Chapter 36

Hojou's eyes suddenly clamped closed as he waited for the hit, for the blood, and then the blackness of death. No, dear Hojou would never think that way. Did he have a need to think anything of that upraised hand, itching to lash down and gouge out his eyes and rip apart his lips, never to touch Kagome's again.

But only a sigh escaped the hanyou and his hand lowered to clamp around Hojou's chin and bring his face back to his own.

"Stay away from Kagome." He ordered, each word pronounced firmly and harshly in a deadly tone that hit Hojou right on target and sent him a few steps back after Inuyasha let go.

Glaring, watching, they exchanged glances, just waiting for the other one to speak up and break the deadly silence. Finally, one of them spoke.

"H-Here…then…give this to Kagome for me? Please." Hojou piped up, gently reaching a hand to his side to fish around in his pocket for a few agonizingly boring and long seconds before pulling out a folded piece of white paper. He pushed it, reluctantly and carefully into Inuyasha's waiting and impatient hand.

The hanyou's fingers curled, slowly, around the paper, almost crushing it as he watched Hojou turn quickly on his heels and walk across the street without another word.

The satisfaction that flooded through Inuyasha shined through the wide grin on his face. Even though Hojou's blood wasn't dripping from the tips of his nails, he felt satisfied enough, knowing the boy wouldn't dare come near Kagome again. That protection he felt he needed to shade her with was starting to overpower him. Or maybe it was that harsh feeling that the miko had chosen that school boy over him, at least for that moment.

Inuyasha turned, clutching the flat, folded, paper in his hand as he strode back in Kagome's direction. His jaw dropped to mutter a few words but the miko's one harsh word beat him to it and also sent him crashing to the ground, almost before she finished it.

"Sit!"

The hanyou grumbled, cursing to himself rather than to Kagome, avoiding another sit command that was nearly forming on her tongue already. He simply pushed himself up from the crater he lay in, with no little effort.

"Could we skip some of the pain, here!" He cried out, unable to hold back a soft growl towards the girl he had blown his top to protect.

"Could we skip some of the death of my friends?" Kagome hollered back as she stepped beside of the hanyou. Her eyes flickered slightly with a smidge of happiness, of humor before they skated over to the slip of white that Inuyasha was clenching.

"What's that?" She asked, her brows furrowing slightly. She had seen Hojou slip something into his hand, but the memory had nearly fleeted her until now.

"I was going to give it to you before you sat me! Maybe I should just keep it." Inuyasha said, huffing slight as he crossed his long, pale arms over his chest and turned up his nose, something he instantly regretted and struggle to fix as he heard Kagome form the sound of a loud, warning, hissing 's'.

"It's some kind of paper. I don't know what it is but it looks stupid. He said it's for your…fly disease. Whatever the hell that is" The hanyou gave, quickly, before she could finished the dreaded word. He stretched out an arm, offering the now crumpled piece of paper for Kagome to instantly snatch up.

"Fly disease? Grandpa must've….but I've been in school all this week. Why would he need to make up a…Ugh…" Kagome sighed heavily. Those stupid fake diseases he came up with. 'Fly disease' had to be the worst on her chart, and even when she was still going to school. It just didn't make any sense.

"What's it say? Read it out loud." Inuyasha commanded, jumping up from his spot of the pavement and slipping up behind Kagome to peer over her shoulder.

"Hold on a minute, gosh!" She exclaimed, whirling around to hide the hanyou's eyes from the still-folded up paper. Teasingly, she plucked out the corners of it, whirling away each time Inuyasha would try to read the note from over her shoulder.

"Kagome! Stop it!" He cried, pulling a short giggle from the girl's throat as she flipped open the crumpled paper.

"Alright, alright!" She gave, turning the handwritten note to her face just as three wide and long strips of colorful paper floated to her feet, scattered slightly by the wind.

"What are these things?" Inuyasha questioned, already crouched down and pinching one of the papers between his fingers, squinting at the little writing like he would to Myouga right after the flea had had a good meal of his blood.

"H-Hey! Gimme that!" Kagome cried, dropping down to snatch the piece of paper from his slight grip.

"Well, what is it?" The hanyou asked again, trying to force an answer from her this time to cure his sincere curiosity.

"It's just a food coupon, alright?" Kagome said, gathering the rest of the little pieces of paper with picture foods all over them. She straightened her body again to lower her eyes back down to the handwritten letter. From side to side, her brown eyes scanned, picking up yet barely comprehending the words as she read it as fast as she could with Inuyasha's nose right at her feet.

"A food cou- what?" He asked, rising to his feet to glare into Kagome's face with a questioning look before swiping his glance to the letter in her hands. Turning his own golden orbs back to those widened eyes of brown, his curiosity grew.

"What does it say?" He cried out suddenly, snapping her attention away. Her hands caved in around the paper, crumpling it into a quick little ball and stuffing it in her school skirt's pocket.

"N-Nothing. Nothing you'd be interested in. It's not important." She pushed out, turning quickly to hurry along the sidewalk, a short limp returning to her foot as Inuyasha followed obediently, though the complete boredom shined in his dimmed eyes. 'Home. Quickly. Now.'

The hanyou rushed behind Kagome, his watchful amber eyes catching the fault in her left leg. He swept her off her feet and into his arms, feeding his amusement with the squeal that left her lips at being dumped into his arms. Though, instead of a sharp demand to let her down, instinctively, an arm wrapped around his torso.

A soft smirk pulled through Inuyasha's lips at her reaction. Even though anyone else could find themselves relaxing, though he should, he just couldn't. Hojou was gone, Kagome was in his arms, accepting his warm arms willingly. But he couldn't push the stammer in her words when she rejected his demand to see what the letter read. If it had truly been nothing important, she would have willingly dropped it down for him just to make him shut up. But she hadn't. So the thought of that crumpled piece of paper, given by a lovestruck boy, being something a little more than 'not important', still nagged at the back of his mind.

He shook his head slightly, shaking away the lingering thoughts. Sooner or later, he'd find out. Sooner or later, he would read the contents of that supposedly less-than important letter.

..:---.-.--..-.---:..

Yay for the quick updates! Heh. Actually. I Just wrote alot while the site was being a butt and wouldn't let me upload a chapter.

So! There you go, and I'll just waddle on over to the next chapter, eh?

DAAAD! I TOLD YOU THAT BUG GOT INSIDE THE HOUSE! Ew, ew, get it off! wiggle

-sigh- Okay. So let me get this firefly back outside and THEN I'll get working on the next chapter...oi.. -.-