A/N: Just a quick thanks to all those who reviewed—I really appreciate your input!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha yet, but give me time...

2. Blame it on the Rat

The rat slipping underneath the door woke him, and the scrabbling at the knob finished the job. Inuyasha sat upright in his bed; his ears swiveled towards the door.

It was late. No one ever came near the door, at least not the one that opened on to the outer corridor, at that time of night. Even the lab technician who came by to do nightly checks had left long ago.

The fumbling stopped as the person on the other side of the door realized that it was locked. Inuyasha listened as the footsteps retreated down the hallway. He lay back down, only to sit up again a few minutes later when he heard the quick, light steps return. As he heard the bolt draw back, Inuyasha decided that this was something worth getting out of bed for.

He flattened himself against the wall behind the door as it swung open into the room. An unfamiliar presence entered and hesitated just inside the door. Fool, thought Inuyasha, you don't enter an unknown room and then stand right in the only patch of light coming into it. It was like an open invitation to the person inside to attack you.

In those few moments, the scent of the intruder hit Inuyasha's delicate nose. She, for it was a female, he would guess around his own age, smelled fresh, like dandelions, with an under odor of...he sniffed again...rats? That seemed slightly incongruous. Inuyasha shook his head. This was no time to be puzzling over the scent of an unknown person.

Stepping forward, Inuyasha placed his hands around the girl's surprisingly slender neck, "Who the fuck are you?" he growled.

Kagome gasped at the sudden contact and the menace in the low masculine voice. Finding it suddenly very hard to focus on anything besides the rough grip encircling her neck, she nonetheless heard the door swing shut behind her, a low click indicating that the locks had shot back into place. Good, she thought, good. No doubt this is a highly dangerous criminal. I'm glad that the locks are working. At least he won't be able to get anyone besides me.

No wait, she corrected herself, not good. Bad! Very, very bad. Oh my god. Shit. I am far too young to be locked into a dark room with an unknown male criminal. This is only my second week on the job, and I haven't even found the last rat yet. "Kikyo is going to kill me," she moaned softly; that was, if her mother didn't first. She had not been raised to die like this.

"No, I am going to kill you," the unknown male replied. "Now, once more, who the fuck are you?" He decided to emphasize his question with a gentle shake.

Kagome had been fluctuating between extreme fear and extreme anger, but the shake did it. Deciding that anger was a lot easier to cope with than fear, she hissed out, "How'm I supposed to answer that if I can't even breathe?"

"You seem to have gotten that out okay," Inuyasha pointed out, intrigued by the way the bitter smell of fear in her scent had suddenly disappeared. He sniffed. The fear could still be felt clinging around her, but it was no longer so acrid.

Kagome put up her hands to grab at his wrists. "Let me go," she demanded, "If I have bruises, they're going to wonder why tomorrow at work. And you wouldn't want them to ask a lot of awkward questions, now would you?" She knew that her logic was faulty, but she hoped that he didn't. Besides, hadn't some crime show said something about keeping the criminal talking? Make them realize that you are a real person just like them.

"If you don't show up at all, they'll be wondering even more," Inuyasha said. Damn, Kagome thought, he caught it. "Now don't make me ask it again."

Right, next step was to personalize your relationship, tell them your name. And, she noted, he was asking for it anyway. Good sign! Maybe she wasn't going to die. "Higurashi. Kagome Higurashi," she would've batted her eyes, but she figured it was too dark for that to work. Also she didn't want to give him any ideas since she still wasn't sure what kind of social deviant she was dealing with.

"Now can you please let me go? And maybe turn on a light?" she added, rubbing her eyes. The dark must've been playing tricks on her, because she could've sworn she had just seen two little triangles twitch on the top of his head. Like weird little ears or something. Truly curious now, she dropped the wrist that she had been holding, pretty pointlessly she would admit, and lifted her hand to the top of his head. Grabbing one of the triangles, she rubbed. Yup, it felt like a warm piece of pliant, fuzzy cardboard. Did this boy wear Mickey-mouse ears to bed or something?

"What the fuck, wench." Inuyasha exhaled sharply, dropping her neck and stumbling back a few paces. "What do you think you're doing?" She obviously did not know the meaning of personal space, he thought, carefully ignoring the fact that he had been on the verge of strangling her, very much within her personal space, just a few minutes before. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the tingling feeling that spread through his body at her touch. Nobody other than doctors ever touched him, and his inner self noted how good something as simple as a touch could feel. He told his inner self to shut up.

"You want light? Here you go then." Inuyasha flipped the switch by his bedside, which he was now standing by. Hopefully once she got a look at him, she would realize that he was not to be messed with.

Kagome shut her eyes against the sudden brightness. As she opened them, she glanced around the room she was currently standing in. Small, she noted, very plain, not much decorating. Two exits. The door she had come in by, and one on the opposite wall. And for some reason, all the furniture appeared to be bolted to the floor. She gulped and reluctantly turned her eyes to the mysterious occupant.

He was wearing a pair of boxers; presumably they were what he wore to sleep, since the bedclothes were all rumpled. Kagome gulped, again. The boxers left very little to the imagination, and, as her eyes made the journey up an impressive amount of very well toned flesh, she hoped that she wasn't blushing. Finally, out of excuses, she looked him straight in the face.

And forgot everything else. The strangling, the threats, the weird ears, everything flew right out of her mind. He was, hands down, the best looking thing she had ever seen—and that included the time she had given up chocolate for a month on a dare, and then received a piece of chocolate fudge after the end of thirty-one very, very long days.

