A/N: Yay! Second chapter! This one was written by me, Bella. I hope I do as good a job as Daichi. Well, read up guys!

Chapter 2: Disaster Date

I snuggled deeper into the warmth and tried to fall back asleep. This was a peaceful moment; I was comfortably curled up against Inuyasha's side and he was humming to himself while he stroked my hair. I couldn't have been happier. I was enjoying my new life and nothing could have made me regret any of the decisions that led up to this moment. I finally realized that I wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep so I stretched and opened my eyes to find Inuyasha's golden ones trained on me. A slow, soft smile spread over his face and I smiled back.

"Morning." He whispered to me; his fingers tangling in my hair as he brought me closer for a kiss. I pulled away with a quick, jerky movement and Inuyasha's brows knitted together in confusion.

"I have morning breath." I whispered back embarrassedly.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes at me. "Do you really think I care?" he asked before gently pressing his lips to mine. "Silly woman." He said resting his forehead against mine and closing his eyes. We laid quietly for a few minutes, soaking in each other's warmth before his eyes snapped open and focused on something behind me. Inuyasha sighed before getting out of bed and starting towards the bathroom.

"Yash, where are you going?" I asked propping myself up on an elbow. It was a minute before he stuck his head out of the bathroom door, toothbrush in mouth and replied,

"Skoow." It was quiet for a moment before he replied again with a coherent answer of, "School." I had forgotten the new semester at the university began today. My classes weren't until tomorrow though so I would be spending the day alone.

"You'll be alright?" Inuyasha asked pulling a shirt over this head. I nodded. I would just finish unpacking. "Okay, see ya later." Inuyasha said planting a kiss on my forehead. He looked back longingly for a moment before leaving. I lay in bed for a few minutes longer before I forced myself to get up. I had work to do.

I hated unpacking. I decided this when I opened three boxes and found random room items strewn throughout them. One box held bathroom rugs and kitchen silverware. The other had our glass coffee mugs and some highly breakable vases and none of them were wrapped. Luckily, nothing had been broken and only one vase had chipped. Oh well, I never like that one anyhow.

As for the last box, I'm not even going to say what I found. Let's just say that it would be funny until you found out that the contents of the box didn't belong to either Inuyasha or me and if I acknowledged the existence of them, it would be the same as if I had used them. I shuddered at the thought and quickly closed that one up and put it by the front door. I ran to put on some shoes and opened the door box in hand; I was going to toss this one, but I didn't even make it out the door.

Ayame stood at my front door, hand poised to ring the bell. She smiled in glee and bounced inside, pulling me with her.

"Ayame, could you hold on a sec? I need to toss some stuff into the dumpster on the end of the street." I started walking past her. "I'll be back."

Before I could take another step, Ayame took the box from my arms and put it down on the floor next to the couch.

"I can't believe you were going to throw away our housewarming gift to you Kagome." She said with a pointedly accusing expression.

"Ayame, do you know what's in this box?" I can't keep this!"

"Of course I know! Miroku and I put this together for you and Inuyasha." I nearly choked on air. If it was Miroku and Ayame, then I knew my theory of what was in the box was true. I wanted to strangle the both of them.

"You two . . ." This explained the videos. I shook my head. "What do you want Ayame?" I asked a little harshly, already in a bad mood.

"Ooh someone's a little touchy today." She said grinning at me. "You haven't had your coffee yet huh?"

"Not yet."

"Ah, well. Not to worry. I brought you coffee since your coffee makers broken."

"My coffee maker's not . . ." I hurried to the kitchen and sure enough the machine was broken. "How'd you know my coffee maker was broken?"

Ayame smiled again, but she didn't answer. I shrugged it off There was no use in getting mad now; it had probably been broken since she had packed it up at my mom's place. I held my hand out and Ayame placed a cup in my hand. I tentatively took a few sips and the warm liquid soothingly trickled down my throat.

