CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE:
Chapter Twelve

Kagome picked up the phone and started to dial her home number, but Inu Yasha stopped her.

"You want to send Sota through the well at night?" He asked incredulously. If his tone of voice was any indication, he was still miffed over being made to sit, even though Kagome swore she'd only been joking and had apologized three times now. "He could get jumped by bandits, or wild animals, not to mention demons!"

Kagome put the receiver back in its cradle and turned around to face him. "I was going to tell him to wait till morning, then go."

He rolled his eyes. "And if Asano's creeps can listen to your phone, then you'll just tip them off about where the jewel is, and they'll get a whole night's head start." He lay back on the bed and laced his fingers behind his head with a smug expression on his face. "Wait till morning, then call."

"Maybe you should try to get there tonight and take the jewel to Kaede yourself," Kagome suggested. "You're pretty fast. Maybe they won't notice you leaving—"

"I told you, I don't know how to get to your place from here!" Inu Yasha snapped back. "Even if you told me how, you'd just tell me the names of roads I don't know, like you did five minutes ago. They don't know where the jewel is, so just get some sleep." He shifted uncomfortably and added in a lower voice: "You had a rough day."

Kagome blinked at him in disbelief. Did he just say something sensitive and thoughtful? She watched him studiously refuse to look at her: Sour expression, jaw set, ears twitching. Yup, he'd said something selfless just then and was having the usual uncomfortable reaction to it. Kagome saw her opportunity to have a some fun at his expense and, with a sly little smile, she sat down on the edge of the bed and playfully patted his hip. That startled him a lot less than what she said while she did it. "You're right. I should get some sleep. Move over, ok?"

His eyes went wide and his whole body froze, except for his heart which felt like it was going to beat itself out of his chest. "M-move over? Y-you mean, you wanna share the b-b-bed with me? Us? Together? In the same b-bed? But Sh-Shippo'll be back any minute!" In his hurry to get out of her way, his right hand went straight off the bed, causing him to lose his balance and flail about until Kagome caught his arm and pulled him back up. However, once he was topside again, she didn't let go of his wrist, so they just sat there and stared at each other like a couple of deer caught in the headlights (only the doe was about to die laughing at the terrified look on the buck's face).

Kagome put on her sweetest, most innocent expression and asked in a cute voice: "What did you think I meant, Inu Yasha?"

He burbled.

"You said I'm your girlfriend, right?" She continued, still playing the innocent, while he gulped and sweat. This was even more fun than Sit. "And we're friends, too, right?" He nodded nervously. "So, I can trust you not to grope me in my sleep," she narrowed her eyes at him, "right?"

He gulped again and nodded.

"And you can trust me not to grope you in your sleep," she added with a satisfied grin.

Nod. Gulp. Sweat. A flash memory of Kagome standing naked at the foot of the bed back in the condo superimposed itself over her fully-clothed self sitting on the edge of this bed, and next thing Inu Yasha knew he was seeing her naked, talking about them sleeping together (but nothing else, just sleeping…together). In this setting, with her sitting next to him on a bed, looking at him like that, Inu Yasha found the idea of her cuddled up beside him very attractive. He realized it was the first time he'd really imagined something like that with Kagome instead of Kikyo. Then he remembered what happened to him last time he thought about Kagome in a bed and sent a mental feeler south to make sure his little demon was behaving himself, especially in these tight pants. Everything was in its place. Whew!

Kagome's next comment changed all that. She twirled a lock of hair around her pinky, batted her eyelashes at him and said coyly: "Unless you want me to…"
He saw her saying that naked.

Kitsune are tricksters by trade, and to work a good trick one must have impeccable timing. Shippo's couldn't have been better (depending upon your point of view). He burst into the room wearing his human disguise and the exact same expression Inu Yasha was and babbled at high speed: "Rei wants me to stay with her in her room and protect her from bad guys, you guys! Me! Her! Alone! In her room! I don't know her well enough for that, but she's so cute, and I'm a really a little kid, not a cute human guy! Holy shit, you guys, what'll—" he stopped, blinked at the scene on the bed, saw the look on Inu Yasha's face, gulped. With a nervous laugh, he backed toward the door. "Whoa. Sorry, you guys. Um, I'll, uh, just…you know…wing it with Rei, ok?" He jerked open the door, zipped through and let it slam shut behind him. A couple of seconds later, he opened the door a crack and poked his head inside to comment with a wicked grin: "Don't do anything I wouldn't do, ok?" Closed the door more quietly, then opened it again and amended: "Forget that. Don't do anything Yuki wouldn't do. Have fun. Bye."

