Blanket Disclaimer:

Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.

Original post date on MediaMiner: 10/26/10

A/N:

Greetings and Happy Halloween! This particular short story is a collaboration piece between myself and He_Who_Shall_Live. We were just chitchatting in an IM one day and the subject got around to Halloween, then BOOM…the idea for this story was born. Bouncing the concept back and forth, I thought of some things, he thought of some others, and so despite his insistence that this is my story, I told him I would label it a collaborative piece, and so I am! So there! *Blows raspberries in He_Who_Shall_Live's direction*

Unlike 'Trick or Treat?', this three-shot was not designed to take place during any specific chapter of the manga. However, I am envisioning that Kagome and Inuyasha are aware of their feelings for each other by this point, even if they are not yet ready to admit to those feelings out loud. It takes place sometime after Kagome temporarily saved Kikyou from Naraku's miasma by healing her wounds underwater, but before Kikyou's final death. There are no more new jewel shards to be found and their mission consists solely of hunting Naraku. For the purposes of this story, Naraku is currently 'in hiding' again and things have been relatively slow going. It's the perfect time for Kagome to inform Inuyasha that she needs to go home again for a few days, especially since her school is running a 'festival' in her time that she needs to help them with over the weekend.

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Chapter 1 – Extra Credit

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"Feh, how long is this crap supposed to take?"

"Just for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday." Kagome explained as she bartered with her companion for the time off. She had explained the calendar system of her time to Inuyasha long ago, when she'd first thrown out the foreign names for the days without thinking about it and he had been confused.

"I just need to go back one day early so that I can have time to prepare, so if I go home tomorrow morning, on Thursday, then that means I can come back on the fourth morning after tomorrow." she added.

"Feh…but the new moon is in three nights from tonight, on your 'Seh-tor-dei'." he argued, with a bit of difficulty pronouncing the day.

Kagome honestly felt a little bad about that. She had promised long ago that she would always be there for him during his human night, but it wasn't like it was just the two of them any longer. Miroku and Sango were more than enough protection should something dangerous show up while he didn't have use of his powers, and besides…Kaede's village was safe. There was truly nothing for him to worry about. Still, that he was even bothering to remind her of the new moon, as if she could have possibly forgotten, just went to show how affected he really was by her request to leave for her own world at that time.

"I know that, and I'm really sorry, but Halloween is this Sunday and my school is going to be doing their festival on the days that they've scheduled it. There's no way I could get them to change the dates for something like that. A holiday waits for no man."

"Feh…so then just don't go."

Smiling understandingly, Kagome reached out her hand and gently grasped his own. Surprised, Inuyasha darted his eyes around them for a second to make sure nobody was looking, a faint blush dusting his cheeks.

"I have to go…" she tried to get him to understand. "Even though it is technically a volunteer thing for extra credit, my grades are so far behind that I desperately need this opportunity."

He didn't say anything, merely releasing her hand and turning away slightly, his ears lowered. She knew that pose. He was going to let her go, but he was not happy about it.

"My schooling is not more important to me than you are." Kagome attempted to reassure him in that moment.

Sure as hell feels like it… he thought, his opinion on the matter showing plain as day as he turned back to meet Kagome's eyes with his own.

"Fine, wench, you can have your four days. Whatever." he grumbled before turning to walk away.

Biting her lower lip, Kagome watched silently as Inuyasha headed towards Kaede's hut, probably to pester the old miko over whether or not lunch was ready yet.

"Inuyasha…" she spoke up before he got too far away.

Turning to glance back over his shoulder in Kagome's direction, as the future-born-miko remained standing by the small fence that marked the shrine property, he didn't say anything, but waited patiently for her to say whatever it was she was going to, his expression neutral.

"Why don't you come with me?" she asked him then, adding, "You could stay in my time over the whole weekend, if you wanted to. You certainly wouldn't have to worry about the new moon in my time, since there aren't any youkai there. You know Mama would let you stay at the house. She's already told you before that you're welcome during the new moon, but you know you're really welcome at any time, don't you? You could stay for Halloween, as well. And I bet you would have fun if you wanted to come with my family to the-"

"Keh, no thanks." the hanyou interrupted.

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the offer, but he honestly had no interest in whatever the hell it was that her school was doing. She had attempted to explain it to him, briefly, that they had built some kind of a…something, some shrine thing or another to honor the dead that she would be working at during this festivity. Honestly, he hadn't been paying that much attention. All he knew was that this stupid holiday of her world was taking her away from him…er…from their quest. It was taking her away from their quest for four days. He didn't want to have anything to do with it. He didn't want to tag along and 'have fun' when they had to hunt down that bastard Naraku. If she needed to be a worker for her school because of her grades, then so be it. He understood the concept of being ranked by a sensei during training, and how Kagome was ranked very low because of all of her absences. So if she could put herself in a better standing with her superiors in her time by participating in this thing, then fine, whatever. But he wasn't about to partake in whatever the hell festivities she was going to be working at. Mainly, he had no interest in her time's holidays, but secretly, he also didn't like the idea of being a patron whom Kagome would then have to serve in some capacity or another. He really didn't like the idea of her having to cater to anyone in such a manner, but he could accept that it was a matter of honor to assist with the festival her school was producing.

