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"Well, Higurashi, I was going to leave, but while I was walking out I saw that you'd dropped your notebook while we were talking by that tree. You know, it was probably when that big branch almost fell on me. You did look pretty shaken up, Higurashi......"

That got him a glare from Kagome. He looked away with a muttered, "Keh!"

Hojo shifted Kagome's school bag from one skinny shoulder to the other, "...so I went to the well-house to give it back to you," Hojo's voice went from nervous to earnest, "and I heard voices! It sounded like you were having an argument with someone," he gestured to Inuyasha. "I guess that was him----"

/Talking about me like I'm not standing right here/. Inuyasha's eyes narrowed.

"----and when I opened the door I guess I saw you from the back," he looked at Inuyasha again, this time managing something like a friendly smile. Inuyasha cocked an unimpressed eyebrow. "But I didn't see you anywhere, Higurashi. When I called out, no one answered, and I didn't see anything down the well when I leaned over to look----"

"So you took a chance and jumped right in," Inuyasha finished, taking a step toward Hojo, "and now I hope you realize what a dumb thing that was to do."

Hojo looked down and then back, this time smiling like the joke was on him and he knew it.

"Actually," he admitted, "I sort of tripped..."

Inuyasha jabbed a claw against the boy's breastbone, "If you've got any brains at all in that skull of yours, you'll trip right back through it. And forget about telling a soul about this place!"

He heard Kagome sigh and she stepped between them, nudging Inuyasha away from Hojo.

"What place?" Hojo asked. "How did we end up here, Higurashi? And who's your friend, anyway?" Hojo frowned at Inuyasha and his voice dropped conspiratorially. He held up a hand to cover his words, "Um ... Did you know he has cat ears?"

Did she know he...

Okay. That's it.

"I've got WHAT?!"

"Gah!" Inuyasha felt Kagome throw her weight against him, distracting him enough for Hojo to take a startled jump back.

After a few quick words of reassurance to Hojo and three or four reps of "Don't make me say it!" to Inuyasha, Kagome managed to get both of them to hold still long enough to give Hojo the heavily abridged and highly edited story: You've stumbled through a portal to medieval Japan. I spend my nights and weekends here trying to reassemble an apocalyptic power jewel before it falls into evil hands. Oh yes, and Inuyasha is a DOG demon.

And don't you forget it, twerp!

"And I've got great hearing," he sneered, "so the next time you want to talk about me, better make sure I'm farther away than that!"

Hojo held up his hands. "Now there's no need to get worked up," he said just a little too blandly. "I didn't mean any offense."

"You must find all of this terribly confusing," Kagome laid a hand on the boy's sleeve. Inuyasha bristled. She ignored him. "But Inuyasha's right about one thing----"

She could bet all the ramen in that bag he was! That brainless kid had better watch his mouth or else----

"----it really would be better if you went home to Tokyo," she said gently.

Oh yeah. That too. Inuyasha grinned. At least this was a temporary problem.

"I promise I'll answer all your questions in a couple days," Kagome said brightly. Inuyasha did not like the way her smile lit while she said it.

The boy put a hand to his chin. Dear gods, did he actually have to think about it?

"Well..." he said at last, "If you really think that's best, Higurashi."

Kagome smiled again and let her pack slide off of her shoulder to the ground. "We'll walk you back, then," she told him. "And you probably shouldn't tell anyone about this until we get a chance to talk."

"Or after that!" Inuyasha added. "I don't want to see anyone else from your time coming through that thing; you people are nothing but trouble."

"Well," Hojo went on. "I'm just glad to hear you weren't sick all this time, Higurashi, but I guess it does make sense. I mean, it's not like you look like a syphilis patient..."

"What?!" this time it was Inuyasha who had to hold Kagome back.

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"So how does this thing work?" Hojo blanched. "And are those bones down there?"

"Well," said Inuyasha, "first I pick you up and throw you in----ow!"

Kagome elbowed him hard in the ribs. "Just climb down, Hojo. There'll be a funny light, and it'll feel kind of weird for a minute, and then you'll be home again." Smile, Kagome. Act like you do this every day, Kagome. Don't scare the poor little normal guy, Kagome... "Could you leave my bookbag in the well house?"

"Okay," he answered. "When will I see you?"

"I'll be home in three or four days," she told him.

"A week," corrected Inuyasha.

"Three or four days," she repeated with a glare to the dog demon. "I'll give you a call, Hojo. We can meet somewhere and talk about all this."

Hojo's face lit. "It's a date, then! As soon as you get back!" he said eagerly, catching her hand in both of his.

Kagome could practically hear Inuyasha's teeth grind even as she felt a tiny blush rise on her cheeks.

"Alright then!" Hojo said brightly, swinging his legs over the short stone wall and catching hold of the vines, "Here I go!"

In a few seconds, Hojo's head disappeared over the side, and the sounds of his climbing down grew fainter.

Inuyasha turned to her. "You know," he said quietly. "It would probably be better if he didn't remember all this."

Kagome's spine prickled at the tone of his voice. This couldn't be good...

"What do you mean?" she asked hesitantly.

"I'll follow him," Inuyasha shrugged, "Just let me give him a good swat on the head. He'll wake up and think this was a dream."

"No!" Kagome insisted. "Besides, I think I..." she trailed off, realizing the words were true even as she said them. "I think I want him to know."

"What?"

"I'm tired of hiding everything from everyone!" she turned on him, eyes blazing. "You heard what Hojo said; all my friends think I have a bunch of gross diseases! It'll be nice to have someone around who knows I'm not skipping school just because I'm contagious or lazy or on drugs or something."

Inuyasha locked his arms, "Your family knows, isn't that enough?"

