Lunar Month

Kagome sighed heavily as she hoisted her backpack over her shoulder and began to walk slowly out of the classroom. Another day of school had come and gone, and with it, the result of the last test that she had written. Sighing again, she tried to block the horrible grade she'd gotten from her mind and kept walking. The sun beat down strongly on her shoulders as she made her way home. She smiled as a light breeze lifted her dark hair and ruffled it lightly.

Tonight will be better than today was, Kagome assured herself, I'll have something to eat, take a nice long bath and get a good night's rest. I'll go back and meet up with Inuyasha and the others when school's over tomorrow afternoon.

Inuyasha crossed his arms and tapped his foot rapidly on the ground as he stared out at the horizon. Behind him, Sango, Miroku, and Shippo were chatting while their usual meal - grilled fish, freshly caught that morning - cooked slowly over a crackling fire. Inuyasha took no notice of the others and wasn't even attracted to the smell of the food, as hungry as he was and as much as he loved fish. He was too deep in thought to notice much of anything.

Why does Kagome's face keep popping into my mind? Is something going on? Should I go and -

Miroku coughed slightly and interrupted his thought process.

"Inuyasha?" he asked, "Is everything all right?"

Inuyasha scoffed and turned around. "Of course everything's all right! I was just thinking about...uh...Naraku, and how we're going to, uh..." he trailed off, somewhat lamely. No way they bought that! Inuyasha thought bitterly, kicking himself mentally for not coming up with a better lie, and for not even being able to finish it. It was always him who could be depended upon for snappy comebacks and witty remarks, and now he couldn't even come up with a full sentence. Ugh. Since she had left two days before, Kagome had been on Inuyasha's mind constantly. His friends would definitely be able to see right through him.

Sure enough, Sango grinned and laughed softly. "Inuyasha", she said, "come and eat some of this. Then maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for you to go and visit...um...Naraku." At this, Miroku, Shippo and Sango all grinned at Inuyasha, as though daring him to yell at them because they saw through his feeble lie about Kagome.

"Oh ha ha, very funny!" Inuyasha cried. "Not that it's any of your business, I keep getting this feeling something's going on with Kagome. I don't know if it's bad or not, but I better at least go check. Time for her to come back now, anyway." As he spoke the last sentence, Inuyasha dropped his voice and looked out once more at the horizon where the sun was beginning to set. It glowed a bright orange as it began its slow descent, signalling the start of another night.

"The new moon! It starts tonight! Inuyasha, if you planned to go and see Kagome in her world, now would be as good a time as any. You're probably best off away from here if you're going to lose your powers tonight, anyway. We can hold down the fort here." Miroku stated. Inuyasha knew he was right. Tonight would be a perfect chance to leave the feudal era and go to get Kagome.

"All right," said Inuyasha, "I'm going. Won't be long. Shippo, keep an eye on those two while I'm gone." Here, he pointed at Miroku and Sango, who were sitting shoulder to shoulder. Sango looked perturbed about something, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. One of Miroku's hands was suddenly not visible out in front of him. Shippo nodded his head with authority as Sango quickly slapped Miroku on the back of the head, looking thoroughly annoyed but grinning slightly in spite of herself. Inuyasha chuckled and took off like a shot toward the Bone Eater's Well as his hair began to turn black and his dog ears disappeared. Love, he thought to himself, sure makes people do some crazy things. Sometimes people are even willing to put up with physical pain because they have feelings for somebody! With that, he launched himself into the well that linked his world with Kagome's. Just as he did every time he entered the well, he felt a glowing contentedness consume him as he crossed over to Kagome's time.

Kagome sat down at her desk and pulled her math textbook toward her. She had finished her supper and discovered that a full stomach was just what she needed to tackle the 30 geometry problems her teacher had set for homework that day. She knew she’d be returning to the feudal era the next afternoon but there was no point in getting any more behind in her schoolwork than she already was. Just as she put pencil to paper, however, there came a knock at her bedroom door. Sighing, Kagome turned around in her chair and called "Who is it?", expecting it to be her mother or Sota. The answering voice, however, didn’t belong to either of those people.

