Disclaimer- Inuyasha is not owned by yours truly.

AN-Umm…on with the story!

An Uninvited Dinner Guest

Kagome happily swapped chit chat with her family as they filled up their plates with the rice and dumplings on the table in front of them. The complete normalcy of the everyday exchange of pleasantries helped her to forget her odd situation for a few moments. As everyone began to dig in to their food, Kagome spared a thought that Inuyasha was being very accommodating with her request for silence and she would have to make up for her earlier outburst to him. 'I'll apologize to him after dinner. I can get really grumpy when I'm hungry, but he didn't know that, poor guy.' Bringing her chopsticks up to her mouth, she was about to take her first bite of dinner when her arm froze in mid air. 'What the...' She tried again to bring it to her mouth, but her arm refused to budge, it was almost as though someone was holding it…

Gritting her teeth in realization, she tried to put her arm down, but found that she couldn't move it in any direction at all. Her hand was just stuck there, halfway between her plate and her lips. She tugged uselessly at the invisible hand attached to her wrist, trying to at least move her arm down to the table before someone noticed.

"Kagome dear, what's wrong? You haven't tried anything yet. I thought this was your favorite."

Putting on an expression of nonchalance, she said, "Oh I'm just, uh, letting it cool off mom. It's really hot."

"Oh alright then, don't burn your tongue." With that comment her mother went back to discussing the different relics her grandpa had been sorting through the whole afternoon.

Giving another ineffectual yank, Kagome hissed under her breath, "Inuyasha, let me go!"

"No," was the only reply she got.

Beginning to feel somewhat desperate that he would keep her in the same position for the rest of the night, Kagome gave one last mighty jerk of her arm and was rewarded with a very loud crash as her fist came in contact with the table only inches from her dinner plate. 'Ow ow ow ow.'

"Kagome!" Her head snapped up at her name and she turned a bright shade of red as she saw everyone staring at her with surprised looks on their faces.

"Er, sorry. I, uh…there was a fly…" she managed to say through her embarrassment. "Sorry," she said again somewhat lamely, inwardly fuming as she distinctly heard the sound of amused laughter behind her.

Her mother merely raised an eyebrow at this and went back to eating and listening as Souta recounted his day at school to her. Her grandfather just gave her an odd look before returning to his meal also.

Kagome once again picked up her chopsticks and the dumpling that had dropped from her fingers. This time she couldn't even raise her hand off the table. She wanted to scream in frustration, but somehow managed to rein it in long enough to close her eyes and slowly count to ten. Trying one more time to eat, she cautiously lifted her hand and found it unhindered. 'Oh thank goodness. Maybe he's getting tired of bothering me…yeah right.' As she opened her mouth to take a bite, she felt a small pressure on her chopsticks and then heard the plop of her food hitting her plate.

She once again felt her eyebrow twitching, giving away her internal irritation to any who knew her. She quickly scooped up the sorely abused dumpling and tried to get it to her mouth before he could stop her again.

Plop.

"Good going wench. You know, you're even clumsier than I thought if you can't even bring food to your mouth properly."

And again, scoop, lift, plop.

"Jeez, that's just pathetic."

And then, as she failed again and her almost completely destroyed fried dumpling hit the plate for a fourth time, she realized she had the undivided attention of her family once more.

"Uh, Kagome?" her little brother spoke up, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she managed to get out between clenched teeth.

Her mother opened her mouth to say something to her, but was drowned out (unbeknownst to her) by Inuyasha's voice loudly asking right next to her ear, "Yeah, what's the problem? You seem to be having some trouble with your chopsticks."

Realizing her mother was waiting for her to say something, but having no idea what she had just said, Kagome stalled with a quick, "Sorry mom, I didn't hear that. What did you say?"

Her mother gave a worried frown and answered, "I said sweetie-"and was for a second time cut off by Inuyasha.

"She said that you need to stop being such a silly little twit and learn how to use those two little sticks in front of you like a normal person."

Suddenly her patients snapped and she found herself shouting to the air, "Will you shut up already!"

Three shocked faces stared back at her with mouths hanging open.

