Disclaimer- Inuyasha does not belong to me. Yet. I'm still working on the negations. Rumiko Takahashi is one tough nut to crack I tell you.

AN- Forgive me!

Just Say the Word

Inuyasha let out a wide yawn, his eyes burning with fatigue as he sat on the floor next to Kagome's bed. He dragged his arm across his face, trying to rub himself more awake. Dropping his arm back into his lap, he blinked a few times to clear the blurriness that was trying to creep into his vision. What the heck was going on? Why did was he so… exhausted? He felt as though he could fall asleep at any moment now…

With a wrench, Inuyasha snapped his eyes open. What the hell? With a soft growl, he propped his elbow on one knee and rested his chin on his hand. He stared unwaveringly at the wall, daring his eyes to close again. He nodded off once more and only caught himself from falling sideways at the last second.

Okay, enough was enough.

Inuyasha picked himself off the ground and began to pace the small room. Were the forces behind his curse trying to pull him back into the depths of sleep already? Would they never give up now that he had freed himself? He paused in his third lap around the room. Was this some sort of punishment for defeating one part of the spell? To constantly be battling the pull of sleep? He drifted back to Kagome's bed and dropped to his knees, staring at her back as she slumbered peacefully. He laid a hand on her head and gently trailed his clawed fingers through her hair. Fine. If that was the price he had to pay to stay by her side, then so be it. He crossed his arms on the mattress in front of him and rested his chin on them. He closed his eyes, breathing in her clean scent and thinking determinedly to himself, that it would take a lot more than some stupid curse to keep him from her. His eyes remained shut as his features slackened and his breathing became deeper. His head fell to the side and his shoulders slumped as his body rested more solidly against the soft mattress of the bed.

And that was how Kagome found him in the morning.

"Good morning!"

Inuyasha jerked awake at the merry shout. 'Wha…?' He looked up to see a cheerful Kagome smiling down at him from a sitting position on her bed, her blanket still tucked around her lap and her eyes a little puffy from having just woken up. Just woken up… He glanced out the window and sure enough, the light in the room was coming from the rising sun outside. He jumped up suddenly, startling Kagome.

"What's wrong?"

His sleep fogged brain was still having trouble making connections. Why the heck was it morning already?

"Inuyasha?" She sounded worried now and he realized he had been staring out the window for at least a minute.

He turned to her with a shrug. "I guess I was asleep…" How bizarre was that?

"Yeah, I could see that. I thought you said you didn't have to sleep?"

He gave a small frown. "I don't."

She lifted one eyebrow and gave him a look as if to say, 'oh really'.

"I don't!"

"Uh-huh. Well you do now." He gave her a perplexed look. "What?"

"I had a dream."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah…" He trailed off in remembrance. It had been a long time since he had last dreamed.

"What was it about?"

He turned back to the window suddenly, his cheeks warming slightly. "I uh, don't really remember."

Not being able to see the slowly darkening red of his face, Kagome took his word.

"Oh well, that's how it usually goes." Slipping out of bed she stretched and gave a happy sigh. "I slept great last night. How about you?"

"Er, alright I guess." He realized as he said this that all his pains from yesterday were gone. In fact, he felt pretty damn good. He grinned. Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing then. Remembering his dream once again and a certain raven haired girl who had been at the center of it, he concluded that it wasn't really too bad at all.

'So many questions…' Kagome looked down at the thick stack of papers sitting on her desk, held together by a single staple. She was surprised it had gone all the way through.

"You have until ten thirty. Begin."

Kagome looked up at the clock. Almost three hours. She hoped she could finish in time. Flipping over the front page of the booklet, she glanced over to the window. Inuyasha flashed a thumbs-up from the ledge he was sitting on and mouthed the words 'good luck'. She smiled back. Feeling suddenly more confident than she had a minute ago, Kagome picked up her pencil and immersed her self into the wonderful world of eighth grade math finals.

It was down to the last ten minutes. Only three questions left. She was going to make it! Plowing through the problems with renewed energy, she finally finished, turning over the last page so it was upside down and leaning back in her seat with a sigh. She glanced around at the other students and saw that almost all of them were still writing furiously on their scratch paper and coloring in the tiny little bubbles in their packets.