"You just go do whatever you gotta do." he told her then, adding, "But you had better be back first thing…" He thought about her calendar for a moment… "…Mah-n-dei morning."

She smiled and nodded. "Promise."

...o...o...

Thursday went by in a blur of activity. Kagome made sure to leave the Sengoku jidai early enough to attend school, so she got in a full day's worth of lessons under her belt, and then came the fun part. Checking out the final preparations on the haunted maze that her school had put together in the secondary parking lot, she met with everyone who was in charge of the extracurricular activity. There were a lot of people eager to volunteer for haunted house duty, so Kagome was actually fortunate that she hadn't gotten stuck with something boring like ticket taker. Truth be told, she had first spoken with her teacher about working the haunted house shortly after summer break had ended, having known the school would be doing one as it was something they did every year. She'd signed up for it early, crossing her fingers that whatever current situation they were dealing with in the past would allow her the weekend off. If she truly hadn't been able to go, if there had been recent rumors of Naraku, then she wouldn't have jeopardized their mission for something like a haunted maze. Having fun and repairing her grades in the process was most definitely a win/win situation, but not if innocent lives were at stake. With her track record, everyone would have believed that she had honestly been too sick to do it, if she couldn't have made it. Who would just blow off their chance to work as a monster in a haunted house?

Oh yes, Kagome had lucked out, big time. The theme of the school's haunted house this year was classic movie monsters, so there were going to be things like serial killers, vampires, demons, ghosts, and her personal favorite, zombies. Because it was all volunteer work to help raise money for the school, everyone was responsible for providing their own makeup and costumes, but Kagome didn't need to spend a lot of money for what she had in mind. Checking her supplies list one last time to make sure she had purchased everything she would need, Kagome grinned triumphantly as she headed downstairs for dinner. Tomorrow would be another full day of school, and then she would only have a few hours to prepare before sundown.

...o...o...

Showtime… the miko thought with a wicked smirk, standing in front of one of the mirrors in the girl's locker room, which currently functioned as dressing room for every female volunteer worker.

"What do you think, Kagome?" Eri asked, showing her friend the wicked cool, albeit inexpensive, geisha-esque wig she had purchased for herself at a Halloween store.

"Looks good." the miko told her friend honestly.

Eri was going as a ghost, and would be dressing up in a traditional kimono, but one that was made from an eerie pattern in faded gray. She was going to powder the wig to make it look faded as well and also paint all of her visible skin white except for red tears of blood streaming down her face, and she would moan quietly in a corner not directly interacting with anyone. She could pull off 'creepy' better than anyone Kagome knew, and she thought the roll was perfect for her friend.

The future-born miko, on the other hand, was a little more 'hands on' in her scare tactics. She would literally be making a grab for all of the passing guests with her personal goal being to make them scream as loud as possible.

Hollywood eat your heart out…she snickered to herself as she prepared. Sure, the American moviemakers definitely had a talent for realistic makeup, but after all the real blood and gore she'd been exposed to since her fifteen birthday, she was pretty sure she had a qualifying resume to know how to replicate the appearance of something gross.

First things first…the clothing. She kept her outfit simple. Most people wore what they considered 'Western' style clothing on most days, and she wasn't going for a relic of ages past like her friend, so a plain ol' blouse and skirt worked just fine for her. A truly plain, truly old blouse and skirt, as her ensemble had to take the fall as collateral damage in order for her to truly pull off her masterpiece. She'd stomped on her clothing in the dirt, tugged and pulled, and even took a pair of scissors to the hems so that she could fray all the edges. She looked less like she had been gardening, and more like she had been buried alive and had had to claw her way to the surface. Exactly the look she'd been going for, except for the whole buried 'alive' part, that is.

Next came the makeup.

Kagome wasn't a fan of 'Halloween Store' makeup. It was too oily, too shiny, and not truly appropriate for any kind of face painting other than 'clown' in her opinion. No, she would be using real makeup for her purposes. But there were two steps she had to take first before she was even ready to apply any makeup. First, while making sure her hair was clipped back and out of the way, she oiled her face and neck; just a light greasing with a heavy moisturizing lotion. She had learned the hard way that you did not want to apply liquid latex to dry skin. Not unless you wanted the sensation of perpetual band-aid pulling when it came time to take it off. And speaking of liquid latex, that was phase two. The idea had originally come to her from an old childhood memory of putting white glue on her skin at school, letting it dry and then pealing it off. It was something a lot of kids liked to do during downtime. It looked cool, like you were pulling off your outermost layer of skin. Following the same exact principle now with the latex, Kagome had a small bottle of the solution that had an easy brush applicator, almost like a bottle of nail polish. She quickly painted random spots and splotches all over her face and neck, going in a specific sequence so that by the time she finished with the last one the first one was dry enough to receive a second, and then third coating, making sure the latex was nice and thick.

