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Proximity

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Dammit. That's six times I've heard that excruciating noise in the past minute. They get louder with each tap, of course. Stupid kitsune Shippou has been trying to get me to talk about Kagome using all sorts of methods. First, there was ongoing chattering, then bribes, then chattering mixed with bribes, now we arrive to tapping. Anything so that I'll cave, but I'm not gonna.

I think begging might be next. In the years that I have had the displeasure of knowing Shippou, he always went in the same pattern when there was info being kept from him. Chatter, bribe, mix chatter bribe, then make annoying sound that will undoubtedly piss me off.

Alright, this one's new. Now he's staring. I sigh. "Shippou, give up. Kaede said do the assignment, not stare at the closest hanyou."

Shippou smirks. Grr. "Well, I always could stare at the nearest miko."

Low blow, jackass.

Speaking of mikos, I look over and two rows away Kagome has her head bent, eyebrows furrowed, and her pen is moving across the paper as if human existence itself depended on her getting the assignment done.

Then again, in her household, it could. They didn't care what Kagome did as long as her grades were perfect, and of course, she married that prick Hojo.

Shippou must've caught me staring. "You know, I saw her with Hojo the other day. He was carrying her books for her."

Wow, perfect sentence to piss me off. "Then what the hell are you asking questions for, you stupid kitsune?"

He laughs. "Well, it could've been something else going on, but you pretty much just answered my questions."

I growl at Shippou and of course, at that moment Kagome decides to look up at me.

Its only been a few days since that night I screamed at her, and yet she still smiles at me, as if I had never uttered a single hurtful word to her.

Suddenly, I feel bad. I mean, I have every right to be angry, after all, I'm in love with this girl, but we were friends long before love decided to screw things up. Do I owe her that much? She turns away and gets back to work. But maybe at the same time I don't.

Yeah, thats it, I don't! She hurt me and just barely cares, just thinking we can start being 'just friends' all over again. No, I'm not going to let myself feel guilty about this.

"Still like her?"

I don't know whether to answer that or not. On one hand, hell yeah! On another, this is Shippou, bane of my existence.

Ah. What the hell.

"Yeah. She's engaged to Hojo, I'm single, and considering dating a girl identical to her. Anything else you need to know, ya little crap?!" I exclaim, as I gather up my books and head for the door. The bell just rang.

I can hear Shippou scurrying after me. "Wait! Wait up Inuyasha!"

"Inuyasha?"

A familiar scent hits my nose, and I look up into the eyes of Kikyo.

"Kikyo! Hey! I was wondering when I'd see you!"

She giggles. "Well, a few things got screwed with my paper work, but it's nice to know you were thinking of me." She says, pulling out a chair and sitting down next to me. I'm in the school library, and I was studying for a midterm.

I quickly brush my lips across her cheek, and smirk after I see her cheeks turn red.

She somewhat leans back in her seat, as her blush fades. "So, why couldn't you do that the other night?"

The question completely catches me off guard. It obviously bothered her, that I hadn't done anything on her porch the other night.

I should have expected this. "No reason." Is my smart response. Yeah, if I wasn't good-looking, I would definitely have to be smarter. For future reference, of course.

She raised an eyebrow. "No reason, huh?" She abruptly stands up.

I stand up too and wrap a hand around her wrist. "Kikyo, it wasn't anything about you, I had a great time with you, it's just that I was having some issues that day-"

"So, will you go out with me again? If I asked, I mean." She says, as she somehow pries my hand off her wrist, and interlaces her small fingers with mine.

For a minute, I think no, your an exact replica of the other hot girl that broke my heart. But only for a minute. Even if they look alike, they aren't the same person, which is something I sadly have to remind myself.

She seems to begin loosing hope, the longer I take to answer her, and I barely know this chick, but I know I don't want to hurt her. Different from how I felt about all the other random chicks in the past.

I grip her hand tighter, and force a smile. "Yeah."

She smiles back at me, a real one. "Then meet me at Ookami Bridge at 6:30. Don't forget me." Sh said, pecking me on the cheek and walking away.

As the doors to the library close with her exit, I can't help but think I never will for get her, with a face like that.

Music is pounding in my ears, from my MP3 player. Music that probably wouldn't bother an ordinary human, sounds like loud club music as I walk down the street.

I'm on my way home from school. My car is in the shop because Sesshoumaru decided to come home yesterday and 'accidentally' bust open a window. Jackass.

The sunlight is crazy today, every few seconds I'm raising up a hand to shield my damn eyes. And thats when I notice it. The scent of ramen, slightly cold, but ramen nonetheless. I frickin' love ramen! Its close too, so I whip around to see Kagome running towards me with a plastic container in her hands.

"Inuyasha!"