I smiled, suddenly forgetting all about the wrongly packaged items and Miroku and Ayame's little 'surprise'. For the moment, all was well with the world. I sat on the couch in pure bliss and listened to Ayame talk about some of the ideas that she and Kouga had come up with for their wedding. Everything she said sounded fun, but already I could tell that this totally wasn't going to be a normal or traditional wedding. Ayame left after a little while because her classes were going to start soon and despite all that she had done just this morning, I was reluctant to see her go.

Almost everything had a designated spot. The only thing that I hadn't finished yet was hanging up the pictures, but that could wait. What I really wanted to do was finish sorting through all of the knickknacks that my mother had given us. I had put everything that I absolutely didn't need or hated into a few small boxes in the corner of the living room, but I didn't know what to do with the rest. I actually kind of liked a few things, and had placed them on our shelves but there was a large looming mountain of things that I still hadn't decided if I should keep or not. I was still musing over what to do with a mini sculpture of a sakura tree when Inuyasha crept up behind me, as quiet as a mouse and wrapped his arms around my waist. I yelped in surprise and turned to face him.

"Hey." I greeted him. "How were your classes? Feel any smarter?" I joked

"Hi. The usual, and no not really but I can sing the gummy bear song in German. Have you been working all day?" He asked, looking around the nicely cleaned room.

I shrugged nonchalantly. It really wasn't that hard.

"Go take a break." Inuyasha said, towing me towards the room. I complied, shook him off and made my way to the room. I was about to lie down on the bed when I noticed a white box with a pink ribbon and bow. Knowing that it had to be for me, I shook the box much like a kid at Christmas would. I heard nothing so I opened it to reveal one of the most beautiful dresses that I had ever seen. The dress was a rich forest green and had thin straps that tied behind the neck. There was a clear jewel that sat in the middle of my chest where the straps met with the dress. I figured that it would reach a little below my knees and seemed to be a flowy kind of dress.

"Inuyasha Takahashi!" I screamed. Inuyasha appeared in the doorway a second later wearing his cute confused expression. He tensed for a second."What? What did I do?"

I had to laugh at his question. I waved the dress in front of him."What is this? What's the meaning of this?" Inuyasha cringed slightly before I threw my arms around his neck. "I love it Inuyasha! I absolutely love it!"

I could hear him sighing out of relief and he loosely slung his arms around my hips. "I was hoping we could go out for dinner tonight. You know, kind of like a date."

"I would love to." I said softly. "But next time tell me that you're going to buy me something. It's not fair that you keep buying me stuff and I never get you anything."

"It's fine. Besides, I have you, what more could I want?" I smiled and hid my face in Inuyasha's shirt to hide my blush. Yup, I loved my husband.

Later that night, I was dolled up and ready to go. Inuyasha drove us to a fancy little restaurant that I used to imagine myself eating in when I was younger. How did he even know about the place?

Sensing my question, he answered, chuckling as he did. "I dug out of your mom. She was more than happy to oblige."

I grinned and smacked his shoulder playfully. "That's cheating, Inuyasha." He parked the car and leaned in closer to me.

"Not if it makes you happy." He leaned in and before I knew it, we were kissing. What a way to start a date! But, of course, I wasn't complaining.

After detangling ourselves from each other, and after a few more kisses, Inuyasha held out a hand and helped me out of the car. I smoothed out my dress and touched my hair; the spiral curls that I had so meticulously created were still intact.

Inuyasha led me inside and we were seated at a small table by a large window with a beautiful view. We ordered our drink and I looked out of the window for a while. A small band began to play and I looked over at Inuyasha when he picked up my hand and measured it against his larger one before lacing his fingers through mine.

"What do you say we go dance?" He asked gently tugging me up from my seat. I shook my head; there weren't that many people here but there were enough people to witness me dancing and I wasn't the best of dancers. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"No, Inuyasha," I said but he had already dragged me out onto the floor. "Inuyasha, please!" I pleaded. I really did not want to spend the rest of the night apologizing for broken limbs, not to mention my own. "I don't want to embarrass myself."