"Kagome, it's me. Your mother told me you were up here. Can I come in?"

Kagome blinked twice. "Hojo?" she called back, "uh...sure!"

With that, her door opened slowly and Hojo appeared. Tall, dark-haired and handsome, Hojo was the object of the affections of nearly every girl at the school. Kagome, though, had never quite joined the group of infatuated teenage girls. She did think of Hojo as her good friend, but even as she invited him to come in and sit down, an image of someone else appeared in her mind. Someone with long, white hair and fuzzy ears, the same as a dog's. Someone wearing a red kimono whose voice was as gruff as his personality. Someone who -

Someone who was suddenly perched on her bedroom window.

Kagome almost cried out from surprise but managed to compose herself as the sight of Inuyasha crouched in her window affixed itself to her brain. She'd been wrong about the white hair and dog ears, though. They were gone. In their place were black hair and human ears. Oh, right. Tonight's the start of the new moon. Kagome thought to herself, calming slightly. Then, all of a sudden, a mind-numbing panic overcame her. If Hojo saw Inuyasha...even if he appeared fully human...

Nope. It wasn't going to happen.

"Sit!" Kagome screeched. With an almighty crash, Inuyasha fell flat to the ground and Hojo, who had been looking at his shoes as he crossed to Kagome's armchair, looked directly at her, thoroughly confused.

"Um...all right," he said sheepishly, "but didn't you already invite me to sit down?"

Oh, how embarrassing. But still, he obviously hadn't noticed Inuyasha! Kagome breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled nervously.

"Yeah, I did, Hojo. I was just in such a rush to make sure...to make sure you were comfortable, that I got a little over-excited!" Kagome blushed slightly and grasped around in her brain for some excuse to get out of the room and find out why Inuyasha had suddenly shown up at her house. As many times as he'd done it already, he'd never gotten so close to being spotted by Hojo. "Um, can I get you anything? Something to eat or drink, maybe?" Kagome asked, hoping that he said yes.

"Well, I did just have supper, but since you're offering..." Hojo began, only to have Kagome cut him off.

"Okay, great!" she exclaimed, "Back in a sec! Don't go anywhere!" With that, she bolted from the room.

Inuyasha! Where are you?

When Kagome reached the main level of the house, she dashed straight out the door that led to the backyard, trying her best to look everywhere at once through the near-complete darkness. By the time she discovered that the only living creature outside the house was Buyo, the family cat, she had already wasted about five minutes looking for a certain teenage boy who wasn't there.

If Hojo sees me out here, he'll wonder what I'm doing, and if he finds Inuyasha, that'll be even worse! She thought, panic mounting inside her like boiling lava. This was not good at all. Plus, it seemed as though Inuyasha had completely disappeared on her.

"That guy is always doing this to me!" she exclaimed aloud as she stormed back into the house to get Hojo his drink, hoping against hope that Inuyasha was, at least, a good distance away from the house.

"Hey, sis, did you know Inuyasha’s here?" Sota asked when Kagome walked into the kitchen, fuming inwardly at her situation: Hojo was waiting for her upstairs and was probably wondering where she'd gotten to, and Inuyasha was probably off wandering around goodness only knew where. The nerve of him, Kagome thought to herself, always showing up at the worst possible -

Wait.

WHAT?

"I-Inuyasha...here?" Kagome spluttered, looking with exasperation at her younger brother. "As in, here in the house?"

Sota nodded, smiling, apparently mistaking Kagome’s exasperation for happiness. "He went up to your room. Said something about how he was gonna teach you a lesson for making him sit."

Kagome's mouth dropped. Inuyasha was in her room. With Hojo. The last time the two had met was when Kagome and Hojo had been in a play at their school's cultural festival. Inuyasha had suddenly appeared on stage in the middle of a scene, but given the occasion, neither Hojo nor anyone else took notice of Inuyasha's dog ears or strange clothes. This time, though, Kagome didn't think she'd be so lucky, regardless of whether Inuyasha was in his human form or not. She began to have horrible vision after horrible vision of the scenes that would unfold if the two guys were to meet, especially here in her own house.

