Disclaimer: Inuyasha's still not mine!

Girl with a Pearl Earring

I should have put some make-up on, Kagome thought while she was waiting in front of Inuyasha's door, her breathing just a tiny, tiny bit too quick. She wished she could have prepared more, but she really hadn't had the time recently. Even in the taxi while coming here, she had been taking notes and trying to get things to make sense. She had failed at that so far.

Yes, it hadn't even been two weeks since she had started looking for informations, but she hoped she would have at least found a lead. She had only found dead-ends so far, and every time she discovered something new, instead of being able to add a new piece to the puzzle, it seemed to point at something completely different.

Her last conversation with Sango was probably the best example for that.


"Sorry, it's been a crazy week at the museum," Sango apologized when she dropped on the chair in front of Kagome.

The journalist chuckled. They had been trying to meet every day for the past few days, only to have Sango cancel at the last minute, or to have to refuse immediately. It was always like that when new art arrived at the Goshinboku, there were tons of arrangements that needed to be done, and apparently Sango was the only one who could do it.

"So," the director of the museum said after ordering enough food for a regiment, "I have about twenty minutes before I have to go back, Kags. You'd better make this quick if you want answers."

"Alright, I'll get straight to the point then. Kaede asked me to look into the Onigumo situation."

Sango seemed surprised. She crossed her arms and leaned back on her chair. Her brows furrowed and she gave Kagome a sharp nod, indicating she was listening to her.

"She thinks there's something really bad happening there, and she suspects Naraku's directly involved in it. I asked Hojo, but there wasn't that much that he could tell me. He's familiar with the paintings, and how expensive they are, but he didn't know much about the man himself."

"Well," Sango started slowly, waiting until after the waitress came to serve her salad and visibly picking her words carefully, "it's actually not that simple of a question to answer. Naraku came out of nowhere a few years ago. He's pretty recent in the market of art, and the fact that he's already managed to make a name for himself is quite impressive. Are you recording that?"

Kagome nodded. She was taking notes as well, but those were more focused on Sango's body language than her words. That was a habit of hers that came from back when she interviewed actors — newspapers loved to have some physical description —, a part of her job she was extremely happy she didn't have to do again.

Well, most of the time, at least.

"As far as I know, Naraku didn't exactly have an easy beginning," Sango continued. "Not prestigious enough. Things changed when he started to sell Onigumo's work. Onigumo was quite the sensation back then, but I honestly don't think it would have lasted if it wasn't for those curses. Since then, Naraku's specialized in selling… weird stuff. Lots of legally enchanted, and that's the same as cursed, paintings, lots of super violent stuff. Ever heard of Jakotsu? The Band of Seven?"

Kagome shrugged. Was that even a question? Sango sighed. She had clearly failed in her mission of getting her best friend into art. At least she could blame Hojo for it as well.

"Don't look at their work if you just ate," she simply said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. She herself had not much interest in violence for violence, particularly without purpose, but there were people out there who thought it was revolutionary and embracing the dark feelings inside of everyone.

She thought they should get a therapy and that if 'dark feelings inside of everyone' made 'everyone' want to sit on top of pile of corpses, people should be concerned and not praising it. But hey, who was she to judge? There were quite a few of those painters' art at the museum. She did genuinely enjoy some of them, actually, but she was still deeply disturbed by the global impression of insanity that seemed to ooze from their paintings. It was still art though. Probably.

"Anyway, Onigumo's obviously the biggest name of the painters Naraku handles. You already know about the curse. Owners seem to get into weird accidents."

"Yeah, I actually started looking into that," Kagome said. "There are some paintings that don't have any dark stories attached to them. As for those that do, they were often owned by playboys known for living dangerously. I have… Two deaths in a car accident and one during a parachute jump."

"Huh. I had no idea. But then, I guess Naraku wouldn't brag about that. It kind of takes the terrifying-cursed-paintings' charm away."

"There are also old people who died a natural death or who fell down their stairs," Kagome added for good measure.

"That's still a lot of deaths," Sango commented. "Isn't it?"

"I know that's what it looks like," Kagome admitted, "but among that demography it's not exactly a surprise. Correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation."

