Disclaimer- Wonderful news! Rumiko Takahashi has signed over the copyright for Inuyasha to me. Hey, wait a minute… This hasn't been notarized! Damn you Rumiko!

AN- Um… I seem to have run out of witty things to say…

New Moon

She had been dreaming about giant arithmetic books chasing her around the shrine when her alarm woke her the next morning. For once glad to be brought out of sleep, Kagome immediately pushed back her covers and hopped out of bed. Stretching her arms out wide, she gave a loud yawn.

"I had the most horrible dream last night."

"Let me guess. You were being attacked by various school books and were forced to memorize dozens formulas and theories."

"…"

"What? I told you that you talk in your sleep. You're so weird. Who has nightmares about math books?"

"I would say just about every person at school right about now." Kagome walked over to her desk and poked one of the books still laying on top, as if to make sure it wasn't planning on jumping out at her. "I'll be glad when finals are over."

"So will I. Maybe you'll stop yammering so much in the middle of the night."

Kagome blushed slightly at this. "I can't help it."

"Feh, I'm just glad I don't need to sleep, otherwise you would be keeping me up all the time."

She crossed her arms over her stomach and huffed, "Well you don't need to sleep, so it doesn't matter anyways. Now leave me alone."

For a second Inuyasha thought she was mad at him again, but then realized she just wanted to get dressed, so walked across the room and turned his back to her. "Fine."

He blamed her stupid dream for what happened next. It was only because he was wondering how on earth anyone could be intimidated by a stack of bound papers that he forgot why he was facing the door. And so naturally when she said his name, he turned around. And was greeted the most beautiful and mortifying sight in the world. She was saying something, or perhaps asking something, but his brain wasn't registering anything other than the sound of his own blood rushing in his ears as he gawked at the scene in front of him. Kagome was butt naked, standing in front of him sifting through her underwear drawer. She had pulled out a pair and pulled them on (somewhere in the back of his head he noted they had little purple flowers on them this time) before he fully realized what he was doing. Spinning back around so fast he almost fell over his feet, Inuyasha felt his face blaze in embarrassment. Knowing he had acted like a complete pervert in gaping at her like that without her knowledge, all he wanted to do was bang his head against a wall. But then she would wonder about the sound. Doing the next best thing, he sank to the floor with his legs crossed and proceeded to punch himself in he head repeatedly, if only to beat out the image of her body from his mind. As if he needed that image running through his head at all hours of the day. Not that it was a bad image though, in fact, it was a pretty damn good image- Dammit! There it was again.

But of course, short of physically removing part of his brain, he was stuck with seeing her nakedness every time he closed his eyes. Hopefully this after effect would wear off though. Huh? Uh-oh she was talking to him again. What had she been saying? He couldn't remember. Maybe he should say something before she became suspicious.

"Er…"

Well that was fucking brilliant.

"Have you heard a word I've been saying Inuyasha? You seem like a million miles away."

"Uh, yeah. I mean no. I mean…I haven't been listening. I was, um, thinking." God that sounded so fake. She was going to see right through it!

"Oh, alright."

Or not.

"I'm ready, let's go get some breakfast."

"Sure."

Kagome grabbed her backpack and headed to the door, wondering why Inuyasha sounded so strange. He was probably just being moody again though. She would just have to leave him be for now and hope he came out of it later.

Walking home from school that afternoon, Kagome decided she would need to invest in a wagon to start helping her haul home all her books. Today she not only had a full backpack, but she was also carrying two books and a folder in her arms. Granted, the reason her bag was so full this time was because she was bringing home two sets of gyms clothes that needed to be washed, but still. A wagon would have been helpful. Though it might have looked a tad dorky. On second thought, she would probably just rather suffer with the books herself.

