Disclaimer- I (do not) own Inuyasha.

AN- I'm having so much fun writing this Fic! Due in most part to all the positive support I've received. It's a happy little loop we are in. I write because you are happy; you are happy because I write. Hey if it isn't broken, don't fix it. Also, I'm starting this chapter a little earlier than I usually do, so hopefully it will be somewhat longer than my norm. But don't hold me to this. :-)

Sweet Dreams

Kagome approached her house slowly, noticing someone (probably her mother) had left a light on outside for her to see by. 'How long were we in there? It didn't seem like very long, but it's almost completely dark out now.' She tried to think of how late it had been when she rushed out into the yard. 'Well the sun was still up, but only a short way from the horizon, so maybe an hour? It still seemed like that was an awful long time to have been out supposedly walking off a headache, and Kagome wondered how she was going to answer the questions she would surely receive from her mother.

She paused just before opening the door, then gave a little shrug and figured she would just try to be as evasive as possible. Once inside, Kagome aimed herself straight for the kitchen, per not so subtle request of her stomach. Her mother was already there, washing up the last of the dishes. Seeing her daughter walk in she smiled and gestured to the fridge with one soapy hand.

"I saved you some dinner sweetheart, though it's probably cold by now. Nearly had my fingers bitten off trying to keep them from your brother and grandfather."

Kagome flashed her mom a brilliant smile as she opened the refrigerator door. "Thanks mom, I really appreciate it."

"Not a problem. What kind of mother would I be if I let my daughter miss her favorite dinner?" There was a small comfortable silence as Mrs. Higurashi finished the dishes and set them to dry in the sink while Kagome heated up her food in the microwave. "So, how is your head?"

"Oh, it's, um, much better thank you. I guess I just need some fresh air."

"Yes, you were acting a little strange tonight." Her mother looked towards her and tilted her head to the side the same way Inuyasha had seen her daughter do earlier. "Are you sure you're okay, Kagome? You were gone for quite some time. I was starting to worry"

Looking down at the ground and hating for having to lie to her mother, she said, "Sorry, mom. I guess it's just been a long week, you know. The teachers are really laying it on us with finals coming up and all."

Her mother nodded her head understandingly. "Yes, I suppose you're right. And you were up rather late last night weren't you?" Kagome looked a little sheepish at that. Did everyone in the house know she had been up until way past two in the morning, finishing her school work? "I want you to go to bed early tonight, okay."

"Aw but, mom-"

"No buts Kagome. You need your sleep, you're a growing girl."

"But it's the weekend!"

Her only answer was a look that said, 'what did I just say?'

"Oh alright…"

"Good girl, now eat your dinner and then go upstairs so you can work on those school assignments I know you probably haven't even begun yet."

"I've started them!"

"Oh you have? Well good for you sweetie. It's nice to see you getting an early start for once."

"Er, right," Kagome agreed, with a little twinge of guilt. It wasn't really a lie. She had started it. She just hadn't gotten very far was all… A light snicker from her left indicated Inuyasha was listening to her and knew exactly how much she had actually gotten done.

Ding!

Kagome reached into the microwave to get her plate and said to her mother, "I think I'll just eat in my room. I can work and eat at the same time." Then she hurried out of the kitchen before Inuyasha could cause trouble. Her mother called after her. "Remember, no staying up late tonight."

"K mom!" was the response, slightly muffled over the pounding of feet up the stairs.

Safely up in her room, plate and chopsticks in hand, Kagome sat down her desk and picked up a dumpling to eat. She paused momentarily. "Not going to make me drop it this time are you?"

"Course not, what fun is that if there's no one to see you?"

Rolling her eyes at that, she proceeded to take a big bite out of the gyoza, happily munching on half of it at once. "Mmm." She closed her eyes in bliss as her mother's wonderfully tasty cooking invaded her mouth and empty stomach. She popped the rest in her mouth and chewing away merrily, grabbed another dumping off the plate in one quick motion.

"Jeez, slow down. You'll give yourself a stomach ache."

Kagome just grinned and took another bite. "It's worth it," she said between chewing.

"Oh gross! Close your mouth, will you?"

Grinning evilly, Kagome quickly turned her head and stuck out her tongue at him. Full mouth and all.

"Lovely," was the dry response.

Swallowing, Kagome chuckled and said, "I know."

"Aren't you supposed to be doing you school stuff while you eat?"

"Actually, I just said that to get out of there before you decided to embarrass me again."

"That hurts me Kagome, really it does," Inuyasha said in a mock hurt tone. Instead of coming back with a witty retort as he expected though, Kagome set down the bite of rice she had just picked up and looked towards him. "What?" he asked, wondering what he had done this time.

Kagome gave a little half-smile and shook her head before picking up her chopsticks again. "Nothing, I just never heard you use my name before." She resumed eating as if nothing had happened, giving him time to think back and realize she was right. 'So what, it's not that big a deal.'