Well, except for Kikyô's death. But that wasn't something she wanted to talk about just yet. It wasn't that she didn't trust Sango, far from that, however so far this story just didn't make sense, and she had made it a habit to make as many researches as she possibly could before sharing sensitive informations.

"…Off the record, Kags?"

Kagome quickly snapped out of her thoughts, threw a surprised glance at Sango, and turned off the recording device. She gave Sango a small nod, and the woman closed her eyes for just a second. Kagome didn't have the time to wonder too much about what that meant.

"You know about my brother. Kohaku."

Kagome's eyes widened and she nodded quickly to invite Sango to keep talking. Kohaku had been missing for a year when she and Sango had met. The wound was still fresh back then, and despite Sango being much more composed about it now, she knew it could still reopen easily. The boy was about Sota's age, and he had been missing for… God. Seven years now.

"I told you what people said. That he'd been kidnapped because my parents work for the police and everything, but no one ever asked for a ransom nor anything else. And that's the truth."

"But there's a but," Kagome completed.

"My parents were actually working on the Curse, back then."

Kagome could hear the capital letter in her friend's voice, and she clearly didn't have to ask what Sango was talking about.

"Do you mind if I take notes?"

Despite the gravity of the moment, Sango smiled.

"Sure, it's not like anyone is going to be able to read you."

Kagome resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at her friend and started to write.

"There had been a death that my parents thought could have been murder. They didn't really think the painting had anything to do with it, but they didn't want to rule out that possibility. They kept it in the police station's vault at all times."

Sango gulped down as she pursued her trip down painful memories.

"I'm sure I told you, but Kohaku and I were at the station when he disappeared. My parents had actually taken the painting out so it would be analyzed by a specialist."

Kagome kept writing, but that didn't stop her from noticing Sango getting gradually paler. She could have offered her to stop, however if there was anything that could come out of this story, it would be for the best for the two of them, and they knew it.

"It was Onigumo's Spider's Web. It's… a really creepy painting, which shows people hanging from threads, all connected to a giant spider web. Anyway, Kohaku was in my mom's office, where the painting was. I was a bit late. When I arrived, the window was open… And Kohaku was gone."

Sango's breathing was trembling. She was obviously holding back her tears. Kagome moved to grab her hand and hold onto it tightly.

"He'd only been in there alone for a few minutes…"

"And did the expert analyze the painting in the end?"

Sango gave Kagome a knowing look.

"Everyone was panicked. He didn't get much time, but he did say there was nothing weird about the Spider's Web."

"Hmm. And no one thought that maybe…?"

"Well, the thing is, that's not what Onigumo's paintings are supposed to be doing, and mom and dad weren't exactly convinced by the Curse in the first place. Not to mention, with their job, it wouldn't be a surprise if someone tried to use their children against them."

Kagome sighed but nodded nonetheless.

"Of course, but then how did you come to…"

"Oh, I didn't," Sango said with a joyless laugh. "I guess I'm just willing to cling onto any possibility that Kohaku is still alive out there somewhere and that he wasn't…"

Kagome squeezed her friend's hand tighter. It physically pained her to watch Sango go through all that again. Fortunately, they were almost done.

"Would you know by any chance where the painting is now?" she asked quietly.

Again, that sad, self-deprecating laugh.

"Yeah, I do. Right now, it's in Naraku's possession, but it should go up for an auction sale soon. I keep track of it at all times. It doesn't get more pathetic than that, does it?"

"There's nothing pathetic about it, Sango," Kagome said while putting her notebook, pen and recorder back in her bag. "I'm sorry I had to make you…"

"That's okay," Sango interrupted her. "Just… If you're investigating it, try to look into it, okay? I know it's probably stupid, and that I'm just not capable of accepting Kohaku's… disappearance, but if you can tell me without a doubt that the paintings have nothing to do with it, it would make me feel a lot better."

All Kagome could do was nod vehemently a few times and keep holding onto Sango's hand.


Kagome shook her head. This wasn't why she was here, although she could probably ask a few questions to Inuyasha as well, at least to know what he thought of Onigumo's paintings. She wished she could have told Sango about Kikyô's situation, however she didn't want to raise her friend's hopes by mentioning unusual stories connected to the paintings.

She cleared her throat as the door opened, firmly set on having a fun time without thinking too much about her investigation.

