Chapter One
Enjoy the Moment

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha. Sadly. Or any others. Gr.

A/N: I hope you enjoy my story. It's my first one… so don't be TOO harsh. Thanks.

A girl, a hanyou, and a fox demon sat together in the grass at the edge of a cliff. The breeze blew pleasantly over their faces, making the day quite enjoyable. The stars sparkled brightly, and even the hanyou was unusually relaxed as they enjoyed the wonderful day that held promises for tomorrow. The girl was sitting a few feet behind the hanyou, who was half dog demon and half human. The girl stared at the boy hanyou, lost in thought….

Wow, just look at his hair. It's very shiny. Shiny. An unnatural silver. And his eyes. They're like… gold. You can tell just looking at him he's different. But different's sometimes good, right? Yes. Especially in this case. He was… handsome. Even though he WAS an ass sometimes. And his muscles… that one time she saw him naked, just for a brief second, before flinging things angrily in his direction. Oh, did I mention how shiny his hair was? And his ears are so kawaii... I remember when I first felt them, when he was pinned to that tree. Wow, that seems so long ago…

She sighed, continuing to openly stare at him, since his back was turned away from me. She was not only staring at him, but lost in thought about him. She then returned to her ramblings.

Why did he hold her captive? I guess he didn't do it on purpose… Well, DUH he didn't do it on purpose. He treated her like dork. She thought of all the names he called her. 'Baka', 'idiot', 'stupid', 'weakling'… there was no end to the names. That's why she could never admit that she was thinking about him. He'd probably throw her a disgusted look - then call her a few names. Hmm…

I wonder what HE is thinking about…

In front of her, he felt her gaze on his back. Ears twitching, he slowly turned his head, and looked at the Miko out of the corner of his eyes. What the hell? She just… sat there… with her mouth slightly opened. Just staring. It was started both to creep him out. Not to mention irritate him..

"K… Kagome? Wench, stop staring at me. You look stupid," he said with a sneer. But… she just kept on staring.

InuYasha stood staring back at the girl, turning away from the intense stare. He didn't want her to see he was blushing.

"InuYasha! You're blushing! Why? Why are you blushing? Huh? Huh? Huh!" The fox demon, named Shippo, teased InuYasha. It was fun to watch the hanyou get mad. "InuYasha's in love… InuYasha's in lo-ove…" he sang out.

"Shuddup, runt! I am NOT blushing!" he said, hitting the tiny fox demon on the head. "And I am definitely NOT in love with that wench!"

"Owww. Kagome! InuYasha's hurting me!"

"Shuddup!" he muttered, putting his hand over Shippo's mouth, for he knew what was going to happen if Kagome heard him. He braced himself for the command. But… it didn't come.

"Huh?" he looked at Kagome with a confused look, then jumped in front of her. "Kagome? Is something the matter? You… you keep at staring at me. It's giving me the… goosebumps…"

Kagome seemed to finally realize that InuYasha was talking to her, and somehow moved from being a few feet in front of her to being right in her face. His golden eyes looked at her quizzically.

Kawaii! He looks so adorable… with his head tilted like a dog… a dog! He looks like a dog!

With this sudden recognition, she burst out laughing. It wasn't even that comical, she just had a jumble of tension from the last battle. She let out all of her fear in the form of hysterical laughter. She remembered the battle clearly, as though it was yesterday. But… it wasn't yesterday. In fact, it was a week ago. Her mind wandered yet again to the mêlée.

x-x

InuYasha was battling with all his might. But, he was weak. The battle before this one, he had got poisoned. It did not kill him, but it did leave him feeling very tired. InuYasha still was very strong, and it amazed everyone how he keep battling, just to protect his friends. Miroku and Sango were out – they were knocked uncouncious. Kagome had a deep slash in her arm, to the horror of InuYasha. He had to protect her above anything else. He didn't know why, but he had to. His whole being told him he had to.

"Wind scar!"

He attacked with the last of his power, fainting. This petrified Kagome, for hanyou's as strong as InuYasha didn't faint that easily.

The demon, which looked like a colossal lion, had greater power than any of the four could imagine. The lion demon took some damage, but not enough to kill it. As InuYasha fell to the ground, the lion looked at him with ravenous eyes. He bent down to eat him with an malevolence chuckle.

"InuYasha? InuYasha! Don't you DARE eat him! You Hellcat!" Kagome screamed at the top of her lungs. Bending over, she grabbed a rock and threw it at the demon.

The lion looked at her with interest, and then put the boy down. A girl! A young girl! Oh, had he had a craving for a young woman for weeks! He wondered why he had not noticed her there before. Well, she did have slash marks from him. Now, when did he do that?

The 'Hellcat' took the girl in his hand and squeezed her.

"You are a nuisance! A cute nuisance, but a nuisance nonetheless. And, I've been craving young girl for weeks now! Hmpf. For you to sacrifice your life for this young man, you are foolish…. very foolish indeed. Are you… in love perhaps?"