'I'll have to thank Inuyasha later for all his help. There's no way I would have gotten through this without him.' Looking over at the window once more she saw him leaning against the side with his head tilted back and his eyes closed. Maybe he was taking a nap. It was pretty quiet in here. As if sensing someone watching him, Inuyasha opened his eyes and turned his head to look around. Seeing it was Kagome, he jumped of the ledge and stretched.

"How did you do?"

She propped one elbow on her desk and rested her head on her hand, letting her hair fan around her face to hide her expression from the rest of the class. She gave him a cocky grin and mouthed the words 'piece of cake'.

"See I told you that you'd be fine."

She just rolled her eyes at him. 'I know' her lips formed. Suddenly a beeping sound came from the front of the class, signaling time was up. Several groans went up from the students.

"Okay class. Pencils down. That means you Fusashi." The boy in question hurriedly dropped his pencil to his desk, grinning innocently.

"Leave your tests on the corner of your desk face down. Make sure your name is on it. You may go." Automatically Kagome stood up with her class and gave a respectful bow to her teacher before gathering her things and walking to the door.

"Wow, that was one long test," said Yuka as she joined her. Kagome turned and nodded in agreement.

Eri then joined them and nodded her head also. "I know what you mean; I didn't even get through half of the last page." She hung her head despondently. "I hope I did well on the rest."

Yuka giggled. "I actually just guessed on at least a quarter of them."

They waited outside the classroom for Ayumi to catch up. She jogged over to them, a wide smile on her face. "Hey that wasn't so bad, huh guys?"

Yuka and Eri shook their heads sadly, but Kagome patted her fondly on the shoulder and said, "It definitely could have been worse."

The girls walked of together to get some lunch, chatting about their other exam for the day. There would only be two classes that day since the tests would take so long. Kagome had gym next and she wasn't really looking forward to running laps.

"Okay ladies, you have sixteen minutes to run two miles. That's eight laps and I'll be keeping track of how many you run, so don't think you can cheat. On my whistle, ready…set…" The teacher blew her whistle, sending a shrill noise into the air that pierced right through Inuyasha's head, making him wince and flatten his ears against his skull. One of these days he was going to yank that thing right out of the lady's mouth and shove it straight up her-

"Hey watch it!" Damn woman almost took his head off waving that stupid clipboard around. Why the heck was he standing here anyways? He could stand anywhere he wanted now. He leapt across the track and settled himself in the middle of one set of bleachers, watching the action below him. The boys were currently in the center field of the track, doing their push-ups and sit-ups. They would switch off after another twenty minutes or so. Frankly he didn't see how running around in circles and pushing yourself off the ground repeatedly was going to accurately measure the strength one had obtained during the year, but what did he know anyways? Growing bored after a while, he hopped down from the bleachers and decided to join Kagome in her merry romp around the tarmac.

"Having fun?" he asked as he trotted along beside her. There was just the two of them at the moment, everyone else having either fallen behind or gone ahead.

"Oh yeah," she puffed out. "Loads."

"How much farther have you got?"

"About…halfway."

Spotting the teacher a little ways up, he leapt ahead and took a look at the stopwatch she was holding before joining Kagome once more.

"You've got plenty of time."

"Oh yeah." Puff, puff. "How long?"

"About eight and a half minutes."

"Good." Sweat was running down the side of her face now and she brushed it away with the back of her hand. Slowing as she came she came to a curve, Kagome rested her hands on the back of her head with her elbows sticking in the air and settle into a brisk walk, trying to relieve the stitch that was forming in her side.

"What are we slowing down for?"

"I'm tired."

"Already?"

"I just ran… a mile. Give me… a break already." Her breath still came hard, but the stabbing sensation in her side was ebbing away slowly.

"Feh, that's nothin'. I forget how weak you are sometimes."

Shooting a glare at him, she broke into a run once more. 'Weak…hmph. Well we can't all be strong hanyou dog boys, now can we?'

Inuyasha caught up with her easily. "Don't be so touchy. I didn't mean you personally. I just meant humans in general."

"That makes me… feel so much better." But she smiled anyways, accepting his lousy excuse for an apology.

"Now hurry your ass. Just pretend you're late for school or something."

