A/N: A gift for Cstorm86.
Paws
It was a cool winter night, everyone slept in the hut, even Inuyasha was inside, pretending he didn't care for the warmth of the fire place.
Yet, when everyone wrapped in their blankets and drifted off to sleep one by one, he kept the flames burning, so the inside of Kaede's hut was nice and toasty. It wasn't like he wouldn't bring more fire wood whenever she needed more.
He woke from one of his usual naps during the night to add more wood to the fire when he saw that Kagome was once more sleeping with her blanket over her head, her feet sticking out from under it on the other side.
But this time instead of human legs she had paws.
Inuyasha blinked and rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but it was no dream - the feet of the miko were covered in thick fluffy black fur. They looked like paws with pale pink pads and tiny blunt claws.
Intrigued Inuyasha approached the sleeping girl slowly, inching forward on all fours across the raised floor of Kaede's hut, much like a wary, yet curious dog.
He touched one exposed ankle with the tip of his finger. Warm and soft, he decided while cocking his ears to the side, deep in thought. Frowning he carefully lifted the edge of the blanket just to see the fur disappearing in the leg of Kagome's pajama pants.
That was when he heard a familiar snicker.
One glance up revealed that Kagome was awake and peeking at him through a small gap in the folds of the blanket around her head.
Blushing madly he moved back, dropping the blanket in panic.
"Kagome! I can explain! It's your paws! I mean feet! I didn't...!"
Instead of receiving a sit he got more giggles. Kagome sat up, trying to silence her laughter. She pointed to her feet.
"These are socks, Inuyasha," she explained. "Special warm ones to keep my feet from getting cold. They just look like paws. I thought they'd look cute."
"...They ain't real paws?" he breathed out, relieved that she wasn't mad and curious about the socks. The girl reached to her bag and threw something white at him. It hit his chest and fell to his lap, from where he picked it up to unroll.
"Here, I brought a set for you too," she grinned at the stunned boy's face when he looked at paw socks similar to hers, but completely white sans the black claws. "This way your feet will be warm at least at night. And we will match too."
"Over my dead body!" he barked at the girl, but she didn't mind his outburst because she saw him sticking the socks in his sleeve. Maybe he wasn't going to wear them tonight, but he didn't refuse the gift entirely.
She could chip away on his resolve later. Wiggling her toes and giggling the miko laid back again to go to sleep, listening to her favorite hanyou grumbling.