Thanks: Crystal Mizuka, linh, giggleplex, Mika, Clow Angel, Michikaru, Starry, Ramen Goood, Inu/power, miroku's-my-man

One Week With Inuyasha
Chapter Three: Sunday Afternoon


"How about this one?" Kagome asked, walking out of the dressing room and standing in front of Inuyasha. She wore the skirt she had bought earlier and a form-fitting pale yellow top with loose, long sleeves. The skirt was pink with pale yellow flowers sprinkled around and came to just above her knees.

Inuyasha looked at her. Dammit...she can't wear that on her date with that Hojo creep. She looks too good in it. Snorting, he shook his head. "It's too short, and you can see your boobs through the top, what little you have."

Irritated, Kagome stomped one foot and glared at him. "You...you haven't liked anything yet!" she told him angrily. She walked back into the dressing room and slipped on a longer pink skirt, about shin-length, with yellow sequins sewn around the hem and small, pale yellow stars. "How about this one?"

"The shirt, bitch. I told you that you can your boobs through that shirt," he told her with annoyance.

"Why don't you just sit down and shut up?!" she barked at him.

Swiftly, he tumbled off of his chair and into the carpet. "Stupid bitch," he muttered, getting back up in his chair. He would have burst out with something unkind but Kagome gave him a horrible look when he did before, not to mention people pointed and stared at him.

Kagome changed back into her original outfit and stood outside her dressing room. "All right," she told him. "You go find something for me to wear."

Arching an eyebrow, Inuyasha stared at her. "You've got to be shitting me."

"No, go on. Find me something to wear," she ordered.

He had helped her find the top in the first place, so he knew what size shirt to get her. He would have to hazard a guess on the skirt or pants or whatever he decided to choose for her. Uncertainly, he lumbered off to the juniors section and began looking through the racks of clothes.

"Um...sir?" an attendant asked hesitantly. "May I help you find something?"

"I...no," he snorted. "Get lost."

"If you need anything, just yell then," the clerk replied congenially.

"Stupid bastard," he muttered. "Why isn't there anything here that won't show off her figure?" he grumbled, then found a puke green top with three-quarters sleeves. Grinning, he put that over his arm and wandered over to the pants. He needed to find the most horrible pants he could find to go with it. He found a pair of pants made of couderoy in an obnoxious pink and held the shirt up with the pants underneath it. "Perfect!"

He joined Kagome again at the dressing room. "Here."

Kagome took it. "Uh..."

"Go on."

"No."

"Yes."

"No. I wanted you to be serious about it, Inuyasha!"

"I am. Try them on."

Sighing, Kagome gave in and tried the outfit on. "Ugh...Inuyasha...this...I can tell it looks horrible..."

"Let me see!" he said eagerly.

She stepped out. "I look terrible..."

You sure do! he crowed mentally. It was a struggle to keep the smirk off of his face. "You look fine, Kagome."

"You're lying."

"I'm not. Besides, if this Hobo--"

"Hojo."

"If this Hobo really likes you, then he won't care what you wear. Think of it as testing his integrity."

Kagome let this digest.

"You're jealous."

"What?! What the hell are you talking about, Kagome? There's nothing for me to be jealous of! I would have to care about you to be jealous!"

"Are you saying you don't care about me?"

"I...I'm not saying that!"

"Then what are you saying?!" Kagome demanded.

"I'm saying you look fine in that!" Inuyasha snapped. People were beginning to stare at them as they passed by the dressing rooms.

Flushing, Kagome glared at him. "You're fashion-retarded. I'm going home."

Inuyasha's ears flattened against his head. She had just uttered the one phrase he was loathe to hear. "Why?"

"Because we've done nothing but fight all day. You know where home is, I'm leaving," she growled, stalked back into the dressing room, changed her clothes, grabbed her purse and bag of clothes, shoved the bag of clothes at Inuyasha, and stormed out of the department store, leaving a very bewildered Inuyasha behind.

***


Worried about her--no, worried about the Shikon shards, Inuyasha decided to follow Kagome back home, careful to stay far enough behind her to keep her unaware of his presence. However, he knew it was bad news when she ducked into an alley between a bookstore and a bakery, still projecting her image of outrage.

Kagome, however, felt it perfectly safe because she had taken this shortcut many times before.

