Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

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The first thing that drifted into Inuyasha's awareness was an unfamiliar smell. Sweet, but not overly so, smelling of flowers and some sort of spice, none of which he could really identify. When he tried to take a deeper breath, sudden pain flared in his chest and he would have gasped if he had been able. Instead, instinct made him open his eyes onto a scene that he never could have imagined.

Miroku identified the look in those oh-so-familiar golden eyes only a millisecond before Inuyasha's arm shot out and all but grabbed Kagome by the throat. He let out a yelp of warning a moment too late and was rewarded by a lithe twist of Inuyasha's body so that the boy could reach for him too. He skipped aside quickly.

Inuyasha growled faintly, trying to stand while maintaining his hold on Kagome's neck. His eyes were fixed on her, ignoring Miroku now that the older boy had stepped out of his line of sight.

"Kikyou," he snarled, tightening his grip so that Kagome squeaked and fought for breath. "What the fuck are you trying to pull?"

"Inuyasha, let go of her!" said Miroku, alarmed by this turn of events but unable to do more than stand and watch. "She has done nothing!"

Kagome struggled to breathe, not making a sound. Don't scream, don't scream, she pleaded with herself. If she made a noise… She could feel his overly-long nails against the skin of her neck, and tried to hold still. She noticed that those oddly-coloured eyes had slit pupils, also like a cat's. They had been hugely dilated at first, but as his gaze focused more the pupils narrowed into tiny vertical lines. Pale, amber eyes. Wild eyes. They were glaring at her with a level of hatred that would have rendered her unable to move even without the hand on her throat.

"I ought to kill you right now," said Inuyasha venomously to Kagome, his hand tightening again. "You bitch! What the hell did you think you were doing?"

"Inuyasha, I shall say it again, let go of her!" said Miroku. This time, Inuyasha's concentration wavered, and he looked over.

"M-Miroku?" he said, uncertainty creeping into his voice. Kagome seized her chance.

"Daah!" she yelled, kicking out and striking him hard. He doubled over and fell back against the bed with a muffled gasp, and his hand left her neck. She stumbled back a few paces, sucking air into her lungs.

But immediately Inuyasha was leaping at her again, claws outstretched this time, and it was Miroku who intervened, running quickly in and shouldering the boy aside so that he landed catlike on the floor a few paces away.

"What the fuck are you doing, Miroku!" he snarled again, his eyes now fixed on the other boy. "This is the bitch that tried to shoot me, damn it!"

Miroku's mouth fell open, as did Kagome's. "Sh-shoot?" said Miroku weakly.

"Hey!" said Kagome, managing to raise her voice despite being slightly winded. "If this Kikyou person is the one who hurt you, shouldn't you be angry at her and not at me?"

"Bitch!" he threw back. "Stop playing dumb and pretending to be someone else, damn it! Have you already forgotten what you did?!"

"Someone else?" she echoed. Does he… think that I'm the one who shot him? "Listen, I most definitely did not shoot anyone, you included, and if you think I did then you need to take a closer look at the people you're yelling at! I'm not Kikyou, whoever she is!"

"Fool, do you think I'm that stupid, that I couldn't even recognize—" he broke off abruptly, tilting his face back in a rather improbable position so that it looked almost as if he was sniffing the air. There was a long pause. "You… you're not her," he said at last, his voice flat, emotionless.

"Thank you!" said Kagome, still annoyed as she put her hands on her hips. "My name is Kagome! Ka-Go-Me! I'm not this Kikyou, whoever she is, she…"

It was her turn to trail off as Inuyasha slid to his knees, one arm pressed across his stomach. Despite herself, she hurried forwards.

"Look at yourself, you idiot! Don't you even have enough sense to at least rest after you've just been…" Her mind blanked out on her as she began to say the next word. Shot. Oh, god, he's been shot! It didn't even register that he was trying to growl at her, and not doing a very god job with his rapidly weakening voice. Everything was freezing.

At the same time, Miroku snapped back into action. He had been watching the fight with a bemused sort of attention, wondering all the while how Kagome could yell like that after being half-strangled, in addition to wondering who on earth this Kikyou was whom Inuyasha seemed to bear such distaste for. "Come on," he said to the unmoving Kagome, taking light hold of her arm and helping her up and away from Inuyasha. He sat her down on the chair and then turned to his one-time friend.

"Inuyasha," he said softly.

The other boy looked up quickly and then winced, sliding down farther. It seemed that his ability to move had been used up entirely during the brief burst of activity.

"What is it, bouzu," he said in a somewhat quieter voice—though it still could hardly be said to be gentle. "Come to gloat at me for making such a bloody mess of things?"