"Thanks, Sota!" Kagome cried as she raced up the stairs, forgetting all about Hojo's drink. She hit the next level and turned toward her bedroom just in time to hear Inuyasha's voice screaming from the doorway:

"IRON REAVER SOUL STEALER!"

Kagome's heart skipped a beat. Looks like Inuyasha and Hojo have met after all, she thought miserably. Inuyasha had just landed back on the floor after jumping up to perform the attack but, Kagome realized as she ran toward the door, there were no screams of pain or, in fact, any sound at all! What was going on?

"What the - ? My attack didn't work! Why didn't anything...oh, right." Inuyasha said, sighing, "I'm human tonight." He grabbed a section of his black hair and pulled on it roughly, growling menacingly at no one in particular.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried, stamping her foot and hitting him on the side of the head with the back of her hand, snapping him out of his reverie, "Why were you trying to attack Hojo? What did he do to you? Why are you here? What made you come back? What's going - ?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Inuyasha cried, throwing up his hands, "One question at a time, Kagome!"

Kagome cried out in frustration and was just about to start her steady stream of questions all over again when Hojo, who was standing in the middle of her bedroom looking utterly bewildered, cut her off.

"Kagome, who IS this guy? I know I've seen him before but would you mind explaining exactly who he is?"

Seeing no point in trying to cover up Inuyasha's existence anymore, Kagome began talking.

"Uh, Hojo, this is Inuyasha. He's a...a friend of mine. He doesn't live around here, exactly, but he comes to visit me sometimes."

Inuyasha scoffed and bent his knees, staring directly at Hojo, who looked like he would enjoy nothing better than to either melt into a puddle on the spot or to disappear altogether. Cracking his knuckles, Inuyasha began to make his way into the room.

"That's enough talking, Kagome. This joker doesn't care who I am any more than I care who he is, so let's just settle this once and for all, Iron Reaver or none. I might be full human tonight, but that ain't gonna stop me!"

"Inuyasha, SIT!" Kagome cried, about two seconds before Inuyasha reached Hojo, who had backed himself against the wall and was cowering in fear. "What's going ON here? Settle what?"

Inuyasha got slowly to his feet and looked at Kagome through his dark, piercing eyes. He looked so fierce for a moment there that Kagome was almost intimidated, but then he turned to face Hojo and pointed at him, causing him to let out a pathetic little whimper.

"Kagome," Inuyasha began, "when I came back up here I saw this guy looking at the stuff on your desk. I thought he might be trying to steal something, which I'm still convinced he was. I was just coming to find you when I heard him walking toward me. He was probably gonna attack me or something. I don't know, and I don't really care. All I know is, I've got a score to settle with this guy!"

Inuyasha began to advance toward Hojo again, who was looking around frantically, obviously for something to use to defend himself. He grabbed the pencil that Kagome had been using to do her homework and held it out, point first, in front of him as he leapt out of Inuyasha's way. He jumped onto Kagome's bed and began thrusting the pencil forward, like a sword. Surprised more than anything else, Inuyasha stopped moving for a second or two and just stared at Hojo, obviously taken aback at what he was doing with the pencil - such a pathetic weapon! Then he began to advance again, ready to do Hojo as much damage as necessary to get rid of him.

"SIIIIIIIIIIIIIT! SITSITSITSITSITSITSIT!" Kagome yelled, wringing her hands. With each "Sit!", Inuyasha fell to the floor, temporarily unable to move, letting out cries of surprise and discomfort. "Inuyasha", Kagome began sternly, placing her hands on her hips, "Hojo is a friend of mine and he'd never steal from me, or try to attack you. Hojo," she continued, turning to the other boy, still standing on her bed, looking semi-ridiculous with a pencil thrust toward Inuyasha who was struggling to get up from the floor, "put the pencil down and get off my bed! Inuyasha won't hurt you while I'm here."