Blink-blink-blink.

Kagome and Inu Yasha scrambled for the door at the same time, fought over the knob for a few seconds, then finally got it open and tumbled through it in time to see Shippo jump into the elevator. "It's not what you think!" They shouted after him, then stomped back into the room in a huff.

"You started it," Inu Yasha mumbled.

Kagome didn't answer him, so he turned around expecting to find her ready to yell "sit" at him because she would surely blame him for everything, since he was the man and she was the woman, and stuff like this was always the man's fault. She was blushing and looking at his pants. Dread froze his innards as he swallowed hard and followed her embarrassed gaze. He spun about, stalked to the porch door, unlocked it, flung it open, stomped onto the porch, slammed the door behind him and plopped down in a corner with his back to her. His face burned and his hands shook. Stupid girl. It wasn't that bad. What was her problem? It was her fault. Shit. Not only did she see it, so did Shippo, and that little furball was sure to tell Kagome's friend that Inu Yasha and Kagome were doing it. Well, they weren't doing it. And they wouldn't be doing it, either! Bitch. Didn't her mother teach her that it's mean to tease boys? She could get into a lot of trouble doing stuff like that. He pulled his knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms around them. When'd Kagome get so flirty, anyway? Was it because he kissed her before and admitted he thought she was his girlfriend? Now she expected him to do that with her all of a sudden? His brain replayed her asking him to move over so she could join him on the bed, and he realized she really had only been teasing him, just like Sit, only meaner. Well, Kagome probably didn't think she was being mean, but how could a girl understand what a man felt when she acted like that? But…he sort of liked being flirted with. Kikyo had never done that, though Kikyo had been a more serious person, someone with a lot more responsibilities and maturity than Kagome. It made him sad to realize that Kikyo had probably never had a chance to be just an ordinary girl. Come to think of it, he'd never been able to be just an ordinary (half-demon son of a major demon lord) boy. He'd been hoping for fun in the sun, following Kagome to the beach. No jewel shards, no demons, no Sesshomaru, no danger. Just him and Kagome at the seashore. Oh well, at least he'd accomplished one of his goals: He kissed her. Then Shunusuke's dad showed up with a couple of jewel shards and his mother the Great (pain-in-the-ass) Demon of the Northern Lands and her boyfriend (the even-bigger-pain-in-the-ass) Sesshomaru. "Never a dull moment" must just be his karma.

Inu Yasha rested his chin between his knees and glared at the beach below his perch. At least Kagome was flirting with him now. Or was it that he was only just now noticing and responding when she flirted with him? He sighed. No matter how flirtatious she was with him, he was sure Kagome didn't really want to sleep with him like that. How could he have even imagined for a second that she'd want him in that way? She wasn't that kind of a girl and he wasn't that kind of a guy. Now he felt totally stupid for getting all excited. All at once a cruel thought insinuated itself into the most insecure corner of his psyche: Had she been about to make some snide comment before he stormed off to sulk on the balcony?

The door slid open and shut, and soon Kagome was sitting shoulder to shoulder with him, mimicking his fetal pose. Inu Yasha toyed with the idea of jumping over the rail and running away but he changed his mind when she leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to do that to you."

He snorted his low opinion of that. "You were laughing, weren't you?"

She lifted her head and craned her neck around to look him in the eyes, but he kept them stubbornly closed. "Laughing at what?" Then she got it. He was insecure about that? Not that she was any authority or even wanted to be but in her humble, clueless, mortified experience (just that evening with him), there was nothing about him to make her laugh. Blush furiously and want to run and hide with shame because she'd played such a low-down, dirty trick, sure, but not laugh at him. Anyway, it hadn't been that bad. In fact, she was a little flattered that he'd find her that desirable. Still, she didn't want him to think she was that kind of a girl. "Inu Yasha," she assured him in an embarrassed voice and lay her head back on his shoulder, "you have nothing to worry about."

