Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha. Nuff' said!

"No, No, and for the last time, NO!"

"Please InuYasha?"

"NO!"

"Don't they ever stop?" Shippou complained, covering his sensitive ears with his paws. It was another typical day in Feudal Japan. It was a beautiful day. The sun shone above in a near perfect blue sky over the endless acres of lush green forest that covered the earth.

"Kagome probably asked InuYasha if she could return to her time again." Sango explained. She yawned and stretched her arms in front of her. "And you know how InuYasha gets when he thinks that she is leaving him.

Shippou nodded. "Why do they have to act like that? I thought that they liked each other." Sango reached out and plucked the fox-kit from where he sat, in the corner of the shed on Kagome's now folded sleeping bag and set him in her lap.

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain. Sometimes, when people don't know or afraid to admit how they feel for each-other, they can get confused and try to convince themselves that they don't feel the way they do by lashing out at each other." Shippou looked at her confused, and she smiled and ruffled the tuft of downy brown hair on his head. "Don't worry. You understand someday."

"INUYASHA!" Kagome screamed at the top of her lungs. InuYasha stood still and winced as he prepared himself for the words that usually followed, but luckily for him they didn't come. "Please let me go home. I promise it will only be for one day. It'll be nice for everyone to take a break anyway, since we've all been working so hard."

InuYasha scowled at her and crossed his arms. "Why do you want to go home anyway Kagome? Do you need to take one of those dumb "exams" you seem to love so much." He spat.

"No InuYasha, it isn't an exam, but I swear to you it is just as important." Kagome pleaded. 'Why do you have to be so stubborn InuYasha?' She silently cursed at him.

"Oh, I see. So going to your wonderful "exams" and now to this other thing are important, but searching for the remaining Jewel Shards isn't. Is that how it is?" He spat at her. 'Damn you Kagome! He thought. Why do you have to be so damn difficult?' His heart told him not to let her leave, but his mind reminded him, 'You only want her to stay because it will be much easier to collect the Jewel Shards when she is here to sense them. As soon as we're finished with this task, she'll finally be out of your life for good.'

"You know that collecting the shards is just as important to me as it is to you, and you know that I wouldn't ask you this unless it was for a something really special."

"No!"

"But a big dance is really important to a girl in my time!"

InuYasha's face drew into a confused frown. "A Da-ants?"

Kagome stifled a giggle. She thought it was so cute when InuYasha tried to pronounce words that she used from her own time. "No a Dance." She said.

"What's a dance Kagome?" Shippou cried as he, to the dismay of Sango bounded out of the little shack and jumped on to Kagome's left shoulder.

"Hey! Were you listening this whole time, ya little runt?" InuYasha demanded. The kit suddenly lost his voice, intimidated by the dangerous look that had appeared in InuYasha's eyes as he glared at him from under his bangs.

"I huh…I" Shippou stammered crouching back on his legs a little. He covered his head with his arms in fear of one of InuYasha's powerful fists crashing into his skull.

"We didn't mean to overhear, but you two were shouting so loud, that I'm surprised Miroku didn't hear it while he was scouting the area." Sango replied hastily, as she too joined Shippou at Kagome's side. She laced her arm with her friend's in a silent expression of understanding and support.

"What didn't I hear?" Miroku asked coming up behind InuYasha. His were laden with branches to start the morning's fire with.

"You didn't hear anything Monk, you got that!" InuYasha snapped whirling on Miroku in an instant.

"InuYasha! Don't yell at him. This is between us!" Kagome demanded.

"Keh!" InuYasha huffed and stuck his nose in the air.

"Ah, so you are feuding." Miroku said with understanding. "Pray tell Lady Kagome, What is it about this time?"

"You'd better stay out of this." InuYasha warned the Monk. Kagome glared at InuYasha.

"It's okay Miroku." Kagome assured him. "InuYasha is mad at me because he can't stand the thought of me leaving his side for one measly day."

"That's not true!" He growled back at her.

"Oh really? Then I can go?" Kagome asked, hoping that her trump card would succeed in making him let her go home.

"NO!"

"I hate you InuYasha!" She suddenly screamed. She crossed her arms and turned her back on the half-demon, so that he couldn't see the unshed tears welling up in her eyes. InuYasha's breath caught in his throat, and his jaw went slack. 'Kagome has never been this angry with me before.' He realized, and secretly the look in her eyes petrified his heart. 'If she leaves this time, she may never come back!' He felt himself panic, but he quickly told himself not to worry. 'Kagome has threatened to not come back plenty of times before, and she's still here. What makes this time any different?' With this confirmed in his mind, and with silent peace in his soul, he took a big breath and screamed.

"Fine! Go ahead and hate me! See if I care!"

"What do you want to go home for?" Miroku softly coaxed, trying to extinguish the flames of Kagome's fury. He wanted to be subtle however because he knew better to anger either the Miko or the half-demon in the middle of one of their arguments.

"Well, it's called a dance. It's a lot of fun in my era. They don't come around a lot, so when they do, they're pretty special." She blushed. InuYasha didn't like the shy, giddy look that had come over her face, but pressed her to continue with a curious gleam in his eyes. "What happens is, a girl gets really dressed up, you know wearing something a lot nicer than you're everyday clothes." She said gesturing to her school uniform. "A girl gets to wear a pretty dress, and the boys all dress up in what we call suits. They go to a big dinner and dance to music together, play games, that sort of thing." She tried to explain. "And all the boys ask only one girl to go with just them, we call that person our date, and spend all of our time with them for the night."

