Hi, friends! Here's a more light-hearted story after that sorta emo one I posted the other day. Little two-shot for you. Quite a special one to me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters. All rights to Rumiko Takahashi.

Confessions of a Smitten Best Friend

Chapter 1: Kagome

One month. That's all it had taken for her to know she was into him. Like…super into him.

But she knew it wasn't in the cards, so she figured she should just ignore it and move on.

For a while, it worked.

Inuyasha had become Kagome's best friend, and she had become his as well. They hit it off during the first week of classes at Shikon University their freshman year, and since they had the same major and minor, they definitely saw a lot of each other.

It didn't take long for them to realize they had a lot in common and that they just overall got each other. One exchanged glance could portray an entire conversation, and there was a unique understanding between them that Kagome could never quite explain in words.

Two-and-a-half-years after they met, they sat in one of the study rooms in their university's student center. It was the third day of the second semester of their junior year, and they were talking about the unbelievable amount of homework they had.

"I can't believe we already have three papers due next week," Inuyasha complained as he drifted out of his chair and onto the floor.

It was a thing. Sometimes laying on the floor was the only thing you could do.

Kagome half-giggled, half-groaned. "I just wish we could have a one-week grace period so we can at least adjust a little to being back in classes." Coming to join him on the floor, she laid back and sighed.

"Three more semesters, pal," she muttered. "Just three more." Inuyasha sighed.

"It feels like ten, buddy." He scoffed. "Someone just needs to tell all of our professors to take all those sticks out of their butts and cut us some slack." Kagome sat up a bit to lean back on her elbows.

"It's college, Inuyasha," she reminded. "It's supposed to be hard." Inuyasha met her gaze and finally grinned.

"Right," he replied. "I always seem to forget." Kagome laughed and lay back down.

"Where's Sango tonight?" Inuyasha asked. Sango was their other close friend on campus. She usually hung out with them, but she was with her boyfriend, whom was also Inuyasha's roommate and close friend, that night.

"With Miroku," Kagome answered. "They're celebrating their one month." Inuyasha shook his head.

"One month?" he repeated. "Seems like it's been a lot longer."

Kagome shrugged. "That's because they've been in love with each other since they met. It took a while for them to admit it…well, it took Sango a while."

Inuyasha laughed. "Oh, right," he replied. "Minor details." Kagome grinned before sitting up.

"We have a lot of homework," she said. "We need to at least do some of it." Inuyasha tugged on her arm.

"Or we could just lay here and pretend that college isn't a thing," he suggested. Kagome chuckled as she playfully shrugged off his hand before standing up.

"We do that every night," she reminded. "It never works." Inuyasha heaved another heavy sigh before getting up and joining Kagome at the table.

Sitting down in the chair across from her, he pulled out his laptop and clicked on the assignment with the closest due date.

Luckily, it was one of the many classes they had together, so they could bounce ideas off each other like they usually did.

Kagome glanced up at him from across the table. He had his focused look on his face, with a slight frown and determined eyes set on the laptop screen in front of him. His lips moved a bit, so Kagome knew he was re-reading the assignment to himself.

She looked away before he could notice her studying him.

Kagome's feelings for Inuyasha were a can of worms that they didn't like to open.

Right around the time they met, she had a thing for him, and she'd told him how she felt. He didn't reciprocate, so there had been some awkward tension for a while. That was two years ago, so they'd moved past it, even going as far as to joke about Kagome's "text confession" from so long ago.

Things were normal. Inuyasha knew that her feelings for him were gone now, so everything was platonic between them. They were best friends and it was perfect.

Well, perfect enough. She was content with how they were.

The problem was that she'd never truly, completely been able to get over her feelings for him. It had been off and on. She'd dated a couple guys, but they didn't last long. Something never felt right with them, and it wasn't until about a month ago that Kagome realized it was because they just weren't Inuyasha.

Yeah. It's pretty bad.

So she was harboring that secret: her feelings for Inuyasha had returned full-force, to the point that she wasn't sure if she'd ever been over it at all in the first place.

But it was fine. She was grateful for the friendship, and she didn't want anything to change.

"So did I tell you I have a date on Friday?"

Her heart dropped as Inuyasha broke the silence.

Kagome glanced up at him. "Nope. Who is she?" Inuyasha didn't look up from his screen.

"A girl named Kikyo. She's from one of the classes you and I don't have together, so you wouldn't know her."

