Disclaimer: The characters of Inuyasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, but this story belongs to me.

Chapter Two: Inuyasha vs. The Green Eyed Demon

"Be careful!" Inuyasha hissed at Kaede, the nurse who was wrapping a bandage around Kagome's ankle.

The young man tried to glare at Kagome for getting into this mess again, but couldn't manage to keep the frown in place with her making faces at him over the nurse's head. It was unfair how much power she had over him. When Kaede caught her making a particularly embarrassing face, Kagome turned a most interesting shade of pink and Inuyasha chuckled.

He knew that he was perhaps a wee bit overprotective of his friend, but he figured everyone would just have to live with it. He wasn't changing for anyone. He loved his friend more than anything and would turn the world, not to mention everyone in it, inside out for her.

Yes. Love.

Maybe it wasn't the roses and candlelight romantic gushy love that is in all the romance novels that Kagome read but tried to hide from him. Maybe it wasn't the fairytale love of knights and princesses, or demons and mikos for that matter, but it was love all the same.

And as far as Inuyasha was concerned, Kagome was HIS Kagome. She has always been his constant companion and best friend. Why the heck she chose to be his best friend was beyond him. However, he wasn't going to jinx things by questioning it or trying to analyze it to death.

Inuyasha quit pacing and finally sat in the hard plastic seat where he could watch the excruciatingly and painfully slow process as Kaede un-wrapping the ankle and re-wrapping it a little tighter. Kagome was grinning at him as he scowled at the nurse, which made it difficult to keep up the glaring. How can she possibly look like she's having a good time?

She made another goofy face at him while the nurse turned.

"You have the choice, Miss Higurashi. You can behave and take this orally," Kaede shook the thermometer and gave the girl a hard look. "Or…"

"Eep!"

Inuyasha snickered as she opened up and held the thermometer in her mouth and sat very very still. She crossed her eyes trying to read the numbers, making him look away before he broke out laughing.

"Why are YOU here?" asked Kaede as she held Kagome's wrist to take her pulse.

"Pack mule."

Kaede grunted her reply.

"Mmph murff?" Kagome mumbled.

It was in kindergarten that he knew that he loved her. Sure they had always been friends, but that was only because they only had each other to play with. Once kindergarten started there were lots of other kids to choose a best friend from… and she chose him. Every single time they had to choose a partner she chose him. When it was time to choose teams he was always the first that she picked, even the games he was bad at. She always always always picked him first.

They were inseparable.

Then came the fourth grade. Her father got a new job and took her away from him.

They wrote each other every day, either snail mail, email, or on messenger, but it wasn't quite the same. He had missed her smile and her laugh. He missed her. His life was one big empty hole without her.

A couple of years later she came back. Her father had died in a car accident on his way home from work one day, and the devastated family went to live at the old Higurashi shrine with Kagome's grandfather. Though Inuyasha was sad for her loss, he couldn't help but be happy to have his best friend back. It was lonely without her. A part of him was missing with her gone. He hadn't even tried to make new friends while she was away, and no one sought him out as a friend.

Inuyasha smiled at his memory of seeing Kagome again. He had been shocked! She had blossomed. Though she had been cute before, she was drop dead gorgeous when she returned. He remembered how afraid he was when he saw her. Afraid that she might not want him anymore. Afraid that people would try to take her away from him again. People like (shudder) boys. And the boys were drawn to her like moths to a flame. It was practically a full time job keeping them at bay. But she never gave any of the more than a passing glance. Ever.

And he had been too scared of losing her to even attempt dating her. So he made one of the biggest mistakes of his life. Kikyo.

Dating Kikyo had taught Inuyasha that it was more than a love for a childhood friend he felt for Kagome. Being with Kikyo just brought to light every wonderful thing about his best friend. No other girl could replace her, and soon Inuyasha just gave up trying. When Kagome would pester him about his lack of love life he would just use studying for college as an excuse.

"Crutches?" Kagome sounded absolutely horrified. Inuyasha looked up from his musings at the sound.

"I could always just carry you around everywhere," he offered with a chuckle.

