Quick Comment: Last chapter I wrote as chapter twenty-one when it was chapter twenty. My bad! This is the real chapter twenty-one!

Chapter Twenty-One: Kind Gestures in Blue

"It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer…and everything collapses."

-Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

It took a while, but Kagome explained things that had happened as best she could without going into anything too specific for Ishida. She supposed he deserved that much after he helped her out. He'd made tea and it was cold by the time she'd managed to finish the explanation for him. He was surprisingly quiet and thoughtful throughout with only an occasional question for clarity's sake.

"A love curse?" Ishida was skeptical, though he didn't say it out loud. He did like Kagome…more than he wanted to admit, but love? It was difficult to say, he doubted he'd been in love so he had nothing to compare it to.

"Well, you reacted better than I thought you would." Kagome said with a small laugh, sipping her cold tea before wrinkling her nose at the flavor and putting it back down on the table.

"I am not easily ruffled." Ishida replied coolly, smiling a little and nodding toward her glass. "Would you like more tea?"

"No." Kagome shook her head negatively. "I guess I should head home, let you have time to take it all in."

"It's pretty late, you can stay in the guest room if you want and I can take you to school tomorrow. You can borrow some clothes to sleep in and I can wash your uniform if you want." Ishida offered. It wasn't something he should do, but his father was out of town so he wouldn't hear about it until he returned. The people that worked at the household might throw him a party, considering he never had any friends over, more or less girls.

"Yeah…I guess you're right." Kagome didn't really want to stay what with being scared of what the spell might do. But she didn't know if the group that came after her might attack if she got close to her house right now so she didn't have much of a choice. "Thanks Ishida, for helping and listening…and well everything."

"Don't worry about it." Ishida gestured as though it didn't matter. Pushing himself up and leading her to the spare bedroom, it was simple but nice. He turned on the light and then showed her the bathroom. "I'll get you some pajama's and if you leave your clothes here I'll go ahead and get them washing while you're in the shower."

"Thanks." Kagome repeated, smiling a little at him as he headed out of the room. She changed out quickly and got into the bathroom, not sure with all the strange actions of men around her lately if he'd walk back in on her. If the door had a lock she'd of used it. As it was lacking one she had to trust his morals, and more that the spell wouldn't do anything extreme. She hoped that was the reason for her smutty behavior lately, but it was hard to tell where the hormones turned into the spell.

She turned on the water, the place was nice, it wasn't exactly millionaire expensive but it was certainly clear that his family had money. She waited for the water to warm and slipped inside. After all the running, it was nice to take a shower; she would have to pay him back somehow for his help.

She sighed as she leaned into the water. What was he? A Quincy he said but that was as clear as a calculus problem to Kagome. Were they like priests and priestess' then if they could use holy arrows? There was so much she was curious about and she'd spent the night explaining her issues to him. She didn't want to pressure him into telling her too much but she was worried about it. What if because he helped her they targeted him as well?

It seemed she was backed into a corner, if he wasn't normal then they were just as likely to target him as well. She sighed and washed up fairly quickly, not wanting to linger in his shower in case he would be waiting on her. She dried her hair with a towel to keep it from dripping even if it was still damp and wrapped the towel around her before peeking out from the bathroom. There was a set of pajama's as per his promise, they were white with a blue checkered pattern across them. They were a little big for her but not so much she'd be lost in them. She put them on quickly and smiled a bit at the soft feel of the lustrous material. It was nice, Ishida's clothes always looked fitted, but it was strange to think he might have fitted pajama's too.

There was a knock and she glanced to the door, though it didn't open and she had to smile a bit, he was being a gentleman at least. "Come in."

Ishida moved inside, then pushed his glasses up his nose after he looked her up and down in his pajama's, glancing away though the reflection of the light made it difficult to see his eyes. "Uh, I just wanted to ask if that was all right. I could make some small adjustments to another set of pajama's if you wanted something closer to your size."

"No this is really comfortable, thanks for letting me, wait…you sew?" Kagome asked curiously. "Do you adjust all your clothes?"

"I make most of my clothes." Ishida replied proudly, the subject change giving him the chance to recover from his moment of embarrassment. "I enjoy it, it's a relaxing pastime."

"Wow, I wish I could sew." Kagome said as she glanced down at the sleeves again appreciatively as she curled her fingers over the fabric just to enjoy the texture of it. "When I tried to make a pillow last year for home economics it was suppose to be a chocolate chip cookie and it ended up looking like I dug it out of a dumpster."

"I can help you with it if you want, when we finish with the other subjects you need to catch up on." Ishida offered. "Well, if that's fine do you need anything else? It's late; we should both get some sleep."

"I…was curious…how you have holy arrows…are you like a priest?" Kagome asked before he could leave. It wasn't quite what she wanted to say, but it was something that interested her too much to leave it alone.

"Not really. Some Quincy's believe we might have holy blood somewhere in our history. I guess someone could make that distinction as we do cleanse hollows. They're basically evil spirits." Ishida explained. "Though I'd really not tell you too much, with your spiritual ability you're likely to become a target of hollows. They like to go after humans with spiritual ability."

"Great…just what I needed. I already have men and monsters after me, why not spirits too." Kagome bit out a little more harshly than she meant. "Sorry, it's not you Ishida, you've been more than kind…I just am not sure how to handle this."

