Posted 2-20-03 Heigh-ho, hyperchica the writer here! What's up, ya'll! I'm baaaa-aack! And look who is accompanying me this week! It is my new one-and-only-love- of-my-life-forever-and-ever! Meet...SUZAKU!!!! THE SPIRT SAINT BEAST!! Of course, he's not from Inuyasha. He's an import from YuYuHakusho. He was defeated by that meanie Yusuke. The big bosses of the Spirit World gave him to me! They said something about torture..hmm.oh well!!! Don't worry Suzaku!!! I won't let anyone torture you!!! I'll keep you safe here with me.

Suzaku--muttering they weren't talking about other people torturing me, stupid girl. Being with you is torture enough.

Hyperchica-Oh? What's that you say? You love me too? YA!!!! This is the first time a one-and-only-love-of-my-life-forever-and-ever has actually liked me back!!!!

Suzaku- THAT'S NOT WHAT I SAID!!!!

Koga- I do not envy you, my fellow demon. But don't worry. She'll be over you next week.

Suzaku- Who the hell are you???

Koga- I'm last week's one-and-only-love-of-her-life-for-ever-and-ever-at- least-for-a-week.

Suzaku- So you mean this is survivable?

Hyperchica- Shush guys! ::Suzaku and Koga cower in fear:: I have to talk to the readers! AHEM Sorry the last chapter was so short! I hope this one will be longer. No promises tho! I will try to get a new chapter out at least each week. That leaves me enough time to write it, get it beta-ed and finalized.

By the way, if anyone would like to become a beta reader for me, please, either email me or post a note in a review saying so. :)

Oh yes, and I'd like to thank my one and only reviewer for my first chapter, princessofdarkness!!! Your review meant a lot to me. My first review ever! I am walking on air right now!! Anyways, on with the story!!!!

Chapter 2 Niña Misteriosa (Mysterious Girl)

Shippo awoke from his tree-induced slumber to find himself sprawled out on the forest floor, surrounded by a myriad of blue flowers with hints of pink on the petal tips. His sensitive youkai nose was overpowered by the horrid stench of the buds, and he nearly passed out.

'Oh geez, I can barely smell anything else with these stupid flowers here'thought Shippo disdainfully. He prepared to use his Fox Fire on the infernal flora. Then, he remembered the girl who was the reason he was here in the first place. He turned around to see her sprawled out, floating on the sea of blue waves with pink crest. She was still knocked out, and Shippo leaned over her, trying to better see her.

'She's obviously human,' he observed. 'Her hair is the color of Kagome's.but she's my age.someone my age...' The thought of someone his own age was foreign to Shippo. 'I haven't seem someone my own age since.since.since forever.'
While Shippo was pondering his long isolation form younger children, back at the clearing the fight had come to a halt. One of the participants refused to fight-the elder brother, Sesshomaru. He had discovered something important, or rather, the absence of something important. The Youkai Lord could not longer detect the scent of his young human ward.

"What did you do with her, you half-breed!" yelled Sesshomaru, momentarily losing his calm exterior

"What did I do with who, loner?" retorted Inuyasha, who was now sitting on a tree branch feigning indifference.

"With the girl , you insolent hanyou, with the human girl!" barked Sesshomaru impatiently.

"Which one, dog breath?" said Inuyasha. Inuyasha knew of two human girls, Sango and Kagome, and he didn't see why it was his elder half-brother's business to know what he did with either of them.

"You're an idiot, Inuyasha! The little one! The child!" said Sesshomaru exasperatedly.

'Hmm...' thought Inuyasha, 'He wouldn't call Sango a child, so is he talking about...Kagome? MY Kagome? He better not do anything to hurt her...' A slight growl escaped from Inuyasha. His amber eyes were in slits, and they looked like they were on fire with rage.

"You stay away from her, bastard, you hear me! She's mine!" Inuyasha had his hand on the hilt of Tetsusaiga again, ready for a fight.

'Aww...does he really feel that way for me?' Kagome, who was listening to the bickering, wondered, and then blushed. She knew that Inuyasha's comment was not meant for her ears, but none the less.

"She's not yours!" said Sesshomaru indignantly. "If anything, she's mine! I brought her back to life, not you!"

"What the hell are you rambling about, Sesshomaru? Kagome's never needed to be brought back to life by anyone, although you have been pretty close to killing her a few times!" Inuyasha was mad, but slightly puzzled. However corrupt he thought his brother was, it was very unlike Sesshomaru to make such a preposterous claim.
Back at the flower filled area, Shippo was still marveling over the fact that this mysterious girl looked his age, when she began to awaken.

