DISCLAIMER: I do not, repeat, I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi. The story line is not solely mine either. It belongs to the writers of My Sassy Girl.

Carnival, Surprise!

And just like that, as quick as she had left his world she had returned. They didn't hang out quite as often as before, Kagome had finals, and so did he, though he would have gladly failed to see her, she wasn't so willing to re-do a year of college. He respected that, besides she needed to be more serious about her future than she was, or seemed to be. It was true that she was always running off for meetings of one sort or another but she never seemed to want to talk about it or think about it. So, it was with a smile on his face and a well prepared mind, yes he actually studied, that he found himself taking his finals.

He was about half way through his last test when his phone started that familiar jingle. He swore in his head and shut it off. The teacher came over and asked him a few questions, to verify that he wasn't cheating, then left. Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief. He was berating himself about not remembering to turn off his phone for the rest of the test. And when it was finally over he couldn't remember if he even answered the questions properly, I mean what if he shaded in the circles too dark?

Sighing and pulling his phone out, powering it up and then dialing her phone number from memory he waited patiently as it rang four times. She picked up sounding a little angry.

"Hey, I was in my test." He whispered in a gentle voice, though he didn't know why.

"I see. My birthday is in a week. You better have something planned, and it better be good. I'm busy now I'll call you when I can." She hung up without saying bye. Inuyasha shrugged it off. She never said bye. With another sigh he started to walk home. He'd have to pull off something big to impress her and he was going to need some quiet time to figure it out.

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Quiet time had stretched on for about a day or so. Kagome hadn't called and even without interruptions he hadn't thought of anything. It was starting to stress him out. He was getting desperate, he was even thinking about taking her to see a movie as a back up. If that was the best he could come up with she would kill him. Literally. Inuyasha could hear her now. His vision of her screaming at him and beating him up was so vivid and familiar feeling that shivers ran down his spine. A new wave of determination washed over him though as he pictured her smiling and hugging him.

And suddenly while he was getting ready for his shift at work an idea hit him right in the face. Almost as forcefully as Kagome would if he didn't figure something out. He smiled, heck he laughed. It was so perfect, picking up his phone he dialed an old connection of his and set up the best birthday Kagome was ever going to see. Everything was ready to go and he set out for work clearing his mind so he could concentrate. After all, he had been promoted to the 'yes department'. There were a lot fewer applicants and he only had to use his big red no stamp on a few weeds.

When he had first started he was in the 'no department', it's the lowest level. Basically every applicant that comes through you deny the loan. It's easy, it's boring and it is kind of depressing. The next level up is the 'sorting department' he was working there for a short time after Kagome had called him about their anniversary. The job here was to filter about 90 – 95 of the applicants into the no bin and the rest to the yes bin. This was also boring – but not quite as monotonous – after all you actually had to read the applications. And lastly his latest job, with much better pay, was to actually talk to the customers that had been approved for the loan. It was a bit more stressful but in the end you felt like you actually helped someone – that is until you looked at the interest rate on the return. With a smile on his face, confident that he could face Kagome in the next few days – her birthday set up, he plopped down at his desk and called for his first interview.

The person seemed nervous, really desperate and smelled like she had been crying. He felt terrible; he just had to push the loan through, even if her credits were borderline with the no's. However when she started talking about why she wanted to have one he couldn't help but zone out. Her voice was irritating and so he just reverted to nodding his head when he had to. And instead he imagined Kagome's face.

First, we'll go to the carnival at night while it's closed, I'll take her hand and walk her toward the Merry Go Round the lights turning on one by one as we move past them. And when we get to it my buddy would turn it on in all its glory. We'd take a ride on it and we'd hang out doing whatever she wanted. Inuyasha sighed as he heard the girl start to sniffle and one last thought crossed his mind, working there a couple years ago was one of my smartest moves. Returning his attention back to the woman he smiled gently and approved her. She squealed. His ears flattened to his skull, how annoying, she jumped up wiping her eyes and smiling really brightly.

"Thank you so much, you have no idea how much my mom and dad will appreciate this." Inuyasha nodded grabbed her signature, practically making her sell her soul for a couple hundred thousand yen. Well maybe it was only worth that much anyway.

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Kagome's birthday was on Wednesday and she phoned him at noon leaving a message saying she'd be busy until nine. He had already told her that her 'party' was to start after dark and she smiled, sounded relieved and explained the situation. Her mother had been sending her to more and more meetings, something about securing her future.

Kagome's mom had really eased up on her about seeing Inuyasha since she devoted more of her time, to what her mother deemed, more important tasks. She only wanted for her to put Inuyasha on the back burner. Now he didn't find that it was very fair but he needed to stay on steady ground with that woman, what if she banned Kagome from seeing him again? (Even though he was completely for supporting Kagome's future as long as it was his idea.) He had dared to ask her about what had happened the night she ditched him and she told him flat out- she had been rebelling from her parents leash after her last boyfriend had left her and they figured severing ties with him would be the only way to fix it. At first it hadn't, but then Kagome realized that her mother would only be stricter the more she fought and so she settled down with a compromise. Kagome said she had learned from the experience and was being more responsible with the way she spent her time now, Inuyasha saw it as her being tamed – but wisely kept his mouth shut.

When nine had rolled around Inuyasha was waiting for Kagome outside the designated meeting place and had hugged her the second he saw her. She hugged him back but looked a little confused.

"Happy birthday! Come on, I just know you're going to love this!" He grinned as wide as he could and pulled her toward the deserted carnival grounds.

"What are we doing here? It's closed."

"I used to work here a while ago, and I have some connections my friend is letting me use the park tonight." Kagome raised her eyebrow at this, but she seemed impressed. Leading her to the lowest part of the fence, as the gate had to be kept locked, he climbed up and over the wall to demonstrate which places for her to grab onto. The ascent was easy enough but on the way down his foot landed on something he didn't recall being there before. "Hey Kagome, there's a great place to set your foot on the other side so you don't have to drop straight down, it kind of wiggles but it's there." Kagome shouted an okay. She sounded a little ticked off at him, probably about having to break into her surprise. She'd be okay with it soon enough. Inuyasha jumped down onto the ground and turned to inspect what he had stepped on. Fear washed over him.

There sitting up against the wall holding a standard issue military rifle was a deserter. He didn't look pleased about being stepped on and Inuyasha could barely speak. He tried to call out to Kagome but his voice was nothing but a squeak as she swung her legs over.

"Inuyasha, where is this foothold? I can't find it!" she hissed as she swung her foot around, just narrowly missing the guy's head. He tried to say something but it was impossible to speak. "Inuyasha, where is it?" Her foot landed on his head and the deserter glared at Inuyasha his hand moving to the trigger. "Never mind, I got it." She lowered herself down and glared at him as he was still sputtering. "You want to die? Why didn't you answer me?" There was an ominous click as Inuyasha swallowed and Kagome turned at the noise. She swallowed a lump in her own throat and stared at the guy a little frightened but then she schooled herself and turned to Inuyasha. "What the hell is this?"

"An unexpected predicament?" He offered weakly as Kagome glared at him, apparently not getting the joke. The deserter stepped up behind her and pointed his gun at her head.

"Who are you people!" He demanded as he pressed the barrel to her head.

"We're here for her birthday, it was a surprise!" Inuyasha hurried to say and the gun was then trained on him instead. He swallowed.

"Walk forward." The deserter growled and pushed them along to the haunted house the whole while glaring at the pair of them. As they walked the lights in the park turned on one by one. Inuyasha's ears flattened against his head and he sighed.

"Well, surprise!"