Allowing it to dry fully, she then went over her entire face and neck, latex included, with a normal, flesh-tone concealer. The latex had a natural yellowish hue which definitely needed to be covered up. Once that was done, and she looked fairly normal save for a bunch of random bumps on her skin, she then went over her whole face and neck again with white makeup, but not the greasepaint kind. Instead, she used eyeshadow…just a cheap brand from a drug store. It worked just as well as the more expensive stuff for her purpose, so there was really no point in wasting the money. Because it was a powder, it left her skin looking more like porcelain, with no hint of an oily shine. She applied the second layer of makeup with her fingertip; fingers made the best makeup applicators because unlike sponge pads, they were incapable of soaking up most of the makeup into themselves, allowing for a heavier, more even coating. Invoking her really early childhood memories of finger painting, Kagome quickly coated her whole face and neck with the fine white powder, making her skin look deathly pale. She also included her eyebrows, fading out their dark raven color. Once that was done, she took dark blue, purple and black eyeshadows and accentuated the parts of her face that at most times most women always tried their hardest to conceal. The natural bags under her eyes, made even more visible in recent months thanks to her journeys in the past, she darkened with purple and blue, bringing the same shade down along the sides of her nose, and into and around her mouth and along the outer edges of her chin. Using the black, applied light enough so that it looked more like dark gray, she discretely darkened the bottom portion of her cheeks, well below the cheekbones that would normally want to be drawn out with blush. The end result was an optical illusion of her face being sunken in. Following the same pattern on her neck, she highlighted her windpipe by shadowing either side, making the flesh of her neck look looser than it really was by creating the false image of wrinkles. Some shadowing to her forehead, eyelids and eye sockets completed the look.

Once she was done with all of the 'death makeup', which she honestly thought looked pretty good in and of itself, it then came time for the pièce de résistance. Carefully tugging at the center of each spot of latex with her fingernails, she pulled on each one until the rubbery coating started to rip and pull away, only, instead of pulling it all of the way off, she let the torn pieces hang. The yellowish tint to the latex looked cool showing from the underside, giving the pulled back hanging pieces of plastic the appearance of sickly, dead skin. Her real skin, exposed fully and without any 'death' makeup where the latex had been removed, she colored in with dark redish brown eyeshadows, so that instead of only a thin layer of epidermis, it looked like all of her skin had been pulled back, exposing bare muscle tissue. The end result made her look like a disgusting, decomposing corpse with melting skin.

Not quite done with the finishing touches, as she had allowed her lips to dry out while applying all of her facial makeup by deliberately breathing through her mouth and not licking her lips, she then went over the dry skin with white and blue eyeshadow, making her lips look pale and cracked. She would have to remember not to lick her lips at all during the night, but it was nothing a good coating of Chap Stick couldn't repair once everything was said and done. Beauty was pain, after all. Snickering to herself, Kagome then proceeded to get out the one piece of 'Halloween Store' makeup she had actually purchased. Black lipstick. It was thick and greasy and smelled like a crayon, but it would work perfectly for her purposes. She actually needed the heavier formula because regular lipstick was too thin and would wipe away too easily when exposed to saliva. Using the tube of black gunk she held in her hand, she carefully blackened out three of her teeth. That stuff wasn't going anywhere. Stepping back and grinning into the mirror, the miko congratulated herself on her genius. From a distance, and especially in the low lighting she would be working in, you would not be able to tell that she had merely covered her teeth with something. It really looked like those teeth were missing.

Ratting out her hair was the final step, which she accomplished easily enough by brushing it backwards and using a good deal of hairspray. Borrowing some of the unscented baby powder Eri had used in her wig, Kagome grayed out her own hair, just enough to make it look like its natural black pigmentation was fading with lifelessness. She was ready to rock and roll.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Yuka squealed from her place beside Kagome, finishing up the last minute touches on her own costume.

She was going as an oni and was wearing red contact lenses with acrylic fangs in her mouth, latex pointed ear tips attached to her own ears, press-on claws over her nails and a bright red wig styled in a high ponytail. A simple black dress accentuated her look perfectly. Everyone knew that female youkai liked to dress provocatively, or at least, according to legend. But when it came to legends, the ones about youkai were true; Kagome had learned that lesson the hard way. Yura of the Hair came to mind in that moment, though Kagome knew better than to have such a giant slip of the tongue as to start discussing any actual personal experiences she had with female oni. Still, from what she knew, Yuka would do just fine. Her dress was sexy but still acceptable for a girl her age, so she wouldn't get in any trouble with the school. She looked like a nice girl you might want to ask to dance at a club, until you realized she was a monster who planned on having you for dinner. Her character would be roaming the crowds outside while they waited in line to buy tickets or snacks, as if she were truly a monster who had come out of hiding to hunt the innocents under the cover of night.

