My Girl

by Foayasha

Disclaimer: The epic of Inuyasha, while wonderful, does not belong to me. Thus I cannot, and do not, claim to own any of the characters in this short story... but, I'll take credit for the one who makes the ocean 'moo'.

Thanks also goes to Shagsthedustmop for beta-ing this thang ^_^

My Girl Chpt 3 – That's the dog I want

It isn't hard to do. Just pull the lever. The door will swing open, allowing you to exit the automobile. Walk up to the school, into the classroom, and retrieve your daughter. It really shouldn't be this difficult.

Kagome's body was frozen in place, her dead stare facing forward, as her hands cinched the steering wheel in a death grip. No matter how many times she went over the simple steps it would take to get in and out of the school, she could not budge from her position.

Inside the doors of the seemingly innocent elementary school were troves of children. All of them would be running about the halls, screaming and rushing at her. Not only that, but she would have to face Aimi's sexy boorish teacher again. That morning she had bristled at his tone, but did her best to keep it under wraps.

For some reason he didn't seem to like her. Was it because she had not believed his claim to be a teacher at the school? Well that could be a cause, because she would have been insulted if someone had done the same to her. Well, who cares anyways? Did he forget their initial meeting? He had asked for her name, and she politely gave it; afterwards he left her high and dry: no name, no goodbye, nothing. Prick.

Whining pathetically to herself, she hung her head in defeat. No matter her grievances against the small hallways of the school, or Mr. Takahashi, Kagome would need to walk into his classroom to pick up Aimi from her first day. At least here soon she would be able to pick her up at the curb, and avoid the entire issue all together.

She prepared herself, doing several breathing exercises, while mumbling the chant, 'little kids aren't scary', and then exited her car. The final bus had arrived several minutes ago, so she knew most students would be out of the way.

The hallways weren't exactly empty, but they were more than manageable for the woman, and she was eternally grateful to the powers that be. Careful to walk softly down the hall, she approached the classroom door. Her footfalls were quiet on the tile flooring, and she felt as if she had succeeded in sneaking up to peek around the corner of the doorway.

Aimi and her teacher were the only two remaining, which made her feel a bit guilty for being so late. When she walked through the doorway his eyes had already risen to meet her own, and she shrank at the animosity that they held. How could he look so good, yet so mean at the same time? Unaware of the awkward tension, Aimi began her dash to wrap her arms securely around her mother's legs.

"You know, the Kindergarten class gets out fifteen minutes before the rest of the school?" Her teacher sneered.

"I'm terribly sorry, I've been waiting in my car for at least half an hour, if I had realized, I could have picked her up earlier," she frowned. Yeah, this guy didn't like her. "Aimi, did you have anything to bring home today?"

"Yes Mommy, lots and lots of papers! And I drawled you a picture!" she said excitedly. After her daughter skipped away Mr. Takahashi walked up to her with a stern effect on his chiseled features.

"You know, I'm not going to beat around the bush here, Mrs. Higurashi," he began plainly, but very quietly. "If you have a problem with youkai, I don't know if this is the best school for you, or your daughter. We have an open policy, and don't tolerate prejudice within its walls."

Er... what? She was appalled at his insinuation. Her jaw was only kept from gaping due to her insane feeling of shock. How on earth could this incredibly attractive and intimidating man think she would have any problem with youkai? She was nearly positive her own daughter was at least part youkai, how could she feel anything negatively about them?

"Excuse me?" was all she could manage, and meekly at that. His proximity was making her a little weak in the knees, which befuddled her mind beyond reason. Even Hojo never made her feel like this.

"I believe you heard me," the hanyou teacher growled, "you made such a grand point about it. You notified the school, including me, of your concerns with her possible heritage. I can only assume it's because you are ashamed and worried about what it would look like for you to have a hanpa in your family. If you have a problem with us, this really isn't the place for you or your daughter," he said, his voice terribly cold, and full of disgust. From a kindergarten teacher, of all people.

"Mr. Takahashi," she drawled sarcastically, with half lidded eyes, seeping annoyance. Her previous positive feelings towards the man forgotten; replaced with ones of bitterness. "Do you know what it means to assume* something? I don't know where you would even come up with these accusations. My own daughter may be part youkai, and you think I could bear her ill-will? I love her!" she professed with conviction.

"Despite her blood?" he spat back at her. She watched him as a snide smirk appeared on his face, "Of course, she's only an adopted daughter, right?"

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean, Mr. Takahashi?" she scoffed back, her distaste for the man increasing incredibly. He was out right challenging her affections for her daughter. The desire to dispute his previous comment lost in her fury. She could have his job for acting so insolent.

