Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Overtime
Chapter 7

'Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep' Her alarm clock startled Kagome awake. 6:00am. She slowly got out of bed and rubbed her eyes, walking over to the window. She immediately missed the welcoming warmth of her covers. It had evidently snowed the night before, Kagome had to look hard to pinpoint her car.

'This is great…' She thought sarcastically. 'Everything looks frozen…'

After showering, getting in her freshly clean uniform and having something to eat she stepped outside. It's been a week and a bit since Kagome began her job at Sportsmart and she was enjoying it quite well. She and Sango became friends quickly and the two hung out with Inuyasha and Miroku often.

She made her way towards the door of her car in about a foot of snow. The roads had been cleared but she was already behind fifteen minutes because of the quick rush of shoveling her driveway in an attempt to back out. After coming out prepared with a hot kettle in hand, she poured boiling water over the windshield and windows getting the door handles as well. After all this was done it was about 7:15am, leaving her 15 minutes to get to work on time for 7:30.

With the lock of her front door and the slam of her car door she stuck her key into the ignition and turned it. Nothing.

'What?'

She tried again. Nothing.

"Damnit! This cant be happening…" She tried to start her car until she finally gave up and slammed her hands down on the steering wheel in frustration.

"I'm so going to be late." The hot air from her breath re-fogged her window but she got out of the car before she could notice. Kagome quickly ran back into her house— Freezing and covered in snow— and called for a car repair service with 5 minutes left to be at work.

She tapped her foot impatiently as the phone rang.

Ring…Ring…Ring…Ring

"Come on I'm in a Hurr-"

"Miko's cars, how may I help you?"

"My car wont start, I need someone over here to fix it! I have to be at work in three minutes!" Kagome quickly blurted to the kind lady who answered.

"Oh I see, well…" Her voice was unsure. "I don't think we could be there in three minutes ma'am, we've had a large number of calls this morning and some of the workers are home sick today. You know, it being flu season and all. Actually my daughter Melissa's been coming down with something, I'm sure she picked it up at school. You know kids, always touching their faces and each other and what not. In my day you never saw infection spread so quickly..."

"—Yes, okay." Kagome thought for a second 'It's fine if I'm a few minutes late…' "So when can you get here then?"

"Oh!" Said the lady, with a hint of amusement. "Not until another three hours at least!"

"Three hours!" Kagome nearly had a nose bleed. Naraku would kill her if she showed up that late! "But I need to be there sooner! What are you guys doing snow-shoeing here?"

"I'm sorry but that's the best we can do. Snow-shoeing, you got jokes hey? Have you ever been snow shoeing before? You know it's faster than walking. Your address please ma'am?"

'This is not going to be a good day…' Kagome thought angrily.

She hung up the phone at around 7:35. She sighed and plopped down on her couch, getting ready to call the store to notify them that she wouldn't be in for a bit….well, a bit more than a bit.

"Sportsmart, how may I help you?" A cheery male voice answered the phone.

"Hey, it's Kagome."

"Oh, its you…" His voice dropped immediately and she recognized the man on the other end as Inuyasha. "You're late you know, where the hell are you? Sleep in right?" His mocking voice boomed over the phone. Kagome rolled her eyes.

"No, Inuyasha." She said, her annoyance rising. "Anyways, can you tell someone that matters that I wont be in for another three hours, my car won't start because of the cold and the people wont be here until then, ok?"

"Three hours!" was all that Inuaysha's brain registered. "Haha! You are so dead! Your car's frozen? Ha! You stupid—"

"Good-bye Inuyasha." Kagome narrowed her eyes into the phone.

"Wait!" He yelled, just as she was about to hang up.

"What is it now?"

In the store, Sango eyed Inuyasha curiously. His back was to her but by the way he was speaking she already guessed it was Kagome.

"Umm…" Inuyasha mocked an embarrassed guy. "I could pick you up…?"

"Really?" Kagome spoke almost exactly what Sango was thinking.

"Ahehehe, no." Inuyasha began laughing uncontrollably on the other end of the line. Kagome held the phone away form her ear to glare at it. Inuyasha's "Kagome? Kagome you there?" could be heard coming from the little black holes.

'Click'

After hanging up she went into the kitchen to fix herself some hot tea. She wandered aimlessly around her apartment before finally settling on the couch, anticipating a long wait.

Fifteen minutes later her doorbell rang.

Kagome shot off the couch and raced to the door.

'Maybe they came to fix my car early.' She thought excitedly to herself as she turned the doorknob.

"Now I can finally get to wo—" She swung the door open to reveal Inuyasha in a long black, wool coat and a knitted gray scarf.

Kagome's excited expression melted into a confused stare. She reluctantly registered that he looked good, the tip of his nose a light pink from the cold.

"Oh, what are you doing here Inuyasha?" He rolled his eyes at her lack of gratitude.

"Grateful at all?" When he spoke the air turned to steam and Kagome realized he was still standing outside. The truth was, she was grateful he came. It was nice to see him at such a stressful time but…didn't he have work to do? Before she could invite him inside for question he spoke in his most trying-not-to-care tone.