By this time, Inuyasha had gotten up from the floor, but was panting heavily and clutching his chest. Hojo used this moment to jump down from the bed, but he didn't let go of the pencil. He walked over to Kagome but not before he poked Inuyasha hard in the stomach.

"Why, you little - !"

A stream of obscenities came bursting out of Inuyasha's mouth but Kagome wasn't paying any attention. Looking at the floor, she was deep in thought. Should I tell Hojo the truth about Inuyasha and what I'm really doing when I'm not at school? She wondered. She had tried to cover up the truth for so long now - even made her grandfather devise elaborate and somewhat insane excuses for her long absences from school - that she doubted whether it would even make sense to try and explain it all now, especially in a situation like this. If there had been a good time for Hojo to learn about her double life, Kagome didn't think this was it. Still, though, Hojo did deserve to know who he'd nearly been attacked by, didn't he? She took a deep breath and turned to Hojo, who was -

Not standing next to her anymore.

Inuyasha and Hojo were pacing around the room in a circle, facing each other - Inuyasha, with his usual determined look on his face and one hand on his trusty sword (which wouldn’t be of any use to him tonight), and Hojo, with both hands clenched tightly on the pencil and a look of utter fear and panic on his face. It appeared that his one moment of confidence had ended when he poked Inuyasha in the stomach.

"C'mon, you wimp!" Inuyasha exclaimed as the two boys continued to circle each other.

Oh, no, Kagome thought to herself, shaking her head, this is gonna be bad!

"Don't think I'm gonna go easy on you just 'cause you're a friend of Kagome's!" Inuyasha told Hojo in a menacing voice, cracking his knuckles. Kagome was getting more and more apprehensive by the minute. Inuyasha would definitely try to attack Hojo and, human or not, he was much stronger than him. Hojo looked frightened but he still didn't back down. The two boys continued circling around the room slowly, while Kagome watched, terrified about what would happen next.

Finally, Hojo took a deep breath, stuck out his chest and bellowed "Stay behind me, Kagome! I'll get rid of this guy for you, once and for all! He won't interfere with us anymore!" in a voice that was clearly more confident than he felt. What? Kagome thought. Interfere with us? What's he talking about?

Inuyasha laughed heartily. "You honestly think you're a match for me, do ya?" He asked, smirking at Hojo as he finally stopped moving. "I could take you out with one punch, you scrawny little pipsqueak!"

Still refusing to back down, Hojo tightened his grip on the pencil and whispered "Bring it on."

Not wasting any time, Inuyasha leapt into the air, formed a fist and drew his hand back. Kagome looked away and told Hojo to run.

"“You're no match for him, Hojo!" she said, head buried in her hands. Ugh! This is so stupid! she thought to herself. Inuyasha let out a growl. Any second now, he'd overtake Hojo and knock him flat with one punch, just like he'd threatened to do. "SIT!" Kagome cried. Inuyasha fell from mid-air, inches above Hojo's face, and hit the carpet, letting out a yell.

"Kagome!" he burst out savagely, "Why do you always do that? I almost had that creep!"

Hojo finally flung the pencil aside, crossed his arms and cried "HA! So there!" as he looked at Inuyasha, who didn't look as though he was bothering to get up from the floor. Triumphant, Hojo ran to Kagome and hugged her tightly. "See, Kagome?" he said proudly, "I told you he wouldn't interfere with us anymore. I can't believe I managed to take him out! It didn't even feel like I did anything."

That’s because you didn't, Hojo, Kagome thought privately. Kagome laughed nervously in Hojo's arms and gently pushed herself away from him. "Uh, thanks Hojo!" she exclaimed. "You really got him good!" Hojo looked utterly pleased with himself and walked over toward Inuyasha who was still lying limp, face-down on the floor. Kagome suddenly got nervous. What if she had told him to sit too many times? What if she had actually hurt him?

"I-Inuyasha?" Kagome asked quietly, crossing over to him slowly. If anything happened to him... she thought desperately.

"Looks like he's out cold!" Hojo told her, bending over Inuyasha for a better look. "Guess that means he'll think twice before he..."