His heart skipped, and he couldn't keep a smirk from creeping onto his lips. Damn right he had nothing to worry about.

They were quiet for a long time before he realized she'd fallen asleep. It was so nice sitting there with her leaning against him, a cool ocean breeze tossing their hair and a sky full of stars, that Inu Yasha decided he'd just close his eyes and enjoy it for a few minutes before carrying her inside.

Shippo and Rei sat at the little table in the corner of her hotel room and gossiped about Kagome and Inu Yasha, since the TV didn't work, room service was non-existent, the phone cord was cut and neither of them had the courage to venture onto the beach.

"I don't think they'll do it," Rei declared matter-of-factly. "Kagome's not that kind of a girl. He'll have to marry her first."

Shippo nodded. "Yeah, you're right. She's too nice."

Pause. "You don't think Inu Yasha'll try anything, do you?" Rei asked with wide eyes. "I mean, he's kind of, you know, a punk."

A punk? Shippo stifled a snicker. Yeah, that about summed up Inu Yasha, but he wasn't the kind of guy to force himself on a girl. At least, Shippo didn't think he was. It'd been hard enough for the poor sod to admit he thought of Kagome as his girlfriend. However, the two of them had been mighty cozy when he'd run upstairs for advice, and Inu Yasha had been rather…excited. Even if Dog Boy did try anything (vehemently as he denied anything was going on), Kagome probably wouldn't let him get away with it. "Nah, he won't try anything. I don't think he'd know what to do, even if he wanted to try something. Anyway, Kagome wouldn't let him."

She nodded sagely, then they went back to being uncomfortable about being alone in her hotel room together.

"Maybe we should stay with them tonight?" Rei suggested after a while.

Shippo considered it, then imagined what Inu Yasha would do to his skull if he even suggested it and decided he and Rei were better off being nervous. "I think they want to be alone."

"To do what?!"

Shippo gaped at her. It was so obvious! "To kiss, what else?!"

"Oh yeah." Rei looked away and played with her hair for a while.

Shippo stared at the blank TV screen and wondered what he'd do when he couldn't hold his disguise any longer. He hoped Rei would be asleep by then, but the way things were going, neither of them were going to get any sleep that night. He looked at Rei out of the corner of his eye but quickly turned away when he discovered she was doing the same thing to him. They cleared their throats. He'd just have to tell her the truth, that's all there was to it. It wasn't like the relationship could ever go anywhere, or anything. He was a little kid in youkai years (and in physical appearance—sigh), she was practically a full-grown human woman. A rather cute, full-grown human woman, in fact. Nice, too. And she seemed to like him, which rather complicated things. What if she hated him for tricking her into thinking he was something he wasn't?

He cast another sidelong glance her way to find she was once again looking at him. She smiled shyly and blushed. Shippo felt his face get warm and decided a little pacing might help him think, so he got up and walked over to the TV. As he turned to face her, he decided honesty was the best policy, took a deep breath and said: "Rei, there's something you should know about me—"

Rei slapped her hands over her mouth and bugged at him in dismay. "You're gay?!"

Shippo blinked. "NO! What gave you that idea?" He wasn't sure what "gay" meant in this context, but he had a feeling it was something a woman would find dreadful if a man told her that's what he was.

She looked relieved. "That's usually what a man tells a woman when he starts out with 'there's something you should know about me'. That's when he comes out of the closet and tells her he likes men."

"I am not gay." Definitely not, he added to himself.

"Good." She smiled happily, then suddenly her face fell. "You have a girlfriend."

"Uh…no…"

Rei's eyes got really, really huge, and she gasped: "You're really a woman!"

"NO!" Shippo turned bright red. Where did she get these ideas, anyway?

Her gaze dropped to her lap, and she sighed in a timid voice: "You don't like me."

