounded like I was condemning him to death.

Once I'd made sure he was in the right position to play, I started talking non-stop. It was like some whirlwind was inside my voice box, and it kept blowing words out. Before I knew it, I'd told him just about everything there was to know about my family and friends. Musou – my sixteen-year-old brother, who's driving is so bad that it's a miracle none of us have had heart attacks yet, and who's always off at parties, and has been really depressed because his girlfriend, Kikyo, broke up with him. Kagura – my nine-year-old sister, who seemed to be in an almost perpetual state of moping and temper tantrums these days, whining about how we were all 'ruining her life' in one way or another. Kanna – my one-year-old sister, who seemed to have an odd fondness for a little old mirror we kept around. Then, onto my parents, and my friends, and so on.

I decided to ask him a little about himself, because he was looking kind of awkward. I hadn't bored him, had I? "What about your family, Inuyasha?" I asked, saying his name slowly and carefully. I like his name almost as much as I like his ears. Inuyasha, Inuyasha, Inuyasha!

Looking almost alarmed – shyness again, I think – he muttered out a few quick sentences about them. Deciding to keep up the conversation before he clammed up again, I asked him as many questions as I could think of, eagerly awaiting each answer. Unfortunately, his answers were about as close to monosyllabic as could be. I shrugged it off. I'd break him out of that shell soon. He said that he read. It certainly seemed to fit in with the quietness he'd displayed. I asked him what sort of books he read, and said Renkotsu liked to read too – maybe he'd like that if he hung around me, he'd get to talk to someone else who read a lot too.

Appearing faintly startled, he said something so softly that it was unintelligible, then pointed at his house. "Gotta go home?" I asked. He nodded and took off.

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I thought about Inuyasha lots that night. He was nice. And whenever I summoned his face to my mind, I felt a certain fluttering in my stomach, a fluttering I'd experienced before. I was in love. L-O-V-E. I've taught myself to say love in all kinds of different languages, but I still like 'l-o-v-e' the best.

Maybe I'd tell him about it. It seemed like a good idea. Besides, I didn't want to turn into one of those people who hid their love – running about all hurry-scurry and blushy, acting like it would be the end of the world if the person they cared about ever actually found out how they felt. What's the point, I've often wondered, about feeling something so wonderful, about saying you'd do anything for the person you feel it for, if you're too much of a chicken to even tell them? And how would you stop your heart from bursting with the weight of it?

So I did the only thing I thought was logical. I waited until my entire family was asleep, and quietly slipped out of bed. Pulling on my favorite lavender shirt (stolen from Kagura, not that she missed it, or anyone else cared), and a pair of shorts, I tiptoed out of the house. It seemed like my every step caused the floor to creak so loudly, I half expected my parents to hear and dash out of bed to stop me and send me back to bed. I almost wanted to do it myself, too, because I didn't enjoy being grounded. But this was a mission! A mission of love! I couldn't stop now!

To my relief, I made it outside with little effort. I felt cool, like one of those secret agents. As a mental image of myself wearing a dark suit and sunglasses came to mind, I brought a hand up to my mouth to stop a giggle – I was near Musou's window, which was open, and I didn't want to risk him hearing. I sprinted for Inuyasha's house.

That was when I realized that I didn't know which room was his. There was a light on in one of the back rooms, so I scurried over to check whose it was. Peering up, I found myself eye-to-eye with a boy who was definitely older than Inuyasha and I. He was attractive, but unlike Inuyasha, who was attractive because he was cute, this boy was handsome. He'd look it especially once he grew up. I could tell. This must Sesshoumaru, I supposed. I tried to duck down, but he'd already seen me.

Opening the window, he said, "Who are you?" his voice was surprisingly void of emotion, and rather deep.

"Uh…Jakotsu," I murmured. I felt like I should've been flinching under his haughty gaze – I didn't, though.

"What do you want?" he asked, looking slightly bored.

Could I tell him? And what would he say? "Mmmm…"

"Well?"

"Inuyasha."

"What?"

"Eh – where's Inuyasha's window?" I felt really stupid asking this. I'd only known him three minutes, but Sesshoumaru had already succeeded in making me feel about two inches high.

For a second, I thought I saw a faint glimpse of amusement flash across his face. Then he replied, "My little half-brother's room is that one." He leaned out the window and pointed at the window two over from his.

"…Thanks," I said, smiling genially. Sesshoumaru stared at me a little longer, his expression unreadable, before he shut the window and went back to doing whatever he'd been doing before.

I walked over to Inuyasha window, took a deep breath, and started tapping on it. No answer. I just kept on tapping, and gradually began knocking. I hadn't come this far to be stopped here.

I heard the steps of someone coming to the window. Grinning excitedly, I watched as the window slid open, and a very tired, aggravated-looking Inuyasha peered out. Once he saw me, though, his eyes widened, and he looked much more awake. "W – what are YOU doing here?!"

I toned down my grin, afraid it might've looked slightly scary. I knew what I was going to say already. "I was thinking about it, and I decided that I want you to be my boyfriend."

He looked at me in a very odd way, and then snapped, "No thanks," and shut the window.

Surprisingly, I didn't feel the rip and tear at my heart as I had when others had rejected me. I just slid down, sitting at the base of his house, and stared straight ahead of me for who knows how long. It could've been two minutes or two hours. Finally, I pushed myself up. 'So…what now?' I thought, still feeling almost disturbingly detached. The answer came simply, actually. 'I'll keep on pursuing him. Inuyasha – one day, you're going to be mine.'

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