Love Blossoms In Time – Chapter 4: Dancing In The Rain

Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha in any way, shape, or form!

A/N: Hey! I'm back… again! Geez, twice in one day. I'm on a roll! So happy that I got chapter 3 AND chapter 4 up! Like chapter 3 I don't really have anything to say, strangely enough. So, I'll just let you go. Read on and enjoy!

Characters Ages:

Kagome is eleven.

InuYasha is eleven.

Chapter 4

Dancing In The Rain

Sunlight peeked through the pink curtains of Kagome's room, settling in rays over her sleeping form. Wrapped in a cocoon of blankets and warmth, the real world seemed like a myth as she drifted along the lazy river of her dreams.

This serene state was shattered, however, as the lights were flicked on and the blankets ripped off of Kagome's sleeping form. "Time to wake up kiddo!" Her father's loud, booming voice echoed off of the walls.

Drowsily, Kagome groped for her missing blankets, keeping her eyes shut tight the whole time. When she was met with nothing but air, she gave up on her search and instead curled up into a tight ball, waiting for sleep to once again take her.

She had no such luck, though, as her father opened up the curtains, letting sunlight bath over her. "Up and at 'em kiddo!" He said, a little bit louder this time. He made his way over to Kagome's bed and sat on the edge. He then proceeded to shake Kagome awake.

"No!" She groaned, moving to the other side of her bed in a desperate attempt to escape her father's annoying presence.

Her father let out a chuckle, stretching his hand out to continue to shake her. "Come on. You have to go to school." He reasoned with her.

"No I don't wanna go to school!" Kagome argued sleepily. She buried her head in a pillow as she continued to move away from her father.

She kept moving slightly, trying to move away from his hand until finally she came to the end of the bed and fell right off. She let out a quick shriek and landed on the cold floor with a thud.

She looked up at the bed to find her father sitting on it, grinning at her smugly. He had come into her room with a mission; to wake her up, and he had succeeded. Kagome groaned in defeat as she got up and started getting ready for school.

After brushing her teeth, a quick shower, combing her hair, and getting dressed in jeans and a blue long-sleeved shirt, Kagome made her way down to her kitchen for breakfast.

Souta sat shoveling a bowl of some sugary cereal or another into his mouth while her mother and father simply sipped on giant mugs of coffee.

"Morning sunshine." Her father smiled evilly at her as she got herself a bowl, grumbling the whole way. Mrs. Higurashi smiled lovingly at her husband and daughter, amused by their morning behavior.

When Kagome reached for the cereal box that sat in front of Souta he quickly snatched it up, holding it out of her reach. "Souta, give me the cereal." Kagome growled out through clenched teeth. She was NOT a morning person at all.

"I'm reading it!" Souta called. He on the other hand had no problem with mornings, but then again he was young and naive.

"Give me the box!" Kagome grounded out more forcefully this time. Mrs. and Mr. Higurashi stood watching them, ready to diffuse the situation the second things got even slightly out of hand.

"What's the magic word?" Souta asked stubbornly. His ability to be annoying, even this early in the morning, pissed Kagome off to no end.

Kagome took in a deep breath to control herself, knowing that if she attacked her brother she would be the one suffering the consequences, not him.

"Please." She breathed out.

Souta hesitantly handed her back the box. When she had her hand on one side of the box he kept his on the other and asked, "And now?"

Kagome glared at him, but answered all the same. "Thank you."

Souta let go of the cereal box with a smug smile and returned to his bowl of cereal.

Kagome glared daggers at him before helping herself to breakfast. Their parents eyed the two with a glint of amusement in their eyes.

Once breakfast was eaten Kagome and Souta piled into their mother's car.

"It looks like it's gonna rain." Mrs. Higurashi said aloud. "I put umbrellas in both of your bags. Kagome I might be a little late picking you guys up after school. There's a note for your teacher saying so. Stick with your brother, okay?" She told them addressing Kagome directly for the last two sentences.

"Okay." Kagome said. She looked out of the window and had to agree with her mother. The sky was gray and dark, thick ominous clouds stretching across the sky and covering the sun. Even the air had the heavy scent of rain in it.

Kagome was pulled from her thoughts as her mother pulled up in front of their school. With a smile and goodbye kiss, she jumped out of the car and made her way into school, prepared for an uneventful day of learning.