Ayumi, on the other hand, had taken the role of 'victim' and would be lying lifeless on a table within the haunted maze, in a normal school uniform, but covered with blood and with a large knife sticking out of her chest. One of the boys would be standing over her, blood splatter on his own clothing as he guarded his precious treasure, threatening the lives of anyone who came too close.

Getting into position, Kagome was ecstatic about the role she had acquired for herself. The teachers had wanted to know who could pull off the 'zombie' look the best, and Kagome had won, hands down. Her job was to hide in the shadows, right after a tunnel of darkness. People walking through the maze would suddenly find themselves submerged into total blackness moments before reaching her position. The tunnel of darkness was even rigged with a few booby traps to make the experience extra spooky, and then they would come out of the curtained off hallway with a bright flash of light in their faces, so that they still wouldn't be able to see anything for a second or two. Stumbling through the shallow corridor that led to a larger room made up like a graveyard, thread was hanging from the ceiling to give everyone the chills as they jumped at the eerie sensation of having walked into a spider web. Frantically trying to adjust to the light while also squirming and jumping with their instinctive reactions to free themselves from the creepy spider web sensation crawling on their skin, they would be at their most vulnerable when Kagome made her move. The corridor she hid in resembled a crypt, leading to the graveyard that guests could see at the end of the hall. They could not see the hidden pocket in the side of the wall where Kagome rested in waiting. It looked as if it were a straight hallway that then curved off towards the left; she would jump out from her hiding place on the right, growling and – seemingly – attempting to bite the innocent passersby, which everyone knew would turn them into zombies themselves. She would be hard pressed not to smile and ruin the effect as she reached out for her victims. This was going to be so much fun!

...o...o...

Back at the Higurashi shrine, Kagome's family was just getting ready to head out for the evening, wanting to go down to the school and see their girl at work. Souta was especially looking forward to it. He had earned himself a light bruise on his arm when Kagome had socked him one after he'd commented that all she had to do to scare people was look like how she normally looked first thing in the morning. Seriously, though, the boy was super jealous of his big sister and could hardly wait until he was in junior high so that he could participate in the annual tradition himself.

Exiting the main house, the family was caught off guard when Inuyasha suddenly showed up out of nowhere, heading in their direction from the well-house. Kagome had told them all that he'd expressed absolutely no interest in joining in on the holiday.

"Why, Inuyasha, what brings you here?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, pleasantly surprised by his appearance.

The hanyou tried his best to shrug nonchalantly, worried that he had caught them at a bad time since it was clear they were getting ready to go somewhere. The truth was that he simply missed being in Kagome's presence, and would much rather spend his idle time in her time where he could at least hang out in her room and privately enjoy the sensation of being enveloped in her enticing scent. Back in his time, Miroku and Sango tended to keep to themselves whenever they rested at Kaede's village while Kagome was away, talking quietly of their plans for a Naraku-free future. Shippou could get very annoying very quickly, so if he had to deal with a little runt, he much preferred Kagome's younger brother who openly idolized him like he was some kind of a hero rather than taking every moment of every day to remind him of how much of a baka he could sometimes be.

"Keh, things're boring in my time, so I figured I'd take Kagome up on her offer to hang out here while she does her thing at school." he explained, adding, "Besides, tomorrow's the new moon."

Kagome's family had been made aware of his monthly transformation two months ago. She hadn't betrayed his secret; rather, in an incredible show of trust that had touched Kagome deeply, Inuyasha had voluntarily allowed her family to become aware of his time of weakness. A couple of months back, when they had been in Kaede's village to wait out his transformation, he had surprised the miko by not only telling her that she could return home through the well if she wanted to, but also that he wouldn't mind going with her, openly admitting to having liked her mother's cooking every other time he had been invited to stay for dinner. Well, except for that one time, but his tongue wouldn't be as sensitive to heavy spices while in his human form. Laughing at her memory of when he'd burst into her room whimpering over his tongue being on fire, Kagome had been surprised but also overjoyed at his desire to go back with her, and the subject of his transformation had been breeched with her family only a few minutes before sunset as they'd all sat around the kitchen table. Announcing that Inuyasha had a secret he was prepared to share with all of them, they had been told merely to watch, and in no time he'd felt the stares of everyone upon him as they'd all gaped openly at his transformation in utter amazement. The situation had then been explained more fully, and Mrs. Higurashi had told him at that time that he would always be welcome in their home during the new moon.

Of course, whether or not he would always take her up on that offer depended greatly on where they were at the time and what they were doing, but since Kagome had needed to return to her own time anyway this time around because of this stupid holiday, there was truly no point in spending his human night in the past when he didn't have to.

"Of course, dear. You are welcome to stay here." Kagome's mother told him then, assuring him of what he'd already known.

"Where's Kagome?" he asked her then, glancing around to notice her absence in the group. "She's not back from that festival thing yet?"

"It's just barely getting started!" Souta piped up, adding with eagerness, "We're on our way to go see her right now!"