"Or I could pretend… I'm trying to… get away from you."

"Whatever works for you, wench."

Kagome trudged home, legs aching and arms like spaghetti. 'Thank goodness I only have to do that once a year.'

"Boy, I could use a nap." She grinned over at Inuyasha, who was walking beside her, staring up at the sky with his arms crossed behind his head. She waited for him to berate he for being unfit. He titled his head took look at her from the corner of his eye, but didn't say anything.

"I'm so tired; it feels like I just ran two miles…" Still nothing.

"Maybe it was something I ate." Ah, finally he cracked a smile.

"Or it could be because you actually did run two miles."

Kagome faked a look of enlightenment. "You know I think you're right."

"Feh. You're so weird sometimes."

"Yup."

"Mom, I'm home!" Kagome shouted as she kicked off her shoes by the door. Hearing no response, she wandered about through the house in search of her.

"Mom?"

"She and the kid went out shopping." Inuyasha's voice came from the kitchen. She joined him and saw the note he was pointing to.

"Hmm, be back by 7:00, buying new shoes for Souta, bringing home Bento, don't study too hard, love mom." Ahh, okay.

Grabbing a soda from the fridge, she flashed Inuyasha a bright smile. "Ready for chemical formulas?"

He groaned and rolled his eyes. "God I hate that stuff. Who the hell came up with molar mass anyways? Why would you want to know how to weigh something you can't even see?

Kagome shrugged and sipped her soda as she walked to her room. "You're definitely asking the wrong person."

She had only been reviewing her notes for about twenty minutes before she felt like ripping her hair out in aggravation. More from the griping hanyou next to her than the periodic table in front of her. Chemistry may have been a frustrating subject, but it was nothing next to the whining of a bored half dog demon.

Said half dog demon was currently pacing back and forth behind her desk chair. She could see him from the corners of her eyes. On her right. Two seconds later, her left. Two more seconds, on her right. Two more seconds, her left. It was driving her crazy. The madness had to be stopped.

"Inuyasha, if you aren't going to help, why don't you go outside or something?"

He stopped pacing. Oh thank goodness. "And do what?"

"I don't know…" 'Stop pestering me.' "Take a walk or something."

"Where to?"

'Anywhere but here!' "Go, I don't know… go see what gramps is doing."

"Feh, why would I want to do that?"

'Take a hint already!' "Because… I asked you to…." Kagome managed to get out between clenched teeth.

"Nah, what kind of Guardian would I be if I just left you alone whenever I felt like it?"

'One with his hair still attached to his head.' "It'll be fine Inuyasha. All I'm doing is studying and we both know you couldn't figure out the chemical compound of salt if your life depended on it." At his blank stare she sighed sadly. "Sodium chloride, Inuyasha. I learned that one in elementary school."

Crossing his arms angrily, Inuyasha glared at her and said, "I was about to say that, just so you know."

Kagome dropped her head wearily into her hands. "Take. A. Walk."

"Fine," was the gruff response. She looked up and saw a pouty looking Inuyasha walking to her door.

"Thank you," she called after him as he disappeared through her door.

"Whatever."

'Ahh, peace and quiet. Now back to stupid elements.'

"Kick me out. Stupid girl. 'Go take a walk.' Okay, what the hell am I supposed to do now? You already know where you damn grandfather is. Same place he is every day. Why do I have to go all the way out here just to see that? Stupid girl." Inuyasha kicked at a stone in the path as he muttered to himself. Why'd she have to go and get so pushy all of a sudden? She never minded him being there before. Damn moody women. Always changing their minds. Actually, Kagome was usually pretty consistent. Really though, why did she have to go and kick him out like that? He wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.

Inuyasha stopped suddenly, a thought occurring to him. Maybe she wanted him out of the way… so that she could be alone. With out him watching her, she could go somewhere with out him knowing… Like the well!

Inuyasha growled and clenched his fists. So she thought she was smart huh? Thought she could get him out of the way and sneak off without him? "Ha! I almost fell for it wench, but you can't outsmart me like that. Very convincing, pretending to study so hard like that."

He turned around and raced back to the house, determined to catch her in the act. 'You'll have to do better than this to get the better of me Kagome!'