He raised her to his mouth, but before he could eat her, she raised her hidden bow and arrow, said, "EAT THIS!" and shot the arrow straight into it's mouth, obliterating the beast. Since he was 30 feet tall, the fall wasn't a very easy one, and the last thing she could remember was InuYasha standing over her with a worried expression on his face, and… yelling at her! What?

"Good." She said, interrupting his yelling rant. "You're alive. That's great."

Then it faded to black.

-x-

She stopped laughing, to the relief of Shippo and InuYasha who thought she'd gone insane,and started to think about the Hellcat's words. Was she in love? With… InuYasha? With the arrogant hanyou jerk? And what if she was? He was… in love with the dead priestess. Kikyo. Why did that realization hurt so much? Of course, going back to the worrying, she didn't have to worry about anymore harmful battles. They were done and over with since Naraku was gone. Which just happened recently, actually. She didn't have to worry about Kikyou either… well, sorta. Kikyou was down in hell with Naraku, but InuYasha still loved-

"STOP STARING AT ME! IT'S CREEPING ME OUT!"

Kagome snapped out of her daze and looked at InuYasha.

"I was not staring at you. I was staring at a star above your head."

"Feh, I'm sure you were." InuYasha said airily.

"I was."

"Was not."

"Was!"

"Was NOT!"

"Dammit! You WERE!"

"Shut up and SIT!"

The beads around InuYasha's neck glowed for a moment before he slammed into the ground. Kagome, afraid of InuYasha's anger, took off running with a satisfied grin on her face. She loved to tease him! She laughed out loud with enjoyment. Maybe she should be scared? Weeell… she'd worry about that later.

"Hnn. I'm watching this. This is getting interesting," Shippo said with a half smile on his face, glancing at InuYasha getting up from the ground with a scowl on his face and Kagome, who was already running half way across the field.

"Damn! Kagome! Get back here!"

"No way!" she said, giggling.

"Feh! You know I'm way faster than you!" InuYasha yelled at Kagome.

InuYasha ran toward Kagome, steadily gaining on her.

"I got you now! Thought you could get away from me? Stupid wench!" InuYasha ran at her and pounced, knocking her to the ground. He straddled her, so that one of his legs was on the left side of her hip, and one was on the right. He looked down at her triumphantly.

"Who's the fastest?" he said, with a grin, pinning her arms down.

"Ok, ok! You are!" Kagome said, laughing.

"Feh. Of course. Now and always!" His self-confidence was expanding quite rapidly.

"But… not that I'm thinking about it… I think Koga's way faster than you."

She was joking, of course, but as soon as she said Koga's name, his face turned into a scowl, and his grin disappeared.

"I'm faster than that mangy wolf," InuYasha said angrily, putting more pressure on her arms than he meant to.

"Ow," Kagome said quietly. "InuYasha, my arm."

InuYasha stopped scowling and looked down at her arm. It was bandaged, and by the looks of it, and Kagome's whimpering, it still hurt sorely, even though she got the wound a week ago.

"Sorry, Kagome…" InuYasha muttered, with concern in his voice, getting off her.

Kagome looked at InuYasha surprised, for she knew how hard it was for him to apologize for anything. InuYasha must of noticed the look, for instantly he said, "What are you looking at, wench?"

Kagome's face turned from one of surprise to one of anger, and then, as fast as her face turned angry, softened. That was just InuYasha. Soft on the inside. Hard on the outside. Like old bread. She chuckled at her comparison.

Inuyasha glared at her.

"Dammit, I'm not that funny looking…" he muttered. Kagome was surprised to find a hurt look in his golden eyes behind the irritativeness that usually showed.

"Of course you're not," she said with a soft voice, stroking his long, silver hair. Which caused InuYasha to blush, as did anything involving Kagome touching him.

"Anyways, I'm not laughing at that, silly," she said, jumping on his back, which didn't help much, causing InuYasha's blush to deepen.

"Wha… wha… WHAT the hell are you doing!"

"Take me on a ride, since your so fast and all."

"WHAT?" he yelled, shyness turning into irritation.

"C'mon!" she said, pulling on his ears.

"Owowowow! Kagome! That hurts, ya know!"

She laughed, and buried her head into his soft white hair. She held on to him tight and laughed out loud, as the man she loved carried her around the field, so fast she had to hang on for dear life. Huh? Wait…

The man she loved! That just came out naturally. She thought it freely. She didn't even care, really. She actually liked the sound of it. So, she was in love… with InuYasha. She was in love with…

"I love old bread!" the girl shouted with glee, and then blushed as she realized she said it out loud.

InuYasha stopped and glanced back at her from the corner of his eye. "Idiot. Feh, I don't understand you. Are all girls from your era like you?"

She listened to him grumble has he walked, still hanging on his back, and she realized there was no other way she'd rather spend her day. She was with InuYasha. The one she loved. Who cared about Kikyo? She thought. Just enjoy the moment…

I'll treasure this… with all my heart…

Then she fell asleep, the steady breathing of InuYasha acting as her lullaby.