"The thing her school's doing takes place at night?" Inuyasha asked, surprised. Now he felt bad for not having paid closer attention when Kagome had been explaining everything to him. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of her being kept out all night. Who knew how rowdy the celebratory crowds could get? But at least it looked like she wouldn't be alone, since her family was headed down there to keep an eye on her.

"Why don't you come with us?" Mrs. Higurashi asked him then. "I'm sure you'd have a good time."

"Keh, no thanks." he shrugged off.

He'd never been one for crowds and celebrations. Besides, he did remember vaguely that Kagome had said something about this holiday having to do with honoring the dead, something about ghosts and youkai. Every festival he knew of that included anything about oni was a festival to drive the demons out. He doubted it would go over too well if her family suddenly strolled in with a hanyou in their midst. He didn't feel like getting pelted with beans.

Looking mildly disappointed, Mrs. Higurashi didn't bother trying to argue. She supposed she couldn't really blame the boy for not having any interest in fun and games, considering the type of life she knew he'd had. But still, it was for that reason that she wished all the more that he would go with them, certain that he truly would find himself having a good time if he just allowed himself to loosen up a little. She was surprised that he wasn't even the least bit interested in a holiday in which he would be able to roam freely as he was without anyone thinking him a true monster and either fearing or trying to attack him, but Kagome had told them yesterday during dinner that she had explained the holiday to him and that he simply wasn't interested. She had said she believed it was because he was simply in too serious of a mindset right now to allow himself to do anything that was even remotely entertaining. He had told Kagome plainly long ago that he believed he didn't deserve to feel happy or carefree, and the future-born miko was doubtful that his opinions of himself had changed very much in the last few months. Hopefully, after Naraku was defeated and that giant responsibility of seeking revenge and justice was no longer hanging over their heads, then he would finally be at a place where he could allow himself to slow down and enjoy life. But Kagome hadn't wanted to force the issue when he'd turned down her initial invitation to her school's Halloween festival, and her mother honored her wishes in that moment by also letting the subject drop without a fuss.

"All right, dear." she answered then, assuring him, "You are welcome to stay here while we're gone, if you wish."

Jii-chan muttered something under his breath about letting 'the youkai' roam the shrine grounds freely in their absence, but Mrs. Higurashi didn't bother pointing out to her father-in-law how even if she had told Inuyasha to leave, nothing would prevent him from returning again and remaining on their property while they were gone if he so desired, anyway. Fortunately, the hanyou seemed to ignore the old man's ramblings, for the most part, his ears lowering a bit to his head as his eyes silently sought Kagome's mother's for final confirmation.

Nodding her head in the affirmative, she gave the boy a brief, apologetic look as she added, "Please make yourself at home. We will be back before too long, although I'm afraid Kagome will not be home for several hours yet."

Inuyasha's ears lowered even further at that, although he was unaware that Mrs. Higurashi could read his dejected expression so easily.

He truly misses her, even after only two days of separation…

Saying their final farewells, Kagome's family headed down to the taxi that was waiting for them at the bottom of the shrine steps. Finding himself standing in the middle of the shrine grounds like a fool, Inuyasha wasn't sure what to do with himself for a moment, but quickly decided that he would see if Kagome's window was unlocked. At least he would still get to spend the time engulfed in her scent, since the girl's bedroom was literally perfumed with her natural essence. Leaping up onto the edge of the roof right outside Kagome's second-story window, Inuyasha discovered right away that it was unlocked, and smiling to himself, he stepped inside, shutting the window behind him. It wouldn't do to let her room air out, after all.

Deciding to take a quick nap on her bed, Inuyasha allowed his mind to wander. He thought about everything he and Kagome had been through together since the beginning of their journey. When Kaede had first coerced him into working along side the future-born miko to restore the shattered Shikon no Tama, he would have laughed in the face of anyone who dared tell him that there would one day come a time when he actually, honestly cared for the girl. Now, he couldn't imagine his life without her. While he wasn't ready to admit this to anyone out loud yet, least of all Kagome, she was hands down the most important person to him in his life. True, that wasn't necessarily saying much when you looked at how few people he'd ever actually interacted with, but she was more important to him than Kikyou, and he knew that that was saying a lot.

It had hurt him tremendously when Kagome had shouted out that she hated him after the whole fiasco with Kikyou nearly dying from Naraku's miasma, but even though he believed Kagome when she later claimed to have no recollection of saying those words, the miko had still, finally, privately apologized. She had told him she still didn't remember saying it, but that she also knew very well how one could shout out something they didn't mean in the heat of the moment. She had assured him that she did not hate him, and considering the numerous number of times that he had said something hurtful to her over the course of their journey together, he had easily forgiven her upon seeing the genuine remorse in her eyes.

It would've simply been too hypocritical of him to hold a grudge over Kagome shouting out something she didn't really mean in a moment of anger when he'd strategically lied to her on several occasions, his thinking clear.