The entire walk home had been in silence, but instead of the brooding atmosphere she had got from him the day before, Kagome had the feeing that now she was just being avoided. It was almost as if he was embarrassed about something. She couldn't think of anything he had said that he would be embarrassed about though. Maybe it was something she had said? Kagome scrunched her forehead in concentration. Now what was the last thing she had been talking about before he stopped using complete sentences with her? Let's see. She had woken up this morning and he was in his usual grumpy mood. She had been talking about the oddness of her dreams lately and how sometimes she really couldn't remember anything and other times it seemed as though she couldn't get them out of her head. Nothing out of the ordinary there, she was always babbling away in the morning. Of course he hadn't been listening to her anyways, but he had already told her that. Then they had gone downstairs and she had eaten breakfast with her family. It had been her favorite, omelets and orange rice, and she had eaten her fill before leaving for school.

Oh. That must have been it. He was always telling her what a glutton she was for eating so much. Maybe he was finally just disgusted with her eating habits. She glanced down briefly to her stomach and frowned slightly. It wasn't like she was fat or anything. She had always been able to eat as much as she wanted with out gaining a lot of weight. Though lately she had put on a couple pounds. Her mother had told her that was just because she was growing up and starting to fill out more and Kagome had believed her, but… She gave her side a little pinch, feeling her skin between her fingers. Felt the same as always. But maybe she wouldn't be able to notice right away if she were putting on weight? That had to be the reason he was avoiding her. He must be able to see a difference and was thinking what a pig she was. Now Kagome felt her face fall completely. He was embarrassed by her; that was why he refused to speak. 'I guess I would be embarrassed of me too, if I were in his position. I'll have to start watching what I eat more often.' Her face set itself into a determined expression as she amended to start eating more conservatively, starting tonight.

Inuyasha glanced over to Kagome for the third time in the last five minutes. Now her face had lost its sad frown and was set in resolve. What the hell could she be thinking of over there? First she had looked thoughtful, then as if she were trying to remember something which changed to enlightenment as she figured it out, then she had frowned and looked at her stomach, giving her side a pinch a minute later, she had looked almost ready to cry a second after that and he had just been about to ask her what the problem was when she had suddenly fixed her expression into one of sheer determination. It was just plain confusing trying to keep up with her emotions sometimes…

Dinner looked wonderful as always, but instead of loading up her plate as she usually did, Kagome look as little as possible and began eating with tiny bites. It was frustrating to say the least. Unfortunately, someone would have to notice the change in her eating pattern.

"Kagome sweetie, don't you like your fish?"

Kagome looked up at her mother's voice. "Oh yeah mom, it's great. I'm just, um, not very hungry tonight." At this her stomach gave a small growl, as if in disagreement.

Everyone stopped for a second and just looked at her.

Flushing slightly, she huffed, "What? Is that such a shock?"

As one, her family nodded their heads. Feeling a little betrayed, Kagome just pushed back from the table and said stiffly, "Well it's true, so excuse me; I have to do my homework." Stacking her dishes, she left, leaving behind three slightly confused Higurashi.

Her grandfather was the first to speak. "Did Kagome just skip dinner so she could do her homework?"

Souta nodded his head slowly. "I…I think she did."

"Now guys, leave Kagome alone. It's not really that strange is it?"

Mrs. Higurashi's only response was two upraised eyebrows from each male. She gave a small laugh. "Okay, silly question."

'Hmph! Even my own family thinks I eat a lot.' Well she would show them! She could eat just like everyone else. If she had to. Did she really have to? She thought of Inuyasha ignoring her all day because she had made a pig of herself that morning. She hated the idea of him thinking so poorly of her. It really shouldn't matter what anyone else thought of her, but… She envisioned his possible look of revulsion every time she sat down to eat and decided it would be worth missing a couple meals to keep Inuyasha from thinking she was a total cow.

Unfortunately her stomach was not connected to her brain and was having no involvement what so ever in her little pity party. It growled so loudly as she sat down at her desk, she was afraid her family would hear it all the way downstairs. 'Oh shut up you.'

"What the hell was that all about?"

Oops. Of course Inuyasha would have heard her stomach. "Nothing. I just don't feel like eating." Gurgle, gurgle. Stupid, insubordinate stomach.

"Bull shit."