"Feh, whatever."

Kagome just smiled again. "I thought you might say that."

"Hmph."

Kagome finished off the rest of her meal in silence. When she was done, she leaned back in her chair with a contented sigh, hands on her noticeably bulgier stomach. "So good…"

"I cannot believe you ate all that."

"Me either," she stated with her eyes closed. "I was hungry though."

"Well don't say I didn't warn you if your belly starts hurting later."

"Duly noted, Inuyasha." Standing up, she grabbed her plate and went back down to the kitchen to wash it in the sink. As she scrubbed away, she could hear the faint sounds of the TV in the living room and soft voices from her mother and grandfather. A sense of complete happiness crept up on her as she listened to the jumbled noises and thought warmly of her family. The smile on her face must have seemed odd as Inuyasha asked, "Oi, what are you so happy about?"

Remembering to keep her voice low, Kagome just said simply, "Nothing…and everything."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

She just shook her head as she finished rinsing her plate and chopsticks and laid them to dry next to the others. "It doesn't mean anything. I'm just happy, that's all."

Inuyasha followed her as she made her way back upstairs to her room, still feeling confused. "Yeah okay, but why?" He stepped though her door as she shut it and tuned to face her as she gave an exasperated sigh.

"I don't know. Haven't you ever just felt happy for no reason before?"

"No."

Taken aback by his simple answer, any comment she might have been ready to make disappeared in an unexpected wave of sadness. Her feeling of happiness faded away as she realized he wasn't trying to tease her, he was just stating a fact. 'He's never been happy for no reason? Has he ever been happy at all I wonder?'

Mistaking the girl's silence for something else, Inuyasha snapped angrily, "Don't go feeling all sorry for me just because I don't go around grinning like an idiot for no reason, okay? I don't need your pity."

Kagome just blinked and said quietly, "I don't feel sorry for you Inuyasha. I'm just sad, is all."

"Huh? But you just said you were happy." He quickly lost his anger at her sudden shift in mood and wondered, not for the first time, how she could move from one emotion to the other so quickly. He observed as she waved her hand in the air as if dismissing his comment.

"I know, I was, but…" She shook her head. "Never mind." And she was back to being her cheerful self once more. "I'm going to work on my report now, so please be quiet would you? I need to concentrate if I'm going to finish this before dawn." It must have been the 'please', because Inuyasha stayed silent as she went to her desk and picked up a pencil to start writing. As she set to work on her paper, Inuyasha was lost in his own thoughts, more than happy for the break in conversation so he could muse on the day's events. Thought after thought wound its way around his head, each one even more confusing than the last. Unanswered questions floated around right after them. How? How was this possible? He'd known her for less than a month and already she had seen him, heard him and bickered with him. The last at several different times actually. And on one heart stopping occasion, she had actually tried to touch him! He wasn't really sure how he felt about that one. On one hand, the girl annoyed him and he new if he wasn't bound to her as he was now, he would get as far away from her as possible. On the other hand, the girl intrigued him (for various reasons he didn't want to sort through right now) and for half a second back at the well, he had entertained the idea of letting her go ahead and touch him as she had wanted to…Which was completely out of the question. Right?

Inuyasha gave a rough shake of his head, trying uselessly to expel all the things bouncing around in his mind. Why was this girl torturing him like this? Couldn't she tell that her mere presence was driving him batty? 'Why did I have to get stuck with her?' he thought for the thousandth time since he first laid eyes on the carefree brunette in front of him. 'But of course she wouldn't notice. She's so completely ignorant of everything around her. Feh, stupid girl…' But then there was the problem yet again. She wasn't ignorant, or stupid. She was… well, he couldn't think of anything to suitably describe her at the moment. At least not anything he wanted to acknowledge.

Growing tired of waiting for Kagome to finish writing her homework, Inuyasha began to pace back and forth as he watched her chew on the bottom of her pencil with a look of concentration, as if she were trying to remember something.

"Oi-"

"Shhh!" A hand came up and waved him away in irritation, effectively silencing whatever he was about to say. 'Fine wench, see if I ever talk to you again'. He continued his pacing, trying to use her as a distraction from all his bothersome inward feelings. It didn't really work though, seeing as she was the basic cause for said feelings. Still, watching her had become almost an enjoyable pastime over the last couple weeks. Right now she was trying to remember something that was right at the front of her head. Any second now, she would bite her lower lip as she came close to figuring out what it was… Ah, there she went. And now she would remember what it was and…

"Ah-ha," came the triumphant murmur from the desk, as (he had predicted) she suddenly remembered whatever had been alluding her. She went back to writing rapidly on the paper in front of her, pausing occasionally to scratch something out and rewrite it.

