Stray

Stray Kagome's Punishment

Kagome stood at the front door, looking out at the rain that continued to pour down.

"Kagome, step a foot out in that rain and you're in big trouble, missy," her mother called from the kitchen as she spoon-fed baby Souta as her dad watched.

"Listen to your mother, Kago-chan," he called to her.

"Aw! But mom, why? I love the rain and the puddles!" she called back. "Kago-chan, you'll get sick. I can't deal with a fussy baby and a sick seven year-old and you know that Jii-chan is getting older by the second."

"I heard that!" Jii-chan called from down the bathroom.

Kagome looked in the mirror near the door to see her rosy cheeks, small body, missing teeth, and pigtails. All confirmed that she was, of course, only seven and it taunted her. Kagome turned back to the screen door.

'It wouldn't hurt just to stick my hand in it.' She thought to herself.

As soon as Kagome opened the door to stick her hand in the rain, her fat cat, Buyo, ran out into the rain.

'Stupid cat. The one time he moves all day and he runs into the rain!'

"Buyo, come back!" Kagome ran after him. By the time she saw him, he was hissing at the hand of an unconscious boy. He lay there, naked in the rain as if he'd just appeared out of nowhere into the street. He was so skinny and he looked sick.

'What kind of boy has silver hair?'

Kagome bent down and began to poke the boy with a stray stick.

"Excuse me, boy, but you're naked and my Mama says that you're not s'posed to be naked outside the house. You'll get in trouble." Kagome continued to poke him until he finally rolled over, coughed, and moaned.

Just then, Mama Higurashi ran up behind her.

"Kagome, I told you specifically to stay p— Oh my gosh," she said as she spotted the silver-haired boy. "Kagome, run back to the shrine and tell daddy to put some tea and chicken broth on the stove. I need you to get every blanket, sheet, and pillow in the house and put it on my bed, now! Run!" Mama Higurashi checked the child for a pulse and was successful.

Kagome ran to the shrine to follow her mother's orders. She held her baby brother as her mother carried the boy into her room and placed him under the covers as Jii-chan brought her the broth and tea from the stove. Mr. Higurashi flipped through the medical dictionary to figure out which treatments would help the boy's symptoms.

Three days pasted before he could fully sit up. It took two weeks for him to be able to stand without getting dizzy. The weirdest thing was that he couldn't speak. The only noise he would make was around Buyo, who would continuously hiss at him. The boy must have found tormenting him to be amusing, because he would bark, growl, or howl whenever Buyo was near. For that reason, the Mama Higurashi began to call him Inuyasha.

"Inu-chan, say Kagome-chan. That's my name. It's easy. Say KA-GO-ME-CHAN." Kagome sat in front of the boy as she attempted to teach the boy to talk.

The boy strained and strained. "K—," he stuttered, but couldn't get it out. "Ka-chan!"

"Nooo, Inu-chan. That's not right. Say Kagome-chan! Kagome-chan!"

"K—," he began.

"Yeees."

"K—"

"Come on, Inu-chan!" Kagome said to him.

"Kiggy-chan!" he said with delight on his face.

"No! No! No! That's wrong, Inuyasha-kun!"

She was too late. Before she knew it, he was parading around the house screaming "Kiggy-chan" everywhere he went. Before she knew it, Kagome was angry.

"Stupid Inuyasha-kun! You're such a bad boy! Since your name is Inuyasha, then why don't you do what bad dogs do and SIT!" she screamed at him. Inuyasha stopped dead in his tracks for a moment before running into his room and hiding under the covers.

That was eight years ago, but Kagome and Inuyasha have never liked each other since. Well… Not quite. They've never really spoken other than a need-to-know basis, although their rooms were right next to each other.

Kagome, of course, used her loudness to join a band with her friends Kouga, Sango, Naraku, and Hojo. They called themselves Ex O (It apparently was short for Extraordinarily Odd.).

Inuyasha, of course, remained the quiet type, talking only to Mama Higurashi and other adults. He felt as if he'd learned early on in life that younger people were cruel.

"Inuyasha! Souta! Kagome! Jii-chan! Come down and eat!" Mama Higurashi called. Souta was the first at the table. Then came Inuyasha, wearing his school uniform. Mama Higurashi put his hair into two long braids. Kagome came down the stairs wearing her school uniform with her hair in two high pigtails and a shorter skirt than usual.

"My God, Kagome. Those skirts seem to get shorter each day! Put on some clothes!" Jii-chan said to her as he sauntered into the kitchen.

"I have a date with Naraku today. I wanted to look pretty."

'There's a fine line between pretty and slutty.' Inuyasha thought to himself.

"And you, hippie boy! Cut your damned hair!" Jii-chan yelled at Inuyasha.

Inuyasha simply stared at him. No one besides Mama Higurashi had been allowed to touch his hair and she only touched it to braid it.

"Jii-chan, leave poor Inu-chan alone. He does well in school, so I let him keep his hair however long he wants it to be," Mama Higurashi said.

"Mama, I want hair like Inuyasha-kun too!" Souta complained.

"Well then you have to make grades like Inu-chan too. For now, you will continue to get your hair cut."

Kagome leaned in to whisper into her baby brother's ear. "They just favor him because he's a stray." Inuyasha heard her and excuse himself to walk to school early.