"Oh no, not you mom! I was yelling at, uh, the fly. It was…buzzing in my ear again…" Her face heated up for what seemed like the twentieth time that day as she threw out the lame excuse. 'God this can't get any worse…'

"So I'm a buzzing fly now, am I?"

Knowing she was only asking for trouble if she stayed any longer, Kagome cleared her throat and managed to say, "Excuse me please, I think I need to take a walk outside. My head hurts."

"Oh…alright honey," her mother said with her worried look returning.

Kagome scooted her chair back from the table and made to stand up.

And couldn't move.

Two hands on her shoulders kept her in place as everyone looked at her, expecting her to leave.

"Well then…I guess I'll go now," she said trying in vain to stand and walk away from this humiliation.

Souta gave her a funny look. "You already said that, sis."

"So I did…"

She tried twisting sharply to the side to escape his hands and suddenly found herself sprawled on the floor as he abruptly let go. 'Won't someone please just shoot me?'

Everyone at the table jumped up as she seemingly dumped herself on the floor. "Oh honey, are you okay?" her mother asked fretfully.

Jumping up and all but running out of the room to the outside door she called out "I'm fine, I'm fine!" Then they heard the open and shut of the door as she let herself out to the yard. Her mother, brother and grandfather all looked to each other in confusion at her odd behavior. Then her grandpa promptly summed it up with an unconcerned, "Hmph, young people. They get stranger every day."

Kagome managed to make it all the way to the back of the yard, to where the old dry well was boarded up inside a little hut, before she exploded.

"Just what the hell did you think you were doing back there.!"

"I was just having some fun; jeez don't get your hair in a twist."

"D…don't get my…are you serious?" she spluttered in disbelief. "You just humiliated me in front of my whole family! Of course I'm going to get my hair in a twist!"

"It's just your family, it's not like it's the end of the world. Relax already."

"Of all the idiotic- of course it's not the end of the world! But I have to go back in there and explain why I've suddenly started acting like a complete lunatic."

"Feh, you'd think they'd be used to that."

Not for the fist time Kagome really wished she could see her annoying companion, if only to find his neck and strangle him. 'How is it possible to get under someone's skin so quickly? Come on girl, don't let him get to you like this, it'll only encourage him.' It was a nice thought. Of course his next comment blew all thoughts of remaining calm right out the window.

"You really should learn to get a sense of humor you know."

"I do have a sense of humor you bastard!" she stormed. "There's just nothing funny about laughing at the expense of others. I wouldn't do it to you and no one in my family would do it either. It's cruel and heartless when there's nothing the other person can do to defend them self."

"Yeah especially when that some one is you I suppose."

"That goes for anyone you big jerk. And I thought you were supposed to protect me, not throw me on the floor."

"First of all, wench, you threw yourself, I just let go. And second, I guard you from things that would hurt you and you didn't hurt yourself, now did you"

"Well no…"

"See?" Inuyasha watched as she rolled her eyes in disbelief at his logic and sighed. He couldn't suppress a small grin at her expression. This girl was just so much fun to tease. He was actually starting to like arguing with her, however strange that seemed.

"I still think you acted like a jerk." She paused for a second. "You know, I was going to apologize for yelling at you earlier." Her stomach chose this moment to give a loud gurgle. "After I had dinner," she continued pointedly.

Inuyasha stopped at that. 'She was going to apologize to me?' "Oh," was all he managed to get out before they both heard someone calling her name from the other side of the house.

Kagome quickly turned and opened the door to the well house, stepping inside before silently shutting it behind her. "I still can't face them yet." She said in way of explanation.

"Whatever."

Kagome rolled her eyes again. Didn't he have any other way to answer? As she turned around to ask him as much, she stopped dead when she saw she wasn't alone. "Aah!" she squeaked in surprise.

The boy sitting on the well looked up and said in a somewhat annoyed voice, "What's your problem, wench?"

For a second her heart skipped a beat before she replied cautiously, "Inu…yasha?"

AN- Hope you liked!

I apologize for any mistakes, as it is three in the morning and I'm all blurry eyed from staring at the screen.

Thanks for reading! Bye for now.