Surreal… Shippo was really beginning to have serious doubts about the coolness of dating girls someday. Maybe he should be gay: He understood guys. No, no, he'd stick to mysterious girls. He rolled his eyes and ticked off the points on his fingers: "I'm not gay or a woman, I don't have a girlfriend and I like you. You're really nice and cute."

"You like me?" She repeated coyly as she got up and came over to stand really, really close to him. She took his face in her hands. "Then you won't mind if I do this?"

She kissed him.

Shippo's eyes went wide and his bones turned to mush. If he hadn't had his butt resting on the edge of the dresser, he was sure his knees would've given out, and he'd be on the ground with a cute, nice, affectionate girl on top of him. Then again, maybe letting the ol' knees give out might not be such a bad idea—stop that!

After a zillion years, their lips parted. "You're gonna be so mad at me," Shippo moaned. He ruffed his fingers through his hair, then paused and grinned at her. "But first, do that again."

She started to, but Shippo wanted her to still speak to him in the morning, so he stopped her. "Please don't hate me, ok? Remember I tried to tell you, but you didn't let me. Ok?"

Rei narrowed her eyes at him, dreading what he was going to say, and nodded. "Ok. You don't work for that Tsurai guy, do you?"

Shippo frowned impatiently. "You're doing it again."

She blushed. "Sorry."

"I don't work for him or his boss," Shippo explained, "but Tsurai and I do have something really important in common," he took a deep breath and spit it out: "We're both kitsune."

Rei's face lit up. "Cool!"

"Only, he's a lot older than me."

"Well, kitsune live a really long time, right?"

Shippo shrugged and sort of nodded. Technically true. "Yeah, but I mean he's really a lot older than me. Like, I'm—" he stumbled over the words, unable to tell her point blank that she'd just kissed a little boy. So he decided to show her instead. As he reached for the invisible leaf atop his head, he told her worriedly: "Remember, you promised you wouldn't hate me."

"I couldn't hate you, Shippo," Rei assured him sweetly. "You're too nice. Whatever you really are."

Hold that thought. Shippo closed his eyes and took off the leaf. In a whirl of golden sparkles he reverted to his natural form. Rei watched him get shorter and younger, and her jaw dropped father and farther. When it was all over, she had to sit down.

"I didn't want to trick you," Shippo explained hurriedly, "Inu Yasha and I were trying to blend, so we wouldn't get Kagome in trouble."

"So…you're here for her, huh?" Rei asked sadly as she sat on the bed.

Shippo hopped onto one of the chairs by the table. "Inu Yasha's here for her. I just followed him to keep him out of trouble," he rolled his eyes and added with a snort: "Yeah, like that ever works!"

Rei nodded. After a few moments of awkward silence, she grinned at him. "Can we still be friends?"

Inu Yasha and Kagome were still on the porch, sound asleep when morning came, and Shippo (in human form) and Rei timidly knocked on the door to see if they wanted breakfast. Getting no answer, they opened the door a crack, a bit startled to find it unlocked, and Shippo poked his head in to have a look about. He spied the pair, leaning against one another on the porch and motioned Rei into the room behind him. He pointed through the glass doors and giggled. For some reason, Rei didn't find it quite as funny and dragged him back out of the room and very quietly shut the door behind them.

Inu Yasha's ears swiveled backwards to listen to the activity in the room behind him while the rest of him continued to doze. His eyes squinted open, then squeezed shut again against the bright morning sunshine. Seagulls cried as they soared overhead, the tide crashed against the beach, vacationers laughed—
Waitaminit.

Inu Yasha's eyes flew open to find a small group of teenagers searching for shells in the sand. Looking to his right, he could see part of the hotel's back veranda where a handful of teenagers, Sesshomaru, Hisui, Mikoto Asano and their entourage were enjoying breakfast as if the events of the previous day had never happened. Then his ears picked up less peaceful construction noises as Shippo and Rei appeared on the veranda, saw the Asano party and hesitated. Inu Yasha's muscles tensed, and he prepared to spring if things got nasty down there, but with a cheerful wave, Hisui called to Shippo and directed him and Rei to a table near hers. Then the Great Demon of the Northern Lands snapped her fingers until a young man in a crisp, white apron appeared, pulled out a pad of paper and a pen and started writing while she talked. Occasionally, she'd consult Shippo and Rei to make sure she was ordering what they wanted to eat, and the frightened teenagers would nod at her and say nothing. Inu Yasha wondered how many times Hisui had called her new victims "darling" before finally getting their order placed and sending the waiter away. Had she noticed him and Kagome sleeping up there on the porch like a couple of saps? Worse, had Sesshomaru seen them?