"You won't. Relax Kagome, just follow my lead." He said beginning to sway with the music. I warily followed his lead, glancing down at our feet to make sure I didn't step on his feet. After a while, it was actually nice. Well, I was as close to Inuyasha as I could be while dancing. But this time I did it out of necessity, since all the other girls who were disappointed with their dates kept ogling at Inuyasha.

Hands off, you conniving skanks! Stick to your own damn dates! HE'S MINE!

We sat down at the table and I could feel that my face was flushed from so much dancing. I actually hadn't done that bad once I let Inuyasha take control. Now he was looking at me with a knowing smile while I sipped my water the first waiter had brought.

"Hi, can I take your order?" I glanced up at the chirpy voice. It was a new waitress. My eyebrows scrunched up. Where was our waiter? Besides, I had reason to question this one. She looked a little too happy to have her job and I didn't realize why until I noticed her ogling Inuyasha.

"Yeah, I'll have the shabu shabu. What about you, honey?" He asked, glancing up at me. Either he didn't seem to notice the fact that she was practically drooling on her notepad, or he was just politely ignoring her. Either way, my hands itched to strangle her.

"Kagome? Are you okay?"

I stopped glaring at our waitress long enough to look down at the men. I ordered the first thing I saw.

"I'll take an order of dashi."

"I'll have that right out. Is there anything else I can get you? Anything at all?" She asked leaning towards Inuyasha suggestively.

Was it me or was there a little more insinuation in her voice? I snorted and rolled my eyes. I mean, really? Was she just going to ignore me and try to make an advance at my husband? Oh so help me god, if she didn't leave in the next two seconds she was going to find herself leaving on a stretcher. Luckily Inuyasha said no and waved her away without ever taking a glance in her direction.

Smart move, Inuyasha, smart move.

"Desperate much?" I said sarcastically, taking up my glass and drinking from it again. He better have a good answer or he'd be the one leaving on a stretcher.

"What?" Inuyasha looked as if he was oblivious to everything that had just happened. God, was he that dense?

I decided he couldn't play dumb with me. "Don't act like you didn't notice what she was doing."

Inuyasha looked confused. "What was she doing?"

I snorted and gripped my glass, looking him right in the eye and leaning in. "She was practically undressing you with her eyes." I let go of the glass. Anymore pressure and it would shatter.

"Kagome, it's ok. Just ignore her. You should know by now that I'm not going to let anyone come between us. Especially not some yuppie waitress." He waved a hand toward her across the room. "Not while I have you." He cupped my cheek in his hand. "Okay?" His eyes searched mine. I could see that he really meant what he had said and I deflated, nodding. "Okay."

The waitress came out and placed Inuyasha's meal in front of him. It looked pretty good.

"Enjoy." She said in her syrupy-sweet voice and smiled too widely at Inuyasha. He looked up at her for a second. "I'm sorry; I believe we're missing a meal."

"Are you? I brought your food out didn't I?" She said her eyes wide.

"Yes, but my wife is missing her dashi soup."

"Oh." She said plainly looking at me. "I'll bring that right out." She said, her voice had lost its syrupy quality and had dropped about two octaves. She came back a few minutes later with my soup. "Here." She said before the bowl tipped and scalding broth and mushrooms spilled onto my lap. I screamed and hopped up.

"You witch! You stupid little witch! You did that on purpose!" I clasped my hands over my mouth, but it was too late. I had already gone off. I tried to apologize. I hated being a bitch, even if the person in question was trying to steal my man.

Damn my good-natured heart.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that." The waitress stared at me wide eyed before leaving, a scowl on her face. I quickly turned to Inuyasha. "Inuyasha, I really didn't mean to . . ."

"I know you didn't. Go clean yourself up and make sure you're not burned too badly." I nodded and left for the bathroom. I was okay but I was sure that the dress was ruined. I felt really bad about what I had said to the waitress. I rarely said anything that harsh, at least, not without full right. I honestly didn't mean to call her a witch but I had been so upset from her flirting with Inuyasha and then she dropped hot soup in my lap. What was a girl supposed to do? I sat back down at the table, nearly in tears.