"You truly are an idiot," said Miroku, leaning down and wrapping an arm around Inuyasha's waist. "I haven't the faintest idea of what's been going on in your life, and I don't intend to leave this room until you've told me what it is."

Inuyasha grunted as he allowed himself to lie back down. "Bouzu," he said softly, as if reacquainting himself with his old nickname for Miroku. He nodded towards Kagome. "Who's the bitch?"

"That," said Miroku, "is the girl who, out of nothing more than trust and the kindness of her heart, decided to take us in and allow you this chance to recover."

"Keh," said Inuyasha, now eyeing her guardedly. Kagome, she'd said her name was. Well, she looked enough like Kikyou to fool him originally, but… well, for one thing, Kikyou had never yelled at him like that.

Then again, until tonight, Kikyou had never shot him before either. He pulled his arm away from his stomach and looked at the new blood smeared across his palm. "Shit," he said. Noticing the bandages for the first time, he nearly swore again. She had touched him? That filthy bitch had touched him while he was asleep? He began to growl once more, ignoring the fact that he was on the verge of passing out again.

"Stop that," Miroku told him sharply. He turned to look at Kagome, who was still sitting in the chair with a slightly dazed look. "Miss Kagome, perhaps it would be best if you were to leave for the moment. Inuyasha needs a moment to become… acquainted with his new surroundings."

Kagome began to stand up, realized what she was doing, and just as quickly whirled round to face them both. "No!" she said, her temper flaring again just as quickly as it had died down. "I'm not leaving until someone tells me what's going on!"

"I am curious as well, Inuyasha," said Miroku. "What have you been up to, that ended in you getting shot?"

"Nothing that concerns either of you," mumbled Inuyasha, his arm back on his stomach. He shot another venomous glance at Kagome. "Especially not the bitch."

He really does hate me, thought Kagome dazedly. This was all so unfamiliar—in her normal life, the life she knew, no one hated anyone else with such ferocity… they might play at it, but nothing she had ever experienced before could match the raw loathing contained in this boy's golden eyes. She remembered the feeling of his long, long nails against her skin and shuddered involuntarily.

"Miss Kagome, please," said Miroku, turning to her. "You should go to sleep, I'll handle this."

She looked around at the two of them, feeling out-of-place very suddenly. "Fine," she said at last. "But I expect to be told everything in the morning, you hear?"

Miroku sighed, watching as she left the room, before turning back to Inuyasha.

"Idiot," said Inuyasha, eyes closed. "You should know better than to trust her. She's probably waking up everyone she can reach, getting ready to run us out of their midst." He choked out a laugh. "The bouzu and the hanyou."

"It's you who's being foolish," replied Miroku. "She is an innocent, not involved in any of this… whatever's going on. And besides which, she doesn't know you are a hanyou."

Inuyasha opened his eyes and looked at him in frank disbelief. "Doesn't know?" he repeated. "How can't she? Is she blind or something, not noticing my claws, my…" he stopped as he became aware of his hat. "Ah."

"Don't take it off!" said Miroku hurriedly as Inuyasha reached up slowly. "If she comes back…"

"It itches," said Inuyasha, in the whining tone of voice that Miroku had once been so used to.

"I'm sorry," said Miroku. "You'll just have to put up with it until… do you think you can move yet?"

Inuyasha tried, first pushing up with his arms, then trying to move his legs off the edge of the bed. Nothing. He was completely spent, and his stomach was throbbing again—where she… where she shot me, he thought with a wince. "Fat fucking chance," he growled, mostly in frustration. "Damn her!"

Kikyou, I presume, thought Miroku dryly. "Inuyasha, you've mentioned this woman several times already," he said. "What exactly did she do?"

Inuyasha gave a glance that was as contemptuous as it was hazy. "Only shot me, moron," he said. I thought she was going to… to… and then she… tried to kill me…

Remembering that made his mind spin even faster and more dizzyingly than before, and he found that his eyes were closing. When his senses returned, all that he heard was Miroku shouting.

"Oi! Don't pass out until you've told me what happened!" said the older boy in frustration, reaching out and grabbing Inuyasha's shoulders. "Hey!"

Sorry, bouzu, was Inuyasha's last thought as the rest of his mind clouded over and went blank. Can't do that…

Miroku growled to himself and sat down in the chair. He must have been more tired than he thought, for soon he found that his mind was drifting as well. He couldn't even summon the will to care, and soon he was as deeply asleep as the hanyou in the bed.

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When Kagome woke up that morning, she initially didn't notice anything amiss. She sat up in bed, yawning, and stretched her oddly stiff limbs. The fog from the previous night was gone, and cold, wintry sunlight filtered in through her window. Everything outside seemed to have a blue-grey cast to it.