"That stupid Inuyasha," she muttered, her legs finally walking like human legs rather than stiff boards and her hands relaxing out of fists. Tears sprang to her eyes that she forced back with a strange determination. "He's nothing but an idiot and I...I hate him. All his does is get in my way, not the other way around." She was so absorbed in her thoughts she didn't hear it when three men in their early twenties stepped out from the shadows. In fact, she didn't notice they were there into she walked head-first into the leader.

"Hello there," the thug crooned.

Kagome gulped. "W-what do you want?"

Kagome suddenly found herself pinned to the back wall of the bakery, a dirty knife with a rather sharp edge pressed against her throat. The breath caught in her throat as she fought not to cry.

"Give me your money," the thug hissed.

"I...I don't have any," she whispered fearfully, the tears she had been trying to fight spilling over her cheeks. "A-all I have is...is a credit card..."

"Well," the thug grinned, "we'll just have to take it another way." He eyed her dress.

Kagome screamed, but it was cut short by the blade pressing harder on her throat.

Not far off, Inuyasha's ears pricked forward. "Kagome!" he cried, springing immediately into action. He darted into the alleyway and came careening around the corner, claws slashing and growling. His hat had fallen off in the process somewhere back on the sidewalk.

The attackers looked up at Inuyasha, who grabbed the one with the knife in an iron-strong grip. The thug promptly dropped the knife as Kagome scampered behind Inuyasha.

The other two thugs began to laugh. "Look, he's got puppy ears!" one of them crowed.

Inuyasha simply broke the wrist of the man who had held the knife to Kagome's throat and threw him over to the trashcans on the other side of the alley, snarling, "You stay away from her from now on! Do you hear me?!"

Cradling his broken wrist, the thug that had had the knife took off, the other two staying only long enough for Inuyasha to deliver a punch to the jaw of one of them. That sent them scrambling away. Then Inuyasha turned and faced Kagome, checking her for injuries. "Are you hurt?"

Kagome shook her head. "No."

"Feh! Stupid weakling human punks," Inuyasha grumbled.

"Punks?" Kagome giggled.

With a definitive air, Inuyasha nodded. "Yes, punks." He trotted over to where he had had dropped the bag with his brand new clothes in it and came back over to Kagome. "Ready to--"

Kagome hugged him.

Inuyasha stiffened for a moment, then wrapped one arm around her, feeling his shoulder dampen. "Kagome?" he asked softly.

"I was scared," she sobbed, her words slightly muffled by his shirt. "I thought you didn't follow me...I thought I was alone, and...and those guys...they were..."

He hugged her tighter, following his instincts. "But I'm here. I came, didn't I? What are you worrying about? Did you actually think I would let you walk off with the Shikon shards like that?"

Kagome sniffed loudly and fished a tissue out of her purse, breaking free from Inuyasha. "Right. Whatever," she mumbled.

He frowned. "Are you ready to go?"

She nodded and wiped her eyes with the tissue. "Yes."

"Hop on."

He offered his back to her, which she promptly climbed on, and he brought her back to the temple, jumping from roof to roof.

***


"Do any of us actually know what the mononoke looked like?" Miroku asked, sitting at the base of the Goshinboku tree. With his staff laid across his lap and nowhere to turn, Miroku felt helpless.

Hiraikotsu sat between Miroku and Sango at the trunk of the Goshinboku tree, acting as a barrier between them. Sleeping, Kirara had curled up in Sango's lap. Shippou sat in front of the priest and youkai exterminator. "No, Sango sighed. "At least, I don't."

Miroku looked to Shippou. "Do you?"

The kitsune cub shook his head. "No, I don't even smell it anymore."

"This is impossible without Kagome and Inu...ya..." Sango trailed off. "Just our luck...there goes Kikyo's shikigami..."

Four pairs of eyes--Kirara had awakened at the mention of shikigami--watched the eels slide by. All four bodies rose, weapons at the ready, Kirara transformed.

From the mists appeared Kikyo.

"What do you want, Kikyo?" called Miroku.

She looked from the motley gathering to the well. "Where's Inuyasha? And Kagome...never mind Kagome."

"None of your business!" Shippou growled angrily. "Kitsune bi!"

With indifference, Kikyo merely blocked it. "I will ask you one more time, then I will become forceful. Where is Inuyasha?"

Sango picked up the cub. "He and Kagome are trapped on her side."

Wordlessly, Kikyo drifted to the well and looked down.

"Let me push her down," Shippou whispered fervently to Sango.

"No," she said simply.

Sighing, the kitsune pouted.

