On the way home from school, Kagome couldn't shake the feeling that someone was following her. She would glance surreptitiously over her shoulder but never caught sight of anyone. Shaking her head, she figured it must just be her imagination. Things had been rather stressed lately: her father dying, her mother remarrying, moving to a new city, losing her protector and starting a new school.

She felt a tug at her consciousness again and this time she stopped in her tracks. Walking a few paces ahead of her before he realized she had stopped, Sota turned around. "What's wrong, Kagome?"

"I think we're being followed."

Sota shifted his weight so he could look over Kagome's shoulder. "There's no one there, Sis."

"They're there."

Hidden behind a fence a few feet away, InuYasha and Miroku looked at each other. She'd felt their presence? Amazing. They were about to return their attention back to the girl when a shadow loomed over them. Glancing up, they saw the angry face of a young boy. "Who are you and why are you following us?"

InuYasha stood up. "We weren't following you."

No one said anything for a moment since it was quite obvious that InuYasha was lying. Kagome marched up to him. "InuYasha was it?"

She remembered my name! He nodded. "What do you want from me?"

"Who says I want anything from you?" A closed fist hit the back of his head and he swung around to glare at Miroku. Miroku raised his brows in mock innocence and mumbled something that sounded like "moo". InuYasha narrowed his eyes and turned around to face Kagome again. Her brother was standing in his way.

"You look familiar. Doesn't he look familiar, Kagome?"

"Yes," she said to her brother. "I noticed it when I first saw him, too. It's odd."

Do they recognize me? This would be so much easier if I could just say, 'Hey, I'm the statue that you ran to when you needed to cry. Love me.' I wonder what she'd do if I did say that…?

"You look kind of like a statue we used to have." Sota cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. "If you had dog ears on your head and claws on your hands then you could have been our statue."

InuYasha held his breath as he saw, out of the corner of his eyes, Kagome cock her head to the side to get a better look, too. She gasped suddenly and everyone whirled to face her. "Sota, we've got to go. Now."

"But…" InuYasha started, but Kagome was already running away.

"I wonder what her problem is," Sota mumbled before he, too, ran off down the road.

"Is that what you call wooing?"

InuYasha turned and gave Miroku a death glare. "Shut up."

"No, I'd really like to know. Because if that's all you have, man, then I promise I'll set you up in my garden, right next to the pond."

"You don't have a garden," InuYasha said through gritted teeth.

"Not at the moment, no," Miroku said glibly. "But once I get the lovely Sango to fall head over heels in love with me, and break my curse then of course I shall have to find a place to live. And I'll make sure to have a garden just for you."

"If you'd like, I could kill you now so you don't have to worry about any of that."

Miroku paled. "Ah, no…no thank you."

"I thought not. Now lets get back to Sesshomaru's house before he gets angry enough to kill us both."

"Kagome! Wait up!" Sota ran, trying to catch up to his sister. When he finally reached her side, he nudged her shoulder. "What's wrong with you?"

Kagome turned to look at him, as though she were surprised he was there. "What? Oh, uh, nothing. I'm fine."

"Liar. Why'd you run away from them? Do you know them?"

Kagome stopped walked. "Yeah, I know them; they're in my first period class." She turned suddenly to look at her brother. "Do you think he could be…?" She trailed off, thinking she was sounding like a lunatic.

"The statue?"

Kagome shook her head. "I know it's a stupid thought. It's just that he resembles the statue so much, and the statue did break just recently… Oh what am I thinking? That can't happen. Statues just don't come to life. I'm such an idiot."

Kagome started walking again and Sota had to hurry to keep up with her. "But, Kagome, don't you remember those stories that Grandpa used to tell us? About people being placed under spells and curses? What if it wasn't just a story?"

Kagome gave a small laugh. "I wish it were so, but it doesn't make much sense." Falling silent, the siblings continued their walk home. Hidden behind a tree, Midoriko watched them go.

"Damn, she's too clever. She may not make this as fun as I'd like." Huffing in slight annoyance, Midoriko disappeared into the air.

When she got home, Kagome hurried up to her room. After putting her school stuff away, she knelt beside her bed and reached under it, pulling out a granite had. Could InuYasha actually be the statue that had held her so many times? Was it possible that her protector had come to life? The resemblance between the two was amazing; they looked identical with the exception of the ears that had sat on top of the statue's head.

Feeling her hopes rising, Kagome shook her head, banishing her thoughts. No, it just wasn't possible. Statues are made of rock. They don't breathe, or talk, or even move. It was just a fanciful notion in her head, caused by the emptiness left by her statue. Wanting to feel protected, she had created a link between the two that wasn't even there.

"I'm such an idiot." Kagome sat back against her bed, studying the hand she held in her lap. It was much larger than her own, but somehow seemed tender, despite being made from granite. So engrossed was she in her inspection of the hand that she didn't hear the knock on her door.

