Inu-Yasha rarely smiled; the closest thing Kagome had seen to a grin or a smile were his smirks, which didn’t count. Frowns, fear, indifference, sadness, surprise, determination, anger – she’d seen all that…but smiles…she didn’t know what he looked like when he smiled. It shouldn’t have been important, but for some reason she couldn’t put a name to, the fact that she hadn’t seen him smile, openly and happily at her, was a serious sore point.

“Kagome?” a voice called.

The world snapped back into focus, although her thoughts stayed with her. “What is it, Sota?” she shouted back distractedly.

“Mom’s going to the market. She wants to know if you need anything.”

“Not right now,” she answered.

As soon as Sota left, she looked down at the homework in front of her, and grimaced. She hated math.

Buyo, who was sleeping comfortably on her bed, let out an unexpected wail and stalked toward the window. Kagome glanced in the direction of the window, and saw a figure clothed in red, with long, white hair, sitting comfortably on the sill. His golden eyes glittered in the moonlight, and a halo of silver lit up his hair, making him appear even less human than normal.

“Inu-Yasha…?” she asked, confused.

He snorted and crossed his arms in front of him, looking extremely sullen. “You forgot.”

“…Forgot what?” she asked, even more confused than before.

“You were supposed to come back this afternoon,” he pointed out dryly.

Memory hit in a flash, and she blushed embarrassedly as she looked down at the ground. “There were a lot of tests to study for, and in the rush…I forgot. Sorry…”

He sighed, and shook his head. “There’s no point of you going back today; we’re all going to sleep soon. I may as well pick you up in the morning,” he grumbled, obviously irritated. He turned around on the sill with perfect balance, so his back was to her, and threw one last, parting comment. “See you tomorrow, Kagome.”

“Wait!” she called desperately, although she wasn’t sure why. When he did as he was told, and indeed waited, still poised to leap from her window, she gulped. Her thoughts raced as she tried to recall from her frozen memory what it was she still wanted to do…

When she didn’t speak for several moments, he got impatient and demanded, “Well?”

She gulped again, blushed, and shook her head. “Nothing.”

He grumbled again under his breath, muttering things she couldn’t quite make out, and turned back around. “Spit it out,” he stated crossly.

Kagome walked closer to him, till she was practically nose-to-nose, and stared boldly into his face. Her eyes held a determination he’d only seen when she was threatening demons. A trickle of sweat worked it’s way down his neck…

Suddenly, she stood on tip-toe and gave him a small kiss on the right side of his cheek.

Smiling happily up at him, she backed up a few steps, while all Inu-Yasha could do was stare at her with a dumb-founded expression on his face. “I just wanted to say goodnight,” she admitted.

Now a blush stained his cheeks, and as quickly as he could, he jumped away. Only once he was back in his own time, lounging against the back of a tree for the night, did he allow himself to think more about Kagome’s last action.

And there, where no one could see his face…

…he smiled.