It's been a while since I've had a chance to work on this story but it feels so amazing to be back. I hope I didn't let any of you down with this chapter after waiting so long for it. But I really like it. It's cute, and it makes me smile. Besides, I think it was needed, there are some interesting, and at times dark, times ahead for the gang, especially poor Kagome. So here goes.

It felt strange letting herself go like that, actually telling Inuyasha what she did. What if he told someone? After all, when had he ever been that reliable? Then again, he had seemed genuinely concerned about her. Hadn't he? Kagome tried to push the thoughts from her mind and get on with the night. She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

Sango's father answered the door. He was a kind man, older than most parents would be at this point, he and Sango's mother had started their family later in their lives than most. Kagome often wondered if Sango and her brother had been accidents, like Kagome and Souta had been. If they had been they were happy accidents because Sango's father loved his little family with all of his being. These past few years had been hard on him, it wasn't easy raising his too children without his beloved wife. But the lines of worry accompanied the lines of laughter and only made him look more gentle, more kind.

"Hello Kagome." He said in his warm voice that was a cozy fire on a winter night.

He was a wonderful man, he always had a smile for everyone. Never having a father, or a coherent mother for that matter, Kagome was extremely fond of the man who made his home open to his daughter's friend. No matter how horrible a mood Kagome was in Sango's father could bring a grin to her face.

"Sango's upstairs in her room." He opened the door and quickly waved her in.

"Thank you." Kagome said in a meek voice, trying to cover her black eye was her hair.

"Ask Sango what she wants me to feed you two, would you?" He called up after as she rushed up the stairs.

"Ok."

Kagome slid into her friend's room and shut the door behind her. Sango was on her bed, headphones on, a mess of papers laid out in front of her. She didn't look up when Kagome entered, she didn't even know she was there. Kagome launched herself onto the end of the bed hoping not to disturb Sango's project too much.

"Shit Kagome!" Sango shrieked jerking back with a startled expression on her face.

"Boo." Kagome said stretching out like a cat, a sly smile on her lips.

"Har-har." Sango said testily sliding her headphones off and tossing them on to her bed-side table.

"And what is all this?" Kagome started picking up some of the things strewn over Sango's pink comforter.

She couldn't help smiling when she saw the picture in her hands. Someone had taken it at the hayride, the night they'd run into Kouga. It was earlier in the evening, before the drama. They were all sitting around a haystack, Miroku with his arm around Sango's shoulders, both of them beaming. Kagome was next, a fairly recognizable gap next, then Inuyasha. Both of them had adopted relaxed positions, forcing themselves not to look awkward in each others company, and they both bore identical, lopsided, grudging smiles.

"I'm making a collage." Sango said proudly taking her scissors to another picture.

Kagome laid it back down and looked at the next. This one Kagome had taken, Sango and Miroku both grinning at the camera like a pair of Cheshire cats, his arms around her and his head resting on her shoulder. Kagome chuckled and tossed it back to where she had found it.

"How's it coming along?" Kagome inquired tilting her head to get a better look at the completed bits.

"Great so far." Sango grinned at her friend as she discovered one of her favorite parts.

"And what is that?" Kagome said sounding offended.

"Isn't it great?" Sango said trying not to bust with laughter.

"Who took that?" Kagome said finally giving in and chuckling with her friend.

"I don't' even remember." Sango said barely audible in her mirth.

It was actually a great picture. Someone had discreetly snapped it when they stopped for dinner the night of the hayride. Inuyasha and Kagome were sitting opposite from each other at one of the small tables found in fast food restaurants. They were both leaning in, faces red and contorted with anger, both mouths wide in mid sentence, hands in the air making wild, furious gestures. The rest of the patrons were staring wide-eyed and frightened at the feuding pair in the background. Sango had neatly pasted it at an angle down in the one corner with a scarp of a receipt she must have found in a jean pocket and little plastic fork.

"Cute." Kagome said getting her breath back.

"I am the queen of collages."

Which was the complete truth. Kagome painted, but Sango was great at photography, and she loved making collages. Her room was one big ongoing project. They were covered in pictures of friends, family, random landscape pictures from vacations, field trips. She had old magazine articles and adds. It was like living in a scrapbook.

Kagome's eyes scanned the latest project and frowned a bit. The picture with all of them was in the middle, there was a great picture of Sango and Kagome together. But something was bothering her.

"I think that picture is the only one where Inuyasha is smiling." Kagome said with a frown, tilting her head to the side.

"Nah. I've got a few here, somewhere." Sango indicated the one in her hand and then gestured to the pile in front of her.

Kagome took the one from her hand. This one she did remember. It was a rare scene. Kagome and Inuyasha were leaning up against the car when they had stopped to get gas. They stood with their arms just touching, smiling and talking about something. It was one of the few times they weren't fighting. She didn't realize she was grinning until she felt Sango's scrutiny.

"I like that one too."

Kagome laid it down gently not even bothering to not hide the smile she couldn't keep from her face. The horrors of what had happened early were distant in her memory, shrouded by mist, banished by laughter.

"Here we go!" Sango triumphantly pulled out another picture and waved it around.

"Your dad wanted to know what you wanted for dinner by the way." Kagome said as she took the picture.

"Oh I don't care, I'll eat anything. What do you want?"