'So predictable…' Why did that feel like a good thing though? 'Dammit, listen to me acting like I know her so well. I've been with her, what, a little over two week? Since when does that make me an expert on anyone?' But he kept coming back to the same conclusion. She wasn'tjust anyone. Even his overly objective brain could see that. No matter how hard he tried not to.

An hour and a half later, Kagome slumped back in her chair with a sigh of satisfaction. It was finally done. Granted it was only a rough draft and would need to be rewritten, but this was the hard part and she was glad to be done with it. "Aaah, my hands hurt." She massaged them in an attempt to release some of the cramping. Looking up at the clock, she found that two hours had passed since she had started and gave herself a mental pat on the back for keeping at it so long without spacing out once. The she remembered Inuyasha and how she had somewhat rudely cut him off earlier.

"Hey, Inuyasha?"

Silence.

"Um, thanks for keeping quiet for me. It helped and look! I'm all done now, so if you wanted to say anything, well, sorry for cutting you off earlier, but if I stop what I'm doing while in the middle, I usually end up not getting it done…" Kagome saw she was staring to babble and trailed off, waiting for him to say something, or to yell at her for taking so long.

Silence.

"…Inuyasha?" She waited again for what seemed like a small eternity for him to reply. She wished he would say something. She glanced around the room futilely, knowing she wouldn't be able to see him even if he was there. A thought occurred to her that maybe he had left and she was all alone again and talking to herself once more. For some reason, she was saddened by this thought. 'What am I thinking? I wouldn't miss him if he left. All he does is argue and frustrate me when he is speaking to me. Why would I miss that?' Yet she couldn't shake the feeling that she would, in fact, miss him. How strange…

Once more she tried to get him to speak, with only the tiniest bit of desperation noticeable in her light-hearted words. "Hello, if any irritable, loud mouthed, dog-eared bullies are nearby, say so now or forever hold your peace."

A short (and for Kagome, anxious) pause and then, "I'm sorry wench, where you saying something?"

Kagome let out a breath she had unconsciously been holding and tried not to let the relief show in her voice. "Yeah, I only called you, like, three times already. Are you sure those things on the top of your head work?"

"These things work just fine, thank you. I just not your pet, so don't expect me to come running whenever you call."

"So you did leave then?"

"Uh, well…no."

"Oh, so you were just ignoring me then?"

"Yeah, well, you were ignoring me earlier!"

"I wasn't ignoring you; I was trying to do my homework!"

"Oh, no wonder I was so confused…"

Speechlessness.

"You…you…" Kagome floundered for a suitable name to call him.

"Jerk?" Inuyasha suggested.

"Yes!"

"Keep it down Kagome, you're so loud sometimes."

"I'm loud!"

"Exactly what I just said, thank you for reiterating it so perfectly."

Forgetting her momentary lapse in sanity where she was almost upset at the thought of him being gone, Kagome crossed her arms over her stomach and smirked in Inuyasha general direction. "Big word for such a little man."

"Who are you calling little?"

"Why, the little man talking to me across the room of course," she replied innocently, enjoying the fact that he was the one at a loss for words for once. 'Serves him right to get teased, making me worry like that.'

"Take that back, wench."

Kagome put on a little frown of confusion. "Take what back?"

"What you said! You called me little!"

Still frowning, she shook her head and said, "I don't remember saying that."

"What are you talking about? You just said it."

Kagome put a finger to her chin and pretended to think about that. "No…no I'm pretty sure I didn't say that. You must be hearing things."

Stunned silence.

Suppressing her laughter took all the will power she could muster. 'I should stop…but this is too much fun!'

"Maybe you need a break Inuyasha. You must be working to hard, you now, keeping watch over me and all."

"Wha…you…but…" was the stutter response.

Finally slipping from her concerned innocence routine, Kagome giggled at his attempts at a come back. And at his further indignant sputtering, she let out her laugher completely. In between chuckles all she could manage was, "Wish…I could…see…your face…priceless!"

"Glad to see I could amuse you wench," came the huffy response. "Isn't it time for you to go to bed?"

Still giggling a little, she answered," Yes mom."

Kagome gathered together her pajamas and was making her way to the door when Inuyasha stopped her.

"Where are you going? Your bed is that way, dummy."

"I'm going to take a bath, dummy, and I'll thank you not to follow me."

"Like I'd want to anyways," he replied curtly.

"Good." And with that she walked out the door.

A second later Inuyasha followed her. Placing himself guard outside the bathroom door he dropped himself down into his favorite cross-legged sitting position. A minute later he heard running water filling up the tub and then the sound of Kagome brushing her teeth at the sink. A few more minutes and then the running water stopped. Two small splashes and then a contented sigh floated out to him from under the door. He gave her a few minutes to relax before speaking.

