Disclaimer-Mmm, nope, still not mine.

AN- Thanks again for reading, I apologize in advance (and retrospect) for any mistakes in grammar or spelling, I try to catch them all, but hey, even a couple get by my sharp eyes. :-)

A Not So Silent Helper

There was a short pause after Kagome admitted she could here the voice in her room, in which she briefly entertained the idea of going downstairs and grabbing one of grandpa's warding charms from the shrine. Surely this wasn't some demon though…

"Er, excuse me, but are you some kind of, um, evil spirit? Cause if you are, I have to warn you, my grandpa is a very powerful shrine priest and he'll kick your butt all the way back to wherever you came from! So don't even think of hurting me!" Okay, so she was embellishing a little bit, but the voice didn't know that. At least she didn't think it did.

"Feh, dumb girl, if I was going to hurt you, do you think I would have kept you from falling on your ass so many times?"

Kagome bristled a little at being called dumb and stated sharply, "How should I know what you're thinking huh? You could just be saving up for something big and awful." Even as she said it, Kagome realized how ridiculous that sounded. Why would an evil spirit care if she tripped and scrapped her knee on the sidewalk, or knocked her head from falling out of a chair if it was just going to hurt her later on? Speaking of knocking heads though, Kagome thought back to almost getting whacked upside hers earlier, with a high speed soccer ball.

"That was you that kept me from getting hit this afternoon wasn't it?"

From the direction of her bed, she heard a softly grumbled, "Maybe." Looking over to where the voice was now coming from, she asked somewhat huffily, "Can you please stop moving around? I can't see you, you know."

The equally huffy reply was,"Yeah well, you're not supposed to hear me either. Who are you?"

"Who am I? Who are you? Why are you following me and why are you in my house!" She had to admit she was somewhat surprised to hear he didn't know who she was. 'What's the point of stalking someone if you don't know who they are? I mean, it kind of defeats the purpose right?'

Now the reply came from beside her desk and Kagome once more turned to 'face' him, more or less. "Who I am is none of your business wench. And it's not like I want to follow you, constantly keeping your accident prone ass out of trouble. I have no choice okay! So don't go getting all pissy about it!"

'Why of all the rude…'

"Hey, I'll get pissy if I want to get pissy alright! This is my home you've so irritatingly invaded and I'll thank you to remember that! Now tell me who you are and what you want!" Just in time, Kagome remembered her brother was downstairs and lowered her voice. "And stop moving. It's aggravating."

"Oh gee, sorry", came the sarcastic retort from near her door. She got the distinct feeling he (it was definitely a boy's voice she heard) was just doing that to further annoy her. Fine she would outsmart him. She walked over to her bed and sat on it with her back to the wall. There, now she could see the whole room without having to keep turning around all the time. 'Ha! I win.'

Deciding it really couldn't hurt to tell him who she was (and feeling only a little silly for still talking to an empty room and a floating voice) she said, "My name is Kagome."

Instead of returning with his own name as she thought he would, the boy-voice only snorted and said, "Well duh. I knew that much."

"Well then why did you ask me?" she exclaimed angrily. Jeez, this guy was infuriating!

"What I meant was, who are you that you are able to hear me when no one else can." He said this slowly as if talking to someone who was having trouble keeping up.

Crossing her arms over her chest she grumbled, "You could have just said that. How should I know?" If this guy was going to keep being so rude she was going to leave. 'Of course he'll probably just come after me.' Then again, if he had just stayed quiet, she would have never known she was being followed in the first place. And for that matter, exactly how long had he been following her?

"Er, have you been here…long?"

"You want to know how long I've been watching you, you mean."

Well, guess he was a little more perceptive than she originally thought. "Yeah…"

She could almost hear the smirk in his voice as he said, "Long enough…"

A dozen scenes flew though her head as she though of all the embarrassing things he had probably been witness to in the last week alone… Then another even more humiliating thought occurred to her.

"You pervert!" she all but screamed.

"Hey, no! Wait a minute, I didn't mean it like that!" he said quickly.

"You've seen me in my bedroom, in the bathroom…in the girl's locker room! You sick little-"

She was cut off by an equally perturbed voice that shouted, "Now hold on! I am not a pervert okay! I don't watch you get undressed or anything, I just make sure you stay safe. So stop shouting already!"

"Well you're shouting too!"

"Am not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes! You…wait a minute. What do you mean you make sure I stay safe?"

A pause, and then a clipped," Nothing."

