Disclaimer: You honestly think I'm a little, old Japanese woman?

A/N: Inspired by an icon I saw on LiveJournal. :D Dedicated to Aithril, who's patience over the years as my beta has been more than helpful. She's brought my writing out of the 'Hi guys, this iz my 1st fanfiction, so be nice!! Lolz!1' realm into what it is today. Not that I'm exactly winning any literary greatness awards, but still. Have you seen my old stuff?

So this one is for you, Sporkykins! Hope you won't be cringing too much. :P

A String of Absurdities

By: SunshineandDaisys

He always wore that brown tortoise-shell belt buckle. And it never matched anything else in his wardrobe, which must have consisted entirely of long-sleeved button downs and dress slacks. Oh, and that t-shirt she saw him wearing once at the grocery store that said, "I'm a blood donor!" in faded red letters. He'd been wearing that with ancient gray sweat pants, which she distinctly remembered had procured the image of a maybe twenty years younger version of the man in spandex, dancing to a Richard Simmons VHS.

Kagome shuddered and blinked back into consciousness. God, would this lecture ever end? She loved learning, she really did, but today she was impatient. Stalin and Mussolini were nothing compared to the horrors that awaited her in Inuyasha's time, anyhow.

She glanced to the clock. 'Fifteen more minutes.' She groaned internally.

"And next Tuesday we'll continue from here, class. Have a great weekend." Mr. Furuki smiled and tapped the stack of papers in his hands against the desk a few times to straighten them. The majority of the class was gone by the time he was filing them away. Actually, everyone but Kagome.

With a loud thud lost in the noise of the class shuffling out, the bottom of her well-worn backpack had just fallen through, successfully creating the biggest mess of paper and highlighters she had ever seen in her life. 'That's what I get for never fully cleaning it out', she thought as she stared incredulously at her misfortune.

"Miss Higurashi?" Mr. Furuki said suddenly, somewhat startled to find he still had a student in the room. "Is everything--oh, dear. Do you want some help carrying those to your vehicle?"

Kagome ran a hand through her hair, exhaling loudly before giving him a smile. "Yes, please. That would be excellent."

After disposing of the wadded up notes and bits of trash - including a ramen wrapper she'd chuckled at - the pair hauled the rest of her textbooks and notebooks out to her mother's Toyota. Kagome fumbled for her keys as they walked, managing to press the 'unlock' button so Mr. Furuki could set his stack neatly in her backseat.

"Terribly sorry about your bag, Miss Higurashi."

"Oh," Kagome tossed her armful haphazardly in the general direction of her seat. "It's not your fault at all."

"All the same." He waved. "See you on Tuesday."

"Yeah." She smiled, again, but with feeling this time as she hopped into her front seat and started the car. Finally! Finally she was done with her first week back in class. Finally she was going back to him.

After spending the majority of her summer break gallivanting off in Feudal Japan, modern-day life was hard to cope with. If it wasn't a car alarm going off until 2 AM, it was a news broadcast about lead paint in her Cheerios. The dismal turn the weather had taken wasn't helping matters much. As a mud-crusted tow-truck cut her off in the turning lane, causing her to miss the green arrow and wait for an extra five minutes, Kagome wondered why she even bothered coming back at all.

A few months ago she was lying out on those undisturbed hills, feeling the sun warm her skin, and knowing Inuyasha was less than a forearm away because his hair was tickling her shoulder. She was listening to him laugh when she told him it was; explaining her squirming. Feeling him slide the back of his hand down her arm. Seeing the shadows he made when he leaned over her, and tasting his mouth when he whispered his apology against her lips.

A happiness more simple, she could never define.

Kagome continued contrasting her two lives for the entire twenty-minute ride home, thoroughly disheartened by the time she stomped through the front door. Her mother looked up from the crossword she was working on the couch.

"Where is your bag?"

"The bottom fell through when I picked it up after class." Kagome was hastily removing her muddy flats on the rug. "It's remains are in my passenger seat."