It was a lie every time he denied thinking her pretty. It was a deception every time he feigned annoyance when her feet hurt and he had to carry her. It was an act every time he insulted her cooking…

Even when she honestly had spiced the food beyond his preference, it still touched him deep inside that she even cared enough to bother cooking for him. He wasn't sure she comprehended the significance of a miko willingly providing sustenance for a hanyou – a woman cooking for a man, no less – but even if it caused his tongue excruciating agony he would gladly eat it if it had come from her. He would never forget how he had almost lost her to Naraku's trickery while he'd been hung up over false rumors of Kikyou's survival, and while he was glad that it had turned out that Kikyou had survived, and he was eternally grateful to Kagome for purifying the miasma out of her body, had he truly lost Kagome only to then later discover Kikyou's whereabouts, it would have been a shallow, undeserved and undesired consolation prize. Kagome was his everything, and he knew she felt the same way.

Yes, while she might have shouted out that she hated him in frustration over the whole Kikyou thing, he would never, could never forget the sound of her voice shouting out that she loved him moments before he'd broken into the building where Kagura and Akago had held her captive. He wasn't sure if she knew he had heard her or not, and so far he'd been too cowardly to risk bringing it up, but he hoped that, one day, Kagome would have the courage to say those words to his face. Hopefully, at that time, he would have the courage to tell her he felt the same way.

Drifting in and out of a light slumber while his mind continued to run along similar thoughts, the hanyou completely lost track of time, and it was with a start that he bolted wide awake on her bed at the sound of the front door opening downstairs.

Damn, how long has it been? Inuyasha questioned himself, deciding he'd better make an appearance downstairs to at least inform her family that he was in fact still there.

I wonder how much longer Kagome is going to be gone…he pondered then, her mother having only said that she would be gone for several hours.

Had Kagome even told him that this festival thing took place at night? He couldn't remember…and he didn't want to get in trouble with the miko for scolding her on something she hadn't told him only for it to turn out that she had, therefore revealing the fact that he hadn't even been listening. So he would let it go, although now he really wished that the new moon wasn't tomorrow, because if it weren't, then he could sneak down there to keep an eye on her. While he had no interest in actually attending the festival with her family and having to pretend he was having a good time while trying his best not to cause a scene while surrounded by a large crowd of smelly, noisy humans, with his hanyou powers intact he could stay hidden in the shadows and watch the goings on from afar.

No point in cursing the lunar cycle…he thought forlornly. Just like this holiday of hers, the new moon waits for nothing.

Heading downstairs, Inuyasha was greeted warmly by Kagome's mother who immediately apologized for them having been gone for so long. He brushed off her concerns, too embarrassed to admit that he had actually been taking a nap. He was a big, strong hanyou, after all. He didn't need to take 'naps'. Asking him next if he had gotten himself something to eat, Inuyasha's stomach answered for him before he even had a chance to decide whether or not to be honest, and Mrs. Higurashi smiled knowingly at his sheepish expression. Assuming the boy merely hadn't wanted to raid their kitchen without permission, which had been very kind of him, she offered to fix him a cup of ramen in that moment, to which he eagerly agreed.

Trying to decipher what might be going on down at Kagome's school based on the lingering scents he could detect on her family, he immediately noted all of the various snack foods that Souta had apparently consumed, as the boy rambled a mile a minute about a bunch of things that made absolutely no sense to him. He assumed the boy was talking about the shrine thing that Kagome's school had built, which was apparently some sort of walk-through building with different rooms to visit, but Souta kept on using movie references that went completely over the hanyou's head. Inuyasha barely comprehended what a movie was…he was familiar with the concept of theatre, though he had absolutely no idea how Kagome's time could capture the images of actors and shrink them down onto the moving picture boxes…so all of the foreign words the excitable boy was using to describe what the various rooms of the shrine looked like went completely over his head.

Souta was just about to describe what Kagome herself was doing when the phone rang, pulling him from his thoughts as he jumped up to silence the device. Inuyasha was startled by the ringing and nearly dropped his ramen.

"Hello?" Souta answered, still hyper. "I know, right?" he shouted then, the caller apparently one of his school friends who was equally as excited.

Now Inuyasha was sure he definitely didn't want to have anything to do with the festival. Not if he would have to deal with a horde of excited boys around Souta's age. If it was something for children, then he couldn't care less. Still, even as he tried to convince himself of that fact, he couldn't help cocking an ear in Souta's direction as he attempted to listen in on his phone call.

Attempted, because in that moment Mrs. Higurashi put a stop to Souta's plans for endless chatter.

"All right, young man. I think you've had far too much sugar for one day. It's too late at night for phone calls. You can visit with your friends tomorrow if you want to, but as for right now it's time to go to bed."

"Awww…" Kagome's brother whined, though he didn't argue when he told the plastic contraption in his hand, "I gotta go, but I'll come over tomorrow, 'kay?"

Receiving an affirmative acknowledgment from his friend, Souta hung up and headed upstairs.