To her surprise, it wasn't Inuyasha but Miroku that stood there. He was wearing the long black coat she had already seen him in, and he flashed her a smile.

"Inuyasha's in the kitchen. First door on the left, behind the dining room. You two have fun, alright?"

Kagome felt herself blushing like a teenage girl. She couldn't say that what Miroku was suggesting hadn't crossed her mind, but the way he made it sound was just… dirty. She took it upon herself to raise her chin in a slightly defiant way and to give him a cocky grin.

"Don't worry, we won't do anything you would."

She saw him raising his eyebrows in surprise and watched some sort of approbation in his eyes, but she didn't wait for him to retort and she stepped into the house.

The place was huge. When she had taken the taxi to come here, she had been surprised to find that it was quite far away from the heart of the city, which she rarely left. From outside, it looked like a small manor, and from the inside, it seemed like the occupant was definitely going for that feeling. It wasn't as much the marble staircase that started in front of her before dividing into two different flights of stairs and reaching the first floor at two different places, nor the rich decorations, not even the chandelier that hung from the ceiling.

No, what had Kagome frozen, her mouth wide open, was the huge painting right above the first set of stairs. It portrayed a beautiful woman with long, straight black hair, wearing a kimono. Her red lips were slightly parted, her skin was pale, and her eyes… Her eyes were so sad. The painting itself was very traditional, bringing Kagome vague memories of kings and queens' portraits. She wondered if Sango would have known about it.

Indeed, she would have. The painting, simply named Izayoi, was Inuyasha's first portrait. Everyone who was familiar with current painters had heard of it. It depicted Inuyasha's mother. He had done the portrait when he was eighteen, when he had just started to make a name for himself, and he had bought it back five years ago, for quite a big sum of money.

That wasn't the whole story, of course. That said nothing of the fact that it was precisely while he was buying the painting for himself that he had met Kikyô, nor did it do justice to Inuyasha's months of work, trying to paint his mother by memory, always failing, and then finally finding one unique picture of her.

But Kagome had no idea about any of that, and so she just stood there for a few minutes, simply admiring it and wondering why it made her so melancholic to look into the woman's eyes. She looked away when she started to feel her throat tightening.

Following Miroku's instructions, she walked into the room in her left, the dining room. There was a long table, the kind she had only ever seen in movies. Maybe she should have asked Sango about Inuyasha as well, all things considered. She had never imagined that art could make someone that rich.

She went through the room, and found herself a bit surprised when she walked into the kitchen. While the other rooms were extremely classical and could have made her feel like she had just walked into the Renaissance, the kitchen was extremely modern, extremely white, and… quite messy. And, as indicated, Inuyasha was sitting there at a bar, eating what looked like his breakfast. Had he just woken up? It was two in the afternoon.

"Hi," Kagome said, unsure of what exactly was expected of her.

"Same," Inuyasha mumbled after engulfing a mouthful of what really looked like cereals and milk. If there was one thing Inuyasha definitely wasn't, it was a morning person. The fact that his morning started after the first half of the day had already gone by didn't change anything.

Kagome stood there, facing him, for a couple of seconds before pulling a chair, or rather a stool, and sat down, a little awkwardly. That was not exactly the kind of welcome she had expected. Granted, she wasn't sure herself what she had expected, but this was still… Well, a bit unnerving. Inuyasha was almost a stranger to her. A stranger that she found very attractive and on which she knew several random informations, maybe, but a stranger nonetheless.

"'m almost done," Inuyasha muttered. "You can go wait in the living room. 's on the other side of the hall."

"Oh," Kagome said. "Um, sure."

She stood up again, slightly rearranged the white dress she was wearing despite not really needing to and walked out, not knowing whether she felt better that she wouldn't stay in this situation, or on the contrary, even more awkward due to being alone and having to wait for him somewhere inside the house.

Inuyasha watched her leave, and he could honestly have slapped himself for being such an asshole. He would have deserved it. He felt terribly uncomfortable and he wasn't sure whether this was a good idea or not, but he was still the one who had made the proposition. Kagome didn't have to be aware of his interior torment.

It had been extremely different the first time Kikyô had been there.