"Get in the car, I'm taking you to work."

"What? You cant do that!" Kagome crossed her arms 'Who said he could push me around?'

"Watch me." Inuyasha smirked. "Look, don't be difficult, just get in."

"No." She stubbornly stayed in her doorway. She actually wanted to get to work —she wasn't trying to be difficult but it was too late to turn back now.

'She's left me no choice…' "Fine." Inuyasha faked being over the whole convincing her thing and shrugged, catching Kagome off-guard.

"See you in three hours!" He chuckled and turned back to his car. He was stopped by Kagome's hand on his shoulder. Inuyasha hid his victorious grin before turning to face her.

—5 minutes later—

Kagome leaned her head against Inuyasha's car window. He had a pretty nice ride …oh right! Rich parents. The straight line on her side of the road was making her dizzy from staring at it so she positioned her head against the window to face the road ahead of them.

"So…" Kagome searched her mind for something relevant to say. "Pretty unusual weather we got last night, huh?" She looked at Inuyasha expectantly.

"What's so unusual about it, it snowed." He kept his eyes on the road.

"I don't know…" Kagome shrugged and turned back to stare out the window. "So how are you?"

"I saw you yesterday." Inuyasha replied plainly.

"Stop that Inuyasha!" Kagome sat up in her seat. She was not in the mood for a one-sided conversation.

"Stop what?" His innocent voice made Kagome tense in frustration.

"Stop being such and idiot!"

"Then how about you just don't speak to me?" He replied, genuinely believing he'd found the perfect solution.

"Stop breathing." Kagome narrowed her eyes at the side of his head.

"Stop acting so bitchy."

"I will once you start acting like a decent human being."

Screech!

Inuyasha slammed his foot down on the breaks, startling Kagome. "Nice, you stopped in the middle of the road, you idiot." Kagome raised an eyebrow. "And why aren't you at work anyway what were you thinking coming to get me?"

'Yea really, why did they give him time off just to come and harass me?'

Inuyasha pulled the car over to the curb. "Firstly," he said, turning to look at Kagome. "Sango is covering for me right now, and second," He was almost yelling now. "I ain't putting up with all your screaming anymore!"

"Well if you weren't such a prick, then no one would have to scream at you! Take a hint Inuyasha." Kagome was on the verge of a rage. She was tired, and cold and frustrated—oh yea, and she was very late for work.

"I don't need you mouthing off to me." Inuyasha leaned in, growling angrily.

"What are you going to do about it? Kill me?" Kagome leaned in as well, both of them furious.

After about 5 minutes of nose-to-nose combat Kagome stood outside the car with the tip of her finger holding the car door open.

"And I never want to see you again!" She yelled, slamming the door on whatever Inuyasha was about to say. She heard a muffled "I work with you!" and rolled her eyes trudging through the snow past Inuyasha's parked car. It was freezing outside and at this rate, it would take her a half hour to get back to her house or four hours to get to work because of the steepness of the snow. She wrapped her hands around her arms for warmth, resisting the urge to turn around and see if Inuyasha was going to follow her.

He sat there, in his parked car watching Kagome walk on past him in the cold. "Serves her right." Inuyasha said outloud. His eyes widened when he saw her shiver. He looked around guiltily, his eyes darting to and from Kagome's empty seat and to the shivering girl who was now a fair way ahead of him.

"Damnit!" Inuyasha slammed his hands down on the steering wheel.

"Damnit!" Kagome's cursing evaporated into smoky puffs. She was definitely going to catch a cold.

Inuyasha pressed lightly on the gas to catch up to Kagome. The girl nearly jumped when she saw his car rolling slowly beside her, and then she stubbornly looked away. Inuyasha rolled down the car window on the passengers side and swallowed his pride down hard before speaking.

"Look," He started keeping his eyes open for cars since he was half on the road, half on the curb being mindful not to hit Kagome in the process of following her.

'So he comes crawling back…' Kagome thought to herself. 'About time, I'm freezing!'

"I didn't mean what I said." Inuyasha spoke in a monotone.

"Yes, sure." Kagome stuck her nose up in disbelief trying to walk faster through the snow. Inuyasha growled. The strength it took to admit he didn't mean anything he said was immeasurable. Was he wasting his breath?

He stopped the car and Kagome looked back behind her, only moving her head the slightest bit to see.

She stopped dead in her freezing tracks.

'Guess that's as good as it gets...'

She turned and walked back to his car opening the door and getting inside in a huff. She let out a small 'phew' and looked up at Inuyasha who was still staring at the windshield.

"I'm sorry too…" Kagome said leaning back in her seat, and wrapping her scarf tighter around her neck.

"Don't think I was apologizing." Inuyasha hid a grateful smile, turning his wipers on and returning to the road.

"Yeah, why would I think something like that." Kagome laughed at his immaturity.

The two talked easy the rest of the way to work.

End chapter seven