Inuyasha stopped outside her door and crouched down in front of it, waiting for her to make her move.

Kagome stood up and stretched her muscles, rubbing her butt to regain some of the feeling in it. Glancing at the clock she saw it had been almost two and a half hours since she started. 'Wow, I can't believe he left me alone this long. I'll have to thank him when he gets back.' She glanced back to her desk and figured she could use a break. She was almost done anyways. Only a few pages of notes left to go over. She wasn't sure how much of what she had just went over would be retained until the next day, but she was doing her best and that's what counted. Right?

'Mom's not home yet, but I think I'll have some chips. I'm starving.'

With the happy thought of chips to come floating in her head, she opened her door with a smile on her face.

"AH HA!" Inuyasha came flying at her with an enraged expression on his face.

"Aaaahhh!" Kagome screamed at his sudden shout and tripped over her feet as she hastily backpedaled into her room, landing with a heavy thump on her just un-numbed backside. Inuyasha slammed the door shut and advanced on her with fire burning behind his golden eyes. For one wild moment, she thought Inuyasha was going to hit her as he stomped over to her and brought a fist swinging into her face. She flinched and shut her eyes.

"I knew it!"

Huh?

She cracked her eyes open and saw one finger shaking angrily at her, inches in front of her nose. Her heart slowed its jack rabbit pace as she realized she wasn't about to be punched. She belatedly remembered it would have been impossible for him to have hurt her at all. Still… he had scared the crap out of her!

She glared up at the pissed boy standing over her. "What is your problem? You scared me half to death!"

He glared right back at her. "Don't play dumb. You were trying to sneak out! Admit it!"

Sneak out?

She narrowed her eyes and stared at Inuyasha. Had he lost his mind? "What are talking about?"

He jabbed his finger closer, barely brushing the tip of her nose. "You were going to go down the well. But I figured you out. You tried to get rid of me so you could sneak off!" He smirked triumphantly as he finished. Her jaw dropped. Was he serious?

Yes. Yes he was.

"You idiot!"

Inuyasha's flattened his ears at her shout, his smirk falling from his face in favor of a frown. He dropped his hand to his side.

"Look at the clock!" Kagome pointed to the clock on her nightstand with a glower. "What time is it?"

He looked over at the clock in confusion. What he heck did that have to do with anything? "It's half past six."

Kagome stood up, and stepped closer to him, making him back up a step. "And what time did we get home?"

He looked up at the ceiling for a minute, trying to remember. "Uh… about three thirty I think."

Another step. "So how long have we been home?"

Inuyasha backed up again. "Um… about three hours?"

Step. "So how long have you been waiting behind that door?"

He stepped back once more and his back touched the door behind him. He was beginning to see where she was going with this and briefly wondered if he should just slip through the door and run like hell. "I guess… about two hours or so."

She took one more step until there was less than a foot between them. "Two and a half. More than enough time for a person to have taken a nice long walk and then come back, don't you think?"

Running away was looking very tempting about now. Why was she being so calm? Why did her eyes look so furious! "I suppose so…"

She leaned in to him, closing the gap even more. "And if a person were to sneak off while that person was away, do you think they would wait until two and a half hours later to leave?"

He began to sweat slightly and pressed himself to the door as far as he could go. "No… I guess not.."

She leaned as close as possible without becoming just a blur to his eyes. Which was pretty damn close. Any closer and they would be kissing. He was sure that was the last thing on her mind right now, but he blushed slightly anyways, cursing his stupid train of thought. He entertained the idea of kissing her anyways, just to see if she would be any less angry, but decided it would probably just piss her off more. One of his smarter restraints, he was sure.

"So Inuyasha…"

He gulped. "Yes?"

"What does this make you?"

"An idiot?"

She leaned back suddenly, a grin on her face. "That's right." She spun around and walked over to her window and looked out over the grounds towards the well. "You should think before you act."

Inuyasha was still cringing against the door, wondering what had just happened. She wasn't going to yell at him? He had been certain he was about to get his eardrums blown out by her bellows.

"Were you really waiting out there the whole time?" She glanced over her shoulder at him, an amused smile on her face.

He straightened up and crossed his arms over his chest, sticking his chin in the air as he tried to regain what little dignity was left to him. "Not the whole time." 'Just the last two hours and fifteen minutes.'