"Kagome, that was completely inexcusable. Go upstairs, put on a longer skirt, and when you get to school, make sure to tell Naraku that you can't go out with him today. You'll spend this entire week with Inuyasha attempting to make it up to him!" Mama Higurashi said to her.

"But mom, it's our anniversary! I can't spend my three-month anniversary with Inuyasha! Naraku already can't stand him! If he were to be the reason why I can't go out with him today, Naraku would freak out!" Kagome screamed at her mother.

"Kagome, settle down. I'm sure that your father (God rest his soul) wouldn't want you disrespecting your mother like that," Jii-chan interrupted.

"Whatever!" Kagome said as she stormed out of the house.

"That stupid Inuyasha. This is all his fault. I wish Buyo would have never run out the door that day. Then he would somebody else's problem," Kagome spoke out loud to herself as she walked under her favorite sakura tree.

"Speaking to yourself again, Kiggy-chan?" Inuyasha asked from one of the branches.

"Don't CALL me that. You'd think that after eight years, you'd finally get KAGOME right. Maybe it's a stray thing, Inu-chan," Kagome said as she continued to walk. Inuyasha jumped from the tree and landed directly behind her.

"Kiggy-chan, my dear, you know nothing about that. All you know is that I was in the rain, naked, and by myself. Did you even consider that maybe I wanted to be in the rain, naked, and by myself?"

"Fuck off, Inuyasha. You're starting to piss me off," she growled at him.

"Kiggy-chan, we really could have been good friends."

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" Kagome turned to face Inuyasha. "Because of you, I can't spend my anniversary with my boyfriend. I have to spend it inside, with you! Go back to whatever gutter you slept in before we found you!"

Kagome ran off to meet Naraku.

'Stupid Kiggy-chan. It won't be long until you're mine,' Inuyasha thought to himself.

Kagome ran up to her boyfriend and jumped into his arms, giving her a clear view of the gold chain she'd given him for his birthday. Naraku kissed her neck. "Hey."

"Hey yourself. Why do you seem so…energetic today, my dear?" he asked.

"Because I need you to see how cute I am and not be mad at me. I can't go out with you today," she said. Naraku was quick to put her down. "Kagome, you are NOT serious. Today, you were supposed to come over. They were so set on it!"

"I'm sorry! It's not my fault! It's Inuyasha's fault! I said something to Souta and Inuyasha heard me and got upset and walked out. My mom said I have to spend the rest of the week making it up to him. The thing was he wasn't even upset! He even had enough energy to bug me before I got here!" she pleaded with him.

Naraku pushed Kagome to the side and ran towards the door. Kagome turned toward the direction he was headed and saw that he was charging towards Inuyasha. "Naraku, NO!" But it was too late.

Naraku had already slammed his fist into Inuyasha's jaw. Inuyasha paused to wipe the blood off of his lip. "Thanks for making it self defense," Inuyasha said to him before punching him twice as hard, making him fall hard to the ground. Inuyasha pounced on Naraku and Kagome ran to the scene. People simply stood, watching. By the time Kagome got through the circle of people, she saw Inuyasha's fist slam into Naraku's face.

"STOP! INUYASHA, PLEASE STOP!" Kagome yelled. Inuyasha looked up at Kagome, who started to cry.

'I can't keep making her cry. Where's the damned necklace?'

Inuyasha reached for the gold chain and snatched it right off Naraku's neck and ran out of the doors before Sun-sensei showed up.

"Mom, you can't still expect me to spend the week with him! It's unfair! He gave my boyfriend a black eye AND broke the clasp on the chain I gave him!" Kagome said as she entered her house from school.

"Kagome, Inuyasha was defending himself and as for the chain, Inuyasha feels very bad and will be working with Jii-chan to raise the money to fix it," Mama Higurashi told her as she ironed Souta's uniform for the next day.

"MOM! FOR ONCE, WILL YOU PLEASE JUST LISTEN TO ME!" she screamed.

She looked up from her ironing and faced Kagome. "Kagome Higurashi, I'm very sick of you yelling in this house! I am your mother and you'll do as I say. Inuyasha is in his room and you are to join him."

Kagome stomped her feet up the stairs knowing better than to disobey her mother.

Kagome stopped in front of Inuyasha's open door and scowled. Posted on his walls were his many academic achievements. That was basically all there was to his room besides his painting supplies and his mattress that he insisted on laying on the floor instead of putting it on an actual bed-frame. "Ah. Kiggy-chan. What brings you to my humble abode?"

"You know damned well why I'm here," Kagome responded.

Inuyasha laughed. "Kiggy-chan, where did my good girl go? Anyway, I was thinking that maybe you would like to go to the carnival today. It would make me a very happy boy."

If she weren't already in hot water with her mother, she would have stated that he was a dog, not a boy. Instead, she went into her room to change into jeans, a wife beater, and sneakers, and then took down her hair.

"So you're ready to go, Kiggy-chan?" Inuyasha asked as he opened her door without knocking. She had to admit. He looked very handsome in his jeans and artsy t-shirt. He also took down his hair so that it fell in waves down his back.

She grumbled a few harsh words under her breath and began to walk to the carnival. She wouldn't let him get the best of her.