"Oi, Kagome?" he asked, grinning slightly at her undignified squeak and the sound of splashing water as he assumed she tried to cover herself, thinking he had come in the room. "Don't worry. I'm outside the door, stupid."

He grinned again as she hissed at him, "Stop scaring me like that!" splashing water softly, in what he imagined was her fist hitting the water. 'Probably pretending it's me.'

"Sorry," he said, not sounding the least bit.

"Well, what do you want?"

"I was just wondering, why is it you got so upset when I didn't answer you back in your room?"

The small splashing sounds ceased completely. "No reason."

"Really? Cause you seemed a little worried for a minute…but maybe that was just me?"

"It was you," came the quick response. "I was just cheesed off cause you were ignoring me. That's all. Who's reading into things too much now?"

"Cheesed…off…?" If Kagome didn't know better she would think he was laughing at her.

A soft chuckle came to her ears. Okay, so maybe she didn't know better. "Oh, shut up…" she grumbled under her breath. The laughter only increased. "Jerk…" And when his laugh only increased a little more she took a deep breath and ducked her head under the water to get away from his mocking amusement at her choice of phrases. While she was submerged she roughly washed her hair, wondering for what had to be the millionth time why she was putting up with this abuse. And for the million and first time, she told herself she had no real choice in the matter. Giving her hair one final scrub to rinse out the last of the shampoo, she raised her head from the water in time to hear Inuyasha's voice mid-sentence.

"-ou don't say something right this second, I'm coming in there! Kagome?"

"No, no don't come in!" shesqueaked hurriedly.

A sigh of relief, and then, "What the hell is your problem? I've been calling you for five minutes now!"

"Wow, really? I didn't think I could hold my breath that long."

"Well, maybe it wasn't exactly five minutes…"

"I was just washing my hair, jeez, relax would you?"

"Just hurry up okay?"

"Alright, alright." Pause. "Don't get your hair in a twist."

"Oh, ha-ha."

Kagome quickly finished scrubbing up and got out of the bath, lest Inuyasha decided to change his mind and come in to drag her out anyways. She toweled off and got changed in record time, with the threat of an angry dog-eared boy ready to come in at any minutes hanging over her head. 'I refused to be bullied in the future, but as for now…well I'm tired anyways.' With out further ado and no warning, Kagome opened the bathroom and was rewarded with a small, surprised 'oof' as said dog-eared boy fell to the ground. Holding in a little giggle, Kagome stepped around the prone Inuyasha as best she could, considering she couldn't see him. She must have managed to avoid him though, as she received no complaint of having treaded on him.

"Oops, sorry." Giggle. "I didn't see you there."

"Very funny. You're just on a roll tonight aren't you?"

"Guess so," she said, retreating to her room.

Joining her, Inuyasha found Kagome sitting on her mattress combing through her wet locks, trying to get the tangles out. "Good luck with that rat's nest," he commented sourly, still miffed at being caught off guard and dumped on the floor.

"I know," she agreed, to his surprise. "But if someone hadn't been hurrying me so much, I could have put come conditioner in." That part not being so surprising.

"Whatever. Don't blame you bad hair on me."

Kagome just gave a little shrug at that and continued her battle to work out the knots in silence. After a couple minutes, Kagome put her comb down with a tired sigh; satisfied her hair no longer looked as though small rodents had been living in it. Getting up to turn the light off, Kagome addressed her companion. "Time for bed Inuyasha. Will you be, uh, staying here with me?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, alright." A small pause. "Well good night then." And then the lights went out. There was a creak of bedsprings in the dark and it was quiet for several minutes.

"Inuyasha?"

"Yeah, what?" This from the floor next to her bed.

"Would you tell me about yourself?"

A long pause at that.

"No."

"…Oh, alright." This sounding slightly disappointed.

Several more minutes went by. Then…

"Inuyasha?"

"What?"

"…Do I annoy you?"

A short pause here

"What the hell kind of question is that!"

"Never mind, forget I asked. I already know the answer anyways." This one edged with… was that sadness?

A couple more minutes ticked away.

"No, you don't annoy me…much"

He could almost hear the smile in her voice when she said," Thanks, you don't really annoy me either. For what it's worth."

"Feh, like I care anyways."

"No, I didn't think you would, but there it is anyways."

"Whatever."

Time slipped by steadily and Inuyasha was beginning to think she had finally fallen asleep when…

"Inuyasha?"

"Oh, for love of- What now!"

"Nothing, just making sure you're still there."

"Of all the idiotic…go to sleep already!"

"Okay, okay." She said with a small laugh. "Good night, Inuyasha."

A long pause this time.

"…Good night, Kagome."

And with that, Kagome finally fell asleep.

AN- Okay, hope you guys like this one. I haven't quite worked up to fluff yet, but this one was at least a little wooly. Hopefully not the itchy kind.

Thanks for reading.

Bye for now.