Chapter 8

Three months was how long it took for her to see him as the man upstairs, except for those rare occasions he caught her in the kitchen when he needed to talk to Kaede or when they left the house at the same time, she didn't see him.

Kagome sighed hearing him walk down stairs to the front door for his morning bike ride, then he would come back and leave for the gym shortly after.

"Kagome, you know you just poured coffee into your cereal?" Kaede said from across the table, feeding Kloie her bottle, patting the little girl's bottom gently.

"Oh!" It was too late. Black coffee and frosted flakes. Not a good combination. She jumped up from the table and spat into the sink, wiping her mouth she turned and gave the old woman an angry look. "A little late don't you think?"

"Well you won't make the same mistake again will you, child?" She chuckled.

Kagome wiped her mouth again; her eyes softened seeing her baby looking at her smiling around the bottle top. "Well I'm glad you two are finding amusement in all of this."

Breathing heavily he eased to a stop, got off his bike and headed into the house. Three months. He sighed, after that night in his apartment she hadn't spoken a word to him, she was just the girl downstairs. He still prayed for her daily but she hadn't tried to fix things so why should he?

He saw her step out into the hallway on his way upstairs, Inuyasha nodded in her direction acknowledging her presence then went into house. After a quick shower he pulled his long black hair into a low ponytail going over his message for the youth service in his head. Moving to the living room he grabbed his bible and quickly looked up a verse in Matthew, crossed out a quote and licked his thumb turning another page. "No. This won't work," Inuyasha's eyes darted to the prayer list sticking from his bible and ran a hand over his face. Who would have thought devoting fifteen minutes of my prayer time just for her would cause so many problems.

"Why do I care?" he asked the empty room, closing his eyes rubbed them gently. Lord, I can't shake these feelings I have….I'm not even sure how I feel about her.

Kagome sighed watching him leave for church that night her eyes taking in every movement of his body through the blinds, her fingers hardly separating them so not to be noticed.

"Stop fawning over him, child and tell him you're sorry."

She jumped at the old woman's voice and spun around, "I'm not fawning over him! Why would I fawn over someone like him?"

Kaede chuckled, "Kagome, you think after five months I don't know you well enough? Ever since you two stopped talking to each, all you both talk about is each other."

Kagome shook her head, "He is not all I talk about," she folded her arms, "And for your information a guy from work asked me out," she closed her eyes curling her lips into a smirk. "His name is Kouga Williams and for your and Inuyasha's information I am going to accept."

"And what do you intend to do with Kloie?"

So much for that… She sighed, "I guess I'll have to tell him no."

Kaede watched the girl stomp to her room, after grabbing a milk bottle from the fridge. She had stopped breast feeding Kloie once she had found a job. She'd noticed the change in Kagome; she had taken to motherhood quickly and loved her daughter very much. The maturity was there, but Kagome was still a teenager and her youth showed at times.

"Kagome, why don't you come to church with us tonight?" Kaede asked, she was dressed casually for a Wednesday night service.

Kagome sat on the couch holding a sleeping Kloie against her shoulder, her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. "I don't know, Kaede. I haven't been to a church in a long time." She said, "If I wanted to be yelled at I could have stayed home."

"New Hope isn't like that, Pastor Mike is really nice and he doesn't try to scare people into the faith. You wouldn't go to the service anyway." She smiled at Kagome's questioning look. "There's a youth group for the teenagers, you can bring Kloie to the nursery or keep her with you."

"You're not going to tell me get out of this are you?"

Kaede raised an eyebrow, "As your friend I would like you to come. I don't ask a lot of you, Kagome, I give you a home and I let you live here without paying rent, the least you could do is join me for church."

Kagome sighed; I knew she was going to bring that up. "Okay I'll go."