Kagome had been dead on when she had thought the day would be uneventful. Her only relief from the monotone drone of her teacher being lunch when she was able to laugh and joke around with her friends.

Around that time a soft drizzle had started to wet the ground. By the time dismissal rolled around the soft drizzle had worked its way up to a heavy downpour as the rain fell to the ground in thick sheets. Kagome was thankful for the umbrella her mother had packed her as she wandered around the schoolyard. Souta stood a short distance away splashing into puddles while a teacher stood in the entrance of the school, sheltered from the rain, chatting amiably about something to a fellow co-worker, occasionally glancing over at Kagome and Souta to make sure they were okay.

Kagome noticed a person sitting on the other side of the schoolyard sitting on another row of steps that led up to a second entrance to the school. With a quick glance at Souta to make sure he was fine and at the teacher who nodded to her in turn before returning to their conversation, she started her walk over to the person. A few steps later she caught a glimpse of long white hair and immediately knew who the person on the steps was.

"Hey InuYasha." She watched as his dog ears, now wet dog ears, atop his head twitched towards the sound of her voice. They had always fascinated her and she loved to watch them twitch and swivel towards different sounds. They were so cute and soft looking, too, and she always had the urge to touch them whenever they caught her attention.

"Hey Kagome." He responded looking up at her. It was rather difficult with the rain falling in his face. His long, silver hair was soaking wet and plastered to his face. His clothes, also extremely wet, stuck to his skin.

Kagome, noticing he didn't have an umbrella, stepped closer to him so that her own umbrella covered the both of them, or at least majority of the both of them. She sat down next to him on the step, not caring if she got her jeans wet. She shifted a little closer to him once she was seated so that she could be sure that he wasn't getting wet. She was sitting so close to him that their shoulders were touching and a light pink dusted InuYasha's cheeks at their close proximity.

They sat in a comfortable silence, listening to the rain as it pounded down on the sidewalk.

"Why don't you have an umbrella?" Kagome's voice broke the silence, curiosity dripping from it.

"I forgot." InuYasha answered simply with a shrug.

"Oh." Kagome responded in return, letting the silence take them again.

"Ugh! I hate the rain." InuYasha said suddenly. Kagome jumped slightly at the sound of his voice.

"Why?" She asked laughing, finding his attitude slightly amusing. She found it funny how her curiosity was always peaked when he said something.

"Because then you can't do anything." InuYasha sighed, scowling at the rain that surrounded them.

"Yes you can. There's tons of stuff you can do in the rain." Kagome disagreed just for the sake of disagreeing.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" InuYasha challenged, eying her carefully. He didn't move too much not wanting to get any more soaked then he already was. He found it strange how Kagome was so close to him and obviously getting wet because of his soaking clothes and skin, but didn't seem to mind.

"Well... Like... Dancing!" Kagome exclaimed, spitting out the first thing that came into mind.

"Dancing? In the rain?" InuYasha questioned teasingly. His signature smirk was plastered onto his face.

"Yup! Dancing." Kagome nodded her head stubbornly.

"Oh really? Then prove it." InuYasha continued to smirk at her, thinking he was very clever for thinking up such a comeback.

"But... Um... There's no music." Kagome said quickly, not really wanting to dance in the rain, but definitely not wanting to admit she was wrong to InuYasha. She bit her bottom lip nervously.

"Use your imagination." InuYasha told her, shrugging. He knew she was nervous by the way she bit her lip. She was so predictable sometimes.

"But... Um... But..."

"Ha! I knew it! You can't dance in the rain." InuYasha interrupted her. He grinned triumphantly.

"Yes you can! Watch! I'll dance in the rain, if... If... You dance with me!" Kagome said, smiling wickedly at the incredulous look on InuYasha's face.

"What?" He gulped. He switched his gaze from the rain to Kagome's smiling face.

"Unless you're chicken." Kagome teased starting to cluck at InuYasha.

"I'm not chicken." InuYasha growled at Kagome. "Fine. I'll dance with you." He agreed, standing up and taking a few steps away from the steps he was just sitting on and Kagome continued to sit on.