"Can you lift the seals?" Miroku asked suddenly.

Surprised, Kikyo blinked. "You want my help?"

"If you can lift the seals, then yes. Otherwise, refrain from wasting my time."

Kikyo narrowed her eyes and turned back to the well, clasping her hands as if in prayer and began chanting.

"Kikyo, we tried that. Your sister and I failed."

"You are weak."

"And you aren't?"

"Precisely."

She resumed chanting. As before, a blue light bubbled from the depths, rapidly changing to a haunting red the color of blood. It burst, knocking Kikyo off of her feet and clear across the field. Several yards away, she stared at the well. "Those may only be removed by the mononoke that put them there. Their power increases with the shikon shards it has in its possession."

Miroku peered over the well. "How many do you suppose it has?"

"Five or six," Kikyo answered breathlessly. "If we do not defeat this mononoke...it will cross the well." She ventured closer. "We will need the assistance of a youkai for this task."

"You're a youkai," Miroku pointed out.

Kikyo shook her head. "First, you and I need a truce. The moment Inuyasha crosses the well, the mononoke will kill him. He's supposed to come to hell with me; he promised me that much, so that's my end of it."

"Although I don't agree with the fate you have chosen for Inuyasha, I do not wish for him to die at the hand of a mononoke either. Kagome will cross with him, most likely, and if he dies within the first moments of the battle, Kagome will die as well. A truce is certainly in order," Miroku bargained. Speechless, Sango and Shippou watched. "The truce implies working together against a common enemy without any attempts at killing anyone except the enemy. Agreed?"

Kikyo nodded. "My shikigami will not touch you, or her, or the kitsune if you do not try to kill me again." A dirty look was thrown in Shippou's direction.

"Exactly."

They each extended a hand and shook on it.

"Er...Miroku..." Shippou trailed off.

"Can we borrow him for a moment?" Sango asked, grabbing the priest by the arm. "Are you crazy?! This is Kikyo we're talking about!"

"No, but she speaks the truth. We all want Inuyasha back and safe and the mononoke dead. It will be easier if we work together instead of against," Miroku explained. He turned back to Kikyo. "Can you sense shikon shards?"

"Of course," she scoffed. "If my reincarnation can, then I can."

"Perfect." Miroku grinned. "Well, let's get started, shall we?"

Kikyo nodded. "Let me get my arrows then."

***


When Inuyasha and Kagome got home, they found that Mrs. Higurashi had cleaned out one of the spare rooms and had rolled out a futon for Inuyasha in there. While Inuyasha sat on the futon and snooped around the room, Kagome hung up his new clothes. After that, they entered the living room to watch television.

However, Inuyasha quickly grew bored of this and abruptly rose, wandering outside. Confused, Kagome followed him until she realized he was heading for the well. With a sigh, Kagome realized she still hadn't done some of her homework and thundered up the stairs. "Mama, if Inuyasha looks for me, tell him I don't want to be bothered!"

"All right," Mrs. Higurashi answered.

She ran to her room and locked the door. Nonetheless, it wasn't long before she heard a long string of swears flourish from the well. Sighing, Kagome went back to her homework.

Inuyasha, however, found himself more bored than before. He wanted to play cards but somehow it didn't seem as enjoyable without Kagome, he discovered soon after he found the deck and randomly flipped cards onto the table. "Bored..." he muttered.

Mrs. Higurashi kneeled next to him at the table, holding a deck of cards in her own hands. Awed, he watched as she shuffled them rapidly and with precision, something he could never hope to do with his claws as they were. She smiled and dealt them out into the traditional Solitaire setting. Inuyasha watched for a few moments before finally asking, "How do you play that?"

Mrs. Higurashi collected her game and shuffled the cards. "It's called 'Solitaire,'" she explained. "Shuffle your cards." Inuyasha attempted to and nearly spilled the cards everywhere. She laughed softly and picked up his cards, shuffling them for him. "Now. Lay down one card face up and set down six cards face down." She showed him with her own deck. He copied her, waiting attentively for the new instructions. "Put a card face up on the second pile and lay down a face down card on the other five piles." He did so. "Now, lay one face up on the third stack and one face down on the others." He did so and caught on, finishing off the rest of the Solitaire set up and looking expectantly at Kagome's mother. Congenially, she told him the rules of the game and proceeded to play her own game until Inuyasha hesitantly began to play his.

