Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. That great honor goes to the amazing Rumiko Takahashi and her wonderful mind.

Kagome's P.O.V.

I watched as the car left the front of my house and let the butterflies take over my stomach once more. I welcomed the feeling, for once, and sighed as I turned around. I let my back collide with the door as my eyes drifted shut. Then, slowly, I slid down to the floor, letting my memories flow behind my closed eyes. A smile came to my face automatically and I shook my head as I realized how light my heart felt. I definitely forgot how amazing this feels.

And suddenly, I had the urge to see him again. I had the urge to call him over and to kiss him until my lips were purple, and even then, I'd keep kissing him. It was more than that, though. I just wanted to see him and to see his smile and to watch him laugh and for him to be happy - happy with me.

I opened my eyes and realized something that made me want to throw something, in both a good way and a bad way. I laughed, but it came out happily sarcastic. My eyes drifted shut once more and I fought back a stinging in my eyes. I've fallen back in love with Inuyasha Takahashi. I've fallen for him when I know that I shouldn't have. I've fallen in love with him again when I knew that I wouldn't be able to take back the feelings.

The world seemed a little different now. I felt a little lost and a little found, but overall clueless, and I really hated that feeling. I mean, I hated it before, and I hate it even more now. The worst part, I remembered, was the uncertainty about love. I could never tell whether that jerk liked me as much as I liked him. He'd always do things that would make me think so, but then take a one-eighty degree turn and do the opposite.

Being a Senior that's leaving to college in a few weeks was enough stress by itself, and now I've fallen back into love with him. Just thinking about leaving him, about the possibility of maybe never seeing him again, it sent a painful pang to my chest. I shook my head frantically and erased the thought for the moment. I fell out of love with him once, I can do it again. That thought alone seemed impossible.

I needed comfort and I needed it quickly. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I knew exactly what I needed to help me get over this momentarily.

"Buyo!" I called out, and I realized how helpless I sounded. I cleared my throat and called for my cat once more. "Buyo, come here!" I got up from the floor and walked around the living room. That's weird, I thought to myself. He usually comes to me by now.

I looked behind the sofa, but he wasn't there. I popped my head into the kitchen, which was all tidied up already. I assumed my mother was upstairs reading her book, or something. Sota must've been in his room doing something else, and Grandpa was definitely out like a light already.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the back door and lifted an eyebrow. Maybe he decided to go for a walk . . .

Inuyasha's P.O.V.

As soon as I got home, it seemed a part of me didn't want the night to end. I wanted to stay up as long as I could and remember as much as I wanted. I took one look at the back door that led to the tree and didn't think much else as I drifted towards the exit.

The tree seemed more beautiful tonight than it did at any other time. The moon's light reflected off the leaves as they barely rustled against a light wind. The air was warm and light - and it reminded me of Kagome's embrace, which I so desperately wanted to feel again. I sat down against the tree and sighed with something that sounded like contentment. I didn't know how it could be a content sigh, since everything within me was going insane, but I was strangely light-headed and bubbly. I smiled to myself and suddenly realized why people liked being in love - the after effects are very unique.

I heard a soft 'meow' from beside me and I took a glance to find that the cat seated comfortably beside me. It looked up at me, it's dark eyes sparkling.

"Hey, there," I said with a grin, scratching it's head lightly. It purred to my touch and moved closer to me. "What are you doing out here all by yourself, huh? Did that pesky flea leave you all alone?"

There suddenly came some rustling from the bushes across from my house. I turned my head and smirked. "Speak of the devil. Hey, Myoga, you left your - " My words were cut short when a tall girl with jet black hair emerged from the bushes. My heart jumped into my throat and I swallowed hard as I stared at the figure. "Cat . . ." She looked up, too, and froze.

"Oh, hi, Inuyasha," Kagome said with a nervous laugh. "What, uh, what brings you here?"

"Oh, uhm, well I usually like to come here to rest, since it is my house and all." I could see her head move up and look at the house in front of her. It was too dark to tell if she was embarrassed, but even so, I still smiled.

"Oh yeah, I forgot how close you lived to me." She said with more nervous laughter, and it struck me as strange, but I shrugged it off.

"So, what brings you to the back of my house?"

"You know, most people call it a yard." She said as she approached my spot.

"Well, as you can tell, I am not like most people."

"You don't need to convince me any further," She said as she sat down next to me, and I could tell she was smiling now that she was close enough. "I know how unique you are."

"As are you." I said with a nod and a smile.

"Thank you," She responded with a little laugh and a smile, and I had to fight the urge to lean in. I cleared my throat, trying to think of a way to get my mind off of her small pink lips, which looked softer as the seconds ticked by.

"You still haven't answered my question, Ms. Higurashi. Why exactly have you stumbled into my yard?"

"Oh, well I was looking for my cat." It seemed that as soon as she said that, the purring from the cat became louder than ever. Her eyebrows furrowed and she sat up a bit to look on the other side of me. She then turned her gaze back to me, and she wore a look that seemed like a mix between confusion, curiosity, and irritation. "I didn't know you catnapped in your spare time, Inuyasha."