He kept his eyes on her for a moment as he turned his attention to Aimi. The small girl was tucking away her last few items, carefully eyeing the two bickering adults. He must have felt guilty for allowing himself to get so out of hand in front of one of his students. It was his problem though; he was the one who started this issue to begin with. She saw him sigh, and attempt to rein in his own anger. He was flushed, like her, and his breathing seemed rasp.

"Even without 'tests' I can tell that Aimi is no doubt part youkai. I think you need to decide how you truly feel about that, and make your final choice on if this is the school you want her to attend," he finished. As the gawking statue she had become, she could only watch in silence as he picked up his items at the front of the door, and walked out. She could hear his distant, cold call as he walked down the hall, "Shut the door on the way out." She thought he may have said something else, but it was too far out of her range.

She stood sputtering muffled obscenities with all of her frustration overshadowing any coherent thought. That bastard didn't even wait long enough for her to yell at him. Yet another encounter with the odd, and obviously rude, man who fell out of the tree. This was just great. Now she was positive the man probably hated her, and even more so after this outburst. Well, at least it was clear as to why; because he's an idiot.

"Mommy," Aimi looked up at Kagome who was frozen in place, partially due to shock, partially due to anger. She shook her head, as if erasing her irritation would work like an etch-a-sketch. She looked down to see Aimi fidgeting at her side, tugging at her shirt.

"Humm, do you need to pee? Why are you jumping around like that?" she question, taking the girls hand to lead her out of the room.

"NO! Mommy, gosh!" The girl said embarrassed. "I just wanted to know what a 'wench' was."

"It's a bad name for a girl, why do you ask?" she said absently.

"Because that's what Mr. Takahashi said as he left the room," she explained. Doing her best to mimic her teachers gruff tone, "Shut the door on the way out, wench."

Kagome balled her fist in front of her chest, a frightening scowl upon her expression, "Jerk! Why that dirty, little, dog eared... *grumble grumble*," she fumed.

"You can't say that in school," her daughter laughed. "I'll get him the next time he calls you a name. Even if he's my teacher, he can't say mean things about my Mommy."

[:::]

The drive home was quiet, as the two girls thought about the events of the day. Aimi focused on her first day of school, which she had thoroughly explained, much to Kagome's despair. Of course she wanted to know every detail about her daughters first day of school. However, that also meant she had to hear about her obnoxious teacher. Her day pretty much amounted to Mr. Takahashi this, or Mr. Takahashi that. The girl would catch herself occasionally, and amend portions of her story, and she was grateful for that. From what she had said, he actually sounded like a decent guy. If only he didn't jump to conclusions about her family, and act like an asshole.

She pulled into the driveway of their home, and opened her car door to exit. After doing so, Aimi swiftly followed her onto her side of the car, tracking dirt onto the driver side seat. Kagome rolled her eyes at her daughter's tendency, and casually brushed the dirt to the floor.

"Aimi, hang up your coat, and straighten up your room. When you're finished you can play out back. I have some files I need to work on before dinner," Kagome called to her now missing child. She expected that Aimi was already working on organizing her plethora of dolls, ponies, and stuffed animals. She was a typical little girl, except that she could lift her twin bed right off the floor.

*THUD BAROOPMH*

"Aimi! Don't drop the bed!" Kagome called from her desk. Her computer was still on, with an in progress sketch displaying on the monitor.

"Sorry, Mommy!" her daughter called back. Only moments later the thundering of running feet came around the corner of the hall, and dashed through the living room, past the study, into the kitchen, only leaving the sound of a slamming screen door in its wake.

A smile appeared on Kagome's face as she stood from her work to check on her daughter's room. Occasionally she would just push all of her toys under her bed. Scolding her several times finally put an end to that behavior; though it was better to be safe than sorry. The last time she had used that shortcut, a half eaten peach got lost underneath there. Not much else is needed to be said, it was a horrid mess to clean up... when she found it two weeks later.

Opening the closet she did find a couple pairs of shoes casually tossed into a pile of dirty cloths. Otherwise Aimi's room appeared clean, so Kagome nodded her head in approval, and changed her focus. A book bag was sitting on her bed, opened with little papers spewing out of the zippered mouth. Sitting softly on the small bed, Kagome pulled out the paperwork. As she suspected there was an assortment of different forms she would need to fill out for Aimi to return.

Mostly basic information made up the stack of papers: a permission slip for a trip to an ice cream factory in two weeks, emergency contact information for the teacher, several simple new student forms, an envelope for student portraits, and lastly a permission slip for Aimi to be enrolled into the Youkai Physical Education class; taught by Inuyasha Takahashi.

Inuyasha. So that was his name. Well, at least she had learned it one way or another. Before she could stop it, a small smile crept onto her lips, and she felt happy. Quickly the feeling was squashed, scoffing to herself. "I mean, not like I care. I could have never learned his first name, and been perfectly happy."