"Do you have a "date" to this "dance thing"? Shippou asked curiously. He was naturally curious about the ways of the people of Kagome's era, and he wanted to know as much information as possible.

InuYasha's ears perked up at the mentioning of the words "date", and he studied her intently. 'Is Kagome really going to spend a night with another guy, paying attention to another guy? She can't!' His blood boiled at the very thought of it and jealously ran through his body. 'I can't let her go to the dance, unless…' An idea entered his mind.

"Well, no, not yet, but when I went home for supplies last week, I ran into a couple of guys from school who asked me. I haven't given any of them an answer yet, but I thought that today I could pop by and let them know my…"

"She has a "date"." InuYasha suddenly interrupted arrogantly. " Keh! She's going to go to that "dance", and I am going to go with her."

Kagome's heart skipped a beat, and her eyes widened in astonishment. 'He didn't just say what I think he did! He actually wants to go to the dance with me.' She felt like she was living in a dream, and resisted the urge to pinch her arm to make sure that it was all real. "InuYasha..." She said softly blushing at him. "Thank you." Sango, Shippou, and Miroku glanced at each other knowingly, and they chuckled to themselves.

InuYasha couldn't tear his amber eyes from her own. The angry look was gone from her eyes now and InuYasha's muscles relaxed as he stared into them. His heart beat with happiness. 'Damn it!' He cursed. 'Why is it that when I look into her eyes, it seems like we're the only two people in the world? Why do I feel so anxious to please her at all costs? It isn't like I'm madly in love with her or anything?' To prove his point, to both her and himself, he made a face at her, and then turned his back.

"Don't get any stupid thoughts wench. I'm not going with you to this "dance" thing because I want to be with you all night I'm only going so I can prove that finding the Sacred Jewel shards is much more important right now than your stupid human "dances" with you. When I do, I'll make sure that you wished you had never wanted to leave in the first place!" He fumed.

Kagome felt the heat of her anger coursing through her veins. 'How dare that arrogant jerk say that to me? He knew that I was happy he was coming with me, and he's acting like this just to spite me.'

"InuYasha, sit." She said coolly. After he crashed to the ground she strode up to him and looked him in the eyes. "Why are you even agreeing to go in the first place? If you're going to act like, like, a jerk the entire time, then well, I don't want to go with you! I bet I'd enjoy spending time with Hojou more. At least he's nice to me."

InuYasha's stomach churned. "Listen wench, like it or not if you want to go to this dance, then you're going to bring you with you. If you refuse, then I will make you stay here by force! He snarled, feeling more and more satisfied with every word he said. He pouted so slightly that at first, Kagome had thought she imagined it.

'I'm sorry InuYasha. The last thing I want to cause you is more pain. You've already been through so much.' She sighed heavily and forced a cheerful look on her face. "I need to go home to go shopping, because I AM going, and if you're intent on coming with me, you had better do the same. You're going to need clothes for the dance, and my mother is going to have to measure you, so we can get you a suit in your size."

He smirked up at her happy to have so easily gotten his way, and then struggled into a standing position. "What's wrong with the clothes I have on my back. Aren't they good enough for you?"

Kagome shook her head. 'Actually InuYasha, she thought, I couldn't imagine you looking any other way. 'She sighed. "It's not that, I really don't care what you wear. It's just that, this dance is a formal dance and you are going to need to wear a suit. It is kind of like ceremonial robes in my time, you know, dressing fancy." Then she giggled. "Besides, you'd stick out like a sore thumb."

InuYasha didn't know what the expression sore thumb meant, but he figured that it wasn't good. 'Damn girl!' He fumed. 'Now I wish that I had never said I'd go in the first place. This is a brilliant situation you've gotten yourself into.' He congratulated himself sarcastically. "Keh, fine, whatever. Let's just get this over with." He resigned himself, and allowed her to grab his sleeve and start to pull him in the direction of the familiar well.

When they assumed InuYasha had been gone enough time to be able to talk with out the fear of his wrath, Miroku, Sango and Shippou sat on the ground eagerly waiting discussing the latest fight.

"Wow, did you hear him? InuYasha actually wanted to take Kagome to her dance thing? I wonder why that is?" Sango said. Miroku chuckled under his breath.

"It's really simple. You know how he gets when Kagome is around Koga, right?" He paused and looked expectantly.

"Right, I see now." Sango smiled in realization. "InuYasha was jealous of whomever the boy was that went with her, especially when she said that she would remain at the boy's side the entire night."

"Exactly! InuYasha gets jealous whenever Koga talks to Kagome, or tries to take her hand, correct? Imagine that jealously that would stir in his heart if she had spent the whole night willingly by Koga's side. InuYasha is so protective of her, that he feels that it is his right to be by her side, and he will not have anyone else threaten his standing with her in any way.

"Why are we sitting around here for?" Shippou cried suddenly making both Sang and Miroku jump. "Since InuYasha and Kagome are gone now, and we don't know when they'll be back, we should take the day off!"

"You're right Shippou; with out them there isn't anything to do, so why not enjoy ourselves!" With that he had inched closer to Sango, and firmly planted his hand on her backside. "What do you say sweetheart?"

The sound of Sango's scream of fury could have woken the dead. "How DARE you! You perverted Monk!"

The palm of her hand quickly moved to his cheek, and the Monk slid to the ground, with a sheepish look on his face.