Disclaimer: Alright, Alright! I don't own Inuyasha! Of course, if I did, do you think I would be writing fanfiction? Of course not! I would be too busy having the show kill Kikyo, bash Hobo, get Inuyasha and Kagome together, get Miroku and Sango together, kill Naraku, do something with the other characters, and insert myself into the plot! Hahahahahaha……(sigh) Oh well, guess I'll have to settle for this.

Grrrrr…I'm still upset at you people, but I DID get one review, so I guess that's ok…for now. But I swear to Buddha that if you don't review my other story, (Omega Chronicles: Rise and Fall of the Flame Hanyou) I will personally let my demon side rip you all to shreds. Can't I just kill them all now? No! Not unless they don't make good on my demands. I could just overpower you, you know. Not unless you wanted me to purify myself and you out of existence. But you would die too. Reincarnation. Let's you keep trying until you get it right. Hmmm, good point. I'll behave. On with the chapter!

Awaken From a Dream

Well, the trip to the mall was a laugh and a half. Inuyasha was looking at everyone suspiciously, as though they might attack them, and attacking cars, thinking they were demons. Kagome had to end up sitting Inuyasha ten times to keep him from hurting people. Finally, they got to the mall.

"Finally!" Kagome said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I thought we were never going to get here."

"Well, we would have got here sooner, wench, if you hadn't kept sitting me!" Inuyasha grumbled. His face was still smarting from all the sitting. Kagome just didn't understand; he was only tying to protect her! 'Oh man, I've gotta watch my mouth. There's no telling what she'll do if I make her angry! Plus, I still have to tell her my feelings. I don't want to mess that up.'

"Heeeeelllloooooo? Inuyaaaasshhaaaaa, are you theeeerreeee?" Kagome called in a sing-song voice, snapping Inuyasha out of his trance-like state. "I was just saying we should go inside the mall now."

"Huh? Oh…Yeah, I guess. Sure, whatever." Inuyasha said, his mind coming back to the tasks at hand.

"Inuyasha, are you ok? You've been acting kinda spacy lately." Kagome said as they walked inside the mall. No matter how angry she got, she still worried about her hanyou, and she didn't want to see him hurt. 'Wait…rewind. Did I just think of him as mine?' Kagome blushed, shaking those thoughts from her head.

"Why are you asking me that? You're the one who's blushing!" Inuyasha stated.

"Are you thinking of something you shouldn't be, Kagome?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

"No! I…er…umm…I…" Kagome stuttered, trying in vain to come up with an excuse.

"Ha! I knew it!" Inuyasha said triumphantly, smirking. However, Kagome had just thought of a way to get him off her case, unfortunately for him.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome said, just a little bit too sweetly.

'Oh crap. Here it comes…' Inuyasha thought, bracing for impact.

"SIT BOY!"

"ARRRRRRRGGHHH!"

CRASH

Inuyasha lay on the floor, a giant crater visible in the hard tile floor. Smirking (Inuyasha style), she stepped over the subdued dog demon and started towards her favorite clothes store. After the spell wore off, Inuyasha got up and bounded after Kagome, reminding himself to be more careful in his choice of words.

"Oooo, oooo! Inuyasha, aren't these clothes awesome?" Kagome squealed. She had her mom's credit card with her, and she'd be damned if she didn't take advantage of that privilege.

"What are you talking about? What do they DO?" Inuyasha said, confused. "What kind of useless clothes are these? They wouldn't protect you at all in a fight. They don't even cover all of you body!"

"Not all clothes have to be amazing impenetrable armor, you now. Since we don't have demons in this time, most clothes are made to make people look nice." Kagome explained, sighing. Inuyasha still had a lot to learn about her era.

"Then why do you need them? You look nice enough as it is!" Inuyasha said. His eyes went wide with panic as he realized what he had just admitted..

Kagome was staring at him in complete shock. 'Did he just say that I looked nice? That's impossible! Inuyasha never pays anyone compliments, let alone me. Could it be possible…Inuyasha likes me!" Kagome's mind was working overtime to try to process what she just heard. 'Well, don't just stand there! Say something girl!' She looked at Inuyasha, whose head was turned away, his face the color of his haori.