She shook her head and turned to face the window again. "I'll bet. It didn't occur to you in the whole time that it was getting a little late to go well hopping?"

He scratched his head sheepishly. "I guess I lost track of time." She wasn't angry! This was great!

"And it didn't occur to you that I still have four days of finals left that I can't miss?"

Now that one he hadn't thought of. "Oh yeah."

"I'll be leaving after finals are over. I'll have two weeks until school starts again, so it will be a good time to start my training. I've already told my mom and Lady Kaede."

"What! When were you going to tell me!" His temper flared again as she spoke so casually about leaving, as if he hadn't already told her she couldn't go."

"Actually, I wasn't planning on telling you at all."

Anger got the better of him and he stomped over to her once more and spun her around to face him. His angry eyes met her calm and slightly amused ones. "We've discussed this wench."

"I know, it was decided that you can't stop me."

He sputtered furiously for a second. "No! That is not what we decided."

"That's right. It's what I decided." The amusement was tricking from her eyes now, to be replaced with the stubborn glint he was become far too familiar with.

He grabbed her arms and shook her slightly. "What is wrong with you? Why won't you understand that it's too dangerous back there? You have no idea what kind of trouble you can get into. There are demons crawling all over the place, just waiting to rip apart a stupid girl like you. And if you somehow manage to avoid them, there are all the bandits and thieves ready to slit your throat or worse over the clothes you wear. There are wars and battles going on all over the place. There are diseases you can catch that haven't been around for years, so you won't have a vaccine for here. You can get sick and die of all the idiotic things! Just because you had to go prove something!" He had been gripping her arms steadily harder as her talked and he suddenly felt a dull throbbing pain in his stomach that indicated Kagome was hurt. He released her abruptly, ashamed that he had taken out his frustrations by almost crushing her arms.

He looked deeply into her face, hoping he had finally scared her into rethinking what she was doing. She was biting her lip and he saw pain in her eyes as she stared back at him. Aw shit, he hadn't meant to hurt her. "I'm sorry Kagome. Are your arms okay? I didn't mean to do that."

Confusion flashed across her features and she shook her head. "My arms are fine." He noticed then that she had bitten through her lip as the scent of blood wafted its way to his sensitive nose. Why the hell had she done that?

"I…" He tore his eyes from her mouth as she spoke and looked into her eyes once more, noticing the pain was still here. But if he hadn't hurt her, then why…

"I'm not going just so I can prove something Inuyasha."

His lips tightened in frustration.

"I'm not going just because you don't want me to okay? And I know there are dangers. Lady Kaede told me all about the risks of being a priestess and training to be one. It's not about me."

He frowned at that. "What…"

She placed her hand over his mouth and shook her head. "Listen to me please."

He gave her a reproachful look but nodded anyways. She removed her hand, much to his disappointment. "You may have trouble believing this, but I know that I'm not invincible. I'm not strong, and I don't have a lot of experience dealing with the supernatural and the demon world. It… it's scary. It frightens me. But…" She looked down as she felt tears starting to burn in her eyes. Inuyasha reached under her chin and brought her eyes up to meet his once more. The pain in them was even more vivid now, along with something else he couldn't identify.

"But it scares me even more to think of you all alone for the rest time. It frightens me to think you might never be able live your life the way you want to. It terrifies me to think you might disappear one day and that I'll never see you again. I'll never see you smile at me, or yell at me for being stupid or just be there for me when I trip on a crack in the sidewalk. But I would rather trip over every crack in the world than leave you the way you are now. You're my friend Inuyasha. I couldn't live with myself if I just sat back and did nothing for you. Why can't you understand that?"

"Kagome…" Her friend? He was her friend? He couldn't keep the bubble of happiness from rising in his chest at her words. He grabbed her and hugged her tight to his chest, savoring her warmth and inhaling her incredible scent. Her words touched him deeply, but there was no way he was letting her go back five hundred years to fight off demons and curses for his sake. He couldn't let her put herself in danger like that.

Silent tears slipped down her cheeks as she held onto Inuyasha. She rested her head against his chest and sighed softly.

"Don't cry." She barely heard his soft whisper against her hair.

