I do not own these characters. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi. They are her babies. She brought them into the world, brought them to us, so we could love them as much as she did. We are grateful, and I know in my heart that if we ever saw her in person, she’d be glomped right to the ground. YAY GLOMPING!

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He was sitting with his back resting against the sacred tree. She had seen him that way many times. He liked to go and think there. She glanced up at the dark sky. The moonless night left the stars looking brighter than ever. They were beautiful, but it wasn’t them she watching. It was him. She couldn’t say it to him, it would only make him mad, but she liked seeing him like that. With his dark hair, and the sword that usually hung at his hip abandoned at Kaede’s hut, she could almost imagine him as what he should be. A teenager, young and untroubled. She could pretend, as much for his sake as for her own, that he was just a boy sitting and thinking. Not a demon, or half demon, not a warrior, not a hero, not anything more than a kid. The kid she knew he had every right to be, but would never get the chance to.

As she watched, he sighed and shifted slightly, making himself more comfortable. His gaze wondered to the branches of the ancient tree looming above him. He could climb that tree if he wanted. He could sit in the branches like he usually did, although usually that took no more than a single leap. Tonight it would be more effort, considerably so. Her eyes searched his face for some hint of his thoughts. She wished she could read his expression. Although his expressive eyes bore intense emotion, several of them in fact, she could not discern his thoughts from them. Her thoughts stuck on them, the dark orbs, and she was surprised by the pang of sadness she felt at the lack of the gold that usually made home there. The gold gave those eyes spark. Although his thoughts were hidden, one emotion was clearly emanated from him, from his darkened eyes, the set of his mouth, the slump of his shoulders. It was something like longing. It was loneliness. He was lonely. She didn’t want him to be lonely.

She didn’t know how long she watched him. In his human form, he couldn’t pick up her scent, couldn’t hear her heart beat. That made it all the easier to spy. As that thought struck her, however, spying seemed to lose its appeal. She didn’t want to watch him from afar any more, she wanted to go and be close to him. Before she could decide to do that, she accidentally stumbled backwards over a root. She didn’t fall, but she did manage a rather audible snapping sound as a twig was obliterated by her flailing feet.

His head snapped up immediately. Though the new moon had dulled his senses, it had not made him forget his knowledge of battle, or his experience with attacks. His hand shot to his side automatically planning to draw his legendary sword, but it wasn’t there, not that it would have done much good had it been in it’s usually place. A moment later it struck him that he was unarmed, and he cursed quietly. He could run. The village wasn’t far. He could make it before whatever lurking in the trees dared to show itself. But he wouldn’t run. He never ran. To run was cowardice, and of all the things he could be accused of, cowardice was not one of them. He stood slowly, and straightened, his back still protected by the tree.

“Who’s there?” he demanded, his nerves, so obvious to her, well masked in his voice, a steady voice, self-assured and certain. “Show yourself!”

Damn. He was onto her. Well, she could slink away she supposed. She really didn’t want to have to admit to her peeping, but she also didn’t want him to be so on edge, or to risk attacking her, thinking that she was a demon. She had no choice.

With a sigh, she emerged from her place behind a near by tree, and waved embarrassedly. At the sight of her, he relaxed visibly, the tension in his shoulders fading away.

“Oh, Kagome, it’s you.” Kagome nodded in response. “What are you doing all the way out here at this hour?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” she retorted. Anything to avoid admitting her antics of the night. What could she say? ‘Oh, I was just sitting here watching you thinking.’ Not likely.

“I asked you first,” he insisted, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Typical Inuyasha, but she wasn’t going to give in. she crossed her own arms in an imitation of stance, making a small ‘hmmph’ noise in the back of her throat.

“So what?” she snapped.

In an uncharacteristic show of compliance, Inuyasha sighed and lowered his arms to his sides. “I…I was just thinking, is all. I come here to do that sometimes. It’s…quiet here.” He ran his hand along the bark of the tree, seemingly unconscious of his actions. “I just needed some time to think, you know, alone. It’s the damned new moon. Always does this to me. That’s why I hate this stupid night. I don’t like being stuck human, weak, once a month, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

A smile crossed Kagome’s lips. “Oh, believe me, I’ve noticed.”

Inuyasha’s face fell into a scowl. “What about you? What are you doing here out at night alone?” Bye, bye smile.

“I…I …” she stuttered, unsure how to answer.

“You what,” he urged her on.

Oh well. The truth wasn’t so bad was it? “I was just…checking on you.”

His scowl changed to a look of mild confusion, mixed, if she wasn’t mistaken, with a bit of annoyance. “Checking on me? What for?”

“No real reason.” she admitted. “I just wanted to see you like this. Make sure you didn’t get yourself into any trouble tonight” She didn’t mention that it was the one night of the month that he was vulnerable and in danger, true as it was. Somehow, she knew he wouldn’t appreciate it.

Seemingly satisfied with her response, Inuyasha settled himself back down beside the tree, and leaned back against it once more. This time, Kagome approached him. He glanced up at her from his position on one of the trees massive roots, but made no move to stop her as she sat down beside him.

“You know Inuyasha, I was just wondering…”

“Oh no, not now. I know what you’re going to say, and no way!”

Kagome snorted. “Oh yeah? What am I going to say then, Mr. I’m-a-psychic-who-knows-everything? Tell me, what was I going to say?”

“You were going to ask me if you could go home for one of those zams you take…”

“Exams, Inuyasha, exams...”

“Whatever they are, you aren’t going back for anther one of those now. You just got back from the last one. It hasn’t even been a week!”

Kagome smiled at him. “Inuyasha, that wasn’t what I was going to say.”

“Oh,” said Inuyasha lamely, his blush visible even in the darkness of the moonless night. “Well, if that wasn’t it, what were you going to say?”

“I was just going to say… I was going to ask you if we could stay out here a bit longer. You know, together. You and me. I mean, we hardly ever get any time just the two of us anymore, and I, well that is to say…” Kagone sighed heavily. “I just kinda miss it.”

“Oh,” said Inuyasha, his blush deepening. He cleared his throat nervously before answering. “Yes, I guess we could stay out here…a bit longer.”

Kagome didn’t answer. Instead, she smiled happily, and shifted position so that she was leaning against him, resting her head against the side of his neck. She felt as he stiffened slightly beneath her at the sudden contact, but then he relaxed, and leaned into her, his head sliding sideways onto the top of hers. She smiled, knowing that he couldn’t see it.

The two of them sat that way for a long time, so long that Kagome drifted off into sleep, sitting there against her protector. Her last coherent thoughts that night, before she drifted off into a sweet sleep filled with dreams of love and feelings of comfort and safety, was of her gratitude to the ancient tree behind her. It was right there, in front of that tree, that Kagome had met Inuyasha. It was there that a part of her life had begun. Granted it was an odd part, and had complicated her life more than she would have thought possible, but it was also a part of her life that had led her to find the most important thing she would ever have. It had led her to love. It had led her to Inuyasha. It was there, before that tree that she had first laid eyes on Inuyasha, and it was there, leaning against him, feeling his breathing become slow and steady as he drifted off to sleep beside her, that she realized that she would never leave him. She would never want to. It was there, before that ancient and amazing tree that she had found her home.

God, did she love that tree.

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