"Mommy, who are you talking to?" Aimi said from the doorway, already covered in mud. She frowned at her daughter's messy appearance, but decided it was better to not worry about it. Long ago she had removed all the carpet in the house; Kagome decided that if there were business for finding mud puddles, and inserting ones entire body into it, Aimi would hold the corner on that market.

"I was talking to myself, sadly. Do you have any other papers for me here? I'll need to fill them out for you to return," she answered.

"Shippo told me that when you talk to yourself, it means you're crazy," she giggled. "Now I can tell him he's wrong, because my Mommy does it."

Kagome laughed. "Well, maybe if you answered yourself. I try my best not to do that." She winked as her daughter came to sit next to her, and brushed a bit of dirt onto the floor. Her little hands pawed at the different items still remaining in her school bag.

"Here, Mommy, I drawed you this picture," she held out the construction paper, with a priceless kindergarten portrait on its face. "This one is you, Mommy, and that one is me." Aimi explained, pointing to the two blobs, one being larger, which indicated that it was the adult blob.

"Alright, well what's this one here?" she said. Gesturing towards another blob; this one had a white scribbled topping.

"That's the dog I want to get," she said with a smile.

"A dog huh? That's a pretty big dog, you know. It's bigger than I am on that picture," she explained to her daughter, showing her the difference in their sizes.

"That's ok. As long as he can be my dog," Aimi said nonsensically.

"Whatever you say," she rustled the girl's hair, and began to stand. "Why don't you go play, I'm gonna finish up work."

Before she could answer her, the phone began to ring, and her child rushed to answer it.

"Hello!" Aimi bellowed into the receiver, "You have reached the Higurashi and Akitoki Residence!"

"Aimi, they can hear you just fine, you don't need to scream. They probably hung up on you already," Kagome laughed, as she took the phone from her daughter, who hadn't even put the other portion of the phone to her ear. She would just hold it directly in front of her face, shouting at the top of her lungs. Was it because she could easily hear the person on the phone, without lifting to her ear, or because she didn't realize? Kagome never asked. The girl was just clueless about the telephone.

"Mommy!" she gasped, "But they are so far away, how can they hear me if I'm not loud enough?"

"That's just the magic of the phone, honey. Now go play," she said, before pulling the phone to her own ear, to see if they victim made it long enough to still be waiting for a sane person to answer the line.

"Hello, this is Kagome, may I help you?" she said.

"Oh wow, Kagome? Was that Aimi?" a feminine voice said, flustered, but obviously amused.

"Yes, that's how she answers the phone. Pretty great for getting rid of telemarketers," she added absently. "May I ask who's calling?"

"I'm sorry! This is Sango Takata, we met at the park the other day. Shippo's mother," she said in a voice that Kagome could tell she was smiling as well. At least the woman had a good sense of humor.

"Hi Sango, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing great, thanks for asking. I missed seeing you this morning at school when we dropped him off. Shippo said that Aimi and him are in the same class, that's great!"

"Yeah, too bad her teacher's a jerk," Kagome mumbled, but it wasn't lost by Sango.

"Who, Inuyasha? A jerk? Never!" Sango teased, "He really isn't that bad, he just comes across prickly to people who don't know his... uhm, personality."

"What do you mean? His personality to totally jump to conclusions about things he has no idea about, and butt his fat head into every situation as if he is the forefront of knowledge on the subject?" Kagome rattled off in a huff.

"Uhh... well, I just meant he's kind of an ass. Is he really being difficult with you? That's surprising; I mean he's able to put up with Miroku. Normally, that's a good sign for others. I'm sure it is just a misunderstanding. He really is a nice guy," Sango finished. It was kind of odd, Kagome felt like she had known this woman for years, and they gabbed like this all the time.

"Well, I guess I shouldn't be gossiping about Aimi's teacher, especially to someone who knows him personally," Kagome replied sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it. Well, the reason I called is to see if Shippo and Aimi could go to the park with me tomorrow after school?" Sango offered, exiting the odd conversation from before.

"Well, I don't know, I don't want to be rude, but I have only met you a once," Kagome said, feeling a little guilty. It may be harsh, but to be fair it wasn't safe to send Aimi off with strangers, even though they had already agreed to meet more for play dates. Those play dates she would attend as well, at least until she knew the couple a tad better.

"I understand, Shippo just mentioned a sort of claustrophobia that you have, and I figured it may be difficult for you to make it into the school when it is crowded. There's another park right next to the school. We can meet there if you want, and I can pick her up," Sango suggested.

"Well, that doesn't sound so bad, and then we can get to know each other a little better. And yeah, the 'crowds' thing… it's a little embarrassing."

"Don't worry about it Kagome. Everyone has something that unnerves them. It's only natural. Anyways, I think this will be fun. I don't know, just had a feeling we could be friends. Sounds cheesy, doesn't it."