"Just drop it Inuyasha."

"No, tell me why you've suddenly decided to start starving yourself."

Kagome gripped the front of her desk tightly, trying to get her temper under control. Why did he have to be so damn persistent? Despite her best efforts, she could still feel her eyebrow twitching in irritation as she answered. "I told you, I just don't feel like it okay? I would have thought you'd be happy to see me stop making a glutton of myself for one night."

A snort. "Whatever. Fine, be stubborn about it."

"I will."

"I know."

Why did always have to get the last word in? Stupid jerk. Kagome grabbed her backpack off the floor and pulled it into her lap. She rooted through it until she found the book she was looking for. Dropping her bag back to the floor she settled into her chair and opened the book to get started on her assignment. She was only half way through it, however, when she began to get frustrated by the equations in front of her. Besides making her grouchy, being hungry also made her lose her concentration easily. Sighing in defeat, she slumped over until her forehead was resting on the math book in front of her.

"Would you like me to help you?"

Kagome lifted her head in surprise. He was offering to help her again? She blushed slightly as she said, "That would be nice. Thank you."

Inuyasha stood up from her bed he had been lounging on. He walked to the desk and leaned over her shoulder to get a better look at what she was doing. Linear equations. Piece of cake. He suddenly stiffened as he felt a slight tug on his hair. He looked down to see Kagome holding a lock of his hair in her hand and examining it with a curious expression on her face. No wait, she wasn't examining his hair, she was looking at her hand. Apparently she could feel it, but couldn't see what it was. She gave another experimental tug.

"Hey! Cut that out already!" It hadn't hurt, but he was beginning to feel funny with her touching his hair so freely. Kagome hunched her shoulder guiltily and muttered an apology, but didn't release the locks in her palm. Now what was she doing? She began to run her other hand over top of her palm and then brought his hair up to her face and rubbed it against her cheek. That was it. Blushing furiously, he yanked his hair out of her hand and backed away from the desk. She gave a tiny sigh if disappointment.

"Your hair is so soft."

"Gee thanks. If you're finishes petting me, we could start on doing some actual work." Dammit why couldn't he stop blushing? It was only hair.

She grinned mischievously. "And if I'm not?"

"Believe me, you are."

The little tease just smiled and gave a shrug that could have meant anything. He didn't trust her for a second, but went back over to her anyways.

They began working on her equations, slowly going through the steps as they had last time. It was only a matter of time before he felt an almost imperceptible tug on his hair. He glanced down, but Kagome was staring at her paper in concentration. One hand writing down numbers, while the other played distractedly with a lock of her own hair. Okay, so that had been an accident. A few minutes later he felt it again, but his time she was only using her fingers to count something and they had become slightly interwoven with his hair. The third time, he began to catch on. She had made as if to sweep back her own hair with her left hand and had accidentally managed to grab some of his as well. Or at least it had seemed to be by accident. He thought she had perhaps stretched her arm out a little to far to just be tossing her hair behind her back. So that was her game was it? Okay, he would play.

Kagome finished a problem and leaned back in her chair to stretch her arms out. Now where was it? Ah there, a little more to the left. Continuing her stretch, she leaned slightly to the left and reached her hand out a little more. Almost there. She leaned out a bit further, but still couldn't quite reach it. Oh well. She brought her arms back down and picked up her pencil again, unaware of the hanyou standing just out of range, trying very hard not to laugh.

Try as she might, for the next half hour Kagome could not manage run her fingers through Inuyasha's hair again. It was always just out of reach, and she couldn't exactly ask him to stand a little closer so she could accidentally touch it. As she finished the last equation by herself, Kagome idly reached over with her left hand to grab her piece of scrap paper. Ah, there it was again. Her hand tilted a little higher, then a little more, and even more until…

"Uh, Kagome?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you doing?"

"Huh?" Kagome glanced to her left and realized her hand had wandered halfway over her head and was nowhere near the paper she had been pretending to reach for in the first place. Oops. The gig was up.