Standing up, she wondered briefly why the house was so quiet. It was usually quite noisy, filled with the bustle of getting Souta and her ready for school (Souta was always loud when he woke up, often it was the sound of him banging around and asking for things that woke her up in the first place)…

Oh yes, it's a holiday, she thought, and grinned. Just as she was reaching for the hem of her shirt to pull it over her head and begin changing, she froze. There was a brownish blot on the fabric, near her waist. Blood…?

Abruptly all the events of the previous night hit her, and without further hesitation she ran to her door and threw it open. Beginning to head down the hallway at the same breakneck pace, she was stopped by her mother, who was just coming out of the washroom.

"Kagome!" said Mrs. Higurashi, barely loud enough for her daughter to hear. "Please don't make much noise!"

"Why?" gasped Kagome. "Something didn't happen, did it?"

Her mother tried to smile, but it was thin and forced. "Miroku's finally fallen asleep. I don't know what he's been going through, poor boy, but he seemed all but dead on his feet…"

Speaking of dead, thought Kagome, and couldn't help but speak up. "Mum, Inuyasha woke up last night!"

"Oh?" Her mother looked surprised, despite being the one who'd predicted that the younger boy would be fine. "Inuyasha… that would be his name?"

"Oh," said Kagome, slightly embarrassed. "Yeah. Well, mum he woke up, and he was…" She bit her lip. What to say? If she told her mother that he had attacked her, she wasn't sure what sort of reaction that would elicit… "He was really disoriented, didn't know where he was or anything."

"Well that's only to be expected, dear," said Mrs. Higurashi. "He's been unconscious for a long while, and waking up in an unfamiliar place can't be a pleasant experience."

"I guess," said Kagome, thinking back to the night before and inwardly fuming. That idiot couldn't even bother to rest, he preferred to attack me on instinct… given, he did think that I was the woman who shot him, but still!

"Well, why don't you have some breakfast now, dear," said Mrs. Higurashi, watching Kagome's face with a measure of concern. "Souta and grandpa are in there now—I made an omelet for you, if you want it."

"In a minute, mum," said Kagome. She started walking towards the guest bedroom at the end of the hall. Her mother nodded and went to the kitchen, but Kagome was no longer paying attention.

Whatever the incident last night had been about, she fully intended to find out. Mum had said Miroku was asleep… what about Inuyasha?

She opened the door and her question was answered immediately. Miroku was slumped over in his chair, half-lying on the bed with his head resting in his arms. Inuyasha was lying on his back again, seemingly asleep as well… but the peaceful look she'd been so struck by earlier was gone without a trace, replaced by an angry, slightly pained frown. The bandages on his still-bare chest were unnervingly red-looking, and his hat seemed to have been dislodged, to the point that it was halfway off his head.

In the pale bluish light coming from the window behind him, quite a lot of long, pale hair was spilling out across his pillow. Again, she noticed the odd colour—not blond; it had too much blue in it. Perhaps it was just the light, but his hair looked… silver?

Stepping closer, she jumped when his eyes opened and moved slightly to fix on her.

"What's wrong, wench," he said hoarsely. "You don't look too happy…" He coughed suddenly.

"The only thing I would be upset about is you not resting," she said stiffly, taking another step. "You'll only make yourself worse." He watched her warily, still coughing. Miroku began to rouse, moving his arms slightly so that he could rub his eyes.

Damn, Kagome thought fiercely. Here I've gone and done exactly what mum wanted me to avoid!

She watched in dismay as Miroku sat up to help Inuyasha. The younger boy had doubled over by this point, both hands pressed to his mouth. Feeling nervous and out-of-place yet again, she cast her eyes about for something else to look at…

…and they settled on the top of Inuyasha's head,

Miroku chanced to look up at her as his old friend began to breathe properly again and noticed her odd expression. He followed her gaze. His eyes widened.

When Inuyasha had moved, his hat had fallen off completely. Revealing not only masses of decidedly silver hair, but also the two small, white, pointed dog ears that sat atop his head.

Miroku winced. Shit.

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Well, here's another cliffhanger… whoa, I'm EVIL. Also... Yess! People are indeed reading this story! In answer to one question: Kagome, in this story, has never met Inuyasha before in her life. Never, ever, ever/ There is a reason for that dream, which shall not be divulged as of yet... evil laughter

Oh, and this is just a friendly reminder that this is indeed an Inuyasha/Kagome pairing. If it ever appeared otherwise, that was just because Inuyasha wasn't awake to interact with pretty much anyone... (that'll change really quickly now, though). Kagome can't really fall in love with him very easily if he's asleep, now can she? And Miroku doesn't love Inuyasha... not like that, anyway... he does care for him, though, since they were childhood friends.

Also, if there are any complaints about OOC-ness or anything else... I plead AU! (at least for these early chapters, anyway)