"What? N-No, you've got it all wrong!" I protested, trying my hardest not to falter in front of her. I picked up the cat and placed it in my lap. "It just walked into my yard, I swear, I thought it was just a neighborhood stray."

"Do you like petting stray cats?" She asked accusingly, eyebrow raised and everything.

"No, of course not. W-What I meant to say was that I just thought it was lost or out for a stroll. I would never steal a cat from anybody, especially not you."

"Oh, what, is my cat not good enough for you to steal or something?"

"N-No, that's not it, I didn't mean it like that Kagome, I just - " It was then that I realized how much she was enjoying my explanations. She was biting her lip and holding back her giggles, and if I wasn't so agitated, I would have probably found that really attractive. Hell, agitated or not, it's still damn attractive. Even so, I laughed with relief. "Alright, you got me."

"I really didn't need to do much," She said with a mischievous grin. "It really is a show, watching you go all crazy with your explanations and counter explanations. Have you ever considered being a lawyer?"

"Ha ha," I said sarcastically, knowing that the question itself was a joke about my stuttering. I picked up the cat and placed it on her lap. "For the record, if I'd know it was your cat, I would have given it back to you."

"Really?" She asked curiously with her eyebrow raised once more.

"Of course, I've never been much of a cat person anyways."

"Well, you could have fooled me. You two were pretty cozy before I got here. I was even going to ask if maybe you guys wanted a room." She said with a smile as I shook my head. When I looked up, she was still smiling at me and that was when my stomach began it's uncomfortable exercises. I stood up immediately, deciding that the best thing to do was to put as much distance between us, and to not make any eye contact whatsoever. I stretched as well, pretending that it was what I wanted to do the entire time.

When I took my first glance down at her, I saw that she'd placed her cat on the floor and was getting ready to stand. Being the gentleman that I was, not only some lovestruck boy that was eager for her touch, I offered my hand to help her up. She looked up at me once more and smiled as she accepted it, and although it sounds very corny, even the slight touch sent a jolt through my body.

However, as I pulled her up and the distance between us began to shrink, the memory of her leaning up to kiss me flashed in my mind, as well as the memory of her flushed face staring down at me as I held her closer to me than I've held anyone.

"Are you alright?" As the blissful memories disappeared, I was met with two chocolate orbs that looked at me with concern and curiosity. "You look like you're blushing."

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," I answered sheepishly as I turned away from her gaze to stare at the tree, for both our sakes, because I wasn't exactly sure anymore if I wanted to stop myself from kissing her. "Must be the weather."

"That's odd, I don't remember the weather having an effect on you like this in the past." Funny that you mention the past . . .

"Yeah, well, a lot of things are beginning to have a different effect on me." I answered nervously, swallowing the lump that was in my throat.

"I think I know what you mean."

"No," I insisted, taking a look at her beautiful face once more and using up what was left of my resistance to restrain me from whatever was going through my head. "I don't think you do." Help.

Third Person P.O.V.

Kagome felt her heart skip a beat as Inuyasha looked down at her. She thought that she'd been controlling her emotions quite well, up until he'd helped her up and now as he stared down at her with a look she'd definitely seen before. It was a nervous look, like he was trying to hide something desperately from her, but it was also weak and unsure and willing and happy. They were all ingredients for disaster - a disaster better known as love.

It was now Kagome's turn to look away, because if she didn't, her feelings would definitely get the best of her. Her distraction, however, was something she didn't expect to surprise her so much. She watched in awe as the tree - their tree - fluttered before her with leaves that floated lightly with the wind and a glow from the moonlight that truly gave it the honor of calling it magical. It really was a magical tree, to Kagome at least.

She remembered the first day that she saw the gigantic beauty from her back yard and how she absolutely needed to get a closer look, and what a surprise it was to meet the boy with the amber eyes, who swung down from his kingdom to turn her life upside down in every way. Now here they were, and here he was, and it seemed that not much had changed at all, for her life remained upside down so long as he was still in it.

"Wow," she breathed as she stared at the figure that shaped her past. "I never believed people when they said that things get more beautiful with age."

"Maybe you should," Was the response from the boy beside her, who was looking at her again with a lovestruck expression he did not know he was giving her. He could hardly control his body language anymore. The only thing he could control was what he said, and even his power over his speech was slipping. Luckily for him, she still did not look as he spoke since she too far awestruck by the majestic tree that towered over them.

"I don't remember it ever being this beautiful," She said in an airy voice. Inuyasha turned to look at the tree and smiled in a thankful sort of way.

"You know, you forget a lot of things over time," He spoke as he watched the leaves rustle. "But, they're still there. They always come back up when the moment's right." The final sentence left Kagome's heart pounding and over thinking his statement greatly. He's absolutely right, she concluded in her mind. She glanced at the boy beside her as he stared at the tree with a far away look. Does he know what I'm feeling, or was that just plain truth?

"Kagome," Inuyasha said, turning to her and swallowing another lump in his throat. "I've been thinking a lot about the past lately, more than I've ever thought about anything probably," She knew that it wasn't supposed to be a joke, but she still cracked a smile as she turned to face him. She avoided his gaze at all costs. "And what I've allowed myself to believe is that whatever happened, it won't change. I know that, even though I wish I didn't. I wished many times that I could go back into that past," He stopped to smile at the irony of his statement. "And change everything, but all that would do is change what's happening now, and to be honest," He stopped once more, this time to argue with himself whether or not he was ready to say the following. There's no turning back now.