Solitaire kept his attention for about fifteen minutes.

"Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha looked up at Sota. "Yo."

"Want to play video games with me?" the younger boy asked excitedly.

Shrugging, Inuyasha put all his cards into a semi-neat pile and trotted off with Sota to go play video games. "You'll have to show me how because they don't have these at home."

Sota nodded eagerly. "Of course, of course! See, this one's easy. You just push the buttons over here," he pointed, "and the guy on the screen does the stuff to the thing."

Somehow, Inuyasha understood that.

In a few moments, Inuyasha and Sota were playing a fighting game and desperately trying to knock the other one out on the screen. When Kagome no longer heard Inuyasha from her room, she frowned, finished her math homework, and softly trod out of her room. She edged down the stairs--if Inuyasha was taking a nap, she didn't want to disturb him. When she reached the base of the stairs however, she could hear Inuyasha and Sota playing video games.

"It figures," she muttered and trotted into the kitchen to get something to drink. "Man! I'm so tired!" she complained and stretched. "Homework really takes a lot out of a girl! Not to mention the day I spent fighting Inuyasha at the department store and the--hey, why's that circled?" she crept closer to the calendar. A day in between the day labeled last quarter moon and the day labeled new moon had been circled in red pen with a star off to the side. Kagome raised her eyebrows and tried to remember why she would circle that day, or anyone else wo..."Damn!" she swore quietly.

"Inuyashaaaaa!" Kagome called.

"What is it, wench?" he called back. She paused to think about how she should phrase what she wanted to tell him. "Spit it out, woman!" he demanded. She heard the console controller clatter to the ground a moment later. "Stupid piece of--"

"SIT!" Kagome cried.

Inuyasha came storming out of the room with Sota trailing behind him. "What do you want?!"

"Inuyasha! Sis! C'mon..." Sota whined, tugged on Inuyasha's sleeve.

"Hold on a minute," he told Sota. He grabbed Kagome by the arm and dragged her outside. "What do you want from me?"

"Well," she started. "Um...the night after tomorrow is the First Night..."

Inuyasha twitched. "You're shitting me."

"Afraid not," she shook her head. "Sorry, Inuyasha, but I had to tell you."

"Feh," he snorted, storming back into the house. Kagome sighed and wandered out to the Goshinboku tree, looking up at its branches.

"This is the tree where I first found Inuyasha," she murmured. Memories of that centipede still made her shiver. She never wanted to see another youkai like that again, not for a million yen!

So she sat down. She was already getting tired of chasing Inuyasha all around her house and around Tokyo.

***


Kagome decided to eat by the Goshinboku tree that night, not caring to stay in the stuffy house. She felt somehow comforted by the tree, by the nature around the temple, and the food in her lap. Her arrows lay propped up against the bench as she gazed out across the property to the secluded well. "I miss Shippou, Sango, and Miroku..." she muttered, shoving a croquette into her mouth.

Inuyasha hung upside down on the tree and looked at Kagome. "Why can't you shoot one of your arrows down the well? You know, miko's arrow and all that."

"That's a good idea," Kagome answered, grabbing her arrows and her bow and heading over to the well. "Oh, and Inuyasha?"

"Yeah?" he replied.

"Sit."

He fell out out of the tree.

"What the hell, Kagome?!"

Kagome giggled. "You're not supposed to hang upside down in the Goshinboku tree!"

"It's my tree, woman!" he growled, storming after her.

Abruptly, she stopped and looked at him. "No, it's the temple's tree. It's the Goshinboku tree."

"Feh!" he snorted. "It was my tree. I was pinned to it for fifty years."

"Ah, Inuyasha," she sighed. They entered the secluded well, Kagome setting her quiver by the edge and snatching an arrow out of it. Inuyasha helped her stand up on the edge as she strung the bow and released it.

It thunked on the bottom of the well so hard that the shaft trembled. The purple light that had glowed around the arrow as she shot it began to grow, expanding to fill the well with a column of violet. Inuyasha heard the well begin to rumble more than he felt it. The edges bucked, throwing Kagome off. Hurriedly, the hanyou snatched up his miko and darted out of the secluded well's enclosure, stopping at the Goshinboku tree, shielding her with his body as a brilliant light filtered out of the well's shack. A few moments later, the roof blew off, showering wood everywhere, as well as little pieces of pottery and assorted other things that had been inside the enclosure.

"All right?" Inuyasha asked.