"Uh.my head .hey! Who are you?" the girl said, sitting up straight and eyeing Shippo with wariness.

"I'm Shippo. Who are you?"

"I'm Rin." All traces of the initial wariness were gone from her face, only to be replaced by unadulterated enthusiasm and curiosity. "Fluffy's my friend."
Sesshomaru was still convinced that Inuyasha had done something to his dear Rin, yet the previous statement made by the hanyou had made no sense.

'Kagome...I wasn't talking about her... I want to know what happened to little Rin-chan.' Sesshomaru the realized the reason Inuyasha and he were still fighting-they were thinking of different people! 'Of course!' he thought.

Sesshomaru shared his revelation with his slightly less-perceptive half- brother. "Look, Inuyasha. You can keep the wench; I couldn't care less. I want to know what happened to Rin."

"Who the hell is Rin?" muttered Inuyasha grouchily. 'And I'm the only allowed to call Kagome a wench!'

Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's conversation was abruptly cut of by a shrill scream.

"Oh my gods!" Inuyasha recognized the voice as Kagome's. "He's gone!"

Inuyasha instantly rushed to her side. He hated to see her unhappy, and was very protective of her. He wouldn't ever want anyone to know it, though. "What's wrong, woman?" snipped Inuyasha.

"Shippo.my little kitsune. he was over there in those bushes and you guy were fighting and went into them and now he's gone!" Kagome burst into tears and leaned against Inuyasha. Inuyasha was surprised, but he eventually put his arm around her to comfort her as she sobbed.

Sesshomaru was listening in on the entire thing. "What bushes?" he inquired demandingly of Kagome. She was too busy weeping into Inuyasha's red fire-rat clothing to notice, though.

Instead, Sango answered. "Those ones," she said, pointing across the clearing.

'Shoot... that's where Rin was...'
Shippo was puzzled when this "Rin" girl identified herself as "Fluffy's friend". Who's "Fluffy"? he wondered. Then a picture of Sesshomaru with the big furry thing over his shoulder flashed through his head.

"You don't.you can't mean.Sesshomaru?" Shippo tried unsuccessfully to suppress a giggle. "You call Sesshomaru FLUFFY?" Shippo could not believe his ears. The though of someone calling Sesshomaru "Fluffy" was insane! Sesshomaru's personality was anything BUT fluffy!

"Yeah! Seshy!" replied Rin with enthusiasm. "Fluffy is Seshy! Seshy has a big fluffy over his shoulder that keeps Rin warm!"

"So, why were you at the edge of the clearing?" asked Shippo, eager to change the subject for fear that he would explode with laughter.

"Fluffy told Rin to stay away from the fight, but the fight come to Rin. Rin can't move. Shippo save Rin. Rin ok. Rin thank you," she said.

Shippo was embarrassed. "Aw.it was really nothing." he said, his cheeks turning a shade pinker than normal. There was a long lull in conversation after that.

They remained very quiet for sometime, and the atmosphere was becoming quite uncomfortable. Then Rin broke the silence.

"You be Rin's friend?" she asked inquisitively.

"Ok," said Shippo, quickly getting over his shyness.

"Good! Rin have two friends now!" squealed Rin excitedly.

"Okay then.YOU'RE IT!" cried Shippo, as he tagged the surprised girl and bounded away quickly.

"Hey, no fair!" squealed Rin as she jumped up to follow him.

They then ran around playing tag on the flower covered forest floor. After they were done playing tag, Shippo turned into a pink balloon, causing Rin to start laughing uncontrollably.

"Haha! You look silly, Shippo!" said Rin between her incessant giggling.

The two little children, although one was a demon and the other a human, formed a bond right then and there. A mutual understanding ran through them deeper than they or anyone else could ever fathom.

In contrast, the two half-brothers in the clearing were just beginning to understand each other, although on not quite as deep of a level. Sango had just pointed out the bushes where Shippo had been. She could have sworn that she had noticed a slight change in his normally emotionless face.

'Could that have been...fear?' she thought, surprised.

Sesshomaru quickly bounded over to the group of trampled bushes and started sniffing the air. Inuyasha misunderstood his action and, moving Kagome to lean against Miroku, then realizing what he had done and quickly moving her to Sango's side, he bolted over to the area to halt Sesshomaru's investigation,

"Look Sesshomaru, you can fight with me, but stay away from Shippo!" said Inuyasha through gritted teeth. Kagome was so shocked that she abruptly stopped crying.

'Does that mean he cares about Shippo?' she wondered incredulously.