It was five minutes before two a.m., and Inuyasha was wondering if Kikyô would actually show up. He knew his question had taken her by surprise — how could it not? — and he feared that she had agreed in the spur of the moment. He had no idea yet that Kikyô never did anything 'in the spur of the moment'. The concept of spontaneity made no sense when it came to her.

There was a knock on the door at two a.m. exactly, and Inuyasha rushed to open it, his palms weirdly sweaty. And of course, there she was. Just as beautiful as when he had seen her the first time. He noticed that she was almost as tall as he was, and vaguely wondered if she modeled, but couldn't find an answer. He had never really cared for models, after all.

"Mr. Taishô," her voice greeted him coldly.

"You can call me Inuyasha," he answered hastily. When she pretty much glared at him, he gulped down. "…If you want to, that is."

Her dark eyes seemed to study him, to be able to read him perfectly. Finally, she nodded.

"Inuyasha. And you will call me Kikyô."

If he had been a dog, his tail would have been wagging.

Right now though, thankfully, he wasn't even close from being a dog.

"If you will follow me…"

She didn't answer. He didn't know yet, but for Kikyô to agree to come here, or to allow him to call her by her name, it meant a lot. There had been an instant connection between them. In fact, Inuyasha had said, back then, that she was 'the one' — or he would have if there had been anyone he could have said it to.

Boy had he been wrong.


Inuyasha stood up and dumped his dishes in the sink. The maid would take care of it. Remembering Kikyô was making him nervous, but he had noticed that Kagome was, actually, smaller than Kikyô, which helped him feel a bit better about the situation, for a reason unknown to him. Probably because if he had been interested in her only because she looked like his ex, it would have been unbelievably creepy.

He quickly washed his hands before finally resigning himself to join Kagome. Maybe it wasn't too late to call the whole thing off? Sure, it would make him look like an douche, but perhaps it was for the best.

And then, he walked into what would have been the living-room if he didn't use it exclusively to paint, his eyes fell on Kagome, and he forgot any thought of cancelling. He wanted to paint her.

She was examining the walls of the room, looking at paintings, none of which were his, holding her hands behind her back. She seemed curious, which he guessed came with the job. Though Kikyô had mentioned working as a journalist at some point, and she wasn't really curious. She liked her world to be well-ordered, and didn't want to look too deep into it in if there was a risk for that order to be disrupted.

She had stood in that very room, more than once, during the months when they had been together. She had also been in that room, on the night it all went wrong.

He had been incapable of coming in here for months afterwards.

He had to fucking stop thinking about Kikyô.

Kagome turned on her heels, and let out a small yelp when he entered her field of vision, which resulted in him raising an eyebrow. Really? She pressed her hand to her chest, chuckling at herself and breathing deeply.

"You scared the hell out of me! I didn't hear you coming!"

"Should've been paying attention," Inuyasha shrugged. "You know some of these?"

She didn't miss the small mockery in his voice, but she decided it wasn't mean-spirited and simply shook her head instead of reacting to it.

"Not really, no. Recently I've heard a lot about a painter, so I was looking at the signatures, but I can't seem to see it. You may have heard of Onigumo?"

She found herself to be a bit too sneaky about it. She wasn't expecting Inuyasha to give her any infos she hadn't known before, and it would have eased her conscience if she had asked in a less convoluted way. Oh well.

He walked in her direction and looked at the wall.

"Yeah, I quite like his stuff, actually. But I don't have any of his works here. Most of these were given to me as a gift, and if you've heard of him, you must have guessed why I wouldn't anything in my house."

"The Curse," Kagome said, imitating Sango's tone without really noticing it. "You believe that?"

"Let's say I have enough shit in my life not to want to risk it." Inuyasha said, his voice darker than usual. Kagome gave him a quizzical glance, but he seemed to be lost in his thoughts. When it became obvious that he wasn't going to get into the details, she stretched herself, and the movement made him snap out of it.

"So! How do we do this?" she asked. "I've never, you know, posed for anyone before. Well, I mean, for photographer friends who wanted to train, but I think that's really different. I'm not sure I'll be able to remain motionless for a very long time."

Inuyasha grinned. For some reason, he was quite sure she was right about that.

"Don't worry. It's the first time, so we'll take it easy. Today I'll be sketching you to find how I want to paint you."

Suddenly realizing what he was implying, he scratched his head. His stupid mouth, always going faster than his brain.