"If you had spent half as much time actually working as you did trying to play with my hair, you would have been done a long time ago."

He had noticed? He jaw dropped slightly. How had he noticed? She hadn't been obvious at all. At least she hadn't thought she was being obvious. Cocky dog-eared bully. He had probably been teasing her this entire time. Man did she feel foolish.

Instead of admitting to it though, she closed her mouth with a snap and said, "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about."

Inuyasha laughed at her indignant expression. "I'm sure you don't, you sneaky wench. Thought you could pull one over on me?"

Kagome just blushed. Turning back to her homework, she quickly finished off her last problem and then packed away everything in her bag. Her stomach gave a mighty complaint as she stood up. She could tell this was going to get old very quickly. Who the heck could live off of half of a piece of fish a night? She looked out the window to the dim light of the almost set sun and decided there was still enough light to walk around the shrine at least once. Maybe it would take her mind off her empty belly. With out a word she left the room and trotted into the hall, down the stairs and out the front door.

The sun had just dipped below the horizon as she started to walk around the courtyard. It was only the beginning of March and the nights were still somewhat cool. As a breeze swept by Kagome shivered a little, wishing she had brought a sweater.

She picked up her pace a little to keep from getting cold, unconsciously heading towards the God Tree. She gazed up at the sky as she walked and remembered that tonight was a new moon, so shortly, there would be very little light to see by. Her thoughts wandered a little as she reached the bench by the sacred tree and sat down. Unfortunately, the bench was made of stone and only served to make her rear end go numb. It was a small price to pay however, for the peace she felt sitting next to her favorite tree. It was a shame that the same calming effect it had on her mind didn't extend to her stomach. As it gave yet another rumble of neglect, she leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees and settled her chin in her hands.

"Okay wench, what the hell is wrong with you? I can hear your belly moaning from over hear, so obviously you are hungry despite what you say."

Kagome rolled her eyes in annoyance. Why couldn't he just leave it alone? And why couldn't he make up his mind? First she ate too much, and now she wasn't eating enough. "I don't care what my belly says, I'm not hungry." Liar, liar!

"You really are brainless if you don't even know when you're hungry or not. Why don't you just go eat something before you pass out or something? I don't want to have to drag your ass back into the house."

"Gee I would hate to have to make you carry something so heavy." Was that her sarcasm she heard? He must be rubbing off on her.

"Feh, a sack of bones like you? A three year old wouldn't have trouble carrying your ass."

"Huh? I thought you said I was a glutton."

"I say a lot of things."

"But…what….why…" Kagome lifted her head from her hands. Wait, if he didn't think she ate too much…

"Is that why you refuse to eat?" he asked incredulously.

"Well…" Kagome felt her cheeks heat slightly, "Yeah kind of."

"…" She wasn't eating because she thought he said she was fat? Dear God…women…

Suddenly he was laughing like he had never laughed before. It was too funny really. She thought she was fat. Kagome, one of the trimmest, most slender women he had ever met, thought she was fat because of something he said. Surely girls weren't really that insecure… Too funny.

"It isn't funny!"

"Yes… it is!" he managed to get out between gasping for breaths.

"What exactly makes this so hilarious!" She was standing with her hand on her hips. It was almost completely dark now, but he could still see the look of outrage on her features.

"You…you're so damn…skinny!"

Kagome looked down at her body. Skinny? Was that better than being called a glutton? She thought for a second. 'Yeah, I guess it is. At least now I can eat.'

"Kagome, you are too much sometimes. Why the hell would you listen too me when you can obviously see you look fine?"

She shrugged her shoulders at that and looked at the ground. "I dunno. You were just acting so strange after breakfast this morning. I thought maybe you were embarrassed by how I ate."

"Acting strange this morning…" Inuyasha blushed as he realized what she meant. He had avoided talking to her to try and rid himself of her naked image in his head. Well at least she hadn't figured out the real reason for his silence. "Don't be stupid, I wasn't acting strange."

"Yes you were."

"No I wasn't!"

