Buried Treasure by Alaksandra

The decision has been made

Kagome put her textbook down; she couldn't concentrate on her homework. She glanced around the campfire. Miroku sat across from Sango as she polished her giant boomerang and talked about their latest encounter with Naraku. Shippo was sitting with Kagome on her sleeping bag looking at the latest picture book she got for him from the store. Her seventeenth birthday was four days ago and she celebrated quietly with her family. Inuyasha let her go home without a fight, but soon followed her to eat some of her birthday cake. Her mom was kind enough to make a second cake for her to bring back to the feudal age to share with her friends there. Everyone stayed up late in Kaede's hut eating chocolate cake and drinking root beer. It was the best birthday she had in a long time. With a deep sigh she looked up into the tree she was under. Might as well do it now, she thought.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome stood up. "Can I speak to you, please?"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and all eyes were on her. "What?" Inuyasha soundlessly appeared behind her.

"I need to speak to you."

"Isn't that what we're doing?" he said with a smirk.

"Cut it out," she glared at him. "This is important. Alone, please?"

"Whatever," he started to walk away from her then stopped, "well, are you coming?"

"Yeah," she hurried after him. They walked for about ten minutes and they came to an outcropping of boulders. The moon was full and everything around them was bathed in blue light. Kagome wiped her sweaty palms on her green skirt and took a deep breath. Inuyasha could smell that she was nervous. "Uh, you see..." she faltered and looked at her feet.

Impatiently he said, "See what?" "Okay, I'm going to say it now and get it over with. Now I don't want any interruptions, got it?"

"Whatever, get on with it woman." "Uh, when we first met you tried to kill me because you wanted the Shikon no Tama. Thanks to Kaede's rosary you didn't. Oh, and I'll get to that in just a minute. You hated me and I didn't trust you, but it all eventually changed. You now tolerate me and I now trust you. With out getting into a history lesson and to make a long story short: I had crush on you. What that means is that I really, really liked you. Many times these past two years I thought I had fallen in love with you. Whenever Kikyo came around I would get hurt. Now things have changed in me. I am clear now with my own feelings and thoughts; I can make sense of the mess of emotions that I get." Kagome paused, looked at him and took his hands in her with a big smile. "I do love you, Inuyasha, and you mean so much to me – that wont change. But this love isn't the love that I originally thought it to be. I thought it meant that I wanted to one day be your mate and you to feel the same about me. I love you as a friend, and I like to think that we are friends. I really don't want our relationship to be anything else but that. I needed to be honest with myself. I needed to tell you how I really feel so that you will understand the changes that you've seen in me."

Inuyasha couldn't believe his ears. Did she just say that she loves me? As a friend? He looked down at their clasped hands and back at her bright smile. Her scent is much more calmed now and he was able to pick up the smell of her strawberry soap. The look in her eyes told him that she wanted a reply. "Kagome, I had no idea. I don't know what to say."

With a side grin, "Well, of course you wouldn't have a clue, silly. I hid it from you and myself. From now on do we have a clean slate? Start all over again?"

He looked down at the young miko and grinned, "Can we still fight?"

Kagome let out a big laugh and gave him the biggest hug her small frame could muster. "Sure, why not? Isn't that what we are famous for?" She felt his shoulders relaxed and he squeezed her back. Something cool touched her cheek and she realized she forgot something. "Oh my gosh, I completely forgot!"

"What?"

She pulled back a little from him and her face was serious, "I still trust you with my life. I trust you to not hurt our friends no matter how annoying they may get to you." Her hands move from his sides to the front of his shoulders. Her brown eyes locked to his gold ones. "We may fight. We will disagree. I just don't think we need this anymore."

Eyes widen on the hanyou when he realized she pulled the rosary over his head. Kagome let the necklace of black pearls and fangs dangle from her finger. "Why don't we give this back to Kaede?"

Inuyasha couldn't believe it; this was too much for him to take in at once. He brought his hands up to the sides of her face, and kissed her firmly then pulled away. There were tears that were threatening to spill from his eyes. "Thank you," he whispered to a blushing Kagome.

"I have one request." She stepped back from him.

"What?"

"Can I go home for a little while?" she pleaded. "It will only be for a few days. Understand that there is some stuff a girl needs to do when there is a major change in her life. Believe me this is a major change; it's complicated."

He brought his hand up to scratch his head, "Um, whatever. Just a few days, right?"

"Yup," she said happily, "let's go back and get some rest. This talk I've wanted to have with you since my birthday is finally over. Now I can sleep easily. I can't believe it took so long for me to figure out how I feel about you."

Well, at least you are clear on how you feel about me, he thought, but how do I feel about you?