I wait for her to catch up, and yank an earphone out of my ear. Special made ones, of course.

Out of breath, she has one hand on her bare knee, slightly bent over, other hand extending the ramen in my direction. I take the container.

"Is this for me?"

She nods, as she straightens up, smoothing out her blue skirt. "Yeah. I made it from scratch last night."

I frown. "Weren't you supposed to be with Hojo?"

After a look of pain crosses her face, I regret ever saying that.

"Inuyasha, I just know that you can't forgive me yet, but I just want to be your friend, if nothing else."

I tried. I really did. But I can't help but get a little pissed at that word. Friend. A friend would not have done what she did, and then pretend like it never happened. But, now I'm getting a different reaction from her.

The sunlight's glare is showing the anger in here eyes, the pure upset. "Damn you! I never wanted this! I never wanted to hurt you! I didn't have a choice!" She screeches, throwing her arms up in the air, and gaining a look from people walking by.

I stare at her as she goes on, "And I don't know when you'll forgive me! I'm hurting too, but you've made it all about you-"

And then she's in my arms. I don't think she expected it, and neither did I.

I'm hurting and so is she, so I'm holding her in my arms. Maybe I was hoping we could help each other. But as I hold her on the sidewalk, where everyone can see, she doesn't move. She knows that Hojo could be around somewhere, but she's holding me tighter.

Then, I let go.

"I'm sorry," I hear myself say, as I pick up the ramen. "thanks for the ramen. I'll call you later-"

"No." She says, her voice is firm, strong. She's adamant about this.

"Let's go somewhere, now." A small hand grabs mine, and she's leading me to a direction I haven't been in years.

"Do you remember, the first year we started dating?"

I nod, and she drags me over to a swing. We're at a playground. We used to come here all the time, the days we didn't want to be around anyone, like Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and occasionally that damned grandfather of Kagome's.

"Yeah, I remember." I answer her.

"And do you remember when we got here, usually, you would hold me like this," she says, as she wraps her small arms around my bigger form.

" Then you would tell me, that you'd stay with me forever."

My arms are going around her to hug her back. I remember every detail. Those were some of the best days of my life.

"Will you stay, Inuyasha? Even though I can't treat you like a lover anymore? Will you stay, as my friend? Since I can't have you any other way?"

Could she? Is what I had to ask myself. I want to be selfish. I want to tell her again, that friends is not good enough, just like I told her the other night.

But, she looks up at me, and she's not ready to let me go.

"Please?" She asks.

"I can't stop myself from loving you, as more than my friend, I don't know if I can do this."

"We can try."

"Will you care if I date someone?"

She hesitates. "I don't know."

I let her go, and step back. "Then maybe neither of us, are really capable of doing this friend thing. Maybe-"

"Maybe we can, if don't act on our feelings." She finishes. She's not going to back down at this point. I look at my phone, and I realize it's 6:00. Ookami bridge is in a park across town.

Kagome sighs. "You got someone to meet?"

"Yeah. I'll call or text you later." I say, and giver her a half-hug.

6:31

"Kikyo!"

Her hair is pulled back into a low ponytail at the base of her neck with two pieces of hair hanging out in front.

She smiles when shes sees me walking towards her. I reach her and give her a hug. "Hey. You look nice." She's wearing a white hoody, with a short red skirt. Awesome.

"Thank you."

"So, what are we gonna do?"

Kikyo shrugs. "I'm not sure." She sits down on the edge of the small bridge and lets one leg dangle over the small stream of water thats flowing underneath the bridge.

I sit down next to her. "About the other night-"

But of course, she cuts me off by kissing me. This is different for me. Her lips taste like apples. Shes so different yet the same as Kagome. Kagome had always tasted like candy.

And it's like I'm twelve years old and getting my first kiss all over again. Because I don't know what to do. But, now I can kiss her, knowing that she's Kikyo. Not Kagome. That they are entirely different girls, that when I look in Kikyo's eyes, that they aren't Kagome's.

So, I kiss her. But, I kiss her like she's someone I haven't seen in a long time. After all, Kikyo hasn't even met Kagome yet, why should I deny her, when she only looks like Kagome?

Yeah. Kikyo is likely to be my new girl. Soon.

She pulls away with a small blush on her face. "I'm sorry-"

"You should be saying, 'you're welcome'." I say, feeling my lips turn up, and I know I'm smirking.

She laughs. "Good. So, Inuyasha, you think you can spend the rest of the evening doing this?"

"Hell yeah."

Woah, took a while for me to actually post this one, but I hope you enjoyed, I enjoyed writing it. :) Please, review. Keep a lookout for the next chapter of 'It Kills Me' entitled: Nerve.

With that said, Sayonara!