Hm, maybe his brain was the stupid one then.

"…If that's fine with you. If you don't want to then that's alright, I'll just work with the sketches."

"I think I wouldn't mind at all," Kagome said, her eyes full of malice. Had Miroku been here, he certainly would have noticed and wouldn't have missed his chance to comment on it. But Miroku wasn't here, and Inuyasha had no idea of how to interpret what the girl had said, far less what it was that was shining in her beautiful blue eyes. Damn, if the phrase 'eyes are the window to the soul' was true, her soul had to be absolutely amazing.

Shit, he was staring. Catching himself, he quickly looked away, blushing vaguely, and Kagome felt her smile growing wider. There was something strange about Inuyasha, and in her opinion, strange meant interesting. That she could make someone who looked like that blush was, honestly, a pretty nice feeling, but she decided not to tease him on it. Wouldn't want to make him run away just yet, right?

"Hm, should I sit here?" she asked, gesturing at the couch. As she walked towards it, Inuyasha's face darkened, but she didn't notice. The couch was the place where Kikyô had laid down during one of their last painting sessions. Naked.

For some reason, thoughts of a naked Kagome invaded his mind as his eyes followed her, and he willed them away with a frown. What on earth was wrong with him? He wasn't Miroku! But still, thinking of her taking off that white dress that showed just enough skin to want to see more…

Well, that was one more thing to add to the list of things he shouldn't be thinking about.

With a sigh, he walked around the couch. Kagome gave him a smile. She seemed to be a bit tense, sitting too straight, and that didn't suit her.

"Relax," he muttered as he sat on a stool, a big sheet of paper on his easel. "You just said so, this is going to take some time. So get comfortable."

How did he manage to say something nice while sounding like such a dick?

"Wow, thanks for suggesting it. Gee, why didn't I think of that?"

Inuyasha gave her a surprised look and didn't manage to fight back the grin that was creeping on his face. Kagome smiled back.

"You mind if I put my feet on the couch?"

He shrugged. In one quick move, she took off her shoes and laid her legs on the couch, leaning against one of the sofa's arms. She then turned to look at Inuyasha, and he started to draw.

It was a strangely intense moment. He was trying to keep the previously mentioned thoughts out of his mind, but it wasn't easy with her legs in display. Part of him couldn't help but compare her to Kikyô, and it almost surprised him how attractive he found her despite how different she was from his ex-lover. She wasn't built like a model, she was curvier, and she didn't have Kikyô's flawless skin, but it made her look all the more like a real person, instead of some beautiful wax doll.

He decided to focus on her face, and felt vaguely concerned with how he was going to manage to recreate her eyes. He would have to look for the perfect color, but that didn't worry him too much; instead, he wondered if he would be able to render how expressive they were. It would probably give him a hard time, but he wanted to try.

This was something he loved about painting. The challenge. This was what made it as fun as it was for him.

His eyes were now solely focused on her face as he did his best to transfer it to the paper. It was only a very first draft, but he knew that for his final work, he would need her to look like she could move at any point.

It had been very different with Kikyô, since he almost had the opposite intention with her. He wanted to be able to look at the painting and wonder whether she was an immobile human or a doll who could move. There was absolutely no way to wonder if Kagome was a doll. In fact, he wanted her painting to make him wonder how she could possibly stay frozen that long. He wanted to expect her to stand up and walk away at any point.

Kagome watched him watch her. She took in his eyes, noticed how they lingered on her legs in the beginning before focusing on her face. Regularly, his violet eyes met her blue orbs, but it didn't feel like he noticed it. It was odd, how he looked at her without seeing her. She couldn't help but compare it to her job. She was supposed to see what was inside people's mind, and their appearance was only part of the picture, generally not the most important one. Inuyasha seemed to be only looking at her from the outside, but boy, no one had ever looked at her like that.

She was used to men's attention, even if she had only had one serious relationship. She knew that Koga's incessant flirting wasn't only due to her interior beauty, and that Miroku wouldn't have bothered trying to make Sango jealous by using her if he hadn't thought it could work (it didn't make it any less stupid, though). She had also used her 'charms' to get informations a couple of times, even though that was not something she liked. However, this was not the same. Inuyasha seemed to be studying her.