Another bowl of soup was on the table in front of my spot. "I talked to the waitress when she came back Kagome. She says it's okay and that she didn't take any hard feelings and that she should've been more careful with the soup." He said softly. I nodded and looked out of the window wistfully again.

It was quiet for a while and I listened to the band when they started up again but I didn't really enjoy it. "Kagome, are you going to eat your soup?"

"I'll get it to go and eat it later." It was quiet for a few seconds more before Inuyasha reached out to take my hand.

"Talk to me, hon. I came to spend time with you, not to eat dinner by myself. We both know that you didn't mean what you said and that's all that matters. Accidents happen so don't worry." I slowly nodded and then smiled.

"You'll never believe what I found today."

"What?" Inuyasha asked

"Well Miroku and Ayame thought they'd give us a "housewarming gift" and they left us a box full of, um…" I leaned in, whispering the last part in his ears. Inuyasha's eyes bulged and he started to cough. I handed him his glass of water and he chugged it.

"They left a box of what in our house?" I nodded and Inuyasha laughed. "Wow, that's um, disturbing." We both looked at each other and laughed before uncomfortably scratching our heads. "So what are we going to do with it?"

"I wanted to toss it but Ayame came over before I could and hid it somewhere in the house where I can't find it."

"Ah, well . . ." Inuyasha's eyes focused in the direction of the chef's door and he got a really weird expression on his face. Before I could ask what was going on I heard a few screams and people began to run past out table. I turned around to see huge flames coming from the kitchen and they had already started to spread around the restaurant. Bright flames began to lick at the floor and crept towards out table.

I knew that I needed to get up but I was so enthralled by the flames I couldn't move.

"Kagome!"

Inuyasha yanked me out of my chair and I came out of my reverie. He grabbed my hand and began to pull me towards the front door of the restaurant. I tripped and felt something pull in my ankle and I cried out. I had to stop running because of the pain that shot up my leg. I tried my best to keep up but I couldn't. And then there was a strange tickling sensation that turned to an intense burning.

"My hair's on fire! My hair is on fire!" I screamed. I don't know how, but Inuyasha managed to get me outside, safely away from the building and stopped the fire that had eaten away at my hair.

I had a badly sprained ankle and I lost about four inches of hair. I had clipped the burnt ends so that everything was even and all of the dead pieces were gone and I sadly noted that my hair now only reached my shoulders instead of my mid-back. In tears and stil in shock on what had happened, Inuyasha strapped me inside the car. He tried to calm me.

"Kagome, it's okay. You're fine, see?" He held my hand. "Nothing happened."

I shook my head. "Inuyasha, I could have died there. What if you hadn't pulled me out of the way in time? What if the fire had gotten to me before I could stand up?" I was still freaked out.

Inuyasha sighed and squeezed my hand. "Kagome, it's okay." He repeated and then at a stop light, he kissed the back of my hand. "I love you."

That, and another light kiss, eased my panic.

Back at home, I showered and crawled into bed next to Inuyasha. He pulled me into his arms and buried his face in my hair, or what was left of it

"I'm so sorry, Kagome. I didn't think any of this would happen." He said softly, his voice broken and muffled.

"It's okay." I took his face in my hands. "None of this is your fault so don't you go blaming yourself." Inuyasha nodded and held me tighter.

"G'night." I said closing my eyes and snuggling into his warmth.

"G'night, Kagome." Before falling asleep I could've swore I heard Inuyasha whisper, "I could've lost her tonight."

Daichi: Well, this is my A/N and I have to say, two thumbs up! So, to congratulate Bella, I hope you guys review a lot! The next chapter will be written by me and we're gonna take this story up a notch!

That said, I'll leave you guys a preview. Just how I used to do it in STYD.

Preview: After the date disaster, Kagome would rather much stay at home than go to school, but when she finds out that the fire was arson, Kagome starts having a trip down memory lane and it doesn't help that she finds one of the people she most fears back in her life.