"Hmm..." Ms. Higurashi had the decency to fake a sad face for her daughter. "Shame. You've only had it for... six years now?"

Kagome nodded and grunted non-committally, making her way rather quickly to the stairs.

"You're in such a hurry, Kagome!" Her mother's voice floated after her. "Can't imagine what would be better than visiting with your decrepit old mother...!"

The dark-haired miko backtracked enough to stick her head back into the living room. "Mother, you know very well that I will talk with you all you want... tomorrow."

The older woman turned back to her crossword with a smirk. "Oh, I know Kagome. I just hope you two aren't being irresponsible--"

Kagome's cheeks flushed with color. "Mom! We're not! I swear! You know I've just finally gotten him to kiss me... sometimes!" She stared at the woman on the couch for a moment longer. When all she got was a, "What's a three letter word for an electrical unit?", she huffed and stormed back up to the second floor.

She muttered to herself as she swiped an elastic from her desk and threw her hair up into a ponytail. "We really aren't, geez." It wasn't like she could really blame her for thinking it - after all, they were whole centuries away. But she and Inuyasha weren't like that. Feudal Japan wasn't like that. And she really had just convinced him it was alright to kiss her, if he should feel the need, want, or desire to do so.

"Who's not what?" Inuyasha's voice startled Kagome enough that she almost fell over, whirling around and clutching the desk behind her for balance. The white-haired male of her earlier musings was sitting on the edge of her bed, one leg crossed beneath him and the other dangling off the side, a guidebook for Egypt in his hands. The book had been a gift from her mother; "Look how long they've been around, Inuyasha! Recognize that year?"

Thank God he hadn't suggested a trip to Africa to anyone in the past. Yet.

"You're in my room!" Kagome exclaimed, cheeks turning pink for the second time in the past five minutes.

Inuyasha's lips twitched, almost like he wanted to smirk, but couldn't quite bring himself to. "Yeah, well, you leave that window open all the time so I'm only guessin' it's for me...?"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "No, Inuyasha, it's for the paper boy."

Inuyasha stuck out his tongue briefly, going back to his book. "That's what Souta keeps tellin' me..." he muttered.

Kagome drummed her nails on the desk for a moment, staring at her something-like-a-boyfriend, wondering exactly how long he'd been in here. One furry, white ear flicked of it's own accord, telling her he knew she was staring. But he refused to look up, uncharacteristically interested in the glossy pictures of camels. An annoyingly sing-song voice in her head was starting to say that her mother had known he was up here when she'd started that line of conver....sa....tion. Oh, snap.

"Sooo, Inuyasha," she began, slanting her vision to the carpet. "Has mom said anything to you about what we're having for dinner?"

"Chicken-something, with rice." He still wasn't looking at her, opting to turn the page instead.

'She did know he was here! She'd spoken with him! Arrgghh!'

"Oh, that's nice. Excuse me." Kagome walked over to her doorway, leaned out, and yelled, "Thanks a lot, mom! Well played!"

Ms. Higurashi's laugh echoed back to them, and Kagome frowned, purposely shutting the door loud enough for her mother to hear. Inuyasha's sharp ears heard the laughter halt, and then go on again in a quiet giggle.

"What was that for?" He inquired, amber eyes finally meeting brown.

"Oh, like you don't know." Kagome walked over to the bed, hesitating for a moment before sitting in front of the hanyou. "It's completely obvious you heard what I said before."

Inuyasha looked back to his book. "I really have no idea--" Kagome grabbed the book from his hands and chucked it behind her. "--hey! What the hell was that... hey!"

Inuyasha didn't really know how it had happened. One minute he was sitting upright, the next he was flat on his back with Kagome leaning over him, big fluffy pillows rising up on either side of him. She didn't look so much angry as worried, possibly just frustrated at something. A few strands of dark hair came loose from her ponytail, framing her disgruntled expression. Inuyasha had always liked how she kept her hair down. Whenever she wore it up it was irritating. Kind of like now.