She could see the way his eyes followed her lips before turning back to his drawing, and suddenly, she found the words to express why his look felt so intense. He looked at her like she was a work of art. Not like he wanted to make one out of her, like he already thought she was. Her lips parted slightly and her breathing caught in her throat. Was it just her or was it getting really hot in here?

Since he certainly was doing the same thing right now, she decided to examine him as well. She wasn't sure it would help her with her body temperature problem, but it felt like it would be a nice distraction. She didn't pay attention to her body language, tilting her head slightly to get a better look in what she would certainly have identified as seductive move. She doubted Inuyasha would recognize it as such.

She was right. Had she thought she knew everything there was to find out about him, she would have been far, far away from the truth — further than she could ever imagine at this point — but if there was one thing she was correct about, it was that Inuyasha was bad with social interactions. And flirting was part of that. That was probably what had attracted Kikyô's attention, back in the days. For someone to approach her as casually as Inuyasha had… It most likely made her feel like a regular person again.

Not that Kagome knew about that, or that she would have cared right now. Instead, she studied his slightly tanned skin, his violet eyes, the way some locks of his hair were escaping from his ponytail, and how the dark color contrasted with his white T-shirt. She thought that maybe she could do him the same courtesy he was, and keep her eyes on his face, but then decided that she had no reason to do that.

So she allowed her eyes to trail down to his toned chest. His shirt wasn't the skin-tight type, expect on his shoulders and arms, where it really showed off his muscles. She could only imagine that the rest of his torso was built in the same way.

Inuyasha may have been bad at reading people, but he was pretty sure she was ogling him right now. He didn't know how he felt about that. He knew he attracted some women's attention, but most of the time his awful temper drove them away quickly. Kikyô had been the only one he had wanted. He didn't know about Kagome, though. He would never have offered to paint her if she hadn't help him with his speech and hadn't appeared at his last interview.

He didn't know if he should be happy about it or not. It was too early to say.

But he was started to think he quite liked having her looking at him like that.

"Can I move?" she asked, and he realized he was grinning slightly.

"Yeah." His voice was gruffer than it had been earlier, but Kagome chose not to take offense. She was starting to think that that side of him was mostly a facade. One he wasn't too good at keeping up, actually, if you spent more than five minutes with him. Well, except if he was annoyed, apparently, she added mentally, remembering how the interview with Hojo was going before she arrived.

She laid down on the couch and put both of her arms around the couch's arm against which she was previously leaning, resting her chin on her hands, still staring at him.

Once again, Inuyasha's eyes darted towards her legs. One of them was now bent, and her left foot was dangling from the couch, causing her dress to go up slightly. He looked away quickly, trying not to listen to the part of him that was starting to get stronger and stronger and kept mentioning how enticing her skin looked, and how soft it would probably feel if he got his hands on it. He cursed under his breath, convinced he was blushing, and went back to drawing with wide and imprecise lines.

When he cursed again, it was because of him, and much louder, causing Kagome to raise an eyebrow.

"Sorry 'bout that," he then mumbled, absolutely not apologetic.

Kagome vaguely shrugged. It always amazed her, how people kept assuming that she was this fragile little girl who would be shocked by something as simple as swearing. If she didn't have the stomach for it, she wouldn't have the job she had. But oh well, looking small and cute and like you needed to be protected had its advantages.

Plus, she did need to be protected. She was pretty weak, physically speaking. She also had no knowledge when it came to fighting, and couldn't fire a gun for the life of her. As for the archery lessons she had taken when she was in high school, they were long behind her. Her strengths lay elsewhere. She was, for example, capable of destroying a museum director's reputation with only a series of articles and therefore clear the place for her best friend.

…That didn't sound right, but that museum's director was really a terrible person. She didn't make up any of what she had published. And Sango completely deserved the job. The museum was thriving since Sango had been put in that position.

"Do you mind if we talk?" she asked, feeling herself growing bored and shifting slightly because her hands were starting to get numb.

"'s not like I can stop you."

This was getting annoying real fast.

"I meant to ask if you would be capable of painting and talking at the same time."

Oops. She hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Or maybe she had and she was glad she had. Well, it really was her concern, but she could have phrased it differently. It wasn't like her to be so… Honest? Let's say direct.