"I'm not." She sniffled.

"Liar."

She grinned at that. "I know."

She pulled back and leaned back to give him a smile. She caught her breath when she looked into eyes. She loved his eyes; they were such a beautiful color. Right now they were the softest shade of champagne gold as they shone back at her with warmth and happiness. Had she done that? She felt fingertips one her cheek and realized he was brushing away her tears.

"Wha…"

"Don't want your mom to see you crying."

A frown creased her forehead. "My mom?"

Suddenly she heard the sound of the front door sliding open and several sets of feet shuffling in the hallway.

"Kagome, we're home!"

"Hey sis, come see my new shoes!"

Kagome grinned at her brother's obvious glee at his new sneakers. He was almost as bad as a girl sometimes. She grabbed Inuyasha's hand and dragged him to the door. "Come on Inuyasha. Let's go see Souta's new shoes."

He allowed her to drag him, but gave a huff and said, "What do I care about a pair of shoes?"

She just stuck her tongue out and continued downstairs, still feeling the brush of his fingers against her cheek. He could argue til he was blue in the face, but she knew what she had to do. In her mind, there really wasn't anything else she could do.

"Have a fun break Yuki! Make sure you bring me a souvenir." Kagome waved as the last of her friends disappeared around the corner. Kagome sighed happily. Freedom! She glanced over at Inuyasha, who hadn't taken his eyes off her since she had gone to school that morning, as if she would suddenly jump up from her school desk and make a fifteen minute dash to the well. Okay, so… quasi-freedom! She was beginning to feel very self-conscious under his constant scrutiny.

"Do you have to keep looking at me?"

"Yes."

Well that answered that.

She sighed heavily and hung her head. "I'm not even leaving until tomorrow."

"You're not leaving at all."

They had gone over and over this through the week and Kagome had come to the conclusion that neither of them was going to budge in their decisions. Unfortunately for Inuyasha, he didn't know that Kagome had a secret weapon at her disposal. If it worked that was.

Kagome packed her bag with everything she thought she would need for her trip. She planned on staying a couple days before coming home to spend time with her family and hopefully a still there Inuyasha. She was really hoping he would still be here when she came back. She knew there was the possibility he would fall back asleep and not wake up next time, but she had to take the chance. This was too important to back out over something as selfish as missing him when she was home. After staying home for a day or so she would go back for another couple day and then so on and so on until break was over. She figured she could come back on the weekends when school started.

She felt Inuyasha's eyes on her as she went over everything for the second time, making sure she hadn't forgotten anything. She glanced up and then immediately back down again as his eyes bore into hers angrily. She knew he wanted to say something, but they had already argued circles around the subject and she had finally told him to either shut up or go away. So of course he had shut up. He wouldn't trust her not to sneak out if he left. What was she going to do, jump out the second story window? Hmmm…

Nah. She wasn't graceful enough not to sprain an ankle on the landing.

Straightening, he turned to face the hanyou leaning against her desk. She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head. "Are you going to stay like that all night?"

"If I have to," he growled. Truth was he had stayed up the last three nights just like this, making sure she didn't slip away in the middle of the night, despite what she said.

Kagome just shrugged her shoulders and went to turn the light off. "Suit yourself." The night swallowed the room as the light flicked off. Crawling under her covers, she reached over and set her alarm for early the next morning.

"Good night Inuyasha."

"Night."

She grinned at his childish tone as she snuggled under the covers. Too bad he didn't have a chance.

Inuyasha watched the sleeping girl as stood at his post. She was so calm about this. It annoyed him that she wasn't worried about him at all. It made him nervous too. What was she planning that she was so certain he couldn't stop her?

The night wore on and the lack of sleep finally caught up to the hanyou boy as he leaned wearily against the desk. Accustomed to not having to sleep at night, he didn't recognize his body's need for sleep after staying up for so long. So it was only natural that his body took over and let him drift off as he closed his eyes for just a moment. Just a moment…

Kagome awoke to the darkness of night. She quietly rolled over and glanced at Inuyasha, fully expecting him to tell her to go back to sleep. She was mildly surprised to see him asleep as he leaned cross-armed against her desk. He could of course be faking, but there was something about the relaxed set of his features and the way his shoulders were slumped that made her think he was genuinely out for the count. Small wonder since her had been staying up all week watching her. She knew he had been up all those night since every time she would roll over in her sleep she would see him standing by her desk looking at her, or gazing out the window. It should have weirded her out, to know someone was watching her that closely, but somehow, it had made her feel safe.