He laughed out loud when it looked like she was seriously considering his offer. In the end she decided to get around on her own steam. He settled for carrying her books while she hobbled along on the borrowed wooden crutches.

"Thanks," Kagome said shyly as they reached their classroom door.

Inuyasha gave her a friendly faux punch on the shoulder. Although in his head he was willing to admit he was madly in love with his best friend, to the rest of the world he was maintaining the buddy façade. He couldn't risk scaring her off. If anyone took teasing worse than him, it was Kagome. "Anytime, kiddo."

"Grrrrrr," she growled. "I'm not a kid! Besides, you're only a few weeks older than me, so you can't say anything."

"But I'm still older."

"A few lousy weeks!"

"Still ooooldeeerr."

After settling down into their seats, Inuyasha pulled out his notebook and his pen. He stole a glance at the girl in the seat beside him. Kagome shoved her crutches under her seat (after accidentally whacking Miroku and Kouga with them) and reached into her bag for her notebook. She whispered to Sango, who sat in front of her, asking to borrow the notes from what they missed. Inuyasha knew that the girls would get together at lunch to swap the notes, and gossip, that they missed by being late.

Ten minutes later Kagome's purple pen was wandering aimlessly over her paper and her eyes had gone all soft and dreamy. Inuyasha frowned. He knew what she was daydreaming about. Or who. It was Inuyasha. The dog-demon from her dreams, not the Inuyasha sitting beside her. The Inuyasha who had been her best friend for their entire lives. The Inuyasha who was always beside her.

The one who loved her.

In the beginning Inuyasha had felt flattered that the character who was modeled and named after him was the hero of her dreams. He had been proud to be the hero, and romantic interest, in her dreams. But then the dreams continued. They were more detailed, more involved. More real. It didn't take long before he was a little more than afraid that she had fallen head over heels for a figment of her imagination.

He was actually jealous over a dream!

He had fought this particular green eyed demon every time she got that dreamy "I wish I was with my big strong testosteroney hanyou in feudal Japan" look in her eyes. Even though he knew he was being unreasonable, he still wished he could challenge the hanyou. To fight him for her.

What was worse was than the dreams was the fact that the dreams never let her be completely happy. They never let her be completely happy with him. There was always someone or something that would get in their way. Half of him hated the hanyou for being the one that Kagome loved so much, and the other half hated him for never loving her back.

"Maybe I'm the one who needs a shrink," Inuyasha mumbled to himself.

How does someone compete against a dream anyhow? He wasn't a demon, or even a half demon. He didn't have the super strength or super hearing or super smell or super anything at all. He was just your average every day guy… and not a particularly wonderful one at that. He was absolutely pathetically slightly below average.

Inuyasha ran over his list of faults. Short temper, mediocre grades, anti-social, unpopular, no job, no money, no car…. Inuyasha decided to quit going over his list of faults before he got tooooo depressed. He looked back over at Kagome. She deserves someone as special as she is. But so far he hadn't found a single boy worthy of being with his friend. He had no shame in running them off. Of course, he wasn't sure what he would do when the day came that Kagome finally chose a boyfriend. Much less a husband. He shuddered at the thought.

No, if it came down to her becoming serious enough about a boy for her to consider marriage he would have to step in. Of course, that didn't seem to be an issue since there was only one male that she seemed interested in, and he was just a dream. That thought should have made him feel better, but it didn't.

Before he could look away, Kagome turned her head and looked at him. She smiled the smile that always made him feel like his brain was turning into tapioca.

Quickly he scribbled out a note: WacDonalds? Then he handed it to her once the teacher's attention was on the papers in front of her. Kagome took the note and hid it under her notes. When she covertly peeked at what he wrote she gave him another of her heart stopping smiles and nodded.

Inuyasha ducked his head to hide his grin. They had a date at WacDonalds after school. Concentrating on the lecture was next to impossible. He'd copy the notes that Kagome was going to copy from Sango at lunch. He had something that the hanyou didn't have after all. He had Kagome.

And he was real.