Jii-chan also excused himself in that moment, grumbling to himself about 'kids these days' as he headed off to bed.

"Sorry about that, Inuyasha." Mrs. Higurashi apologized after they were gone, a touch of humor in her voice at having caught the way the hanyou had originally been startled by the ringing phone.

"Keh." he grumbled good-naturedly, as she took his empty ramen cup from his hands.

"Would you like another cup of ramen, dear?"

What was it about this woman always being so kind to him that immediately made him lose all of his defenses? She reminded him of his own mother, and in that moment, when it was only just the two of them, he didn't see any reason to be unnecessarily gruff with her.

"Yes, please."

Smiling, Kagome's mother went about fixing Inuyasha his treat, while describing to him in a much more subdued, and far less detailed manner just what all the fuss had been about.

"They have put together a sort of maze, although there's no way you can actually get lost inside. There are no dead ends. Hmmm…I wonder why they call it a maze then…" she trailed off to herself for a moment as she poured in the hot water, causing Inuyasha to silently roll his eyes when she wasn't looking. Now he knew where Kagome got her occasional scatterbrained-ness.

"Anyway," she continued then, "Kagome and her friends are all dressed up as different people in order to honor the spirit of the holiday." she went on, adding, "It's just something fun for children, so that they can pretend to be scared."

Inuyasha nodded his understanding as she handed him his second cup of noodles, even though he didn't really understand. So Kagome was dressed up as someone else, it was some kind of a walk-through building, and kids pretended to be scared as they decorated the place with monsters, oni and ghosts. It still sounded like a festival to banish the evil forces of the world, if he understood it right. The kids knew they weren't real monsters, so that was why they allowed themselves the make-believe fun of pretending to be afraid, until…presumably…something or another happened to make the evil demons go away. How was it all that different from Setsubun, then?

Well, Setsubun doesn't have anything to do with the dead, for one thing…

Still, Inuyasha found it a bit redundant. Humans would celebrate just about anything it seemed. Though at least now he supposed he understood why Kagome and her family had both invited him to go along, if some people were dressed up in costume and would therefore believe his own hanyou appearance to be fake, but still…even if nobody realized he was a real youkai and freaked out, having to put up with all of the craziness of being in the middle of a crowd of celebrating humans was not worth simply being able to leave the house without a hat on.

Mrs. Higurashi was about to say something else when her speech was broken by an unexpected yawn.

"Excuse me…" she apologized lightly, a hand over her mouth.

"Keh…why don't you head off to bed yourself?" he told her then, standing up from the table to take his second empty cup of ramen to the trash himself. "It's late and it sounds like you had quite a time keeping up with Souta."

Mrs. Higurashi chuckled a bit at that.

"I'm here, so I'll stay up for when Kagome gets home." he offered before she could protest.

"Well, thank you." she answered then, nodding her head with a tired smile pulling at the edges of her mouth. "Kagome's lucky to have a friend like you." she added with a wink, chuckling to herself at the way Inuyasha immediately blushed at her words.

"K-keh…"

Quickly turning and exiting the kitchen before he could see just how large her smile was becoming, Mrs. Higurashi did have to admit that she was fairly tired after such a long night. She actually was glad that Inuyasha was there, since she probably would've forced herself to stay up for Kagome otherwise.

Two hours later, at a little passed one in the morning, the front door creaked open quietly as said miko tiptoed her way inside, trying not to disturb her slumbering family. She was thoroughly exhausted, but it would take something literally hooking into the sides of her mouth and pulling downward to rid the smile from her face as she headed up the stairs and towards her bedroom. So distracted as she was by the memories of all she had done that night buzzing around in her head, she didn't notice the telltale sensation of a demonic aura…a real one…brushing up against her senses until she was right on top of it.

"Inuyasha!" she declared with a startled gasp upon stepping inside her room to find the hanyou sitting on her bed. His arms were crossed, and Tetsusaiga was leaning casually against the wall beside him. He didn't seem upset. His expression looked neutral, although Kagome had learned the hard way that that was usually a bad sign. He was probably a little upset but would try his best not to act on it, she figured in that moment.

"Keh, 'bout time you got back." he grumbled, confirming her suspicions. He knew he couldn't really go off on the girl for doing what she was supposed to be doing, and what he had already given her his permission to do.

"Yeah, sorry…" Kagome answered quietly, closing the door to her room so as not to wake the others. "The haunted house closes at midnight, but then I had to remove all of my- Eep!"

Startled to turn around and suddenly find Inuyasha standing less than two inches in front of her face, Kagome tried her best to get her frantic heartbeat back under control while his nose twitched faster than a bunny rabbit's.

"What the hell is that horrible stench?" he demanded quietly, conscientious of the fact that the girl's family was sleeping under the same roof.

He would keep his voice down, but he wanted answers, now.