She looked to her clock and saw that it was about four thirty in the morning. Early still, but she could sleep in Kaede's hut for a while once she got there. She silently slipped off her covers, keeping an eye on Inuyasha all the while. She hadn't really planned on getting up this early, but this was a good opportunity to get going without a confrontation. She decided to not risk changing into day clothes and kept her blue flannel pajamas on instead. She had an extra set of clothes in her bag anyways. She gently lifted her backpack from the floor and tip-toed to the door. She held her breath as she opened the door, silently thanking her grandfather for oiling the hinges not too long ago. She left the door partway open instead of risking closing it too loudly. She padded down the steps, quiet as a mouse, avoiding all the squeaky spots. She slipped on her shoes as she reached the door and said a silent goodbye to her family, mentally apologizing to them for not waiting til the morning.

She slid open the door, still being careful to not make a sound, remembering how good his hearing was. She closed it behind her as noiselessly as possible and breathed a soft sigh of relief as she turned around and made her way to the well house, her footfalls making only the smallest of whispers in the night.

Inuyasha's eyes snapped open. 'What? I fell asleep? Dammit!' He shook his head to dispel the remnants of his dream and focused his gaze to Kagome's bed.

"Shit!" Inuyasha jumped away from the desk in fury. How had he let this happen? He trained his ears for any sound of her moving, but couldn't hear anything but the wind howling outside and the sounds of her family sleeping peacefully in their beds. He sniffed the air and found her scent to be still fresh. His heart picked up. She hadn't left that long ago. He jumped to the window and his heart jumped all the way to his throat as he saw her nearly to the well house already. Letting him self fall through the window he leapt to the ground and sprinted after her. She was to the door now and was just about to go in.

"Kagome!"

She turned around at his voice, he face a mixture of surprise and guilt. She dashed inside and shut the door behind her. Yeah like that was going to slow him down. He was through the door just as she reached the bottom of the steps.

"Kagome stop!"

She turned around again, her hand on the rim of the well. Her eyes pleaded with him as she spoke. "Inuyasha please let me go. I'll take care of myself I swear."

He growled angrily and crouched down, preparing himself to leap after her. "No."

Kagome closed her eyes and sighed. She seemed to be thinking of something. When she opened her eyes, he saw a determination there that scared him. She really thought she was going to get her way?

"I'm going. You can either let me go, or I can make you let me go."

What was that suppose to mean? "You're going to have to make me then!" He bared his teeth in resolve and his ears flattened against his head.

Kagome blinked at his gestures, strongly reminded of a dog at the moment. She would have to say it after all. Looking at his pose, crouched on the ground, fangs bared, and ears flattened, she knew what to say suddenly. Having eluded her this whole time, she finally knew what to say. Giving a final shake of her head and saying a quick prayer in her head, she addressed Inuyasha for what she hoped wasn't the last time.

"Inuyasha…" She lifted one leg over the side of the well and Inuyasha tensed preparing himself to leap over and grab her.

"Osuwari."

A pink light glowed briefly around Inuyasha's neck, startling him, before sending him crashing face first into the ground.

Oh good. So it did work.

AN- For those of you unfamiliar with the undubbed Japanese version, osuwari is the Japanese command for telling a dog to sit. I like it better than 'sit boy', so I used it instead. Plus I just love the way she says it! Osuwari!

He he he

Let's hear it for evil and confusing cliffies!

Q and A

No, sorry. I'm just too darned lazy at the moment. I promise to answer everything next time. Pinky swear.

I'm currently busy with school work (yes, some of us willingly go to school during the summer), which is why my update wasn't as punctual as I had hoped it would be. Hopefully I will get the next one out in the next couple days.

Thank you for all your wonderful reviews and praise/encouragement. I love it!

Oh and thanks to InU-DragoN-GirL who is always concerned for me when I slip into the background for too long. I promise not to worry you too much next time. :-)

Bye for now.