A/N: LOL! I just found this while cleaning out some old files and thought I'd share. This was written two years ago; a joint effort between my son and myself. The main idea was his alone, I just fleshed it out a bit... :)
*****
Kagome was excited when she heard she got one of the summer jobs at the Ueno zoo in downtown Tokyo. It was her perfect job since, after four years in pre-vet, she was enrolled to begin the course work of veterinarian medicine in the fall. So many people applied for the zoo jobs every summer, she didn't think she had a chance... especially since the toad-like supervisor she interviewed with didn't seem to like her. He barely looked at her application and only asked her a couple of irrelevant questions before giving her the "Don't call us, we'll call you." line.
'What to wear...'
She looked through her closet and drawers. She was sure they would provide her with a uniform, but for now she wanted to find something that would stand up to whatever challenge her first day might bring. She settled on khaki pants with a white polo.
Looking in the mirror, she brushed her long black hair and pulled it into a high ponytail. She smiled with satisfaction at her reflection, and headed toward the door. She stood on her toes to plant a kiss on the jaw of her favorite Daiyoukai as he held the door open for her.
"Wish me luck," she sang as she skipped out and headed to the bus stop.
"Hn."
She knew how he felt about her taking this job. It was pointless to argue. It was important to her and he wanted her to be happy, therefore he allowed it… for now.
*****
"You want me to do what!?" Kagome stared in disbelief at the man she dubbed The Toad.
Her supervisor was handing her a large panda costume that reeked of sweat from the many others who had worn it. The smile on his face was not a pleasant one.
"Everyone has to start at the bottom and work their way up," he said in a mocking tone. "I expect a smart girl like you will move up quickly, but for today this is what you're doing."
Kagome doubted the costume had ever been cleaned, and now she was expected to get into it and walk around the zoo for her eight-hour shift. This had to be some kind of a joke; she had just completed four years of college! She knew the zoo job would include cleaning cages at the very least, but this was beyond her worst nightmare.
Seeing her reluctance to put on the costume, The Toad sneered, "There are a lot of other people who would be happy to take this job."
He shook the foul thing at her impatiently. "Well," he said nastily, "you want this job or not?"
Kagome sighed. She didn't want to have to go back home and tell Sesshoumaru she refused to stay at her job for even one day. He hadn't wanted her to take a job in the first place, but it was important to her to contribute to the life they were building together.
Kagome sighed again. It wasn't like she had another job lined up, and The Toad did say she could move to a better position. She took the offensive costume from his hand and began putting it on.
'Maybe this won't be so bad,' she thought.
It merely started out bad, and then it got worse. As she trudged through the zoo, the odors from the costume grew stronger as the black material began heating under the summer sun. Kagome forced back her gag reflex as new smells wafted up from the depths of the polyester prison she was encased in.
She could identify cigarette smoke, stale beer, body odor, urine, and vomit, but the rest were a mystery she did not care to solve. She was forced to breathe through her mouth.
The day steadily grew warmer and she began to sweat heavily. Trying to focus on something other than her discomfort, she was suddenly blind-sided by a small child barreling into her. The little girl wrapped her arms tightly around one of Kagome's legs and screamed "PANDA!!!" over and over again. Other children joined her until Kagome was in real danger of losing her balance.
One of the little boys pulled back his fist and punched her in her big panda belly. Soon the rest of the children were pummeling her from all sides, delighting in the squishiness of the costume. Finally, the parents noticed the all-out assault on the panda and dragged the kids off of her. Kagome staggered away.
'Only seven more hours of this,' she thought glumly. The rest of her shift was spent waving, posing for pictures, being hugged by strangers and wishing it was time to go home. The only good part was when her olfactory senses became so overloaded they finally shut down.
The final indignation came as she made her way back to the employee lounge to end her shift. She was approached by a group of teens. One of them called out to her. "Hey panda, come here, I got a bamboo pole for you!" The teens laughed uproariously.
'And this is what passes for wit these days…'
Kagome was only too glad to clock out and go home.
The bus driver almost refused to let her ride, and for once, she had no trouble getting a seat. People parted before her like the Red Sea. She looked like hell and smelled even worse. She was drenched in sweat, clothes and hair plastered to her body. The unbelievable stench of that costume was etched onto her skin and penetrated every pore. The other passengers actually cheered when she got off the bus at her stop.
She walked slowly, head down, from the stop to the front door of the apartment she shared with her fiancée. He opened the door, eager to see her, but then a look of utter horror crossed his normally stoic features. He held a hand over his sensitive nose.
"Great Kami, Miko! What did you roll in?"
Kagome burst into tears and went to throw herself into his arms, but he deftly eluded her.
"Shower first, I think," he said, "and I will personally burn those clothes."
Sesshoumaru gently took her by the hand and led her to the bathroom. She had to wash her hair three times before he could no longer detect any trace of the foul odor left by the costume.
"You know, you don't have to go back." Sesshoumaru had her between his legs, wrapped in his arms on the couch. With her back pressed to his chest, he had his nose buried in her hair. His chest rumbled as he offered her comfort.
"I don't know what game he is playing, but he can't drive me away that easy!" Now that Kagome was clean, re-hydrated and rested, her anger was beginning to rise. "I'll show him I can take whatever he dishes out!"
Sesshoumaru just shook his head. He knew it was no use arguing with her when she got like this.
The next morning, Kagome arrived in the office to get her day's assignment. Her supervisor was seated behind his desk. Off to the side, she could see the disgusting panda costume hanging in the corner.
"Well," said The Toad, "how did you like yesterday's assignment?"
Kagome tried to think of something positive to say. "I met a lot of people."
The Toad smirked. "So you're volunteering to do it again today?"
Kagome swallowed hard. "I think I'd like to do something different, something to do with handling animals."
The Toad smiled malevolently. "That can be arranged. I knew you were a smart girl."
He stood up and began to unbutton his pants. "Let's see how you handle the 'Anaconda'."
Kagome's jaw dropped and her eyes grew wide with shock. As she turned and fled the office, she could hear The Toad laughing behind her. "You forgot your costume!"
*****
When Sesshoumaru got home from work, he was surprised to see her there. He carefully sniffed, but could not detect more than trace amounts of zoo on her.
"How was work today?"
To his dismay, Kagome burst into tears for the second time in as many days. He gradually got her calmed down enough to tell him what happened. She reluctantly sobbed out her story and was surprised he didn't go all Big Bad Dog Demon when he heard about The Toad's proposition. He just kissed her on top of her head and assured her tomorrow would be better.
After she fell asleep later that night, he slipped out.
*****
When she arrived at work the next morning, she found no one in the office. Her nose was hit by a sharp acidic scent and a suspicious puddle of green goo lay in the same corner of the room where the panda costume had hung yesterday.
She made her way outside just in time to see some other employees running toward the tiger exhibit. Trussed up and hung over the enclosure was The Toad. He was wild-eyed and spouting gibberish about giant dogs and demons and had to be taken away to the hospital. It was doubtful he would be coming back.
The lady promoted to the now-open supervisory position recognized Kagome's skill set immediately and assigned her to work as a vet tech in the nursery. This was where Kagome was meant to be all along.
Sesshoumaru was waiting to pick her up as she left work.
"Work go any better today?" he asked innocently.
"Yes," Kagome replied, as she buckled herself in, "I find I definitely like working with the four-legged animals better than the two-legged ones."
A small smirk graced his mouth.
"Indeed."
A/N: Thanks for reading!