Kagome was back in her own time, and I was restless. I paced and growled to myself until finally Miroku blew up in my face.
"So, go after her already! We can't stand this business with you moping around, about ready to dismember anyone who looks at you wrong. You aren't helping here, you are just making us all edgy. We will be fine. Go!"
He literally shoved me into the well, not that I really resisted at all. I crept up to her house, well aware that I wasn't supposed to be coming this early to bring her back yet. I climbed the tree, you know the one. I was pinned to it for fifty years with a sacred arrow... It overhung Kagome's window, so I peeked in. There she sat, engrossed in her studies. She was wearing a short yellow skirt that was tight to her legs and a big navy blue T-shirt. Her hair was twisted up around a penciland she was gnawing on another one as she considered some problem in her large book. I watched as she scribbled something on her paper and went back to the book.
As quietly as possible, I slid the window open. She didn't hear me. I was not noisy or boisterous as normal; I didn't want to disturb her. She didn't even notice when I sat on the ground next to her chair and laid Tetsusaiga on my other side.
She read,and scribbled, gnawed the pencil, and scribbled and read.
Her other hand dropped down to her leg and she brushed her fingers along the hem of her skirt and across my hair. I nearly jumped out of my half-demon skin, but controlled it. She absently petted my hair and twirled her finger across my ear. I couldn't help it this time, it tickled. My ear twitched. She cupped her hand around it and flicked the point with her thumb, never looking at me. She nibbled her eraser and frowned at her book, and kept petting. Her fingers swirled around one ear and then the other, twined through my hair, rubbing but not scratching. It was the most wonderful feeling ever and I almost groaned aloud before I remembered that I was being quiet. Curse this being quiet business, but I refused to bother her. Besides, if I startled her, she might stop petting. That would be bad.
Besides all my bluster, she really did smell good. Her scent was partly feudal and partly from her world, a little bit like the fresh smelling soap she used, and a musky girl scent that was all her own. I laid my head on the edge of her chair and she stroked down my hair, fingers grazing the skin of my neck, then back to the ears. Oh, she had magic fingers.
Then suddenly she removed her hand and put it back on the table. She pushed the buttons, I think, the ones she called her calculator. I heard the sound of buttons cease, but her hand still laid on her desk. I thought of her fingers in my hair and my ears twitched involuntarily. I tried to sit patiently, but it was way too hard. I stopped myself short three times,
but then it was too much to bear. I slide my face under her elbow and nudged. She turned and looked down at me.
"Inu Yasha!" she exclaimed, surprised and a bit confused, but happy nonetheless. "What are you doing here so soon?"
"I wanted my ears scratched, and Sango said absolutely not, so keep on doing your homework, but please don't stop scratching my ears again," I growled, frowning and refusing to meet her eyes.
'Inu Yasha, you goof," she said, and I could hear the grin in her voice even without seeing her face. "Sure, I'll scratch your ears, but I'm done with my homework, at least for tonight." She gathered up her things and set them aside. I sat on the floor and scowled at a dust bunny. "I thought we agreed on five days this time? It's not time to go back yet, so why are you really here? Has something happened?"
"No, nothing. Really. I just, Miroku pushed me into the well, and since I was here anyway I thought I would come see you,
and thanks. For scratching my ears. I'll go back now, and come back when it's the time we agreed on." I picked up Tetsusaiga and started to climb out the window.
"Stay! Inu Yasha, I didn't mean you should leave. Spend the night before you go back. I have no doubt that Miroku just wanted you out of his hair for a little while, maybe so he could get somewhere with Sango. And will you say no to some more ear rubbing?"
My ears twitched and I stopped short. She was right, I couldn't say no, not to that. No one had rubbed my ears since I was little and my mother put me to sleep like that. Kagome patted the bed and I went and sat on the floor by her knee. I felt vaguely disgusted with myself for being so tame, but I couldn't help it. Honestly.
She threaded her fingers through my hair and massaged my scalp and around my ears. Her fingertips caressed my ears and I couldn't hide the twitch or the shudder of delight. "Your ears are really soft and silky," she murmured.
I leaned my head aginst her knee and urged her fingers on. This was the best. She kept talking half to herself and the sound of her voice lulled me towards sleep.
Suddenly a thought crossed my mind and I jerked up. Kagome's fingers were hopelessly tangled in my hair, but she stopped rubbing and asked, "What's the matter? Is something wrong?"
"You're Koga's woman?" I blurted out before I could think.
"Just because he says that I'm his woman, doesn't mean that he is my man. He's delusional. You really believed that?"
"No," I said defensively. Her fingers started their soothing motion again, and I sighed and leaned my head back against her knee.
"Silly Inu Yasha..." she said, a smile in her voice. "You are jealous, aren't you?"
"No," I said, even more defensively. "He would be mad about this, though. Not that I'm scared of him, or anything. I just... I don't know. But I'm not jealous. It's MY ears you are playing with, not his, right? Please don't stop, Kagome,"
I whined, just like a tame dog. Sesshomaru would be disgusted at my behavior.