"Umm…Inuyasha…D-did you just say that I looked nice?" Kagome tripped on her words as she spoke to the blushing hanyou.

'Ahhhhhh! Dammit! What am I gonna doooo? I can't tell her that I love her here, it woud be way too embarrassing! And I really don't want to be rejected in public. Arrrgh! I have to say something! Think!' Inuyasha was mentally smashing his head into a wall. He had no idea what to say. "Errr…ummm…I…"

"Hey! Kagome!" A familiar yell came from across the mall. Inuyasha breathed a sigh of released.

'I never thought I'd say this, but I have been saved by Kagome's annoying screechy friends.' Inuyasha thought to himself.

Kagome groaned. She saw her friends, Ayumi, Eri, and Yuka running across the mall towards them. And worse, they had Hojo in tow! 'Why do they always have the worst possible timing?' she mentally screamed. 'And just when I was maybe, just maybe, going to find out if Inuyasha has any feelings for me! But instead I get to deal with Hojo, the oh-so-dense one. Joy.' Plastering a fake smile on, she prepared herself for another round of making excuses.

Inuyasha growled. That Hobo kid was coming towards them with Kagome's friends. He flexed his claws. He was going to rip him to shreds if he even looked at Kagome the wrong way.

"Hey Kagome, what's up? Glad to see your tendonitis is feeling better!" Eri said as they reached Kagome. Kagome sweatdropped. 'One of these days I'm gonna kill Gramps' she thought.

"And who's this?" Ayumi asked while staring at Inuyasha. 'Whoever he is, he is fine!' she thought.

"Whoever he is, is he taken? 'Cause if not, I want him!" Yuka said, checking Inuyasha out.

Kagome felt a twinge of jealousy that other people were checking out her Inuyasha, but she let it go as they had no idea. 'And stop calling him mine! He loves Kikyo, remember?' She sadly thought to herself. 'But then again, he did sort-of kiss me last night, so maybe…Ah, at the very least, I'll use him to get Hojo off my back.'

"Ummm…no guys, this is my boyfriend, Inuyasha." Kagome said. Inuyasha gave her an awestruck look.

'She thinks of me as her boyfriend? Maybe I do have a chance with her after all. I mean, it's not like I want to go with Kikyo…' Inuyasha had realized a long time ago that his feelings for the undead clay pot of a miko had dried up a long time ago. (A/N: - Hee hee hee, I hate that bitch. She is such a slut, and she keeps trying to kill both Inu and Kags. She should burn in the fire pits of hell alone!) The only obligation he had to her now was to avenge her death at the hands of Naraku. HE wouldn't even be doing that if he didn't want to kill Naraku so badly for all the trouble he had caused. Right now, all he was concentrated on was winning Kagome's heart.

"You mean the possessive, two-timing jerk boyfriend?" Eri asked, looking skeptically at Inuyasha. 'I can't imagine anyone this hot being that mean to a girl.' She thought to herself. Inuyasha, meanwhile, had realized what Eri was talking about when she said "two-timing".

'Fuck! What's wrong with me? I can't believe I did something like that to Kagome! Oh God, she must hate me now!' Inuyasha mentally berated himself as he looked down sadly.

Kagome, seeing the depressed look on the hanyou's face, immediately jumped to his defense. "You guys, don't say that. I was just angry at him when I called him that." She said, trying to take back her earlier statements, Inuyasha looking up hopefully.

Meanwhile, Hojo had been sizing up Inuyasha, supplying himself with plenty of pathetic excuses why Kagome would want him more than Inuyasha. 'I have to look good in front of Kagome, so I'll help her by getting rid of this guy for her.' He thought to himself.

"But Kagome, you said so yourself before, this guy is a jerk! I would never treat you the way this dog probably does." Hojo said to Kagome, glaring at Inuyasha, not knowing how close he was to the truth.

