Aww. Poor grandpa...

Hope you didn't forget about the envelope Naraku gave Inu...If you did, well, you might want to look into getting some help, I mean that was only like two chapters ago....

Anywho, let's see what's inside and how Shiori will react.

Just a note, this is the week before Kagome's birthday (which is on a friday). This is when things really start getting turned upside down. I know you'll love the end of this rather short chapter. But the next two are awesome and packed with sexual tension.! I so love sexual tension!!

Hope you like!

Ja ne!

~Sabichan~

**I POV**

(sorry I made Inuyasha the Point of view nazi...)

"Inu? You're home early?" My mother eagerly approached me as I entered our apartment.

It was eight twenty. `I shouldn't have run here'

"Yeah...Naraku stopped by the mailroom...He umm...told me to take the rest of the night off...and to give you this."

I held the envelope out to her with a shaky hand. For a moment she just stared at it. I did my best not to look at her, but I finally gave in. She was in shock.

"What...what is it?"

"He said it's an.. invitation."

"For who?" I rolled my eyes.

"For you, Mom."

"Huh? Why would it be for m-"

"Just open it already!" I said a little more harshly than I had intended. She winced at the sound of my voice and I lowered my voice." Do you want me to open it for you?"

She nodded and we sat back down on the couch together. I ripped it open and pulled out the paper inside.

"Could you read it to me, Inu?"

"Do I have to?"

"Please?" I sighed in defeat and cleared my throat.

"My dearest Shiori, How long it has been since I was last graced with your presence or captivated by your unrivaled beaut-do I HAVE to read this?!" I felt like I was gonna be sick.

"No, I guess it's more personal than I expected. Go ahead, I have dinner on the stove."

I gratefully walked away and sat down in the kitchen for dinner alone. We rarely ate at the same time. Today was no different.

But tonight had been. There was no doubt that snapping at my mother had been brought on by such a disruption in my routine. Kagome was changing things, changing me. I had found my patience with my mother's miserable state to be dwindling fast. And I couldn't help but wonder if that was such a bad thing....

"Inu?" She called to me as she walked into the kitchen. She sat down across from me, a confused expression on her face.

"What?"

"Did he tell what this was for?"

"He said it was an invitation to some charity ball. That was really it. Why?"

"That's not all it's for."

She suddenly slid a check across the table to me. It was blank.

"What....Why did he give you this?"

"He said its for me to prepare myself for the night with. He wants me to look my best."

I wanted to tear it to pieces, right then and there. Just as I was about to snatch it up, she did the last thing I ever expected her to do.

She smiled.

"How very kind of him! To invite me to such a prestigious affair and even to help me get ready for it. Oh, I'd almost forgotten his generosity!"

I stared at her, my jaw hanging open, eyes wide in shock. She glanced up at me and frowned.

"Inuyasha, close your mouth when you're chewing."

My jaw dropped even lower. My mother hadn't called me by my full name for at least a year.

"Mom...are you okay?"

"Yes, why? Do I look sick? I hope I'm not getting sick. The ball is this Friday!" She went about feeling her own forehead with the back of her hand.

"You're Going?!" She looked at me as if I'd just asked her if the sky was blue.

"Well, of course I am. What a silly question."

"WHAT?!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. She was going?! "Why? Why are you going?"

"I haven't gone out in months, Inu. And Naraku, well I haven't seen him in so long. I feel so rude for losing touch with him when he and I used to be so close. It's been almost a year since we last spoke. I wonder what made him want to invite me?"

"Because he-" I shut my mouth before I said something I would regret. She jumped right on my back about it though.

"He what? Inu, he's a good friend of ours. He gave you a job, gives us a discount on our rent here. He's always been good to us. I can't turn this down. It would be unforgivable."

Unforgivable. That word rung in my ears for the rest of the night. Even as I laid awake in bed, staring at my ceiling, turning the whole situation over and over in my head. My mother had checked out. She was insane. This time, she was really gone.

I could take the crying, and the nightmares, and the suffocating rule she had over my life for the past eight years. But this was too much. She was going out with the one person I hated the most in the world. And the worst part, was that she looked...so happy.

Something neither I nor Faye and Mushin had accomplished ourselves. The man who had ruined her life in the first place had just made her unbelievable happy.

Talk about irony.

I rubbed my temples, trying to think of something else. Anything else.

Suddenly Kagome's smiling face popped into my head, which in turn brought a smile to my own.

I thought about her deep brown eyes, raven hair, ivory skin. How cute she looked when she was confused. Her angelic voice, how heavenly it sounded when she said my name. Her pouty pink lips, her graceful swanlike neck, her full, rounded brea-

"WHOAH." I suddenly sat straight up in bed. "Where the hell did that come from?" I muttered.

Still, I couldn't shake my train of thought. She was so perfect! She was well endowed. Her narrow waist that flared out to slim hips, and those long legs that seemed to go on forever...

"I've been around Miroku too long...."

But I wasn't sorry for my thoughts. Kagome must have some idea of how beautiful she was. She must realize the effect she had on men. I was male and I was no different.

I had wanted so badly to do something tonight. To make some kind of move.

But the timing wasn't right. She just wasn't ready for anything like that. 'But I can dream, can't I?'

So I kept thinking, and imagining what it would be like to kiss her, to touch her, to taste her. To feel her satiny skin with my calloused hands. To be inside of her.

My thoughts obviously prompted a physical response, and what a response. I don't think I'd ever been as aroused as I was then. Just thinking about making love to Kagome, to hear her calling my name, to bury my head in the crook of her neck as I thrust into her, sent involuntary shivers through my entire body.

`Oh Gods...'

I didn't give in to my urges until sometime around three am. It was not something I did all that often, but tonight seemed very necessary. Afterwards, as I lay there calming my breathing, I realized something. And it thrilled me and scared the shit out of me all at the same time. But there was no longer any denying it.

Simply being friends with Kagome...was no longer enough...

I was falling in love with her.

AWWW!!!

...

wait a second, did he just ja-oh...he did huh?

Shame shame shame! What a dirty little boy...well now that he knows what he really feels for Kagome, it's gonna be a lot harder for him to look at her the same way.

Sorry again about the short chapter. Read on!