Still don't own InuYasha...*sigh*
Chapter 3
"I've heard of your parents...not much...but if you're from Kagome's time..."Sango stopped and fiddled with her chopsticks.
"Just how old are you?" asked InuYasha with a mouth full of Ramen.
"INUYASHA!" cried Kagome.
"I'm older than all of you put together including Kaede," Rea said with a sly look, "it's a very long story...I don't know half of it. That's why I'm here."
"But you looke younger than Kagome...not much...still very womanly...I mean to say..."stuttered Miroku.
"So," said InuYasha defiantly, "I'm older than Kaede."
They all settled down for a time, eating. Everyone was lost in thought, even Shippou, who was usually boisterous and noisy.
"Oh! By the way," Kagome said, breaking the silence, "you can sleep with Sango and I." InuYasha raised his eyebrow at this and Miroku opened his mouth but was silenced with Sango stabbing him in the foot with a chopstick.
"What about me?!" cried little Shippou.
"I don't mind if you sleep with us, as long as it's ok with Kagome and Sango," said Rea, smiling at the kitsune. She had taken a liking to the little fox demon rather quickly.
"The cub can sleep with the women but not me?" asked Miroku sadly, "it'd be warmer," he added hopefully, "with me in there."
"NO!!" all three girls and the cub screamed at once.
They all set out for their beds later. InuYasha climbed into his God Tree, brooding over the arrival of the hanyou. Sango, Kagome, and Rea snuggled together with Shippou nestled between his only mother figure, Kagome, and his new friend, Rea. Miroku settled in his bed grumbling, after having been kicked out oft the girls' room moments earlier.
Outside, InuYasha could not sleep. Thoughts of Rea danced across his mind. She was familiar. He knew her scent from somewhere. He just couldn't place his finger on it. 'She might be a cousin...or even an aunt...' he thought. His ears twitched and he sniffed the dark air. There was a rustling of branches.
"InuYasha?" Rea asked quietly.
"What do you want?"
"To ask a question. I think we're related...are we?"
He paused...she had voiced exactly what he had been thinking a moment ago. "Yes. I think so. But I'm not sure how. I recognize you, but I don't know what it is about you that I recognize," he said quietly, his throat going dry.
"I think you're right. I need to find out...where I belong..."
And with that, the hanyou girl jumped gracefully from the branches and disappeared into the hut, wrapping her arms around the tiny cub snuggled next to Kagome as she lay down. She had a distinct feeling that one day, it would be Kagomes own little child she would be holding, but why, she didn't know.