Inu Yasha growled, his happy mood from the night before shot all to hell by the very thought of his brother intruding upon it in any way. Then Hisui was looking straight at him and Kagome with that superior look on her perfect little face, and Inu Yasha thought he was going to be sick. Gods he hated that woman. What did Sesshomaru see in her, anyway? Even Big Brother wasn't that shallow. Hisui waved at him to come down and join them as if they were all just a bunch of pals on a beach outing. That got Sesshomaru's attention, and the brother from hell turned his head around then up, saw the warm and fuzzy moment happening outside Kagome's hotel room, blinked, then turned around and resumed sipping his tea. "I hate him so much," Inu Yasha grumbled. Hisui gave him an impatient look, then threw up her arms in disgust and made some joke about him to her companions. Inu Yasha couldn't clearly hear what she said, but whatever it was, it made everybody laugh, then look up at him. Evidence enough that he was being mocked. The bitch was probably saying how cute he and Kagome looked all cuddled up like they were.

"Wake up, Kagome," he grumped and gave her shoulder a nudge that was a little rougher than he'd intended but did the job. "Hisui wants us to have breakfast with her."

Kagome rubbed her eyes and yawned: "And you're just gonna go?" She froze in mid-stretch when she saw how normal everything was again. "What in the world…?"

"Guess Asano 'fixed it'," Inu Yasha snorted. He got up and went into the hotel room to find where he was supposed to relieve himself, Kagome on his heels.
"Shippo and Rei are down there, too!" She exclaimed.

He shrugged as he located the bathroom, then the light switch. "Yeah, I know. Looks like Hisui's buying." He shut the door on her startled face, leaving her to sit on the bed with her legs crossed until he finished.

After she'd showered, Kagome once again started to call home, and again Inu Yasha stopped her. "It's light now!" She protested.

"I know that!" He shot back. "I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were gonna say to your mom if she answers the phone. You can't tell her I'm here."

"And I can't tell her what's been going on, either," Kagome added thoughtfully. "How can I explain wanting to talk to Sota?" Suddenly her face lit up and she snapped her fingers. "I know! I'll talk to everybody! They'll all want to know how my holiday's going, anyway."

Inu Yasha nodded and handed her the phone. "Right. Just remember not to mention me, ok?"

Kagome started to dial, then hung up again and gave him a suspicious look. "Why not? What did you do?"

Inu Yasha ducked his head and paced to the dresser to fiddle with some change she'd left there. "She didn't want me to follow you here, that's all. I don't want you to get in trouble."

"Inu Yasha, I am in trouble…"

He tiddly-winked a 500 Yen coin into an ashtray halfway down the dresser by rebounding it off the side of the TV. "I mean, with your mom! I don't think she likes me."

A second coin was ready to join the first one in the ashtray, but Kagome smacked her hand over Inu Yasha's, flattening his palm onto the pile of money with a metallic crunch. "What…did…you…do?"

He scratched the pine dresser top with his claws but not hard enough to dislodge her hand. "I, uh…" he coughed, "acted sort of, you know—She's just got this thing against demons, ok?"

"You were acting jealous, weren't you?" Kagome applied more pressure to his hand, forcing the coins into his palm. Inu Yasha grimaced and shrugged with the shoulder attached to his free hand. Kagome wrapped her fingers around his hand and pulled it off the coins. "A jealous demon must be a pretty scary thing to see," she said coyly and pulled him closer until he at last looked at her face. "What did she say to you? Was she mad?" Kagome took his other hand and gently tugged until their bodies were touching and their faces were just inches apart.

His mouth twitched. Kagome wasn't mad at him? "Yeah, sort of, I guess. She, um, said she wasn't going to let you come to the past anymore and, um, you couldn't see me anymore. Ever."