"Kagome? Are you in there?" Her mother pushed the door open just as she stashed the hand under her bed.

"Yeah, Mama, I'm here."

Her mother smiled warmly at her daughter. "How was your first day of school?"

Kagome watched her mother warily. Ever since her remarriage, her mother didn't seem to have time for either her or her brother, and she never sought them out to talk to them. With a small sigh, Kagome figured she could understand that. Her mother had just been married, so of course she'd be absorbed in her new love.

"It was fine, Mama. I even made some friends already." If you could count InuYasha and Miroku friends…

Her mother beamed. "That's wonderful! You must invite them to dinner so we can all meet them!"

"But I… and they… but we just barely met," she finished lamely. She knew nothing could dissuade her mother.

"Nonsense, dear. I'm sure you are fast friends now." Her mother paused to look around the room for a moment. "Well, your father," she didn't notice Kagome cringe, "will be home soon, so I need to go check on dinner. Tomorrow you should invite your friends over."

"Yes, Mama."

When her mother left, Kagome smacked her forehead. Oh, she was an idiot. Why couldn't she have just told her mother she hadn't met anybody yet? "I wonder," she mused to herself, "if I could just invite some random people and fool my mom into thinking they're my friends." She shook her head. "No, that won't work. I've only met three people at that school. Damn it. I know there is no way to get out of this."

Sighing, Kagome got out her schoolwork and started working on her homework. Tomorrow was going to be a rather awkward day, inviting virtual strangers to meet her family. Damn it.

InuYasha and Miroku argued all the way to Sesshomaru's house about InuYasha's lack of skill at wooing.

"You have to be sweet and charming," Miroku was saying. "Tell her she looks pretty, or smells nice. Lying – badly, I might add – to her the first time you meet her on the street does not a good first impression make."

InuYasha snorted, pushing open the front door to Sesshomaru's house. "Yeah, because your first impression was just great. Groping the girl before you even know her name will surely earn her love."

"Hey," Miroku defended, "at least it got us an introduction, didn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah," InuYasha conceded. "Sango was just all aflutter with feelings for you," he joked.

"At least she didn't run away."

"Hey, I had nothing to do with that… I don't think."

Miroku poked InuYasha in the ribs. "Hey, maybe she recognized you? Maybe she knows you used to be her statue. That'd be convenient, wouldn't it?"

"Convenient yes, but highly unlikely."

"Guess we'll just have to see, huh?"

The front door opened behind them and they both turned to see Sesshomaru enter. "Still here, huh? Guess you guys aren't so great at wooing the female kind."

"It takes time, Sesshomaru," Miroku said. "You have to earn her trust and show her that you won't break her heart."

"It helps if you don't grope her, too," InuYasha drawled.

Miroku looked annoyed. "I'm sure that does speed things up, but I'm a patient man; I'm willing to wait until she comes around and overlooks my flaws."

Sesshomaru rolled his eyes and wondered how in the hell he'd gotten into this predicament. He didn't owe Midoriko any favors, so why did he have to be his brother's keeper? Of course, she was extremely powerful and could turn him into his own lawn ornament in the blink of an eye. Shouting for Jaken, he removed his jacket and tie, tossing them haphazardly onto the back of a sofa.

Jaken scuttled into the room, bowing low. "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru? What can this lowly servant do for you?"

"Prepare dinner. I should like to eat within the hour, for I have a lot of work that needs to be done."

Without lifted himself up off the floor, Jaken said, "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru. I will prepare it straightaway."

InuYasha watched as Jaken fled from the room before turning to his brother. "Why do you still make him call you that? Have a superiority complex, do you?"

"Shut up, half breed." Sesshomaru disappeared into his home office, shutting the door smartly behind him.

InuYasha shook his head and turned to go up to his own room, Miroku following him and continuing his lessons on wooing a girl.

"Now, with a girl such as a Sango, a strong hand is needed…"

InuYasha groaned as he shut the door in Miroku's face.

Affronted, Miroku yelled at the closed door. "I'm only trying to help you, InuYasha!" Receiving no response, he huffed and walked into his own room. "InuYasha just doesn't know what it takes to make a girl fall madly in love with you."

Forgetting about InuYasha's acute sense of hearing, Miroku was surprised when he responded. "And neither do you, priest, if your curse is indicative of anything."

Scowling at the wall that separated them, Miroku mumbled under his breath about smart- ass dog demons and their hearing.

A/N: I spent about an hour writing for my other story, 'Hell Hath No Fury', but it just wasn't clicking, so I thought about trying to update a different story. I tried 'Worthy', too, but it wasn't working either, so I settled on this one. I hope it's not a huge disappointment to anyone, and I promise I am trying my damnedest to write these stories…

Thank you.

harualea