Kagome nodded. "Cool." She did her best to not have an awkward twinge in her voice, but apparently she didn't succeed.

Inuyasha finally looked up at her with concern on his face.

"Kagome? What is it?" Kagome shook her head.

"Nothing," she lied smoothly. "I just thought that we had plans Friday night but now I remember it's Saturday night." Not that they didn't see each other every day anyway.

Nonetheless, Inuyasha looked a little relieved.

"Okay," he replied, seeming to be content again. "Of course we have plans Saturday. I'm ready for our usual ramen place." Kagome laughed and decided to pretend that Inuyasha had never told her about his date. It was fine. Everything was fine.

Actually, no. I'm stupidly, moronically, ridiculously in love with you.

Kagome held back the idiotic confession. It had failed before; she wasn't about to say it again.

Sometimes she was tempted, though. They'd talked about it two years ago. They'd gotten closer since then, and there were definitely moments that she thought maybe he felt something for her.

But they were just moments and then time would catch up with her and things would go back to platonic. Kagome was never sure, so she just resolved to not bring it up.

With a final quick glance at Inuyasha, Kagome turned her attention to her laptop and began working on the assignment.

O.o.O.o.O

The following Friday, Kagome was sitting in her last class of the day. It was the only class she didn't have with Inuyasha, so she was usually bored. It was an elective that had nothing to do with her major, so she never really paid much attention…especially not that day.

Inuyasha had his date that night.

He'd told her a little about the girl over the course of the week. She was a Political Science major. According to Inuyasha, they had a class together the previous semester and had talked a few times and he'd been interested, but nothing had happened. When Inuyasha walked into one of his classes to see the girl on the first day of the current semester, with an empty seat next to her at that, he took it as a sign of fate.

Kagome tried to be happy for him.

"That's great," she'd said when he'd filled her in on the phone the previous night.

"Kagome, what's going on?" Inuyasha asked. "Is everything alright?" Kagome scolded herself. Get a grip!

"Yeah, I'm fine." She faked a chuckle at the end of her reply.

Inuyasha sighed.

"I think you've forgotten that you're my best friend," he reminded. "I know you, Kagome. Something's off." Kagome cringed.

"It's just been a long week," she insisted. "Nothing to be too concerned about." Inuyasha was quiet, and she could tell he was thinking about how to respond.

"Okay," he said hesitantly, finally letting it go. "What should I wear?" Kagome couldn't help but smile.

"The socks," she replied firmly. Inuyasha laughed.

"She's not even going to see my socks!" His laugh echoed through the phone at the mention of a pair of brown woolen socks he had. Kagome loved them for some odd reason, so much so that Inuyasha had gotten her a matching pair for her most recent birthday. She never wore them; she just admired them.

"You never know," Kagome teased. "That could be what makes the date wonderful." Inuyasha laughed again.

"I don't think that's what'll make it wonderful," he replied. "This girl seems pretty great." Kagome cringed.

"That's good," she said, hiding the hurt tone in her voice. "You deserve the best."

And she was happy for him. She was just sad for herself.

Kagome's thoughts drifted back to the lecture to which she was pretending to pay attention. She was failing miserably.

What if he falls in love with this girl and they get married?

The thought jumped into her head unexpectedly, and she nearly jolted in shock. It was far-fetched, but still plausible. What if she never got the chance to find out if things had changed? What if he'd been into her but thought that her feelings were gone?

I have to tell him how I feel.

Discreetly pulling out her phone, Kagome texted Inuyasha to see if he could meet her after class.

He didn't respond until Kagome's class had ended and she was halfway to her car. After a quick affirmation and a short agreement on the place, Kagome headed over to Inuyasha's apartment. It was a ten-minute drive, but it felt like it lasted for ten years.

Her hands were shaking when she pulled into the parking lot.

Her heart was racing as she walked up the steps to the front door.

Her breathing stopped when she knocked.

And then, when Inuyasha opened the door and smiled that familiar smile at her, she relaxed. No matter what happened, she knew she would always have his friendship.

Now just calmly ask if you can come inside and carefully tell him how you feel.

"I'm in love with you."

It came out of her mouth before she could stop it, and Inuyasha's wide-eyed, open-mouthed gape at her blurted confession immediately had her questioning if she'd made a mistake.

But there she was. In front of her best friend having just made the biggest admission of her life.

I'm probably screwed now…

To be continued…