"Not anymore," she said, turning her back to the well. "Let's go."

She heard Inuyasha's peeved snort, and then his steps as he began to follow.

Then she heard a sheepish voice echoing up from the stones.

"Higurashi? Inuyasha? I ... don't think it worked..."

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This day officially sucked.

Glancing back over his shoulder as they walked, Inuyasha could see that Hojo looked worried and upset. This wouldn't have bothered him in the slightest if it wasn't making Kagome pay so much attention to the wuss. Fuck, she was even holding his hand. What was he, a baby?

"Don't worry, Hojo-kun," she was saying in a voice that she usually saved for Shippou when he was scared or Sango after a bout with Kohaku or ... that one time when he'd been hurt ... and she'd stayed up all night---- Inuyasha blinked the thought away and kept moving. Hey, there was Kagome's pack on the ground up ahead...

"Kaede's very wise about these things," Kagome went on. "I'm sure she'll know what to do."

Hojo nodded, but Inuyasha could hear him swallow hard.

"Come on," Kagome coaxed; "you'll get to meet my friends!"

"Your friends?" Hojo asked. Inuyasha turned his narrowed eyes just in time to see the boy's thumb pass lightly across Kagome's fingers.

"Don't worry," she told him, "they're not all as bad-tempered as Inuyasha is!" She reached up and swatted his ear. Inuyasha would have snarled at her, but the gesture had made her let go of Hojo's hand. He noted with approval that she didn't take it again.

Kagome nodded, "They're probably waiting for us."

"You're telling me they're waiting!" Inuyasha snapped, "You were late to begin with, bitch!"

"Excuse me," Hojo tapped Inuyasha on the shoulder, "what did you just say?"

"I was talking to the bitch!" Inuyasha's eyes dropped to the hand on his upper arm, "And get your
mitts off my----"

He cut off as Hojo doubled up his free hand and connected with his jaw with a hard smack.

Inuyasha blinked, mind blanking as just a bit of blood collected in his mouth. ...a mouth that stretched into a smirk.

"Thank you," he said darkly, not noticing Kagome's eyes go narrow.

"For what?" Hojo's brow knit.

"Hold still and I'll show you," he finished.

His grin stretched to show his fangs as he flexed his claws into a fist, drawing back one arm as the human blinked stupidly.

This was going to feel so good.

Definitely worth the embarrassment of getting slugged by a wimpy little pretty boy who obviously didn't know when he was----

"SIT!!"

And then he tasted gravel.

"Higurashi-san!" Hojo was exclaiming. Inuyasha spit out a pebble. "How did you---- Did you do that?"

Inuyasha's thoughts were cold.

She'd sat him. She'd sat him right in front of that----that----

"Inuyashaaaa!" Kagome's voice seethed.

Against his will, his ears flinched back against his skull. A preaudible growl slunk from his throat as he pushed his upper body off the ground. He was not going to show weakness where that boy could see!

Kagome's eyes were horizontal slits, hands set firmly on her hips as her face flushed. If he hadn't been so ticked off, Inuyasha probably would have cringed again. "What?" he asked, blowing his ruffled bangs out of his eyes.

"How dare you hit Hojo like that?!"

Inuyasha gaped, "He hit me first, that's how!"

"You're like twenty times stronger!" she blazed, "You could have killed him if I hadn't stopped you!"

"Twenty? More like a hundred," he muttered. "And----"

"And you!" Kagome turned her attention to Hojo, who was still sputtering like a torch in the rain. "What possessed you to hit him in the first place?"

Inuyasha couldn't help but smirk at seeing Kagome start to hand the twerp his own head. Heh! Let him see something other than her sweet little schoolgirl side for a change!

Hojo was looking at her as if she'd lost her mind, "Higurashi-san......" he stammered, face going red with embarrassment or anger, "he, he called you a......" the boy grit his teeth, to Inuyasha's amusement. "He called you a......"

"......bitch?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha blinked. Had Kagome actually said the word? Sure, when Hojo couldn't spit it out he seemed like a wuss, but Kagome----

The girl's face softened and she smiled, "Hojo-kun, you've made a mistake," she said, waving one hand. "Inuyasha didn't mean to insult me!"

"He didn't?"

I didn't?

The thought must have registered on his face, because the look Kagome shot him clamped his mouth shut before he even knew he'd opened it.

"No, no!" Kagome went on. "Weren't you listening before? Inuyasha's a dog demon. For him, calling me ......calling me that is like saying 'woman,' or 'girl' or something. I'm really used to it," she smiled again. "Sometimes I forget and almost use it at home!"

Inuyasha opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"Oh!" Hojo's face colored again. He turned to Inuyasha. "I'm terribly sorry about that!" he insisted, holding out one hand. "Here!"

Inuyasha glared at the hand. Then he glared at Hojo and got to his feet. For the human to strike him was one thing, but to offer to help him up as if his puny blow had been what sent him to the ground?

Kagome started to lean down, one hand going to the strap of her pack. Inuyasha's eyes narrowed.

"Let me get that," he said pointedly. Inuyasha took one step and swept the pack up onto his shoulders. He didn't even twitch under its weight.

Inuyasha looked at Hojo in the eye.

Then he looked at Kagome's itty-bitty school bag. Then he looked Hojo in the eye.

The stupid fuck didn't even have the courtesy to blink.

Inuyasha was still growling. Kagome was still fuming. Hojo was still needing a few good blows to the head, but it didn't look like anyone was going to help him with that. Inuyasha realized that he was fingering one of the smooth teeth on Kaede's damned prayer beads. He crossed his arms across his chest and turned his back on Hojo and Kagome.

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Coming up: Hojo meets the Sengoku Jidai's answer to Buffy...