She giggled, but didn't stop. She shifted and uncrossed her legs. Her scent wafted across my nose again, and I leaned in to smell her. Tingles ran across my skin. My head was suddenly filled with images of dogs with their humans, getting petted just like this, playing around, licking their owner's face, and trying to smell between their legs. I blushed, but that was what I smelled, and I had an overwhelming urge to do it. Another image crossed my mind: Miroku, with a red hand print on his face after he tried to feel up Sango, and I blushed deeper. I didn't want to get slapped.
Kagome's soft voice filled my ears again. "You don't have to stay, if you don't want to, Inu Yasha." Kagome says my name a lot, and coming from her, I don't mind so much. It sounds nice. Her voice sounds nice. She kept speaking, but I wasn't really listening. All my senses were full of her scent, her sound, her touch, the way the hem of her yellow skirt hugged against her leg. I couldn't have thought clearly about anything right then, even if I had wanted to. My lips touched her leg and I tasted her.
She yelped and drew her legs up fast, almost kicking me in the face. I fell back, startled and astounded at myself. Had I really just kissed Kagome's leg? Kagome's?? "Stop! Baddog!" she shouted in a strangled voice, staring at me with wide eyes.
The look on her face was more than I dared to look at for longer than a glance. She was just as startled and astonished as me, and looked like she was about to tell me to sit.
"S-s-s-orry!" I stuttered, and leapt up, and out through her window, slamming it and almost falling off the tree branch. I swung down and ran as fast as I could across the bare packed dirt into the shrine and down the well. As I fell into the feudal world, I remembered Tetsusaiga, laying on the rug in Kagome's room still, but I couldn't go back for it, not now. I ran into the forest and tried to wipe her expression and words out of my mind.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid! Acting like a tame dog, fawning all over a girl, another priestess, how could you, Inu Yasha!"
The voice in my head sounded a bit like Sesshomaru's, but a lot like mine. I ran faster, farther away from all that. How could I ever face Kagome again without seeing the shock and horror on her face and hearing her repeat those words over and over again in my head?
***
My door flew open and my mother asked breathlessly, "I everything alright in here, Kagome? I heard your window slam..."
She trailed off when she saw the look on my face, and the tears threatening.
"Inu Yasha was here," I mumbled. Suddenly I blurted out, "He kissed me. On the leg. And then he ran away, he left his sword and everything, he ran away so fast. I didn't mean to yell at him. It just came out. I called him a bad dog, and he was afraid of me. Of ME! He ran away so fast, he didn't even hear me say I was sorry. I can't believe he left Tetsusaiga here, when he was going back into a world full of demons! He will need it, I just know he won't go back to where Miroku, Sango and Shippo are, he was running too fast. I'll never catch up with him, and he'll die before he knows I didn't mean it, not really!" I was crying in earnest now.
Mom knelt down and put her arms around me. "There, there. Don't cry, Kagome. I'm sure he has to stop some time. You can catch up with him if you hurry. Take him his sword, and tell him how you feel. Here's a tissue. Come back as soon as you have things worked out with Inu Yasha. He's a good... whatever he is. Now, you better hurry, dear."
She handed me the sword and sent me off with an encouraging smile. I raced out of the house and leapt down the well. As soon as I emerged into the feudal era, I started calling his name.
I looked all night, and found nothing. Dawn was approaching and Tetsusaiga was getting to be as heavy as my heart. I dragged my feet back towards the well. As the sun rose, I was passing under the tree, you know the one. It was where I first saw Inu Yasha, pinned with a sacred arrow. I sighed and looked at the beautiful sunrise with a bleak heart.
Then I saw a flash of red out of the corner of my eye, red that was not part of the sunrise. I looked up and saw a familiar sillouette slumped on a branch. "Inu Yasha!" I cried out, relieved and happy and only a little frustrated.
He looked down at me, without meeting my eyes. His gaze was distant, and he gave a small grunt of acknowledgement to my presence.
"Here's your sword, Inu Yasha," I said, suddenly shy. He jumped out of the tree and landed lightly on his feet. Still without meeting my eyes, he held out his hand for the Tetsusaiga.
I felt like crying, and then I pulled my courage out of nowhere, and said firmly, "I didn't mean what I said, that you're a bad dog. I'm sorry. I was just startled, but not in a bad way. I really didn't mean it like that, Inu Yasha. Please forgive me?'
He swallowed and inspected Tetsusaiga more closely than was necessary. I still had one hand on the sword, so I pulled it away from his face and reached up to touch his cheek and run my hand up to his ear. Reflexively he bent his head so I could touch but as soon as he realised what he was doing he pulled away. I turned his chin to face me and looked into his eyes.
He could only avoid me for a moment of two, but when he met my gaze my heart melted at the sheer amount of pain in his eyes.
"Inu Yasha," I said softly. He swallowed nervously again, and shifted his weight but did not pull away. I smiled a little smile at him and then stood on tiptoes and threw my arms around his neck. "Please don't run away?" I asked.
Then I kissed him on the lips.