But Inuyasha only grinned at her cockily. This was new. This was Kikyô would never have done — he needed to stop comparing her to Kikyô when they were obviously two very different persons who merely shared a few physical traits.

"Well I wasn't sure you could pose and talk at the same time."

Kagome couldn't help but chuckle. It would take much more than that for her to feel insulted. It could, would probably have been fun to keep going on these grounds, but that felt a little too risky for a first date.

This was a date, right?

"So, this is quite the house," she commented, glancing around. "Do you really make that much money from your paintings?"

"The house's my brother's actually," Inuyasha answered, and Kagome couldn't exactly identify the emotion in his voice as he said that. "But I do make that much money."

Kagome chuckled once more, and Inuyasha smiled at the sound. It was easy to talk to her, and he felt comfortable when she was around. Maybe… maybe she would become a friend. Maybe she would stick around, like Miroku had. He would like that. Friendship. A relationship was a terrible idea, something he couldn't and shouldn't do, but having more than one friend in his life couldn't be a bad thing.

And it would all be fine, because this wasn't a date, right?

"You live here with your brother then? This looks like a very big house for just two persons."

Inuyasha snorted. "Certainly not. He's never here, and I'm better off without him anyway."

"He must really trust you," Kagome sighed. "I wouldn't leave my coat to my little brother." There was a silence, before she added "That's not true. Sota's perfectly capable of doing laundry."

Inuyasha felt a familiar pang of sadness in his chest. He had always envied other people's relationships to their siblings. Not that he would ever say it out loud, nor show it. It had been much worse when he was a kid, after his mother's death.

"You don't know him," he simply answered, his voice bitter.

Kagome stopped thinking about how Sota was actually a really nice and as reliable as a nineteen years old could be to look at him. She could tell something was wrong, but before she could ask, he stood up, putting his charcoal crayon back on the easel in quite a violent movement.

"Let's call it a day," he said, reaching behind his head to take off the hair elastic that kept his black locks up. He shook his head as the hair fell, and Kagome didn't pay attention to her mouth as it treacherously dropped open.

Inuyasha ran his hand through his hair, satisfied to feel them finally free. He always tied them when he drew or painted, but it was a pain. He eyed Kagome, who hadn't stood up yet. She was looking at him with wide eyes.

"Something's seriously wrong with you," he said with disbelief.

The girl caught herself, blushed furiously and got up on her feet, quickly rearranging her dress, a movement which he couldn't help but follow. She glanced at him while doing so, vaguely confused. This could be a way of rejecting her softly, by not taking the occasion to flirt and not showing any interest in her. This could also be just another proof that he was terribly bad at interactions, but no one could be that bad, right? Especially no man in his late twenties who looked like Inuyasha did.

Except that Inuyasha had a very good reason not to get close from anyone, and that Kikyô would never have flirted openly with him, far less be caught admiring him.

So he actually was that bad.

He moved his head, inviting her to follow him, and they walked silently to the door. Kagome quickly slipped outside. Her cheeks were still burning and she couldn't bring herself to meet Inuyasha's eyes. Which he noticed, but couldn't interpret.

"Well," she said. "Um. Thanks?"

He frowned. What for?

"We should do this again," she added.

"Yeah, obviously, I didn't even started painting you."

She gave him a weird look.

"Okay, well… I'll call you? Or you'll call me? Do you still have my number?"

She could have sworn his ears were reddening.

"I do, but call me. Let me know when you're free. Bye."

And with that, he closed the door.

Kagome stood there, frozen, for a few moments. At least she hadn't had to worry about whether they should kiss or not. Seriously, the guy kept sending mixed signals, and she wasn't sure he was even aware of it.

She turned around and remembered she didn't have a car. Well, looked like she was going to have to walk to the bus stop. Great.

With a sigh, she started to get going, grabbing her phone in her pocket.

She had eight missed calls from Koga, in the hour and a half she had spent with Inuyasha.

Huh. What the hell…?


Here you go! Lots of Inukag moments in which Inuyasha is confused (there will be more development as to why he is the way he is by the way), more plot coming into place, and Koga's apparition.

I hope you've enjoyed the chapter! Thank you so much to those who reviewed the last one, honestly that's one of the best motivation to write more! Please leave a review if you like the story or if you have constructive criticism!

Dya.