"Yes you …" Kagome stopped in mid rant. Why were they arguing over something so pointless? "Never mind. I don't care anymore." Kagome began walking back towards the house.

"Hey wait, where are you going?" He hoped she wasn't pissed off at him again. Instead of an angry reply though, Kagome grinned over her shoulder at him.

"I'm going to get something to eat. I'm starving!"

She was in the stupid forest again. She was beginning to hate waking up here. Not that it was a bad looking place or anything. On the contrary, it was actually quite a nice looking place and it would have also been a very peaceful place if she hadn't known what was about to happen.

Suddenly there was a blur of red in front of her. The priestess again. No wait. It wasn't the priestess this time, but Inuyasha. He was running ahead of her. Without thinking, she began to run after him. Damn he was fast, but she had to reach him. She had to warn him. Running as fast as she could, she saw him a little ways ahead of her. Oh thank goodness, he had stopped for a minute to look at something in his hand. She had almost reached him and was just about to call out when she heard the girl's voice.

"Inuyasha!"

'Nononono, not again. Please not again.'

Her legs ran faster than they ever had before as she screamed out to him, "Look out Inuyasha! Run!"

The girl was lifting her bow again. No, not yet, she was almost there.

"Die Inuyasha!" And she released the arrow. As before, Inuyasha finally snapped out of his stupor and tried to jump out of the way. Too late. Always too late. She skidded to a stop just as he was pinned to the tree, only this time she was close enough to catch his last whispered breath.

"Kikyo…why…?"

The priestess stumbled over to Inuyasha, using her bow for support, and raised her hand to his forehead. Kagome tried to smack her way from him, but found her hand sailed right through the priestess's arm, as if she wasn't there. When she removed her hand, a small smear of blood was left behind.

As Inuyasha's eyes closed slowly, she heard the woman speak, her voice full of bitterness. "Die Inuyasha, and know that you will spend the rest of eternity protecting the same humans that you seem to hate so much. Die, and awaken…Guardian."

Kagome woke suddenly. She looked around at her surroundings, trying to gather her wits around her. It was still dark. A glance at her clock showed it was almost four in the morning. What had happened? Oh right, she was having a nightmare and she had woken up. It seemed familiar too, and it wasn't about flying algebra books this time. What was it though? Think. Wait, she had it. There had been a forest…and Inuyasha was there. He had been running…and then…

And then she couldn't remember. She growled in frustration. It had been bad, that she could remember. In fact, her heart was still pounding in fear. Why couldn't she remember though? Wait! Now she remembered. Oh no. He had died, that was it. Oh God…

"Inuyasha?"

No response.

"Inuyasha!"

Still nothing.

"Stop kidding around! Where are you?"

Nothing but the snores of Buyo, who was sleeping on the end of her bed, oblivious to her distress.

Kagome jumped out of bed, frantic by now. Why wasn't he answering her? If he was playing some kind of joke, she was going to give him hell until the sun rose. But no, he would have seen she was serious and said something by now, wouldn't he have?

Knowing it wasn't going to help, but unable to stop herself, Kagome looked around her room for any sign of her hanyou protector. Her heart was beating so hard, she couldn't seem to hear anything else. Of course she saw nothing and began to worry immensely. Why wasn't he here? Surely he wasn't supposed to leave already. Kagome remembered something else from her dream suddenly. The God Tree. She had dreamed of her very own sacred tree. Praying to whatever sources were listening that this was some sort of sign, she raced out of her room. 'Please don't let this have been a premonition. Oh please let him be safe somewhere and not pinned to my tree with an arrow.'

Kagome barely remembered to shut the front door behind her in her haste to reach the entrance to the shrine where the tree was located. Her bare feet pounded heavily against the cold earth, sharp stones digging painfully into her feet as she ran. The temperature had dropped rapidly during the night and now her breath came out in little white puffs when she exhaled. She could see the tree ahead in the almost complete darkness. As she got closer she could see a figure against the tree. He heart nearly jumped from her chest as she recognized the outline of Inuyasha's clothing. He's not moving. Let him be okay, please let him be okay.'

