Yay! I'm baaaaack! Lalalalala...read and review and all that jazz.

Chapter Four

Festival Game

Tsubaki smiled as she wove flowers into Kagome's hair. "You look beautiful, dear," she said sweetly, winding the last strand of hair and pinning it, then turning her around.

"I better go," Kagome said, acting antsy, "Inuyasha…he said he'd be waiting for me…"

"Are you nervous, Kagome?" Tsubaki asked, feeling amused. Over time, she had come to love the little human girl like a daughter, and truly, the air around the two of them together had a tone of parental affection.

"No!" said Kagome quickly, looking in the mirror again at the braids, then pulling the bottom half of her hair out of the adornment.

"Kagome! That took me forever! Why on earth did you do that!" Tsubaki scolded, throwing up her hands in anger.

"Inuyasha…likes it better down…" Kagome murmured, her face reddening as she combed the hair that now hung freely about her shoulders.

Tsubaki paused, then smiled warmly. Placing both hands on the young girl's shoulders, she gave her a kiss on the cheek. "So that's it…"

"Where is that damn Kagome!" Inuyasha grumbled, arms crossed, "Girls take forever to get…ready…" He trailed off, because at that moment, Kagome emerged from her room, dressed in a red kimono with small blossoms in her hair.

"Hi," she said awkwardly, reddening a little.

"Ready for your first festival?" Inuyasha asked, smirking. Last year, she hadn't been able to attend because of her young age. Inuyasha had skipped out on all the festivals for her sake, and plus, they weren't exactly his kind of thing.

"I guess," she said, smiling and looking into his eyes. He reddened and turned away to hide it.

"Come on, then," he said stubbornly, turning and walking to the village square, not checking to see if she followed.

Kagome took a deep breath and followed after him. "Here goes nothing…"

"God dammit! Will you stop picking your nose for one second!" Koga snapped. The nose picker, Buri by name, withdrew his finger and sighed. His hand began to twitch from nosepicking withdrawal, and he reinserted it when he thought Koga wasn't looking.

Koga rolled his eyes in disgust as he attached the bucket of mud to a rope, then attached that to a beam, making a pulley.

"My plan is brilliant!" Koga chuckled, his face darkening and twisting into a lustful smile, "I dump the mud on her, place the blame on that half-breed, then become her knight in shining armor and help her get over the embarrassment! She'll fall for me immediately!"

Buri pulled something unidentifiable out of his nose and flicked it away. "So, explain the plan again, boss? What are you going to do?"

Koga hit him on the head with an empty bucket.

Kagome clung to Inuyasha's sleeve. She should have been used to it by now, but she doubted she ever would be. The demon eyes looking at her strangely, demanding to know why the weakling was here, the one with black hair clinging to the half-breed.

Kagome hung her head in shame. Well, I have no choice, she thought, if I was born this way. I wish there was someone around here I could really identify with.

Inuyasha put a hand on top of her head and she sighed. He treats me like a little kid. I bet he was shocked to hear that I have to get married next year. Am I crazy, thinking about him in the way I do?

"Come on," said Inuyasha suddenly, snapping her out of her thoughts, "Looks like they're playing a game over there. We can't just stand here all night."

"A kissing game!" Inuyasha demanded. Kagome smiled brightly.

"Oh, it sounds like fun! Don't be such a spoilsport! This is my first time to do anything like this!" she gushed, and Inuyasha growled in his throat as he sat next to her.

The demon in charge of the game, who had been waiting impatiently for them to be quiet, now cleared her throat and explained the rules.

"We blindfold everyone, and put the boys and girls on separate sides of this line," she gestured to a thick straight line scratched in the dirt at their feet, "mix them around a bit, then both the boys and girls walk forward until they touch someone. Whomever you touch first, you kiss. Any questions."

"Yeah," said Inuyasha grumpily, "What's the point?"

The demon woman hissed. "You brat! It's a kissing game! There's no point to it, just a way for you silly teenagers to deal with those raging hormones or whatever!"

Inuyasha scowled. "Oh, well that makes everything fine, then."

Kagome felt the red cloth mask her eyes, and when she opened them again, all she saw was darkness. "I hope I don't trip," she whispered, but Inuyasha, evidently, was no longer by her side.