"Stupid half brother, stop flattering yourself. I have no interest in your mate or your pup," said Sesshomaru exasperatedly.

Inuyasha and Kagome both blushed wildly. "SHE IS NOT MY MATE!! I DON'T EVEN LIKE HER! AND THAT ANNOYING KITSUNE IS NOT MY PUP!" he yelled.

Kagome looked as if she was going to cry again. She hurried off into the forest. Inuyasha could smell the salty sting of her tears as they rolled down her cheeks, and he cursed his hypersensitive youkai nose.

"Now look what you've done!" chastised Sango, who after a disapproving glare, dashed off after Kagome.

"Feh. Women," sniffed Inuyasha. He wanted nothing more than to run after Kagome to comfort her, but he did not want to appear weak in front of his brother, so he stood his ground. "So, why were you tracking a scent over here anyway! Seems pretty suspicious to me."

"As far as I can tell," said Sesshomauru, oblivious to his half-brother's inquiries, "the kitsune ran here, and Rin was here, then he approa-"

"Dammit Sesshomaru, don't patronize me! I can track scents too!" said Inuyasha, somewhat insulted.

"Excuse me, Lord Sesshomaru and Inuyasha, but if I might have a word?" Miroku, who, until then, had stood on the sidelines, decided to join in on their conversation.

"Feh. Whatever, pervert," Inuyasha said with an air of indifference. Sesshomaru said nothing, thinking it beneath him to converse with humans.

"Perhaps it would serve both of you better to start searching for the young people instead of bickering here," observed Miroku.

The two dog demons growled menacingly, but even they had to agree that Miroku had a point. They prepared to jump through the branches on their search, when the dreaded word rang out loud and clear throughout the area.

"SIT!"

Inuyasha had just been preparing to jump, and he was almost a foot off the ground when his upward ascent quickly turned into a crash. He hit the ground and stayed there until the spell wore off, muttering a steady stream of curses to the ground.

"Wha'd you do that for, wench!" yelled Inuyasha, spitting the tufts of grass from him mouth.

"I'm going with you," she stated simply. "I'm going to find my little Shippo."

"Feh. Whatever. Just don't slow me down," Inuyasha grumbled as he let her climb onto his back.

"Now let's go!" Kagome said. Inuyasha took off, and her breath was taken away by Inuyasha's swiftness in jumping from tree to tree.
Mean while, Rin and Shippo, oblivious to the fact that they were the cause of much conflict back with their other friends, had just collapsed after an especially trying game of hide and go seek. Shippo thought he had never had this much fun in his life. Everyone else normally around him was too old to play. But Rin liked playing tag, and hide-and-go-seek, and all those other games. He loved his mommy Kagome, but she couldn't play tag with him.

'I wonder where Kagome is now..' thought Shippo.

Just then, as if the powers that be had read his thoughts, Shippo faintly heard a voice cry out in the distance. He recognized it as Kagome's.

"Shippo!" it called out, "Where are you?"

He heard other voices too. There was a voice that gave away the obviously overpowering emotion it's owner was trying to hide, and another voice was trying to sound exasperated, but an occasional waver in the tone of this voice belied underlying concerns. He also realized his wasn't the only name being called. Shouts of "Rin! Come over here!" were mixed with the cries of 'Shippo! Where are you?"

The voices were moving away very quickly, and Shippo sniffed the air to try and identify all of the scents before they were gone. Poor Shippo had forgotten about the highly fragrant flowers all about him. He took a great whiff of air and promptly fell over backwards, temporarily blacked out.

OK! There's the second chapter.I was planning for it to be longer. but oh well :)!! I worked really hard on this for ya'll, so you better be happy! Anyways, what will happen when Shippo wakes up? And will Kagome beat Inuyasha and Sesshomaru into submission? The second one, not very likely, but oh well!

Suzaku- muttering if they were her one-and-only-love-of-her-life-for-ever- and-ever-at-least-for-a-week, they'd be subdued pretty quickly

Hyperchica- I love you too, Suzaku! BIG HUG!!!

Suzaku- GO AWAY!!! struggles to get out of the chair he's been tied to faces upwards and yells I'll be good! I promise! Koenma, just get me away from her and I'll become a REAL saint! Not a bad one!!!

Hyperchica- yells up He's just kidding, Mr. Spirit-World guy!

Suzaku- groans and thinks 'It's only a week, it's only a week, it's only a week.'

Hyperchica- Anyways, dear readers, thanx for reading! And a special thanx to princessofdarkness You made one writer very happy! Anyways (again), please read and review!