"You should be at odds." Ishida replied. "It would probably be stranger if you knew how to handle this sort of situation."

"Well, I'm getting used to it, isn't that sort of sad too?" Kagome wasn't sure why she just kept talking. She doubted he wanted to hear her whine about her problems, but it seemed like if she didn't say it to someone she'd burst.

"These people around you, they seem capable. They'll take care of you." Ishida reassured. "I will too."

He couldn't bring himself to say it aloud, but he knew he wanted to protect her as much as any of these other creatures she talked about. He didn't know of much outside of the spiritual realm when it came to the supernatural. In that she was his teacher, she'd told him more in an evening than he'd learned in a lifetime. According to her the world had changed only a few weeks ago so he couldn't have learned much before then. All because of this wayward kami that had woven a spell with unforeseen circumstances – it was difficult to believe but he wanted to have faith in her.

"I guess…I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me, or feel things they wouldn't feel otherwise cause of some sort of spell." Kagome replied with a sigh, sitting on the edge of her bed dejectedly. "To include you, they might target you now because you helped me today. I don't want to see you hurt either."

"I'm not incapable of protecting myself." Ishida replied, hesitating near the door a moment before walking across the room to sit next to her. He put a hand on her back comfortingly. "I did what I did Kagome, don't blame yourself. I couldn't just stand by and let a bunch of people attack you, what sort of gentleman would I be?"

Kagome couldn't help but laugh lightly. "You used that same line the first time we met you know."

"As true now as it was when I gave you my jacket." Ishida replied with a small shrug. "I can't say I understand but I think you'll figure it out. You're smart Kagome."

"Eh, I dunno about that." Kagome replied with a chuckle, glancing up at him from her lap, smiling softly at him. It reminded her that he was handsome, his dark cobalt colored hair and the brighter but still deep blue eyes were clear and beautiful. "I think I'm going to end up failing again if I keep missing time to study cause of all of this."

"You'll manage, you have an excellent tutor." Ishida retorted with a sly smile that got her to mirror it.

"Thank you Ishida, you do make me feel better." She said, leaning up to kiss his cheek, she'd let herself get too comfortable for a moment. Though even thinking to herself that the magic was probably involved she couldn't get herself to back away more than a couple of inches after she kissed his cheek.

She was lingering close to his lips when it was Ishida that stood up with the scarlet stark in his cheeks. He managed to mostly keep the stutter out of his voice. "G..glad I could help you Kagome. Good night."

He was out of the room swiftly and Kagome was starting to mirror his coloring as well as the door closed. "God…what did I do that for…if he hadn't stopped then I would have kissed him."

Until now most of the people she'd been intimate with had initiated things…but this time Ishida had just been trying to comfort her and being a good friend. He must think there was something seriously wrong with her, but he had been nice to her before the rest started…though she had lost her memory that morning. He was just the first of many people that were probably subjects of the spell.

"Even if he wasn't under the spell, I probably just convinced him I'm a slut." Kagome thought dejectedly as she pulled back the covers and crawled into the bed.

She turned off the lamp and looked at the dark ceiling with a sigh, it was still fairly well lit from the double doors that went to a balcony outside the nice room he'd put in. The moon was full tonight, shining off the small layer of snow. It was nearly December now, midterms would be soon and then the break for the winter holidays. Snow had only fallen a couple times; the first time it stuck was while they were in the feudal era and it'd snowed since. It wasn't thick but it had remained, and it was reflecting even more moonlight into her borrowed room.

If he was under the spell, she owed him even more…all the rest hadn't shown the same restraint he did. Or perhaps he wasn't under the spell and she was just making excuses for herself for liking her tutor. It was all a mess. She liked too many guys, and shouldn't even be thinking about it because she should still be mourning Inuyasha. It had only been a week since he was killed and she was already about to kiss yet another boy…

Covering her face in her hands she turned with a muffled groan into her pillow, it was all so much…she started to sob into the pillow, the first real cry by herself she'd been allowed to have. Ghaleon separating her hadn't been the same as being able to just mourn alone for a while. Hopefully she'd sob herself to sleep and wake up without all these complications in her life she didn't need.

End Chapter

Whee, more Ishida and Kags. He hasn't gotten any love for a while so it seemed nice to pull him in a little more. Anyone fearing that this fiction is close to an end – don't. I still have plans to add in more guys yet, I just haven't had a chance yet. They'll come later. Next chapter will be a counterpoint chapter!

-Aura

P.S. Happy belated birthday r0o! It was even a Ishida/Kagome chapter!

To my reviewers:

Sin of the Fallen – Yeah, part of why I didn't add in Sesshomaru as a 'suitor'…he would have killed the rest already.

Black Firelight – I actually tend to only like Kagome in fics anymore for some reason. And then only in the fictions I like – which tend to be difficult to come by. LOL, I like all the guys! It's got a while and I'm only going to make it harder on myself before it ends.

Kuroneko388 – Ishida is my second fav char from Bleach, after Byakuya. Byakuya's not in this cause I already write a lot of fics with him and I felt he didn't need more of Kagome than he already gets with me lol.

Sugar0o – I know you won't get to this chapter for a while but I thought it'd be nice to post one as a belated b-day gift. Only reason I got up two chapters in two days :P