"So….How was the date?" Sango practically sang as Kagome walked through the door, cheeks rosy pink from a shy blush. Kagome took a deep breath, heart still racing.

"It was good. Like reallygood." She smiled, biting her lower lip so she didn't look as excited as she felt. Inuyasha had just dropped her off- walked her to the door and everything- but she was still riding high from their time together. Unwrapping her scarf, she began to hang up her things.

"Yeah, I'll bet. Didn't you go out for a lunchdate? I was halfway ready to report you missing."

"It wasa lunch date." She gave Sango the side eye. She couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her as she sat down on their couch, pulling the grey throw pilling into a hug, . "It turned into a dinner date, too."

Quickly following her best friend to the couch, Sango plopped down next to her. "Okay, now you haveto spill."

It was hard to put it into words, hard to say exactly what she was feeling. "He… He wasn't at all what I expected." Hugging the pillow tighter, she continued. "In class, he just seemed like such a flirt, you know? I never really paid much attention to him. So I honestly thought he was going to try and make a move on me-"

"-He didn't?!" Sango interrupted, jaw slightly slack as Kagome shook her head.

"He asked to hold my hand… I think he was nervous! He doesn't seem like the kind of guy to be nervous, does he?" Sango shrugged, not really knowing much about the guy other thank his facebook photos. "I kept waiting for him to lean in and kiss me, or to say something sleazy, but instead he talked about his mom and told me about his home town and his best friend."

"Sounds like a sharer."

"You wouldn't think it though! Whenever I saw him in school he was never the one doing the talking."

Sango nodded. "I get that. You're super easy to talk to. Maybe he feels comfortable with you." Kagome blushed at the unexpected compliment.

"Well it goes both ways. I-" Kagome covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. "I told him the senior prom story."

"NO. You didn't! Why?!"

"I don't know!" She groaned. "One thing lead to another and it just slipped out!"

"And he didn't run away from you? Seriously, I was there for that and even I considered pretending I didn't know you for a week."

Kagome frowned, trying to push down the memory. "He just laughed. God, why do I always make such a fool out of myself in front of hot guys?" She leaned back against the couch dramatically.

"Well, you didn't scare him away, considering you had lunch anddinner. How did that even happen?"

Kagome bit her lip before she let it all rush out. "We had lunch at that café, the one by 5thave? And when we were done we just hung around and talked. We were there so long the waitresses changed shifts- the manager actually asked us to leave or to order something else. So we went for a walk in the park and after a while when we noticed the time we were hungry so we just had dinner. Honestly, I didn't even want to come home. "

"You've got it baaaad." Sango smiled knowingly. Ducking her head down, she replied in a small voice, "maybe." Sango stood up, stretching her arms high overhead before she headed towards her room. "Well, I'm happy for you." She called out. "See if he has any cute friend, yeah?"

Melting into the couch, not ready to give up on the night and head to bed, she sat, simply digesting the events of her day. It had felt so intense, and as cliché as it sounded there was a spark- one she hadn't even been aware existed in the world until she spent time with him. She felt so fulfilled and somehow starved by her time with him; he must be the type of man to make a woman greedy. How should she act when she saw him next? Was he going to invite her out again? Should she text him first? Gods, what if he didn't text her and they had to spend the rest of the semester in some awkward 'we went out for the longest date ever' limbo. What if this whole thing was a joke? Like the good looking guy lost some bet and had to take out the plain Jane? Gods, she hadn't even considered that! What-

A soft, quick knock at her door startled Kagome out of her thoughts. "I'll get it." She jumped up, trying to create some mental space between herself and the hanyou. Looking through the peephole, she felt her heart clench, her breathing speed up as she saw molten amber eyes staring back at her. Quickly unlocking the latch, she opened the door, his name hardly more than a soft sigh. "Inuyasha-"

Panting and short of breath, the hanyou pulled Kagome into his arms, crushing his lips against hers. It was hot and needy, but every bit as tender as she craved. When they broke away, gasping for air, they laughed as they held each other close.

"You came back." She said with a smile.

Inuyasha returned it, toothy and sincere, resting his forehead against hers. "I couldn't end it like that. I made it half way home and had to see you again." Standing on her tip toes, she breathed against his lips, hardly more than a whisper before she pulled him in for another kiss, "I'm glad you did."

~.~

"And you reallyare okay? Seriously Kagome, I'm worried about you." Kagome could practically see Sango's disapproving frown through the phone.

"I'm alright." She pulled a glass from the cabinet and filled it with tap water. "It was… nice."

There was a pause, one that made Kagome feel uncomfortable. "Nice is dangerous."

"Nice is just… nice." It was hard to admit that she missed him; While Sango did feel sympathy that Inuyasha was injured, she still was holding onto the anger and disgust of his previous actions; And while she understood that, it left little room for her feelings- which were freaking complicated! He had always made her feel special- in truth she had never doubted his love and devotion, even when Kikyo first entered the picture. The entire time the were broken up, she kept asking herself 'what went wrong? What changed?'

Maybe spending time with Inuyasha now would give her answers, maybe not; either way it left her yearning, both for the teenaged boy who rushed up her dorm steps to kiss her, and the man she used to sleep beside every night.

"Just be careful." Sango advised.

"I know." Kagome sighed. "I will."

"And when do you see Mr. Nice again?"

Not soon enough."Next week." She swallowed. "We're going to have dinner."

"And Koga's cool with this?" Kagome felt like banging her head against the kitchen counter. How was it that Sango was so good at targeting the areas she didn't want to talk about most?

"He- He doesn't exactlyknow." She admitted. "I mean, we're not exclusive. We talked about it a bit, but he knows I want to go slow-"

"-he's good for you, Kagome!" Sango interrupted. "Why are you wasting time with Inuyasha when you could be focusing on your future? I'm not saying it hasto be Koga- it just can't be him."

She felt like screaming; why not? Why couldn't it be him? She loved him, and right now, in this moment, he loved her. Couldn't that be enough, even if for right now? She liked Koga- he was a great guy and he was more patient than she deserved- but as charming as he was, there was no way it compare to the hanyou she was ready to spend her life with.

"It's not a waste being with him, Sango." She could feel herself shaking. "He's-"

"The same guy who left you in a mountain of bills and broke your heart. How could you forget that?"

She couldn't forget; seriously, how could Sango even ask that? But maybe, maybe she could forgive.

Even after everything, she loved him enough for that.