Kagome's natural scent was all but completely obstructed by an unnamable conglomeration of increasingly displeasing odors that literally burned the hairs in his nose. She smelled of countless strangers, male as well as female, which in and of itself had his inner beast wanting to claw its way to the surface so that he could more easily distinguish those people's scents in order to hunt them down and ensure that they never again got within a thousand feet of his Kagome. But beyond those scents were also the stinks of substances he knew he could never hope to identify. The miko had been submerged in foul smelling concoctions before, on more than one occasion, and he was relieved to at least note that there didn't appear to be any lingering traces of magic clinging to the girl, but what in Kami's name had Kagome been covered with, and why had she allowed it to happen?

"Wash it off, now." he demanded.

Kagome went from startled and nervous to indignant in the blink of an eye.

"I did wash off my makeup." she insisted, raising a hand to point at her face as evidence, though the gesture was meaningless to him. If he couldn't smell her natural scent, then she clearly hadn't washed well enough.

Besides, he knew what makeup was, and that was not what he was smelling.

"I don't care if you already took a hundred baths. Bathe again, and do it right this time. For as obsessed as you are with bathing back in my world, I can't believe you're allowing yourself to stink like you do right now."

The nerve of this guy! Kagome thought, trying her best not to raise her voice herself.

Okay, so she hadn't really taken a shower…it was in the middle of the night and she was tired! Nobody had bothered to shower after the haunted house had closed. Heck, half of the people hadn't even bothered to remove their costumes at all as they'd disbursed and headed for their respective homes, but the latex got a little itchy after a while and so since it would obviously have to be removed before going to bed either way, Kagome had decided that there was really no point in delaying the process. She had lingered behind in the locker room along with a few other actors who were as equally made up in some sense or another, taking the time to scrub her face and run a brush through her hair, not to mention change into some clean clothes. As she thought about it, though, she supposed she couldn't really blame Inuyasha for his reaction, realizing that even after getting dressed back in her uniform she probably still smelled like all of the guests she had grabbed onto throughout the night, not to mention the few fellow students she had come into contact with after changing her outfit. She knew how he was when it came to smelling other people on her, especially guys. And since she'd only used a makeup removing solution on her face the scent of latex probably also still remained, not to mention the scent of the solution itself. It wasn't like she had really cleaned her face with soap and water, she'd merely used one chemical to get rid of another; no wonder the poor guy's nose was going a hundred miles an hour.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Kagome visibly went from angry to calm, which had Inuyasha relaxing marginally when he had been bracing himself for an argument.

"I'm sorry, I know you've got a very sensitive nose, and I can only imagine what you must be smelling. But I'm honestly too tired to bathe right now. If you can't stand the way I smell, I won't take offence if you want to leave, and I promise that I will take a very long, very thorough bath before returning to your time on Monday."

As he continued to stare at her, it took the miko a minute to even realize, "Hey, wait a minute. Just what are you even doing here, anyway? You very specifically said that you weren't going to come."

"Feh…" he grumbled, turning his head while breathing in through his mouth. He had no intention of telling the girl that he had wanted to be in her presence. Not while she stank to high heavens.

"Shippou was just bein' a brat so I figured I would hang out here since you said I could, but there ain't no way I'm stickin' around while you stink like that. I ain't tryin' to be mean, but whatever that shit is is burning my nose. You had better make sure to bathe properly before returning."

With that said, he turned and slid open the window, deliberately leaving it open behind him as he grabbed Tetsusaiga and leapt out into the night. Now they would need to air out her bedroom. Bounding across the courtyard without so much as a backward glance at the girl he could feel watching him every step of the way, he headed straight for the well-house and didn't stop until he was safely back on his own side of time, deeply inhaling the cleansing scent of dew moistened grass. Dawn was still several hours away, so after a moment he figured that he might as well try and take advantage of the remaining hours of night to catch up on even more slumber, since he rarely allowed himself any decent amount of sleep while out on the road. Heading over to the Goshinboku, he leapt up into its branches and did his best to get comfortable. Still, he doubted unconsciousness would come back to him all that easily, thoughts of what Kagome could have possibly been doing at her school's festival buzzing around in his head and refusing to let him relax.

Just what are they making you do, Kagome?

...o...o...

Sighing forlornly as she watched the hanyou leave, Kagome futilely sniffed at herself, trying to determine just how badly she actually reeked to his nose.

I guess it's a good thing he didn't want to go, after all… the miko thought, deciding to leave her window open herself, and for the same reason, as she sluggishly pealed off her school uniform and changed into a warm pair of flannel pajamas.

The inside of the haunted maze smelled funny even to her own nose, though it wasn't anything that she couldn't deal with. It didn't really smell bad, at least to her, but she knew that Inuyasha was at least a thousand times more sensitive to smell than she was. His sense of smell wasn't just superhuman, it was supercanine, and when you thought about all of the hot, sweaty bodies covered in latex and greasepaint and fake blood all jammed together in such close quarters…

Sorry, Inuyasha… Kagome thought again in passing as she crawled into bed, belatedly realizing she would have to wash her bedding as well now before returning to the Sengoku jidai Monday morning.