Kagome's eyes got big and dewy. "Ever?" She pulled down on his hands to give him the hint to bring his lips into range. "Like, never-ever?"

Inu Yasha nodded stupidly. They had more important things to worry about—like Hisui losing her patience and sending someone to find out what was keeping them, but hell with that, Kagome wanted a kiss, and who was he to say no when she looked at him like that? He freed his hands to run them up her arms, then into her wet hair and down her back as he crushed her lips with his. Kissing was good. That other stuff could wait for now.

As long as she didn't get naked in front of him again. Or tease him about them sharing a bed. Or…mmmm…sigh like that. He found himself thinking maybe it would be nice to do this kissing thing on the bed and was just getting a good mental picture of that when reality tried to insinuate itself.

The jewel! They had to get it…uh…somewhere…yeah. Somewhere with whitsisname. Little guy. Shippo—no, Sota. Yeah, that guy.

Suddenly, Kagome stopped kissing him and pushed away a little bit so she could look down. Inu Yasha turned bright red and thought: "Here we go again." Why in the hell did she have to act so curious about that if she didn't mean to go any farther than just kissing him?

He cleared his throat. "I guess we should, uh, get downstairs before Hisui sends one of her jerks to finds us." Kagome kept staring. "Uh, Kagome? My face is up here." He chucked her under the chin to make her look up. Not surprisingly, her face was beet red, and she couldn't seem to meet his eyes.

"I was just," she gulped, "I—just all of a sudden thought about what Sesshomaru said…about me being pregnant…and that made me think about how I got that way…then about—" she swallowed and blushed even more, "you know. That. I mean, getting pregnant, and, well, um…I'm not—"

Inu Yasha hugged her, not really wanting to explore that issue just then. "I think he was just being Sesshomaru. Even if he did see you pregnant, we were probably married, or something. Or you were married to whoever the father's supposed to be…I guess." Better not be that damn priest, he added to himself.
"It'll be you."

Inu Yasha's heart skipped, and his breath caught in his throat. "Do you—Is that what you really want?" He pushed her away and had to force her head up to look at him again. She wanted to have his baby? If she wanted to have a baby at all, he amended quickly. Sesshomaru had probably just said he'd seen her pregnant to throw her off guard, or maybe just to be perverse. But, it wasn't like Sesshomaru to say something if wasn't a means to an end. "Really? You want a kid that's part demon and half me?" Unless he used the jewel to become a full human, as he'd planned to do for Kikyo. "I thought you thought I was a jerk?"

She shrugged and smiled nervously. "You can be. You can be really nice, too. Like now."

That deserved a kiss.

Someone applauded. Not very loudly, but quite nearby, like…from the vicinity of the bed. They broke their kiss and with dread knotting their insides turned their heads as one to find Shinai on his belly on the bed, propped on his elbows, chin cupped in his hands, a very amused expression on his foxy face. He was halfway between human and fox, with pointy black ears sticking out of his silky hair and a long, fluffy tail poking out of a hole in the back of his baggy blue shorts. He was back to that beach bum look again, Hawaiian tourist shirt and all.

"Aw, c'mon, you guys," he pouted, "it was just starting to get good!"

Inu Yasha growled at him and flexed his claws. "Get lost!"

Shinai grinned from ear to ear and rolled onto his back, letting his head loll over the end of the bed and his hair drag the floor. He laced his fingers across his chest and twitched the silvery tip of his tail between his feet. "Melrose Place, you ain't. Man, you guys need to take lessons, or something." He freed one hand to point at Inu Yasha's pants. "Cold shower, Buddy. Now. Unless you want Hisui all over that. I hear Sesshomaru doesn't put out as much as Her Ladyship likes it." Shinai licked his fangs and added lewdly. "Maybe Little Brother'll make up the difference?"

"Maybe you will," Inu Yasha snarled, but took the man's advice. He'd spend the rest of his life alone in a room with his brother and the Tetsusaiga before he spent one second with an amorous Hisui. He got halfway to the bathroom before he realized he was leaving Kagome alone with Shinai, who seemed just a little too interested in the girl. Inu Yasha stomped back, grabbed Kagome's wrist and dragged her into the bathroom with him, then closed and locked the door. As if that would keep the kitsune out. The big pervert would probably appear in the room just to see if Kagome watched while he showered.

