Just a lil' drabble that I hope entertains you all. ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha…as if we all didn't know that already.

The Power of "Please"

"No," InuYasha replied curtly.

"Please?" Kagome persisted, clasping her hands together imploringly.

"Not happenin'!" InuYasha snapped irritably.

Kagome pouted prettily and looked up at him with sparkling eyes. InuYasha folded his arms over his chest and resolutely scowled at her.

"Keh, that won't work on me," he scoffed.

When he failed to crack, Kagome switched tactics on him.

"Please?" she tried again, gentling her voice to an almost purr.

InuYasha felt heat rising up his neck, but he would not allow her to manipulate him. He was a hanyou, immovable and stubborn. A pair of sparkling doe eyes weren't going to render him weak and acquiescent. No matter how pretty the face attached to them was.

Just to be on the safe side, he pivoted on his heel and turned his back to her.

"Bug off wench," he snapped, realizing with alarm that his voice cracked a bit.

Kagome was just as stubborn as he was, but she knew how to get her way. She narrowed her eyes and smiled deviously at his exposed back.

Guess we're doing this the hard way, she thought.

Kagome took a deep breath and used the last weapon of leverage she had. It was a dirty, under-handed trick, but it never failed her. She stepped closer and leaned in so that her body was mere inches from his.

"I'll bring back ramen," she promised in a sing-song voice to his back.

InuYasha's ears twitched, but he was craftier than she gave him credit for. He looked over his shoulder and quirked a brow at her.

"That supposed to change my mind?" he asked loftily. "You can do better," he challenged her with a knowing smirk.

Kagome blinked uncomprehendingly and wondered what else she was supposed to bribe him with. If ramen didn't work, nothing would. Part of their bartering game was that, each time she wanted to go home, she had to come up with something new to bargain with. Ramen served her well for a long time, much longer than the procession of other snacks she tried. What else could she try to sway the stubborn hanyou?

That smirk, she puzzled, trying to fit his cryptic words and signature smirk together. What does he mean by 'you can do better?'

Then his last words sank in and their meaning sent her thoughts stumbling. You can do better, he'd said. That sneaky hanyou was teasing her! Though she marveled at the rare show of playfulness, that competitive streak in her kicked into high gear.

I can do better, eh? she thought, the devious gears in her mind spinning madly. I'll show you.

InuYasha watched her expressive face shift from confusion to surprise and did a complete 180 degree turn as an impish grin spread across her mouth. Curiosity and suspicion narrowed his golden eyes, but he realized he was neck-deep in trouble just a little too late. Kagome forcibly spun him around to face her and she delighted in his comically alarmed expression. Without warning, she pounced, throwing her arms around his torso.

"Please, please, please, pleeeease?" Kagome whined, squeezing him a little tighter and rubbing her cheek up and down over his chest to punctuate each syllable.

For a few moments of blind shock, the hanyou blushed furiously and held his clawed hands up in front of him, unsure of what to do with them. The hanyou could do nothing because his body was completely frozen, stunned to immobility. He couldn't move, couldn't speak and he could barely drag in a few shallow breaths. His blood rushed in his ears, roaring so loud he was deaf to all else.

"Ka-gome?" he practically squeaked.

If he could've heard himself, he'd have been sickened by his wobbly, high-pitched voice. As it was, he couldn't, but Kagome did.

Gotcha, she thought with a triumphant smirk that was hidden against his fire-rat robe.

Kagome reminded herself that an un-interrupted week back home was on the line and she sobered instantly. She schooled her features and then slowly lifted her face. Her eyes glimmered with shy innocence and she stared at him as though he'd hung the moon.

All at once, a barrage of sensations slammed into his senses. His heart leapt and whooped with giddy delight while simultaneously violently cursing for him to return her embrace.

It was then that Kagome struck.

"InuYasha?" she probed sweetly, shyly. "May I?"

The hanyou hadn't a clue what it was she was asking for, but when she was looking at him like that, she could ask for Tetsusaiga and he'd gladly hand it over. Those big doe eyes were gonna get him into a lot of trouble one of these days.

"S-sure," InuYasha sputtered, answering her vague question.

Kagome sprang away from him with a happy little cheer and grabbed her backpack before he could change his mind. She slipped her arms into the shoulder straps and gave a little bounce to settle the weight comfortably.

When her alluring spell had been withdrawn, the hanyou's senses instantly returned to him and he belatedly realized that he'd been tricked.

InuYasha's ears drooped and he couldn't help the yearning that threaded through him as he watched her. He felt bereft and cast off, as if she'd just played his own emotions against him. Suddenly, Kagome turned and walked back to him with a sweet smile curling her lips. Without preamble, she rose up on her tiptoes and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek as a means of apologizing.

While the hanyou's thoughts were stumbling over one another, Kagome bashfully made a hasty retreat.

Roughly five minutes later, she was merrily waving goodbye to her Sengoku Jidai friends and InuYasha was still rooted to the same spot, dumbfounded and grinning like a fool.

"Please" was a powerful word indeed.