But Kagome didn't' hear her, or at least not completely. She was lost. Lost in sparkling, warm amber. Kagome couldn't remember ever seeing Inuyasha like this. It must have happened, it was at the amusement park, it was here in front of her in photographic proof. But still, it was so hard to believe. She had seen Inuyasha smile before. That goofy, endearing, lopsided smile. This was different. The pictured captured him from the knees up. His thumbs were shoved into his belt loops and he was slouching ever so slightly, his normal relaxed pose. But he was grinning from ear to ear, his eyes sparkled with laughter at some joke unknown to her.

"Ahem! Food?" Sango tried again.

"Oh, right. Pizza?" Kagome said trying to act casual, she could feel her cheeks burning.

"Of course." Sango bore a pleased, and distinctly mischievous grin.

"Shut it." Kagome laid the picture in an empty corner and placed a few dried flowers from Sango's pile of craft pieced to add and placed them around it.

"That looks good." Kagome could hear the laughter lingering on the edge of the compliment and willed herself not to blush any more.

Sango dropped a very rested Kagome off at her house the next morning, a very gray and dreary Saturday. Only Kagome's car sat in front of her little house. When Sango asked how she had managed to get to her house Kagome had said she walked because something was wrong with her car, and Sango didn't press her for any more details, much to her relief.

Kagome smiled and bid her friend goodbye before walking up the drive to her front door. On the outside she appeared calm, but inside she was struggling to figure out why her mother's car was gone. Did that necessarily mean that her mother was gone? In the end she just decided one could never be too careful.

But after creeping through the living room and peering into the kitchen, then into her mother's bedroom she deemed it safe. She had no idea where her mother had gone, but decided she didn't' really care. She wasn't at home, and that was all that mattered.

She climbed the stairs to her room and flopped down on the bed for a moment. She took a deep breath and smelled her clean sheets and heaved a heavy, contented sigh. Then she heaved herself back up and went about he business of showering and changing. Once decked out in a pair of oversized sweats and a baggy t-shirt she sprawled out on the bed with her sketchpad and turned on her CD player.

I'll say it straight and plain:

I know I've made mistakes

I've always been afraid

A thousand nights or more

I travel eat and north

Please answer the door

Kagome listened to her favorite band and started drawing, the pencil movied and she barely gave a thought to what she was sketching.

You say that love goes anywhere

In your darkest time it's just enough to know it's there

When you go I'll let you be

But you're killing everything in me

The lines began to come together to form a figure. Slightly slouched, looking relaxed and comfortable. The details began to come out of the mist of vague pencil strokes. An ear here, and piercing eye there, event he subtle curve of a muscular forearm.

Get down on your knees

Whisper what I need:

Something pretty

I feel that when I'm old

I'll look at you and know

The world was beautiful

Then you tell me…

She sang along with the music, completely lost in words, lost in the small stokes of her pencil, in the sweeping lines, the shadows, the light.

You say that love goes anywhere

In you darkest time

It's just enough to know it's there

When you go I'll let you be

But you're killing everything in me

Then the phone rang. Kagome started, her pencil making a wide arc across the blank part of the picture. She sighed with relief that it hadn't disturbed the actual sketch, it was irritating having to get rid of those random lines made on completed pictures. She hit the pause button on her CD player and picked up the phone, her trance broken.

"Hello?"

"Kagome?" A familiar voice said.

"Yeah." It couldn't be.

"It's Inuyasha." But it was.

"H-hi." Kagome said, completely taken aback.

"I was just calling to see if you were ok. Everything worked out all right?"

"Yeah, thank you."

"I didn't do anything." Inuyasha said in a gruff voice.

"Yeah you did." Kagome said, a slight blush on her cheeks. "It actually helped to tell someone, even if it wasn't my idea." She added in a sterner tone.

"Kagome-"

"No. It's ok Inuyasha. Just promise me you won't tell anyone."

"I promise." He sounded genuine, and caring.

"Thank you." She said again.

"Just…talk to me. Ok? You can talk to me anytime, you know that right?"

"Sure, than-"

"I know. You don't' need to say it again."

"Ok." Kagome smiled, and couldn't keep the smile from her voice.

"I guess I'll see you on Monday. Remember, you can call me anytime if you need to."

"Ok. Bye."

"Bye." And he was gone again.

Kagome put the phone down, slightly dazed. She wandered back to her bed and hit play again.

I'm done, there's nothing left to show

I try but can't let go

Are you happy where you're standing still?

Do you really want the sugar pill?

I'll wake up tomorrow and I'll start

Tonight it feels so hard

As the train approaches gare du nord,

I'm sure your kiss remains employed,

Am I only dreaming?

Kagome lifted her sketchpad and stared at the picture as if she had never seen it before, as if someone else had crept into her room and drawn it there when she wasn't paying attention.

You say that love goes anywhere

In you darkest time

It's just enough to know it's there

When you go I'll let you be

But you're killing everything in me

That smiling, happy Inuyasha looked out from the paper at her and she felt her heart leap into her throat as if he were actually standing there in front of her.

When you go I'll let you be

But you're killing everything in me.

So I had some serious trouble finding chapter six. It had completely vanished. So this is an entirely new chapter. I have seven done, but I had write a new chapter six. I actually like this one a lot better. I really like the Jimmy Eat World song mixed in there, and I am glad to say you might be seeing a bit more of that sort of thing later. This one might not appear to fit much right away but, winkwink, it has a bit of foreshadowing. Drama coming up soon, so I think chapter seven should be up tonight as well. :) See you later, and I hope all of you old readers find your way back to me....