Kagome stared at him wide eyed, not expecting him to say yes. Seeing the cocky smirk on his face and the idea and letting him win was enough motivation for Kagome to stand up and close her umbrella. Without her umbrella as a shield, the rain pounded down on her instantly soaking her. She moved to stand in front of InuYasha and the two simply stood there facing each other for a few moments neither knowing what to do next. Kagome was the first to move as she grabbed InuYasha's wrist and started swaying back and forth. She started humming a tune that InuYasha couldn't put a name to, but sounded familiar enough.

InuYasha intertwined their fingers together unconsciously and took a step toward her, pulling her towards himself before taking a step out and pushing her back out as well. He repeated this, taking slow steps to the side so that as they were taking steps toward each other they were also spinning ever so slightly in a circle.

InuYasha's ears stood at attention paying close attention to Kagome's humming as he kept them in time. Kagome concentrated on humming her little tune and not stepping on InuYasha's feet.

The rain plastered Kagome's hair to her face as she looked down at her feet. She managed to glance up at InuYasha to find him looking at her and smiled a huge, bright smile. She could have sworn she saw his cheeks turn red, but didn't know for sure since he quickly looked down at his feet, suddenly finding them very interesting.

InuYasha and Kagome took one last step towards one another before InuYasha spun her out and back in, their bodies nearly touching as they stood, fingers intertwined, in the rain. Kagome stopped humming and they stood staring at each other for one last moment before pulling away.

"See I told you so." Kagome said, smiling as she looked up at InuYasha, her cheeks stained red.

"Yea." InuYasha breathed, staring at Kagome as though in a trance. He couldn't pull his eyes away from hers.

"I didn't know you could dance." Kagome laughed nervously, rocking back and forth on her heels.

"Neither did I." InuYasha joked.

Kagome laughed kindly at his joke causing him to turn beet red. She smiled at him and was about to say something when the honking of a horn grabbed both their attentions. They both turned to see Mrs. Higurashi pull up in her car, her windshield wipers moving across her windshield in rapidly, trying to keep the rain from them. She waved at Kagome to hurry up as Souta pulled open the door and got into the backseat.

"Do you need a ride?" She asked, already making a move to leave.

"Oh! No... My dad's coming to get me. He should be here soon." InuYasha told her, shaking his head in an attempt to clear his jumbled thoughts.

Kagome eyed him suspiciously before nodding slowly. "Okay, but take this so that you can stay dry… Even though you're already soaked." She thrust the umbrella into his hand, laughing, before running off to her mother's car, quickly jumping in.

InuYasha watched as the car peeled away from the curve and down the road. He slowly looked down at the umbrella with its flower print design. She's such a girl. He thought with a smile, opening up the umbrella and holding it over his head. He slowly walked back over to the step and sat down to wait for his dad.

~In The Car~

Kagome's mother sat on the edge of her seat. She was squinted to see through the heavy rain. "Can you believe this rain?" She questioned her kids incredulously. "It came out of nowhere."

She cast a quick glance in her rearview mirror at Souta and then a sideways glance at Kagome. She had to do a double take at the sight of Kagome completely soaked to the bone. "Why are you all wet? What were you doing?" She asked her daughter, her tone both confused and curious.

"Dancing." Kagome answered simply, dreamily. A small smile crept onto her lips at the thought.

"Dancing? In the rain?" Her mother questioned her suspiciously.

Kagome nodded, her smile growing.

Mrs. Higurashi continued to switch her gaze from the road to her daughter in confusion before finally smiling herself. "You better not get sick." She laughed lightly, shaking her head.

That small smile stayed on Kagome's face for the rest of the day, a similar one could also be found on InuYasha's as they both thought the same thing: Dancing in the rain was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

A/N: Well, there you go! I personally like this chapter. The way her dad woke her up is really how my parents wake me up for school sadly. :( And I love dancing in the rain! If you haven't danced in the rain then you seriously have to and fast because it's the most fun and childish thing you can do while everyone around you is busy growing up. :) Anyways, hope you liked! Thanks to all those who favorited, reviewed, and alerted! It really means a lot to me! Chapter 5 will hopefully be up soon! Until next time!

Also, I will be putting up another story, very soon. By the end of this weekend hopefully so just keep an eye out and check that out

Reviews are greatly appreciated!

Lots of Love,

Runaway Smiles :)