". . . yasha . . ."
"Huh? She's dreaming about me?" A grin spread across his face. "I'll be back tomorrow, Kagome." With that, he crawled onto the balcony, closing the window behind him.
Back inside the room, Kagome was finishing her dream.
"...why did you go to her, Inuyasha? Why?........." the smile turned to a frown. Kagome sat up strait, clutching the blankets to her. "What was I dreaming about?" she wondered. "And how did I get to bed?" (A/N: this is the night before Kagome goes on the bike trip; when Inuyasha first goes through the well...she doesn't remember the dream when she wakes up the next morning)
* * * * * * * * * *
"I can't believe that we forgot about the carnival! This was such a good idea, Ayumi," Yuka said, leading the group to the nearing festival. They could see the tips of the rides drawing closer with each rotation of the pedals. "There it is!"
"Wow. This is ever better than last year's festival! There are a lot more rides," Eri noted as the teenagers pulled into the parking lot. Hojo found a bike rack and soon the bikes were secured, not to be taken anywhere.
Well, let's go!" Kagome was bursting with excitement. She had missed the carnival last year, occupied with fighting a water demon that had two shards. They all went to the ticket window and each bought five ride tickets. "What should we do first?" There was a seemingly endless array of activities: games, food, a ferris wheel, go carts, bumper cars..
"Let's go on the ferris wheel. That way we can see everything there is to do." Everyone agreed with Hojo's suggestion and dashed off to join the growing line at the ferris wheel. After a brief waiting time, the line began to move and people filed into the waiting seats. Yuka, Eri and Ayumi claimed one basket, leaving Kagome with Hojo. Eri just grinned and waved, but Ayumi shot Kagome a sympathetic smile.
'At least someone understands that I don't like him. I wish Yuka and Eri would stop trying to set us up.' She looked at Hojo who was smiling broadly and waving back to Eri. 'Poor Hojo. He just doesn't get it!' The ride jolted to a start and Kagome was thrown out of her thoughts. "Oww," she said, rubbing her sore head that had just hit the hard backing of the seat..
"Are you alright?" a concerned Hojo asked.
"I'm fine." The remaining ride to the top was uneventful. The wheel slowed to a stop and the pair turned to the side of the basket. "Wow, look at all this stuff!"
"It's great, isn't it? Too bad you couldn't come last year. We had a lot of fun. But your asthma was really bad that day."
*gulp*
'Jii-chan...' "Yeah, too bad." The ride continued and Kagome and Hojo finished the ride in silence. "Who's up for bumper cars?" The building had caught her attention when she was up in the air. Besides, what better way for her to get back at her friends for leaving her with Hojo. They were going to pay...She took off in the direction of the cars and beat her friends to the line. They followed, panting as if they had just run a mile.
"Kagome, how *pant* did you *pant* learn to run *pant* that fast?" Eri clutched the line bar with the last word.
"Umm...." 'Well you see, I've actually been fighting demons these past few years, and have had to run away more times than I can count and a half- demon pushes us to walk unreasonable amounts each day and...' "I've just tried to stay in shape when I haven't been sick." Her friends accepted this lame lie quickly enough as Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. They had soon recovered and were ready to go. Their turn came and each of them piled into separate cars, much to Kagome's relief. The cars were activated and the war began. Kagome was the undeclared champ. She attacked everyone in range. By the end of the game, they had been hit so many times that they lost count. She was about to go after Yuka again when the ride ended and her car lost its power. "What's wrong? Can't take a little competition?" she taunted. Laughing, she led the way out of the ride and into the fresh air.