A voice shouted for them to start walking, and timidly, Kagome began to step forward, arms outstretched.

Her hands almost immediately interlocked with someone else's, and Kagome gasped slightly.

Inuyasha knew he was in front of Kagome the moment he felt her hand accidentally lock with his, despite the blindfold impairing his vision.

This is my chance! There's no reason for her to get mad, because I can just claim I didn't know it was her. This might be the only time I ever get to kiss her…

He leaned his head down to what he knew was the level of her mouth, and felt lips touch his.

Kagome timidly kissed the unknown demon, then after a moment, her fears and hesitation were gone. She clutched long sleeves and leaned her mouth farther into his. A hand reached up and caressed her cheek, and for once in her life, Kagome was one of the villagers, one who belonged. The fact that whoever-it-was couldn't see who she was aided this, but Kagome preferred not to think about that at the moment. For now, she was an equal.

"Now take off your blindfolds and see how lucky you were!" the female demon called.

Kagome held her breath as she lifted up the blindfold, expecting a look of disgust on the other person's face.

But instead, two amber eyes were staring serenely back into her own.

"I-Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped, her face reddening, bringing her hands to her cheeks.

"Yeah?" he asked, seemingly clueless of the gravity of the situation.

"We just kissed!" Kagome exclaimed, wishing to shrink into a small piece of dust and float away.

"Yes, we did." His answer was simple, and he crossed his arms with a smirk.

"That was a huge mistake! I'm so sorry!" Kagome blurted, then realized how that must sound.

Inuyasha's face darkened and he glared at her. "What's that supposed to mean!"

"Nothing!" Kagome said quickly, waving it away fretfully, "Just, well, you know, we're friends, and—"

"Right." Not meeting her eyes, he turned to go. "Sorry for spoiling your evening!"

She watched him stomp off, tears brimming in her eyes. That must have been so mortifying for him when he realized it was me he was kissing and not someone else! Now things are going to be so awkward between us…

She was brought out of her thoughts when she realized that everyone else around her was staring, looking at her in the usual way – like she was dirt under their feet. Sobbing, she ran off into the forest.

"Dammit!" Inuyasha cursed, palmheeling a small tree and snapping it in two. "I blew it!"

Panting, he sat down and covered his face with his hands. "God dammit," he repeated over and over again, "God dammit."

Kagome ran faster and faster into the trees, crying. Why does life have to be so complicated? Why can't I just be normal like everyone else? Why am I different? If I wasn't different, Inuyasha would probably be in love with me. Just like I'm in love with him.

Tripping on a jutting branch and falling to the ground, she hissed as her knee began to bleed. "Dammit," she swore, placing a hand over the scrape and watching the red run between her fingers.

A voice in a clearing below her whispered hoarsely and frightenedly.

"Did you hear that?"

Another voice answered. "Hojo, why don't you calm down? We're far enough away from the demon village. No one from there would be over here."

Kagome narrowed her eyes in confusion and crawled carefully over to the edge of the rocks. A fire was burning below, and three tents were set up. And sitting around the fire, huddled together against the cold, were three young figures, two boys and a girl.

Figures that looked like she did. Dark hair, brown eyes, lightly tanned skin.

Kagome, staying hidden, watched them with a sort of fixation. They look like me…how is that possible?

Suddenly, the tallest one, a boy with his hair in a small ponytail, stood up, raising a staff uneasily. Had he heard her breathing? Inuyasha always could. Or maybe it was the leaves crackling beneath her feet.

Kagome crouched down, closed her eyes and fought not to move. The boy sat down again, and she let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

The girl looked over in the direction her companion had been looking again, a confused look on her face. "Did you see anything?"

"No," the boy replied, "but I heard something. Must have been the wind."

Kagome chanced another look over the edge, leaning forward slightly.

And fell forward suddenly, down onto the ground below.

Uh-oh! I hope you guys liked the whole nosepicker thing again! His name is Buri. If you say that with a Japanese accent, it's booty. I know because that was our immature little inside joke during the culture festival in second grade. Ah, good times.

Review or you'll never find out how Inuyasha's gonna react when Kagome decides to bring the mysterious strangers home to the village!