~ ~ ~

“Eeep!” Kagome let loose a horrified squeal as the youkai went down. “Inuyasha, it’s gross! Kill it!”

He gaped at her in disbelief. “I just did, wench!”

“Oh.” Dampened for a moment she determined not to let it get her down and tried again. “Ew, it’s gross,” she said, sidling up to him and turning her head into his shoulder. “I don’t want to look at it.”

Inuyasha just looked at her like she’d sprouted a third head. “What the hell you talking about? You used to stick your hands inside dead youkai to pull out Shikon shards and now you’re having trouble looking at one?”

She pulled back just far enough to glare at him. “C’mon, the least you could do is play along.”

He looked stumped, muttering smartly, “Huh?”

With a long-suffering sigh she explained, “It’s October 31st, silly. Halloween? We don’t have any haunted houses but I figured a youkai battle is much more realistic anyhow.” Heavens knew he’d watched enough horror flicks with Souta but his blank stare had her giving up hope that he’d picked up the other nuances of the holiday while in her time.

“This is the part where the girl gets scared and clings to the guy, begging for protection from the big, scary monsters.”

He perked at that. “Really, begging? I think I could go along with that.”

One brow lifted archly and he stifled a snicker, aiming for the seriousness she was giving to this endeavor. “Well, let’s try again then, shall we?” she asked.

At his nod she backed up slightly and stared at the eviscerated youkai at their feet, clutching her stomach and looking a little queasy. “Eep!” she squeaked again as she edged toward him, latching onto his arm with a fervent intensity when she finally bumped into him. “Save me from the gross, evil thingy.”

He had to work hard to hold in a chortle at Kagome’s horrible acting but he’d learned that laughing at her didn’t put her in the best mood and even he could see the possibility for this to turn into something good.

“Don’t worry,” he said, shifting his body so he stood between her and the youkai, draping himself protectively around her, taking up her entire field of vision. “I’ll protect you from the evil, dead, ‘thingy’.”

He couldn’t fight a growing smirk but then neither, it seemed, could she. “But it’s so horrible, I don’t think I’ll ever get the image out of my mind. You’ll have to do something to help me forget.”

“Oh, I bet I could think of something.”

When he moved to close the distance between them she held up a hand to his chest. “You couldn’t possibly be thinking of doing anything here, could you?”

“I dunno…could get you squeamish all over again and then we could have a repeat…”

She batted him playfully and he swept her up, enjoying the sound of her laughter as he carried her away.

~ ~ ~

Words: 495
Theme: Squeamish