Inuyasha rose and sent a glare at Hojo that would have made a bodybuilder run away crying. Hojo didn't do this, however, not because he was exceptionally brave, but he was exceptionally stupid and dense. "Shut up, you idiot! Don't you ever accuse me of mistreating Kagome! Now I do admit that I did slightly two-time her in the past, but that's over now! I care about her in ways that you never could!" Inuyasha yelled at Hojo, revealing more than he wanted to to Kagome, but he had to get it through Hojo's thick head that Kagome was his!

Kagome, meanwhile, was almost in a shock-induced coma. 'Is he serious?' She mentally screamed, trying to keep from doing a happy dance on the spot. 'He really cares about me? And does he mean it when he says it's over with Kikyo? Omigod, I think I might faint, I'm so happy!'

"Yeah, right! You're nothing but a possessive bastard! Kagome likes me much more! She can just see all of my great qualities, especially when they're compared to someone who has as much wrong with them as you do!" Hojo proudly stated, hitting his chest with his fist to enhance his statement.

"The only thing I see in you, Hojo, is that you probably have the world's biggest ego!" Kagome said to him, now thoroughly disgusted. Her friends felt the same way, eyeing Ho-dense with disdain.

"Omigod, what a stuck-up jerk!" Ayumi whispered to the other two.

"Yeah, I can't believe we actually tried to set Kagome up with this creep." Yuka agreed.

"I hope Kagome can forgive us." Eri prayed.

Menwhile, Hobo was in shock at the truth that Kagome had stated.

"Kagome! You can't really mean that can you? I know, he's forcing you to say this, right? He's been threatening you, hasn't he!" Hojo refused to believe that Kagome might actually like someone else.

"Hojo, you asshole! Don't you ever insult Inuyasha like that! He would never threaten me, and I know that! He is a much kinder person, not to mention hotter, than you are or can ever hope to be! So why don't you just leave us alone!" Kagome was fuming. Why couldn't this retard get it through his head that he didn't have a chance with her! (A/N: cough dense cough)

Inuyasha was dumbstruck for a few reasons. Reason #1: Kagome just swore. Kagome never swore! 'I must be rubbing off on her.' Inuyasha smirked. Reason #2: She just verbally whaled on Hojo. He didn't think she had it in her! 'Go Kagome!' Inuyasha yet again thought. Reason #3: Kagome just called him hot! She thinks he is hot! 'Score!' Inuyasha mentally cheered. All of these things added up to only one thing in his mind: Victory! Inuyasha's face broke into a very visible smirk, causing Kagome to blush.

"No, Kagome! Whether you believe me or not, I know what's best for you! I'm taking you away from this loser, now!" Hojo yelled, grabbing Kagome's wrist before she could respond and starting to drag her away.

SLAP

Ayumi, Eri, and Yuka's jaws dropped, while Inuyasha just smirked. 'I knew that was going to happen! Ho-loser doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell with Kagome now.' Still, it was hard to believe that Kagome had slapped Hojo that hard, considering the only person he ever saw slap someone was Sango slapping Miroku.

Hojo, meanwhile, was reeling from the blow, and now sported a red palm print on his face. His face showed a look of disbelief.

"Kagome! How could you do this to me? I thought you liked me!" Hojo pleaded.

"I'm sorry Hojo, but---Wait, no I'm not! You deserved everything you got! You were always bugging me for dates, and I kept trying to give you hints that I didn't like you that way, but you were too dense to notice. Now leave me and Inuyasha alone." Kagome turned away with a very sastisifed look on her face, and started to leave. The others followed, leaving Hojo looking like a fish out of water.

Inuyasha came up beside Kagome, and without warning, grabbed Kagome's hand. Kagome's cheeks became tinged with pink. As she walked hand in hand with the hanyou, she mused to herself. 'That's Hojo down. Now all I have to do is get with Inuyasha…'

OH-MY-GOD! I can't believe how long that took. Oh well, whatever. Next chapter are the clothes. There really isn't much else to say, except: MERRY CHRISTMAS! WOOHOO! (clears throat) Alrighty then. Review, please! Even flames are good! However, to those who are reading my story already (and I know who you are), you are hereby commanded to go read my other story! Arigato and ja ne!

-Inublade360