A/N: I guess I had to try my hand with this popular motif... Hope the results are enjoyable
The only excuse I have is that I barely slept tonight.

Her Scent

All my friends and some of my foes know how important to me - and inu youkai in general - is the sense of smell. We are akin to dogs in our prowess when it comes to catch, remember, track and appreciate various odors. I can learn so much from one sniff - a person's health, their age, emotions, diet, places they visited recently, their cycle if they're female.

I made a mistake of telling Kagome that I like her scent - you can't blame me, I was sure I was dying, so I thought it'd be nice to be honest for a change. Of course the wench shared this with Sango and the rest of her girl friends from the village during one of their bath-and-talk things (seriously, they take ages just sitting around and blabbering about stuff, but they're much nicer afterwards, so I don't mind much). Anyway, now almost all the females in the village seem to know this little secret of mine, that I enjoy Kagome's scent.

And they decided to make me tell them what it smells like.

As if I'd tell them one of my secrets.

They tried to bribe me, tried to blackmail me, tried even some weak spells on me. Really, humans can be so stubborn, especially the wenches...

I told them it's my secret and I won't tell them and guess what they said? "Aww that's so sweet! But really, Inuyasha, tell us!"

Of course I didn't do that and now they're trying to sneak up on me at random asking stupid questions, trying to guess.

"She smells like cherry blossoms, right?" said one the previous week, her hands clasped in front of her chest, her eyes sparkling.

"She smells of lavender or mint?" suggested another.

"She smells of sunshine and wild flowers!"

"Her scent is one of lilies!" exclaimed one from behind a bush near the river where I was washing my kimono.

And so on, and so on...

Idiots. Pathetic, emotional, romantic idiots. All of them.

Kagome smells of a young human female, a bit on the sweaty side when she's tired or it's a hot day. She covers her natural scent with some smelling potions like shampoo, but it won't fool me. She smells just like any other girl her age.

And yet, somehow, her scent is as enticing as the fragrance of a steaming ramen cup.