She finally reached the tree. Jumping over the little fence surrounding it, she stumbled the last few steps to Inuyasha's form. He hadn't moved an inch since she first spotted him, but she hadn't seen an arrow sticking from his chest, so she took that to be a good sign. She was about to lean and give him a small shake when she noticed something she had not seen in the darkness from so far away. His hair was black. And his ears were missing! Oh no, wait. There they were, only they were normal human ears now. She glanced down to his hands and sure enough, the claws were gone and replaced with normal fingernails just like hers. What had happened to him? Unable to take the suspense of knowing if he was still alive or not, Kagome reached out a hand and placed it on his chest over his heart.

A hand came up and grabbed her wrist. Gasping, she looked up to see Inuyasha's eyes had opened and he was glaring at her. She couldn't tell what color they were other than dark, but they definitely weren't the lovely golden shade they had been before.

As if suddenly realizing who she was, Inuyasha's glare turned to surprise as he looked at her.

"What the hell are you doing out here?"

She had been a bit taken aback by his appearance, but when he had questioned her in the same gruff voice as always, she felt a vast sense of relief course though her. She threw her arms around the surprised hanyou and clung to him fiercely.

"Er, Kagome?"

'What the hell is this for?'

"I'm so glad you're not dead."

Huh? Dead? Why would he be dead? And why the hell was she out in the yard at four o'clock in the morning when she should be asleep? Dammit, he leaves her for one night and she falls apart with out him. No, don't feel guilty about it. Oh for God's sake. There he went feeling guilty for leaving. He really hadn't wanted to, but this was the one night of the month where he could move as far away from his charge as he wanted with out feeling a shit load of pain. It would have been stupid of him to pass up his one night of quasi-freedom just because he didn't want to leave her side. She was asleep in her own home for goodness sake, what could possibly happen if he left for a couple hours? Apparently that was a very dumb question though, judging by the shaking girl still attached to him.

"Kagome. Kagome, what happened?" He tried to lead her back into reality, but she just shook her head against the front of his coat and mumbled something.

"I can't understand you, you'll have to let go of me."

She didn't let go, but she did raise her head from his chest to look him in the face. What the hell? Why was she crying? "Kagome…?"

Kagome sniffled a little and looked him in the eye. "I thought you were dead."

"Yeah, you already said something like that. Why would you think I was dead?"

Finally realizing how very close she was to him, she let go and backed up a few steps. He was a little sorry to feel her leave. But her next words made him straighten up and pay attention.

"I… I dreamed you had been shot by an arrow and had died. You were pinned to this tree and I thought… I mean, I wasn't sure if… if it was real or not." She looked at the ground when she finished, unsure of how Inuyasha might react to that.

Inuyasha looked behind him to the tree and then back at the girl in front of him. Of course. No wonder he felt such a familiarity from this tree. It was the same one he had been shot into all those years ago. It was a little morbid, that this was why he felt so connected to it, but at least now he knew why he got such a strange feeling every time he walked past it. But how in the world had she known?

Kagome was beginning to shake once more and for a moment he thought she was crying again. 'She had been crying for me…' But then he understood it was simply the cold air and her lack of clothing that was making her shiver. The thin night shirt she was wearing was hardly sufficient for cold weather outings. Reaching over, he gently took her chin in his hands and said firmly, "I'm not dead Kagome. It was just a dream okay?" When she nodded he continued. "Good, now let's go inside before you freeze to death."

A questioning look came into her eyes and she glanced briefly at his hair before opening her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything he cut her off with a hand over her mouth.

"I promise to tell you whatever you want tomorrow, but right now you need to go inside and get to sleep." He paused for a second, unsure if it would work, then took off his coat and placed it over her shoulders. Apparently, she could feel it just fine from the grateful smile he received. Stepping away from the tree he grabbed he hand and helped her step over the fence.

"Thank you, Inuyasha."

"You're welcome, Kagome."

AN- So tired. Answers tomorrow. Bye for now. :-)