"Uh…Kagome?"

She turned her back on the shower area, closed her eyes, then covered her face with her hands. "I won't look. Go ahead."

"You can look," he mumbled, "if you want to. I saw you."

Kagome declined to peek. "Maybe later."

"Yeah," he nodded, feeling a little disappointed, then scolded himself for even entertaining the idea of getting naked in front of Kagome. She'd already seen more of him than she wanted to. Probably more of any man than she wanted to. "I'll make it fast."

From the other side of the door, Shinai teased: "You're gonna do that in front of her?" Then he appeared in the room right in front of Kagome: "BOO!"

She yelped and fell backwards into Inu Yasha's arms.

"Can I watch, too?" Shinai begged like a trained pup, with his tongue dangling and his hands up like paws. "Please?"

Inu Yasha and Kagome narrowed their eyes at him, but before either could move to pound him, he disappeared again. Kagome trembled with rage and snarled: "Promise me you'll kill him."

"Any way you like."

When they emerged from the bathroom, there was no sign of Shinai. They poked around the hotel room, looking under the bed, in the closet and on the porch just to make sure the kitsune was really gone. A look over the balcony rail showed him to be sitting next to Hisui, sipping a colorful drink with a little paper umbrella in it. "Freak," Inu Yasha muttered as he watched Hisui's guard dude yuk it up with his boss and her relatives. There was Yuki, wearing next to nothing and hanging on Hisui's every word, and Shunusuke, who leaned back in his chair and watched the beachcombers with a look on his face that rivaled any bored expression Sesshomaru had ever worn. In a moment, he realized he was being watched and casually glanced up at Inu Yasha just long enough to let the demon know he knew he was there, then went back to being bored.

Inu Yasha leaned against the rail and alternated his attention between the soothing sea and the annoying breakfast club below. He didn't envy Shippo and Rei one bit. Maybe if he and Kagome dawdled long enough they could avoid having to try to eat and tolerate bad company at the same time. Maybe she'd want to make out some more. One of his ears twisted backwards at the sound of Kagome's voice on the telephone. Calling home at last, he thought, and softly closed the glass door behind him just in case someone down below had hearing better than his.

"Oi! Dog Breath!" Shinai called up to him.

Inu Yasha made a socially unacceptable gesture at him , which Shinai found hilarious, but disgusted Hisui. The kitsune grinned, happy to have found another button to push. He held up a bright orange fruit and pitched it at Inu Yasha, who caught it easily. The first was followed by another one, then two cans of something labeled in a foreign language. "Oranges and coffee!" Shinai explained with a thumbs up gesture. "Yummy! Good after sex!"

"We didn't have sex, asshole!" Inu Yasha shouted back with a growl, getting the attention of everybody within earshot. He flushed and sniffed the oranges, then licked one of them and made a sour face.

"Peel it first, idiot," Shinai advised and demonstrated the proper technique with his own fruit.

Inu Yasha peeled the orange in the same way Shinai did it, using the claw on his thumb like a paring knife, then tore out a section and with much trepidation, popped it into his mouth. "Not bad," he called to Shinai, then held up one of the cans. "What's this shit?"

"Chilled coffee. Enjoy."

Since Inu Yasha knew his way around pop top cans, he had the coffee open and chugged before really giving it a good sniff first. "People think this tastes good?!"

Shinai nodded and grinned. "Morning beverage, gets the juices flowing! Not that you need any help with that, you little love machine, you!"

With a disgusted growl, Inu Yasha took the so-called breakfast back into the hotel room. By then, Kagome was off the phone, so he asked the obvious question with a meaningful look. She responded with a shaky smile and a nod. Sota was good to go and soon the jewel would be safely in Kaede's hands.

And so it was with great relief that Inu Yasha and Kagome finally adjourned to the veranda to have more to eat than oranges and canned coffee (or "liquid horse shit", as Inu Yasha thought of it). It took them only a moment to make the horrified realization that Shinai and his twin were gone.