"Look, it just... bugs me... okay?" he halfway explained as he reached up to tug the elastic from her head. Kagome blinked as her hair came tumbling down. A beat of silence passed. Suddenly, a burble of laughter escaped her lips. It was Inuyasha's turn to stare.

"What is wrong with you?!" She exclaimed, falling to his right side, still giggling.

"More like, what is wrong with you?!"

Her laughter stopped on a dime, a thoughtful look coming over her features. "You know," she said into his shoulder. "My backpack busted today."

"So I heard."

"Yeah. Yeah I know you heard." The angled trajectory of her glare didn't lessen its impact in the slightest.

The hanyou winced. "Do you really tell your mother everything?"

"Inuyasha, if my mother knew everything that went on in the past, she would probably never let me go back. Half-demon bodyguard or not, some of that stuff Naraku used to throw at us was maaajorly scary."

"No. I meant... about us."

Us. Somehow, in the context, the word coming from him took on greater meaning. Yeah, sure, Kagome had referred to them as a couple before. At first because it was easier, then to ward off Hojo, then to gross out Souta... The list of excuses became long enough to justify it. Then the kisses had started. The incessant need to touch each other, hold the other one's hand, say 'goodnight' a little more intimately. Even Kouga had noticed the change, and to her astonishment, had backed off.

But even with all of that, Kagome hadn't dared say the word "us" around Inuyasha. She'd always expected his reaction to be, well, a reaction. For him to just say it, with so much certitude, in her bedroom, to her face... She hadn't even been able to do that.

"Well, no. Not everything." Kagome absently began doodling on Inuyasha's arm with her pointer finger, her heart humming in elation. "I definitely didn't tell her about our little swimming excursion last month in the river."

"Heh. That's uh, that's probably a good thing." The hanyou began to squirm a little. Kagome fought back the urge to grin.

"Or about that time you grabbed me behind Kaede's hut." Her fingers traced longer lines on his forearm, a little further into his sleeve.

"Right..." More squirming.

"Oh. And I promise that I won't bring up that night you and I cuddled in the tree." Just an inch below the crease of his elbow this time.

Squirm squirm. Squirmitty-squirmitty, squirm-squirm.

The miko paused, glancing at the ceiling. Inuyasha visibly relaxed. That lasted approximately .3 seconds. "Plus that one time--'

"Dammit, woman!" Inuyasha growled, grabbing her hand roughly. "Cut it out!"

Kagome stared back at him innocently. "What? Are you embarrassed?"

Red was slowly creeping over the half-demon's face. "No! That just tic--itches!"

"You have ticks?"

Inuyasha glared at the giggling girl. "You know what I said."

"You have Tourrettes?"

"Oh, for the love of..." He threw his hands in the air. "It tickled, Kagome! It tickled. Happy?"

"You do have Tourrettes!"

Inuyasha slumped backward into the pillows on her bed, the pale pink lace of her pillow cases dampening any effect his glower might have had otherwise. With a laugh, the triumphant teenage girl crawled over him, purposely running her fingers up his arm again in the motion. His lips parted to protest, but she dipped her head down to touch them with her own. Lightly. Just enough pressure to silence him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered her apology with a smile. "I really love you, you know that?"

"Yeah," strong fingers laced into her hair, cradling the back of her head, pulling her downward. "I really love you too, Kagome."

"Mmm." For being the most romantically challenged individual she'd ever met, Inuyasha sure knew how to kiss her. It was almost hard to believe that two people so stubborn could be so good together. As a couple. As an 'us'.

"Hey Inuyasha!" Souta banged his way through the doorway without knocking. "Wanna play a round of - oh God, eww! What will I tell the paper boy now?!"

Kagome, refusing to end a perfectly good kiss, groped around behind her for a moment before locating the forgotten guidebook. She flung it like a frisbee at her brother, who yelped and leapt back into the hallway. "Like I wanted to watch that!" At least he had the decency to shut the door behind him.

"Heey--" Inuyasha began to protest the careless misuse of his book, but Kagome silenced him with another kiss.

He wouldn't be getting away for a while.

A/N: Can you dig it? :D