"Un," she answered, nodding. Why did he sound so out of breath?

"Good," he murmured, his eyelids drooping heavily.

It wasn't but a few seconds later that Inuyasha collapsed.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome whispered fearfully, holding the heavy hanyou against her. "Inuyasha? Wake up...Inuyasha, wake up." She jostled him a little. "Inuyasha, wake up!"

He just lied there on her, breathing. That was when Kagome realized a large piece of debris stuck out of his back at an odd angle, and she could feel the other end of it through his ribcage.

"Inuyasha!" she cried. The force of the explosion of the roof with Kagome's purifying power must have driven it farther in that it normally would've gone.

"Shut up," he muttered. With a grunt, he yanked the piece of wood out from behind him. Sluggishly, blood began to stain his shirt. Kagome, thinking quickly, ran into the house and grabbed her first aid kit, which she had luckily moved into the house before dinner. She came back to find Inuyasha gingerly sitting on the bench. "Did you think a little thing like that would kill me?" he joked hoarsely.

Blushing, Kagome shook her head. "No, but when you passed out..."

He just grabbed her arm. "Fix me."

She nodded and once more peeled back his clothes, this time wrapping the guaze around his ribs thickly. Inuyasha had taken off the wrappings on his shoulder during his sleep, which had healed perfectly. It would only be a matter of a few hours before Inuyasha recovered from this, she knew, but it still looked pretty bad.

Mrs. Higurashi had heard the blast and watched Kagome and Inuyasha from the door of the house. She knew, from Kagome's talk, that Inuyasha healed very quickly and it took a lot to take him down for more than a few hours. She hadn't been worried when she realized that Inuyasha had shielded Kagome with his own body and that Kagome would take care of him. He seemed better even now, talking with Kagome and sitting with her on the bench while she patched him up.

Satisfied that everything would turn out fine, Mrs. Higurashi turned and went back into the house.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha and Kagome sat on the bench. Her dinner, miraculously, had escaped the explosion, leaving it free of debris and ready to eat, though a little cold. While she ate, she surveyed the damage to the well house from the bench as well as the wood and other materials scattered across the property. Most likely, there would be a notice or a story covered by the news about the purple light from the Higurashi Shrine in the morning, and she didn't want to face questions at school, but...

Kagome sighed.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked.

"Hm?" she replied, shoving some noodles into her mouth.

"Why'd you sigh?" he pressed, looking at her with concern etched lightly onto his face.

She motioned to the grounds broadly with the arm holding her chopsticks. "When I come home tomorrow, I'm going to have to clean all of this up. Mama or Grandpa will make me."

"Come home?" he repeated.

"I have school tomorrow," she explained. "It sucks. I don't want to go to school. I actually wish the well was open...I don't even have any tests coming up! I should be out there--" she motioned vaguely to the well "--collecting shikon shards with you and the others! Instead, my arrow backfires on me and practically destroys the well house."

"Do I go to 'school' with you in the morning?" Inuyasha asked.

"No."

Flinching, Inuyasha recoiled. "Why?"

"Because you're not allowed."

"Why not?"

"Because you're not a student."

"I could be."

"You don't want to be."

"Why not?"

"Because it's a pain in the ass!"

Inuyasha considered this. "You're a pain in the ass and I deal with you."

"Sit!"

He tumbled off the bench. Wincing, he stumbled to his feet and sat heavily on the bench, whining.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she cried, sitting back down. She had jumped up sometime during her tirade. "I'm sorry, I didn't think! It's just reflex now!"

He waved away her worrying hands. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm not a baby you know."

She couldn't help herself. "Are you sure about that? You sure act like one..."

He growled at her.

"Fussy," she muttered.

"Well, you did just 'sit' me, woman."

"Oh no. We aren't going back to that now, are we?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"The not calling me by my name thing."

"What?"

Kagome sighed. "Never mind. I still have to come home and clean all of this crap up."

"Well...if you won't let me come to school with you, I might as well do it. It'll give me something to do," he told her. "But not because I'm being nice! Just because I'll be bored all day tomorrow without anyone but your grandpa here. I assume Sota goes to school too? And your mother has a job?"

She nodded. "More or less. Thank you, Inuyasha!"

He rolled his eyes and looked up in the branches of the Goshinboku tree. "Feh. Whatever."

Kagome looked up too, and saw the slight sliver left of the moon. Inuyasha would be human tomorrow night...

A shiver ran down her spine.