"BOO!" Inuyasha bellowed, leaping to his feet. Hojo let out a high-pitched scream and bolted from the room, tripping over his own feet as he retreated, hands flailing wildly in the air.

A while later, Inuyasha and Kagome sat on Kagome's bed, talking about everything that had happened that evening. After chuckling a bit at how ridiculous Hojo had looked as he ran out of the room when Inuyasha scared him, Kagome's expression turned to one of concern. She looked over at her desk.

"Inuyasha," she asked, "you sad earlier that Hojo was looking at the things on my desk. What exactly was he looking at when you came through the window the second time?"

Inuyasha looked over at the desk and pointed at a framed photograph of Kagome and Hojo that had been taken at school one day the previous year. Right next to the picture, lying on the desk, was a drawing that Sota had done just recently for Kagome and had given it to her as a present the last time she’d come home from the feudal era. The drawing was of Inuyasha. Until Hojo had moved it, it had completely covered the photograph in the frame. Guilt tugged at Kagome's heart. She hadn't meant for Hojo to see that. She quickly looked away from the desk and Inuyasha spoke quietly to her.

"What's the matter, Kagome?"

Tears had started to form in the corners of her eyes and she struggled with every ounce of her strength to not let them fall.

"I feel so horrible. He...I...I didn't want him to know I covered up the picture with the drawing. Knowing how much he cares about me, that must have totally crushed him."

For a solid minute, there was dead silence as both Kagome and Inuyasha sat, unmoving, on the bed, deep in thought. Finally, Inuyasha spoke.

"That drawing, Kagome. Why did you use it to cover up the picture of you and that guy?"

More silence. Kagome shifted uncomfortably, sitting on her hands and wiggling her feet back and forth.

"Well," she said, "you can't really be thinking about one person when you have feelings for somebody else, can you?"

"Kagome? What do you mean?" Inuyasha asked, his expression softening as Kagome turned to face him with a smile. She didn't answer him, but instead leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder. She chuckled to herself. It'll probably take him forever to figure out what I meant by that, she thought. For some time they sat together like that, not moving, just enjoying the rare moment together in the peace and quiet. Then, after a while, Inuyasha spoke again.

"Kagome, I..." he began, letting his sentence trail off. Kagome lifted her head and looked up into his eyes. "I..." he said again. Kagome tilted her chin upward and moved her face closer to his. Closer and closer they got, until their noses were practically touching. Kagome closed her eyes, loving this moment more than any other she could ever -

"I...uh...I...I think I'll go downstairs and get something to eat. I'm starving!" Inuyasha exclaimed, speaking so quickly Kagome almost didn't understand what he said. He stood up swiftly and Kagome, now unsupported by his weight, fell sideways onto her bed, rolling her eyes in frustration. Boys!

A few minutes later, Kagome got up from her bed and crossed to the window. She folded her arms in front of her and stared out at the night sky. You can't see the stars here, she mused, like you can in the feudal era. She smiled as memories of the countless nights she had spent eating, talking, laughing and sleeping under the stars with her friends came flooding back to her. Sure, there was the occasional sharp rock digging into her side that she had to deal with, and sure, more often than not, the group would be awakened by something strange and have to go and investigate it right away, but none of that really mattered. Kagome had figured out long ago what she had gotten herself into when she agreed to go with Inuyasha in search of the shards of the Shikon Jewel and to defeat Naraku. Sango, Miroku and Shippo knew it, too. Each of them were perfectly happy to put up with discomfort, and often much more than that, if it meant the eventual destruction of their most poisonous rival. It's spending time together on calm, quiet nights like this that makes it all worthwhile, Kagome thought to herself, still smiling.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs snapped Kagome out of her day- (or night-) dream. Not too alarmed by it, though, she assumed it was just Inuyasha. It's funny how he's getting so comfortable here now that he'll go to the kitchen by himself to get something to eat, she thought, highly amused.

"Did you find anything?" Kagome called out as the footsteps came closer to her bedroom door.

"What do you mean, Kagome?"

It wasn't Inuyasha.

It was Hojo.