"Yeah a little," Kagome and Sango both laughed, "but that's ok. I felt the same way. I'll see you tomorrow."

[:::]

Later that night, Kagome was helping Aimi with her second bath that day. On most nights, the good ones, Aimi would get a single bath. However, this evening she just had to help the neighbor dog. She helped him all the way underneath the dog house, retrieving his tennis ball. Way underneath it. Kagome wondered if a paint chipper would be required to remove the layer of crusted dirt off the child, but figured dunking her in a warm tub would be just as effective.

Currently, she was submerged in bubbles; they had sufficiently filled the tub. Her plastic dolphin was leaping in and out of the suds, creating a somewhat realistic sound effect of splashing waves. These were completely overshadowed by Aimi's own audio additions. Those were not so realistic. More like an assortment of farm animal noises, and Kagome didn't know where the girl learned the sound of the crashing ocean resembled a mooing cow.

She had been finished with her bath for a while, but Kagome was letting her play a little while longer. Her thoughts of course turned to Inuyasha Takahashi, but she did her best to not let his attitude taint her decent mood.

[~~~~~]

"Even without 'tests' I can tell that Aimi is no doubt part youkai."

[~~~~~]

It was pretty pathetic how little she knew about youkai and their life. What she did know, she learned in history lessons in grade school. When youkai had first begun to integrate into the human world, it began in Japan. The western society began by calling the beings Demons and Angels. Those names weren't very accurate, so instead Youkai was adopted around the world. Youkai was more a general term for mystical beings, and how true it was.

She was a descendant of Japanese immigrants, but it was several generations ago; other than her name she was extremely Americanized, and knew very little about Japan. She was raised in a small mid-western town, and had led a sheltered life up until her marriage. In fact, when she met Hojo, he was from the only other Japanese family that lived in her town. Later she learned it was because there weren't any youkai in that area. They left Japan to find a location that wasn't tainted by their sort.

Kagome, on the other hand, was fascinated by youkai; she didn't meet any until she left her town to go to college in the city. They enjoyed the area so much that they purchased their home in a nearby suburb. With more interaction she slowly began to learn more and more about them. She was still extremely naive about their culture, and habits, but she figured she would learn.

Oh how little did she know. Now her beautiful, wonderful, blessing of a daughter was a partial youkai. She looked over to see the girl's eyes had begun to sag slightly, and the mooing ocean had ceased. She smiled; and she would never give her up for the world.

Helping Aimi out of the tub, she got her ready for bed, and kissed her goodnight. She headed directly to the study to finish her last job for the evening. No matter how much focus she put on the document before her, she couldn't find the desire to work. She soon found herself browsing different web pages, searching for any details on this new development.

While she skimmed several different sites she thought about a few TV specials she had seen. They had focused on the subject of hanyou and hanpa children. From what she could recall, the offspring may have the physical appearance of a youkai, but would rarely inherit the super human abilities of a full youkai. Aimi certainly didn't fit in that category; she was incredibly strong and fast. Her hearing and sense of smell were much higher than that of a human as well.

Luckily the girl had never been badly hurt, so she wasn't sure if she would have the increased rate of healing. Other than her golden eyes, and silvery hair, she didn't have any other youkai features. Normally hanpa children would have claws, or fangs, sometimes ears or tails. Or instead of being human looking in appearance, they may have been more animalistic. Not the beautiful Youkai she was used to seeing. But those children, even if their bodies weren't considered normal, they would still be comparable to a human otherwise. Aimi was the complete opposite, she looked like a normal human child, but was practically a super hero.

Kagome sighed as she opened up the next website, this one titled 'Youkai Day to Day'. There was a link on the page, 'Human/Youkai mixing, and the effects'. She skimmed through the pages, and found an excerpt that interested her.

[~~~]

… Unlike lower class youkai clans, when a mixed pup is born from a Tai-Youkai clan, they are most likely to be born with extra-ordinary abilities, and must be carefully raised. If the human parent is the mother, the pup will not start to develop youkai traits until after birth, so as not to damage the mother internally. The amount of time it takes for the youkai traits to appear varies from pup to pup.

There are currently 157 registered Tai-Youkai clans, with 1208 registered mature adults. To see a list of these families, please submit a request to the International Registry of Youkai Lineage. -Click Here- to be redirected to their site.

[~~~]

[~A:|:N~]

4010

Vocab Time!

*Assume - To make an ass out of u and me

Tai-Youkai - Long lived/powerful Youkai

International Registry of Youkai Lineage - you didn't even know they had those!

How's it goin'

I hope everyone is enjoying my little lighthearted fic. I just want to say, it's about the journey ;)

And just in case I haven't mentioned it, and I don't think I have - this story is completed. I have all the chapters written out, and I am just getting someone to correct spelling errors, etc. I'll post up a new chapter every other day or so.

- Foayasha