He protected her from injury. A lot.

"Look out!" he yelled, grabbing her by the back of her school uniform and yanking her behind him.

A bright red dodgeball zoomed by in a blur, whistling past where Kagome had been standing just a second before. Going as fast as it was, it would've knocked her flat, and probably left a significant bruise. Not to mention the scrapes she'd have gotten when she landed on the concrete.

Inuyasha glowered across the playground at the kids who'd thrown the errant ball. They looked distinctly nervous to be on the receiving end of that glare. Just as he stepped forward to go give them a piece of his mind (as his mother would say), he felt Kagome's little hand grab his sleeve.

He turned to look at her. She had a huge smile on her face.

"That was amazing!" she cried, "I can't believe you saw that!"

He blinked at her.

"It was going so fast! But you saw it, and you—" she flapped her hands energetically in the direction of the ball, "—and then you—" she gestured at herself, hands still waving, "—and that was awesome! You're amazing!"

Her eyes sparkled at him, and he completely forgot why he'd been so annoyed.

::

::

"Watch where you're going!" he grumped, flinging his arm across her path—the famous "mom bar" move. She walked right into his arm, a tiny "oof" escaping her lips. She shot a startled glance up from the book she'd had her nose stuck in for the better part of three days, tilting her head at him in question. Scowling, he jerked his chin ahead of them.

She looked. Took in the blinking red pedestrian light across the street, and the cars zipping up and down the road she'd almost stepped into.

Her gaze returned to his, and this time her expression was sheepish. She offered him a weak grin. "Sorry, Inuyasha."

"'Sorry' wouldn't have kept you from becoming a road pancake! You need to pay attention!" He glared at the book in her hand, the one she'd been so obsessed with that she couldn't seem to pay attention to anything else—including where she was walking.

Or him, for that matter. His ear flicked in annoyance.

She widened her eyes into the look and puckered her bottom lip just a little. "Really, I'm sorry! I promise I'll be more careful."

He kept glaring, but his scowl slowly receded, cheeks warming under the grey-eyed attention he'd been denied for the past three days.

"Yeah, well, you'd better," he grumbled.

She smiled. When the pedestrian light turned green, she grabbed his hand and pulled him forward.

Her nose returned to her book, but her hand kept holding his.

::

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His breath whooshed out of his lungs as her body collided with his torso. The arms he'd been holding out to catch her wrapped around her tiny frame as they both fell back, his butt landing with a loud thump on the ground.

He felt winded for a moment. Once he caught his breath, he looked down to make sure she was okay. She had tilted her chin up to peek at him, and was watching him with contrite eyes. "Oops," she whispered.

He scowled at her. "You okay?" he asked.

She nodded.

With a loud sigh, he unwound his arms and pushed her off his lap. They both stood up, and he said in a voice heavy with irritation, "I told you not to jump from the swing when you're going that high!"

She scuffed the toe of her sneaker against the ground. The chains of the city park swingset were still creaking as its rubber seat swung back and forth, almost high enough to loop over the top pole.

"But the other kids were doing it," she mumbled through a pout.

"The other kids are older than you," he barked. "And some of them are demons. And none of them are as clumsy as you."

"Hey!" she said, "I'm not clumsy!"

"All humans are clumsy."

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "You're no fun at all!"

He returned the gesture. "Well you're dumb! You could've broken something falling from that high up."

She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again with a frown. "I wouldn't have," she said, her tone so uncertain it was more question than statement.

"Oh yeah? Why do you think your mom tells you not to jump off the swing?"

She paused at that. Her mom, as far as she could tell, knew everything there was to know about the world, and she had told Kagome not to jump from the swingset... guilt began creeping into her expression.

"Humans are clumsy and weak," Inuyasha continued matter-of-factly, relaxing a little now that she seemed to be listening. "Doesn't take much to break a bone."

She cast a suspicious look at the swing. Then, pout returning, she said, "But it's fun to get up so high. I feel like I'm flying."

He considered her for a moment: noted the longing that had crept into her tone, the unhappy set to her mouth, the way she kept glancing back at the swingset as though it was a cute puppy that had just bitten her unexpectedly.

He glanced around the park. There were some kids scattered around the playground, their parents sitting in clusters on benches on the periphery, but it wasn't too crowded today. He probably wouldn't be noticed much.

Turning his back to the girl, he squatted down and lifted his arms up behind him. "Get on," he said.

"Huh?" He could picture the head-tilt that no doubt accompanied her confused noise.

"Get on," he repeated gruffly.

She hesitated, then slowly looped her arms around his neck. He slung his forearms under her knees and lifted her into piggy-back position. She gave a little squeak of surprise.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he started trotting towards an open grassy area of the park.

He glanced at her over his shoulder. "You wanna feel like you're flying?"

She nodded, expression wondering.

"I'm gonna take you flying, then."

He started speeding up, trot turning to jog, which turned to a run. Once he had his momentum going, he said, "Hold on!" and bent his knees for a jump.

Then they were airborne, sailing up, up, as high as the tree branches. He heard her suck in a breath, and felt her arms tighten around his neck. For a moment, suspended in the air at the peak of the jump, just before the inevitable descent, it really felt like they were flying. Just the two of them, up there with the wind and the tree branches and the clouds. His heart lifted in his chest as if it, too, were flying. He heard her release her breath, the warm puff blowing against his neck.

Then they were falling, and her arms tightened even more, though she didn't make a peep. He hit the ground smoothly, sneakers kicking up a small cloud of dust, knees bending to absorb the impact. Without hesitation he jumped again, higher this time, leaping up and forward through the air. The wind blew through his hair, whistled in his ears.

He heard what sounded like a giggle behind him. He glanced over his shoulder at her, and his heart flew even higher at what he saw: her eyes were huge and bright, face flushed an excited red, dark hair streaming behind her. She locked eyes with him for a moment, and then let out a whoop. "Faster, Inuyasha!" she squealed, her arms leaving his neck to stretch out on either side of her like a bird taking flight. "Faster, faster!"

Grinning, he sped up, and soon they were both whooping and laughing.

He'd make sure she got to fly without ever hitting the ground.

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A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Just wanted to leave a quick note here to say that the wonderful cover art for this story was drawn by the AMAZING Grapefruit Wannabe. Hope y'all enjoy it as much as I do.