"I don't want to change the now. I don't want to change a thing anymore. I would have done anything to have you in my life as anything but my enemy, and now, you're my friend again, and I'm angry with myself." Kagome watched him as he struggled to get out everything he hoped to say, and in her mind, her thoughts were swirling around everything he said, and she half hoped that he wasn't going where she thought he was going. "I'm angry with myself, because I've become greedy, and I've become greedy because . . . I don't just want to be your friend anymore. Kagome - "

"Stop!" She said loudly, and Inuyasha immediately silenced himself. "Inuyasha . . . You can't just say those things to me and expect me to take it all in and say that I'm fine with it."

"Kagome, that wasn't - "

"Shush!" She said once more, this time far more desperate. "We hurt each other and we continued to hurt each other and just because we have feelings for each other now doesn't mean that we can just run off happily into a sunset." Inuyasha's heart lifted from the gutter when he realized that Kagome had feelings for him too. He watched as she forced herself to continue, hoping that wherever she was going with her words that it would end well for them. "And just because all I can think about is how it would feel to kiss you after all these years, it doesn't mean that we can just drop everything and be happy because we want to. We have different lives now, Inuyasha, different responsibilities, different wants - "

"I think you and I want exactly the same thing, and you can't deny it any longer." Inuyasha interrupted, looking at her with another look that Kagome knew very well. It was a look of complete and full emotion, and that he knew exactly what he wanted, no, needed to do next. It was the look he got before was going to kiss her.

Her mouth opened to protest, to spit out anything that would make him think differently, that would make that look be erased from his face, but nothing came out. Instead, her lips were covered with his own. Instinctively, she pushed at him and let out muffled protests, but he held her shoulders and kept his lips to hers. He'd come this far, and he wasn't about to let a few surprisingly strong punches scare him away. Then, slowly, she melted into him. Her hands stopped their movements and instead found their way around his neck. He cupped her face in his hands, and she no longer wanted to push him away - it was already too late to push him away. She adjusted herself onto her tiptoes and pulled him in closer, and in response, his hands slid down to her waist and held her snug against him.

There were thousands of feelings coming from them, but the brightest of them all was the happiness that they were feeling as their lips combined with each other. Inuyasha smiled into the kiss when he felt Kagome pull him in closer. She was like a sweet drug to him and there was no way that he was going to ever give her up again. He was in too deep, and so was she. She knew how much trouble she was in as her hands cupped his face softly and she knew that it would be impossible to ever turn back if she told him how much she loved him, but the only thing that mattered to her was the 'now' and the now seemed pretty amazing.

When they parted, Inuyasha couldn't help but smile in a way that made Kagome's stomach hurt. She felt her face heat up and was glad that it was too dark to see her cheeks. As he looked down at her, however, she could almost tell what he was thinking and it was very similar to what she'd been thinking about for a while now. So, she kissed him again. She pulled him down and kissed away her thoughts, and his, and she kissed away her fears and her doubts. She didn't want to hear him say that he loved her - she couldn't. If she heard the words dripping with emotion the way that he said them and if she saw the look on his face, a face of complete loss and hope, a face of someone who was in love, then she knew that she wouldn't leave him, not for any college or for anything in the world.

She kissed him over and over again and even when they ran out of breath, she continued to kiss him. Her thoughts slowly drifted away until all she could really feel was Inuyasha's lips against her own and his arms around her, and she felt safe with the way he held her like he wouldn't let anything get to them. She kissed him until her lips hurt, and then she kissed him some more, because she couldn't stop, and she was convinced that she never wanted to.

In the distance, Buyo yawned as he watched his owner and the peculiar boy with amber eyes happily kiss. His head turned when he heard a small bit of rustling but he relaxed when he felt his familiar flea friend make his way up to the top of his head.

"Oh, my, Buyo," Myoga whispered, with an impressed smile on his face. "Things certainly escalated, didn't they?" He sighed as he watched the lovebirds laugh and kiss once more and then a dreadful feeling washed over the flea. "Now, the hard part is keeping them together. They're both so stubborn, they might not even make it through. Then again, they really do care about each other. . . Oh, who am I to be judging these two? It's only been a few minutes since they've started kissing, I can't judge their future based off of that!" Myoga smiled as he watched the content couple's embrace and sighed once more.

"I'll let them have their fun, they certainly put on an amazing show for it, after all."

A/N: Hello, everybody! I hope you all had a Happy Holiday and a happy new year too! I'm sorry I didn't update earlier but I went on vacation to visit some family for the holidays and I really wasn't on the computer often because of that and because I just had a birthday on the 30th ^.^

So, I hope you liked this chapter and I hope that you will all stick with this story as we go into the new year! Thank you all so much for a wonderful year of happiness through your reviews and I wish you all a safe and happy new year!

Until Next Year!

(Questions? Comments? I love hearing from the reviewers!)