Disclaimer- I do not own Inuyasha.

What? It's true. I don't.

AN- There are obscure references at the beginning, but I trust you all can figure out which person I am referring to.

Drum roll please…

In the Dark

Inuyasha listened as Kagome's breathing slowed and evened out into the tell-tale sounds of deep sleep. He waited a little longer, just to make certain she wouldn't wake again, and then stood up. Looking down at the sleeping girl, he sat himself on the edge of her bed and studied her peaceful face, just as he had done every other night since he 'found' her.

He knew that this ritual would be considered strange, rude, and very personally invasive to most people. Of course, when you spent all of your waking day (which was basically all of it) watching one person for months and even years on end, watching them while they slept didn't really seem all that unusual. Inuyasha studied her face, going over the already familiar features, letting his thought wander wherever they wanted for the moment. Her smooth, pale skin glowed in the soft moonlight flowing in through the curtains. His fingers practically itched for wanting to touch it, though he didn't for fear of waking her up. His eyes slowly traveled over each part of her face, taking their time, memorizing every small detail from her high forehead, mostly cover with thick, unruly (and still somewhat damp) bangs, to her dark lashes as they rested against the tops of her cheeks. He knew if she opened her eyes, he would see the loveliest shade of coffee brown. Warm and kind. And at this he paused.

It was true; Kagome did look so much like her that it almost hurt to look at her sometimes. Her appearance was almost an exact duplicate. It was downright eerie. Her eyes had been warm and kind too. Before… And his gaze traveled downward past her delicate looking nose to her mouth. And that was where he decided the biggest difference between them lay. Sure they looked the same, identical rosebud mouths. So soft looking… But Kagome had such a light hearted personality, it was hard for her to keep the smiles away when she was in a good mood. As for her… well, he was hard pressed to remember more than two occasions where she had cracked more than the tiniest of grins. And he wasn't sure he had ever heard her laugh. Not real, honest to goodness, that-was-so-funny laughter anyways.

Kagome gave a little twitch as she dreamed about whatever it was she dreamed of at night. For the hundredth time, Inuyasha wished he could see what she did. She always looked so happy… Even now he could see her lips turn up ever so slightly in the corners. Having no need of sleep himself, Inuyasha amused himself by throwing out ideas as to what she could be dreaming about. 'Let's see… Right now she's dreaming of going to school and realizing she's forgotten all of her homework at home. No wait, she realizes she never even did it and now she has to do twice as much as punishment.' That seemed like something that would definitely be on the girls mind, but… 'Nah, that wouldn't make her smile like that. I know, right now she's dreaming that she can see and feel me and is merrily bashing my head into the ground while calling me a big jerk.' He gave a little inward chuckle. Now that sounded like something that would make her smile.

Even as he was thinking of this rather unpleasant scene, he heard Kagome mutter something in her sleep. 'What was that?'

As if hearing his silent question, Kagome muttered again in her sleep, a fraction louder than last time. "…nu…yash…a…"

"Wha-!" he got out, before hurriedly clamping his mouth shut. She really was dreaming of him?

Another twitch, then, "...emme…touch em…won't…pull hard...promise…"

Ahh. His ears. That made sense too. Leaning in close to her ear, he whispered, "No way wench, keep your hands to yourself."

He leaned back to see her face again and was rewarded with a tiny frown and, "...or such…meany…sha…"

Grinning wickedly, he whispered into her ear once more. "Can't you control yourself around me, or do I need to keep reminding you every five minutes to stop trying to touch me?"

"..sh'up…" Something so faint even his sensitive ears couldn't make out and then, "…big jerk…"

Figuring he had done enough messing with her head for one night, he settled back on the mattress and watched her expression smooth out once more into peacefulness. He stored away his power to antagonize her even in sleep for later use and contented himself to wait for morning so he could do it in person.

Morning light streamed in through the window and came to rest on the sleeping Kagome's head. This, however, was not the reason she was woken up. The loudly declared, "Come on Kagome, get your ass out of bed already!" was. Dragging her eyelids open and glancing at the clock on her nightstand, she saw it was just past seven thirty in the way too early morning.

"Uh-uh, no. Need more sleep…" And with that, she flopped her pillow over her head and settle back down to sleep. The pillow was quickly snatched away and tossed on the floor. She grabbed her blanket edge and up it went over her head too, seconds later, joining her pillow on the floor. Kagome sat up with irritation printed on her sleepy face. "You know, you're being a real pain. Saturdays are for sleeping in. It's barely past sunrise!"

"So, I'm bored."

Growling, Kagome picked her pillow up off the floor and threw it towards him. He gave a laugh as it hit the wall. "Not even close."

She gave a sigh, understanding he wasn't going to let her go back to sleep. "You better not make a habit of this," she grumbled, glad she had gone to bed early for once.

He let that slide and instead changed the subject. "You talk in your sleep you know."

"No I don't," Kagome said indignantly, hoping he was just teasing again and she hadn't said anything embarrassing.

"Yup, you sure do." Here he changed his voice to a high pitched imitation of a girl. "Oh, Inuyasha let me touch your ears!"

Blushing furiously, Kagome crossed her arms over her stomach. "I don't sound like that! And I did not say that."

"Yes you did."

"Did not!"

"Did so."

"Oh, just be quiet!"

Now that she concentrated, she could just remember dreaming about something along the lines of wanting to tug on his ears and him telling her to quite trying to touch him all the time. This made her blush even more, until she was beginning to resemble a tomato.

"Blush any more and your head will explode."

"Get out Inuyasha," she said, pointing to the door

"Hey don't get all upset, I was just playing."

"Out!"

"You can't just order me around wench!"

"Taking a deep breath, Kagome said very slowly, "Unless you would prefer I walk around in my pajamas all day, I need to get dressed, and for me to get dressed, you need to leave. Unless of course you wanted to stay and eyeball me while I change…"

"Fine, fine go ahead," was the reply from the hallway behind her bedroom door. Was it her imagination, or did he sound a little flustered as he said that?

"Thank you."

Kagome stood up and stretched out her still sleeping muscles, then walked over to her dresser to pick out something to wear. Settling on her favorite dark blue skirt and a white shirt with a picture of a smiling cat on it, she quickly got dressed and brushed out her hair. Heading to the door she said, "Okay, Inuyasha I'm dressed. And you better not have decided to take a peek at me while…"

Kagome's sentence trailed off as she opened the door and found her mother standing right outside with a pile of her clean clothes in one hand and the other poised to open her door.

"Uh…"

Raising one eyebrow, her mother inquired in a very interested tone, "And just who is this Inuyasha, young lady?"

AN- heh heh