This boy was damn good looking. Sexy as all hell, Kagome thought to herself, glad that no one else could hear her thoughts. Of course, what she didn't realize was that most of her thoughts were written plainly on her face; Kagome had never been good at hiding her emotions. Unaware, she continued her meditations. Who knew long silver hair could be so attractive? Unfortunately she was jolted out of her thoughts when she noticed the amused yet irate expression of the yellow eyes staring at her. She shut her mouth hastily and tried to look as if she hadn't just been ogling him.

"What, never seen a half-naked, man-dog in the middle of the night before?" He inquired, sweeping his long hair back over one shoulder, "Well, look your fill. You probably won't get an opportunity like this again." He lowered his voice suggestively, "Actually, if you'd like to do a little more than just look," he took a step forward, "That could probably be arranged." After all, not a whole lot of women, or girls, or anyone, really, got into his chambers these days.

"You arrogant sonofabitch" Kagome gasped, moving backwards until her back was against the door. Just because she had been ogling, didn't mean that he could just... And in that voice, too! What was he doing, channeling Marilyn Monroe?

"Literally," Inuyasha showed his teeth in a mirthless grin.

Kagome frowned, her intellectual side finally asserting itself. "No, that's impossible," she stated. "Species differentiation is based on reproductive isolation. It wouldn't be possible for a human and a dog to mate and produce offspring."

"Ever tried it?" He asked, taking another step closer. Barely half a foot separated them now.

"Stop trying to intimidate me, you juvenile delinquent," Kagome snapped. Inuyasha stopped, hurt. Juvenile delinquent? What did she think he was? People were afraid of him; he wasn't just a little kid with a Swiss army knife. "Look wench, I've got abilities you've never even dreamed of," he said. It was an indication of his anger that he didn't even notice the possible sexual innuendoes in that statement.

"Why did you ask for my name if you aren't even going to use it?" Kagome asked, feeling, like many people do when they're backed into a corner, slightly antagonistic. "It's Kagome. Say it with me, Ka-go-me."

"Stu-pid wench," Inuyasha said, mimicking her frosty tone. With the absence of expression on her face, he noted, she sort of looked like that nurse, what was her name? With a frown, he scrutinized her. Yup, it was official. This girl was a dead ringer for Kikyo, bitch nurse from hell, although she was obviously much younger. Not that he disliked Kikyo, per se. It was more that, every time she came near him, he felt like the temperature plummeted about twenty degrees. It was as if Kikyo absorbed all of the warmth out of the atmosphere. Kagome, his inner self told him, was definitely NOT absorbing all the warmth out of the atmosphere. More like heating it up. Once again, he told his inner self to shut the fuck up. He had things to do.

Kagome shifted, nervous under the intensity of his gaze. "Okay, let's play a new game," she announced, sensing his momentary distraction "No more try-to-kill-Kagome, no more try-to-sexually-intimidate-Kagome. How about answer-all-of-Kagome's-questions-because-she-is-a-very-curious-girl?" She ducked around him and made a beeline for the bolted down armchair.

The boy standing in front of her rolled his eyes. What the hell? This girl was weird. Her emotions fluctuated apparently as naturally and as quickly as taking breath. Currently she was beaming up at him from his chair, with an expectant look on her face. Just how he had lost control of the situation so quickly, he had no idea. A scant few minutes earlier, he'd had her by the neck. Now she was sitting there calmly smiling at him?

Kagome wasn't actually as calm as she appeared, but she was curious. And once her curiosity was piqued, she would see it through to the end, no matter what tried to get in her way. She knew that the man in front of her had just been threatening her, but he didn't seem malicious. More confused than anything else, actually. She put on her best I'm-too-sweet-to-kill-so-please-answer-all-my-impertinent-questions look, and decided to just go for it.

"Ok, so how about story time?" She announced. "Who are you, and where did you come from?"

Inuyasha didn't know what to do. He did not usually find himself entertaining strange girls in his room in the middle of the night. He felt like he should offer her a cup of tea or something, but he didn't even have a mug. Staring at the small figure seated in his armchair, he shook his head again. Well, it had been a long time since he had talked with someone who wasn't a lab technician, and for some reason he felt like talking to this girl. Plus, he could easily rip her apart if things got out of hand. Sitting down on his bed, he made up his mind. The mauling could wait.

"Hold on a second here," he said. "You don't expect me to just spill out my entire life history to a perfect stranger do you?

"I don't see why not," said Kagome. "Besides, we obviously have things in common—I work here, you live here. See, a common thread!"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "I don't think so, wench," he said. "How about you tell me a few things about yourself first?"

"Fine," the brown-eyed girl answered. "What do you want to know?"

Inuyasha wracked his brain for an appropriate question. One that didn't begin with "what's your sign" or "haven't we met before". He really needed to find an alternate source of reading material, he decided. Those romance novels that Sarara kept leaving for him really weren't helpful in this situation.

"Umm," he struggled, "Where are you from? And why are you here?"

"Alright," Kagome said, "I'll tell you my story first. But then I want to hear yours. I have a feeling that your story is much more interesting than mine..." And she began to tell him all those background things that two strangers tell each other. Her name, her school, her work.

Ten minutes later, Inuyasha had absorbed about all the small talk he could take. It was a relief when Kagome finally turned to him. "Now it's your turn," she said. "How did you get like this?" She pointed at his ears.

"Ok," Inuyasha began, "I don't know why I'm telling you this. Not that you deserve it, but since you do seem to be here..." he trailed off, but she continued to look at him expectantly. "Alright. My name is Inuyasha. I am not, as you oh-so-intelligently surmised earlier, the product of some twisted human/animal relationship. My story is a little more complicated than that. Even I don't know all the details, but this is what I do know--"

Kagome sat back in her chair and prepared to listen.