For Just Tonight
        a fanfic by Shadow-chan
 
 

Inu-Yasha tramped down the road, grumbling to himself. Kagome hadn't complained, but he knew she was feeling the cold. She had to be, if he was. And he didn't get cold that easy. Well, he thought, all we need now is snow.

A moment later the damned stuff started falling.

He growled angrily at it. He had to find shelter, at least for Kagome. The snow was falling faster The half-demon could hear the girl's teeth chattering. Too cold for her all right, he thought, for me too. The snow was several inches thick already. It was getting colder

Half an hour later he spotted a shed in the distance. Perfect timing, too. Kagome looked about froze, and the snow was almost chest deep. A few minutes later, he heard a muffled clatter, and turned in time to see Kagome fly off her bike and into a snowdrift. Inu-Yasha sighed, somehow almost amused. Stalking over, he pulled her out of the drift and righted the bicycle. "Kagome. Come on, Kagome, we're almost there." No answer. He frowned, noticing the bluish tint to her lips and skin. "Aw, shit!" he muttered. "Now she's sick!"

Somehow he managed to carry her and her "bike" thingummy to the now-not-so-distant shed. Ten minutes later, he collapsed inside the small building, panting from the effort of wading through very deep snow while carrying a half- dead girl and her "bike".  Inu-Yasha touched her cheek. Her skin was like ice. Blanket, he thought, gotta find a blanket. She could die He tipped her pack over, poking through all the junk, hoping to find what he was looking for... but everything was soaked through (all her extra clothes too!). He cursed all snow banks. Suddenly, THERE!! Wrapped around her books!! A blanket! A DRY blanket! A wonderful, heavenly, perfectly DRY (!!!!) BLANKET!!!!! (He wondered briefly if he had ever been so stupidly happy in his life) Inu-Yasha detached the blanket (DRY!!) from the books. The words 'Medical Textbook' caught his eye. Medical? He thought. Perfect. He flipped through the book until he found a section labeled 'Hypothermia', with a picture and list of symptoms that matched Kagome's. He skimmed quickly through the paragraph, and blushing when he was done, tossed the book over his shoulder.

Red-faced, he knelt next to Kagome and quickly stripped her of her clothes. The book told me to, the book told me to, he repeated over and over in his head. When he was done he wrapped the blanket around her, tucking it securely under her body, all the way up to her nose. There, he thought, satisfied, all done.

Inu-Yasha began putting all her junk back in her pack. She would be mad enough as it was without finding her stuff all over the place. When he was finished, he leaned back against the wall, attacked by a sudden sneezing fit. Dammit, he thought, now I got it too. Then he remembered the book. "Step 1: Remove all wet clothes." He sighed, and stripped himself down. "The book told me to, the book told me to," he repeated again. By the time he was done, he was feeling a little faint. Blanket, he thought, gotta get warm and began staggering towards Kagome. Then everything went black, and he fell forward onto her.

Kagome woke up some time later, feeling pleasantly warm and Did I pack a blanket this heavy? she wondered, and opened her eyes. To find Inu-Yasha asleep on top of her. GAH!! W-What is he- Why is he- he's she thought wildly. Then her eyes narrowed. She stared at him. His lips were blue, his skin pale and when she pressed her fingers to his face- cold. The coldest he had ever been that she had felt was after he had been bitten by a Spiderhead. But now right now he was far colder. He's sick, she thought, shocked.

Suddenly Inu-Yasha stirred. "Mmm" His eyes opened a tiny bit, then widened as he realized where he was. Kagome suddenly remembered that her hand was still pressed against his face. Cheeks red, she let it fall.  He groaned and tried to move, but he was so weak and stiff with cold that he couldn't. "You're sick, aren't you?" she whispered. "YOU are," he argued. She glared at him. "No I'm not!" *SNORT* "Anyway... What  happened?" "First you flew into a snow bank," he began, "then I carried you and your bike to this shed, then I looked in your pack for a blanket-I found it- and I found the section in your book about hypothermia, so I did what it said and-" Turning his head to one side, he started sneezing. After about ten, he finally managed to stop. Kagome looked up at him. "You're about frozen," she said, starting to blush, "so get under here." Inu-Yasha stared at her. "WHAT?!" he squeaked. "Come on. You heard me. If you don't, I'll say it." He grinned at her. "You wouldn't dare," he said. She smiled back. "You're right. I probably wouldn't." Heh, at least there's a good side to this situation, he thought.

A cold breeze ran through the shelter, running icy fingers down his bare back. Kagome shivered, feeling the chill even under a blanket and a half-demon. Inu-Yasha was so cold he was shaking. His lips were even bluer than before. Suddenly his eyes rolled back into his head and he went limp. Kagome squealed, praying he wasn't dead. He wasn't. Better do it while he's out cold, she thought. She pushed him off her and sat up, wrapping the blanket tightly around him. She snuggled against him, hoping to warm him up a little. She slept.

When Inu-Yasha came to, he felt warm. He opened his eyes to find Kagome's head resting gently on his chest. He sighed softly and wrapped his arms around her. "For just tonight" he whispered, and fell back to sleep, lips pressed against her hair. 
  
 

The EndFor Just Tonight.