"Don't tell me 'nothing'. What did you mean?" Kagome began to worry a little. "Am I in trouble or something? Is…is something going to happen?"

She gave a small gulp at the thought of being the target of some weird cosmic plot of execution. It was such a strange notion, that someone would be out to get her from somewhere on another planet or in a different dimension or something, that she shook her head and smiled slightly. There was no way that could happen outside of a sci-fi or fantasy novel. Things like that just didn't happen in real life. Then again, neither did people talking from invisible bodies. The smile was replaced by another frown of worry.

"Stop worrying so much, you'll give yourself a headache."

Frowning even more, Kagome replied, "How sweet of you to be concerned."

She imagined he gave a little shrug when he said, "Just doing my job."

"You act as though someone forced you to do this."

Again she imagined a shrug, "Something like that I guess."

"Well, if it means anything, thank you for saving me from several nasty bumps today." Kagome figured she could at least be nice about it since it seemed as if he really didn't want to be here in the first place. Maybe she could get a few answers out of him though.

"So…how long are you going to be here?"

"Dunno."

"Okay, and other than to keep me safe, why are you here?"

"Dunno."

"Al…right, and why is it I can hear you but not see you?"

"Dunno."

"…Uh huh." Kagome's eyebrow began to twitch in frustration. "Do you know anything?"

"Sure."

When he didn't continue, she started to feel as though he was beginning to enjoy teasing her with his stupid one word answers.

"Fine, be that way you stubborn jerk." She muttered to herself. "See if I care." If he didn't want to talk, that was fine by her. She would just sit there until he cracked. Or until she did. 'No way, I'm not speaking to him again until he's at least civil to me. Stupid floating voice thing. Won't even tell me his name.'

Unknown to Kagome, as she sat on her bed mentally chewing out her unwanted guest, the boy in question was pacing back and forth doing almost the same thing. 'Stupid girl. Why did she have to go and hear me? Why can't she just be oblivious like everyone else? Now she's gotta ask all these dumb questions. Hmph, give me the silent treatment will you? Well it's not gonna work! It's not like I care if you talk to me or not.' But the boy had to admit, (if only to himself) it was nice to speak with someone after so long. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just give his name to her? But damned if he would be the first to say something!

A few minutes passed by and Kagome was itching with curiosity in the silence. After all, it wasn't every day that a girl was endowed with her own invisible protector. Even if he was an unsociable jerk. She was just about to let her pride take a small hit and say something, when she heard his voice again.

"My name's Inuyasha."

Forgetting what she had planned to say, Kagome instead greeted him a politely as she could. "It's, um, nice to meet you Inuyasha." 'I think'

"Whatever."

Kagome gritted her teeth as she tried to keep from saying something that would surely be the start of another argument. 'Can't he just be nice for once?' Kagome cleared her throat and tried again to start a conversation.

"So, where do you come from? Are you, like, dead or something?"

"No, I don't think I'm dead…and as far as I know I'm from here. Just not from now."

Kagome was a little confused by that, but let it slide in hopes of keeping up the flow of words from him. It was a definite improvement over his sarcasm and one word replies. "Alright, well as long as you're here we need to establish some rules."

"Huh? Rules?"

She nodded her head, "That's right. First, there will be no peeping of any kind."

"Hey, I already told you I don't-"

"Second," she continued, cutting of his protest, "Since I'm the only one who can hear you and I don't want people to think I'm crazy, try not to talk to me when other people are around."

"I'll talk whenever I feel like it wen-"

"And last," Kagome hurried on, interrupting him once more," No sneaking up behind me a trying to scare me anymore. I almost had a heart attack that first time."

"Now that wasn't my fault," he said, and seeing he wasn't going to be interrupted this time continued, "I didn't know you were going to hear me."

"Oh, so you always insult people when you think they aren't listening do you?"

"Pretty much."

"That seems kind of mean," she said with a little frown.

"Whatever, it's not like they're offended or anything."

"Still…"

"Look girl, when you have to follow someone around for years on end without anybody to talk to, you see what you do for fun. Until then, stop criticizing me!"

Kagome held up her hands in defense, "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean anything by it. Wow, years? That's…a long time without company," she said, feeling a little sorry for him. Flashing a bright smile in the general direction of Inuyasha, she then stated happily, "Well now you have me to keep you company."

"Oh joy," he said with a sigh.

AN- Hope you liked it, suggestions are always welcome, so don't hesitate to tell me if I start writing crap. LoL

Bye for now!