"Hojo! I...I didn't expect to see you back so soon." Kagome said, totally confused. Only the most dense person in the world would come back to a house he’d been attacked in less than half an hour ago!

Hojo entered the room and smiled. "I just wanted to apologize for running away earlier and for not protecting you like I promised I would", he explained, not waiting this time for an invitation to sit down. Kagome stayed where she was.

"Please, Hojo," she said, "don't apologize for that. There was no need to protect me, anyway. Inuyasha would never hurt me. He's a good guy." Then she decided to keep talking. She knew that if she didn't get this off her chest now, it would never come out. She took a deep breath and continued. "Hojo, about the picture...I'm sorry I covered it up. It's just that you're not..."

Hojo raised one hand to silence her. "There's no need to apologize, Kagome. I see now what I didn't see before. That Inuyasha guy is obviously really special to you, and that's okay. I'm sorry I didn't hear you out when you tried to explain that he didn't mean you or I any harm and I'm sorry I attacked him. Well," he added, grinning, "I'm not sorry I poked him, because he really does deserve that for trying to kill me, I guess, but if I'd only listened to you, I wouldn't have hurt him. I would have known he was only attacking me in self-defence. It was so obvious that I'm no match for him, in more ways than one."

Kagome didn't know what to say. She had no idea what she expected Hojo to tell her the next time she saw him, but this definitely wasn't it. She blushed, feeling extremely uncomfortable.

"Hojo, I'm really sorry about all this. I do think of you as a great friend, but...I love somebody else."

Why is this so hard to say out loud? She wondered.

"It's Inuyasha." Hojo said, posing it as more of a statement than a question.

"Well...yes."

Hojo smiled the saddest smile Kagome had ever seen. She wished he wasn't making this so hard. If only he had been a jerk about this whole thing!

"All I want, Kagome, is for you to be happy, whatever that means. If Inuyasha is who you want to be with, then you need to be with him. I'll always be here for you, though, just remember that." And with that, Hojo got up from the chair and walked out of the room, still wearing that sad smile.

Tears streamed down Kagome's face. There was absolutely no question that she loved Inuyasha, but she still felt horrible about what she had done to Hojo. He'd had feelings for her for so long, but they just weren't mutual. There was nothing she could do about feelings she didn't have. She wiped away her tears and sat down at her desk, looking at both the picture and at the drawing. After a few seconds, a familiar voice, much softer than it normally was, drifted in from her bedroom doorway.

"Kagome? Was all of that true?" Inuyasha asked her. So he was listening to Hojo and I! Kagome thought, her mind racing. Inuyasha walked slowly into the room and came to a stop beside her at the desk. Kagome stood up and threw her arms around his neck, her heart lighter than it had been in ages.

"I told you a long time ago, Inuyasha, that I'm with you by choice. You can't be thinking about one person when you've got feelings for somebody else." She said, burying her face in his dark hair. Even as she spoke the words, she wished that Inuyasha would practice what she was preaching to him. Kikyo will probably always be on his mind, Kagome thought, and he might always have feelings for her, but I can deal with that.

They stayed that way for what felt like hours, until Kagome pulled away.

"How much of mine and Hojo's conversation did you hear?" She asked. Inuyasha smiled.

"All of it." he told her. He leaned in closely to Kagome's face and kissed her, gently and sweetly.

The next day, after Kagome had finished school, she walked home after saying goodbye to her friends. Inuyasha stood in the doorway, white-haired and dog-eared once again, arms folded, waiting for her to arrive.

"Where've you been?" he cried in his usual bossy tone, "You were supposed to be back ten minutes ago! I was getting worried!"

Kagome chuckled to herself. Looks like he's completely back to normal, she thought, which means it's time to get back to the feudal era. We've got a lot of work to do.

At the exact same time as Kagome thought the last sentence, Inuyasha said it aloud. They both laughed as Kagome took his hand and said, "Great minds think alike!". The two smiled at each other and took off toward the Bone Eater's Well and their next big challenge, whatever that would turn out to be. It doesn't matter what it is, Kagome told herself, looking at Inuyasha's determined face, as long as we face it together.