Title: Life Lesson
Author: SakuraRyuu
Rating: K
Genre: Canon, Comfort, Friendship
Characters: Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo
Author's Note: Inuyasha and all characters in this fan fiction are the property of Rumiko Takahashi.
Kagome sat studying the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost. She had no appreciation for poetry. She just didn't get it. She would read it, it would take on a singsong tone in her head, and after she was finished the words would flitter right out of her memory. Forget about trying to understand what the poem meant, which was her current assignment.
Kagome leaned her head back against the tree in frustration. Just about that time Shippo came streaking through the campsite, jumping over the campfire with Inuyasha hot on his heels. For reasons she wasn't quite sure she wanted to know about, Shippo was muddy and Inuyasha soaked. She couldn't help but laugh. The kit sure did keep Inuyasha on his toes.
About that time Shippo took a sharp right and lunged straight at Kagome. If she hadn't been seated against the tree he would have knocked her down.
"Kagome!" Shippo wailed. "Inuyasha's being mean!"
"Keh?!" the hanyou bellowed. "Don't you listen to him, Kagome! I was leaned over the stream trying to get a drink and this muddy runt jumped on my head, causing me to fall in!"
"Kagome, it was a joke! I didn't think he'd get so mad," the kit whined as Kagome was trying unsuccessfully to keep herself from getting muddy.
"Shippo, I know what you did. Do you think I wouldn't figure out why you're muddy? You hid in the mud at the stream so Inuyasha couldn't see or smell you and when he least expected it you jumped on his head making him fall in the stream. Right?"
The kit looked ashamed.
"Those kinds of jokes aren't funny, Shippo, they're mean. You won't be a kit forever. One day you're going to grow up and have to take responsibility for your actions."
"I'm sorry, Kagome," Shippo said.
Kagome sat Shippo on the group and nudged him toward Inuyasha. "You know what you need to do, Shippo."
As Shippo walked over to where Inuyasha stood trying to shake the water off, Kagome watched him muster his courage to apologize. She knew this was the best time of the young kit's life. He would one day grow up, no longer being able to sneak around and trick Inuyasha, being too big to hold or to cuddle with in her sleeping bag at night. Kagome turned to refocus on her homework, thinking back over her poem. Smiling a warm smile she realized the little scene that had just unfolded was more than an unnecessary distraction. She had been taught a sobering lesson: nothing gold can stay.