"Families are like brownies; sweet with a few nuts."
Chapter 14: Little Big Brother
Halfway between far and close to the road, a berry patch sat in the woods. Shippou was skipping past the berry patch when he realized that it was there. His eyes popped in hunger and he ran over to pick berries, putting them on a pouch he made by folding his shirt.
He was rounding a bush when he ran into something soft and fluffy. He looked at it and it was big and orange. He buried his face in it's fluffiness. It smelled like a fox and something else……
"Baby fox?" Sumiko looked at him from around the giant fluffy thing.
"Sumiko?" What are you doing here?"
She came out from behind the giant fluffy thing which happened to be her tail. She held a round basket of some of the berries she had collected. "Yummy!" she said and set them on the ground.
"Ooooooh!" Shippou looked at her collection. "You sure picked a lot!"
"Yeah! Red berries good. Red like Daddy. And fun for play, too!" Sumiko tossed him one of the pebble sized berries.
"Play?" Shippou looked at the berry in his hand. He had never thought about playing with the berries.
"Berries fun!" Sumiko said. She sat crouched down low in the grass holding one of the berries. She smiled at Shippou, "Fox baby, ready?"
He blinked, wondering what she was about to do. Sumiko blew on the berry and it lit with a sparkling crimson fire.
Shippou took a step back and gasped. Sumiko blew the berry out of her hand, it floated onto the ground and in a poof of blue smoke, became a miniature version of Shippou.
"Ah!" Shippou got down on all fours to look at it. The little Shippou was no bigger then the size of his thumb. "What is-? How-?" he asked.
Sumiko giggled. "Not real! Magic!"
Shippou looked up at her in shock. She knew how to use her magic and create her own spells!
The little Shippou looked up at Sumiko innocently then said in a chipmunk voice. "Hey! You're tall!"
"I am?" Sumiko asked it.
"Or else you're just really small!" Shippou told the little Shippou image.
Sumiko took another berry out and blew it into the air. It landed and became a little image of Sumiko. "Cookies!" she said in a squeaky Sumiko voice.
After teaching Shippou how to make red berry images, they decided to play with them. They made images of Miroku, Sango, Kagome, Inu Yasha, a panda, Shio, then Shippou made images of Kikyo and Kouga.
"Who are they?" Sumiko asked pointing to Kikyo and Kouga.
"Well," Shippou pointed to Kikyo. "She loves Inu Yasha and hates Kagome and Naraku." He pointed to Kouga. "He hates Inu Yasha but loves Kagome."
He saw the confused look on Sumiko's face and said, "Don't worry, no one else understands it either."
They sat back to look at their creations, then Shippou asked, "So now what do we do?"
"We tell them to do stuff! Watch!" Sumiko looked down at the little Inu Yasha. "You! Go dance with mommy!"
The little Inu Yasha obediently walked over to the Kagome image and bowed gentlemen like. She curtsied and held out her hand to him. They took a few steps and started waltzing.
"Cool!" Shippou said. He smiled up at Sumiko. "You can do the coolest things, Sumiko!"
Sumiko blushed happily. They sat there having fun with the images. Shippou made the Sango beat on the Miroku image right after the Miroku image felt her up. Sumiko made the Inu Yasha, Kouga, Kagome, and Kikyo images play leap frog.
Shippou had his own special image do something he liked………^_^
The Shippou image was surrounded by the Inu Yasha image, the Kagome image, the Sango image, and the Miroku image.
"Wow Shippou! You're the coolest!" Kagome image said.
"Can you believe him??" Inu Yasha image said. "He's even stronger and more courageous then me!"
"I commend you Shippou, you're truly a man." Miroku image nodded.
"I think he should be aloud to do whatever he wants." The Sango image said.
"I agree!" the Kagome image said hugging the Shippou image.
The Shippou image blushed and laughed happily.
The real Shippou blushed and laughed happily.
Sumiko's eyes glistened as she looked down at the little scene she had. Shippou looked up from his diorama to see what she was doing.
The Little Shio image was sitting on a rock with his eyes closed and his arms crossed and a little smile on his face. The little Sumiko image crouched behind some grass and crept slowly toward him like a crouching tiger.
The image Shio's ears twitched and he opened one eye. But before he knew what happened, the little Sumiko image tackled him. He screamed, she screamed and they rolled around laughing their heads off. Real Sumiko smiled, blushed and laughed to herself. ^__^
Shippou blinked at it then crawled over to her, almost crushing the other berry images, whom ran to the side screaming. He looked down at her play and said, "Cool. Is that something that you want to do?"
The Sumiko and Shio images frolicked and laughed. Sumiko smiled at them, "Kitty pretty. Sumiko want pet ears again."
Shippou smiled. "You could probably ask him. He likes his ears rubbed."
Sumiko looked a little bit sad. "No. Kitty doesn't like Sumiko much."
"I'm sure he likes you." Shippou patted her shoulder. "You just need to spend time with him and stuff!"
Sumiko smiled at him then looked at the little Inu Yasha, Kagome, Miroku, and Sango images playing with the Shippou image. "And that what baby fox wants?" she asked.
Shippou looked back at them and shrugged. "I guess so. It's just that they are always the ones doing the fighting, and I'm always waiting helplessly on the side. I'd like to be stronger like Inu Yasha and be able to fight."
Sumiko stared at Shippou thinking.
"What?" he asked.
"Is Mommy and Daddy, baby fox's mommy and daddy?" she asked.
"Well, not really." He said. Shippou blinked and thought out loud. "Though they sort of are. My real parents are dead, but they act like my parents a lot! They protect me, feed me, comfort me." He smiled. "I guess they are my parents!" ^_^
Sumiko's eyes became huge and watery, her grin spread wide across her face.
Shippou looked at her nervously. "Uhh….." ;;;;;;;;;
"YAY!!" Sumiko swept him into a bone crushing hug. "Big Brother Baby Fox!!" she cried.
Shippou gasped for air, "Can't – breathe!!"
She kissed him on the forehead and almost sat him onto of the images – whom ran to the side screaming again.
"Shippou is Sumiko's big brother!!" Sumiko said.
Shippou coughed and took a deep breath and checked for broken ribs. He looked up at her weakly. "Yeah! We're brother and sister!"
Sumiko smiled, turned the images back into berries and they carried their fruits back to their mother.
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I know, it's sickeningly sweet, it'll get darker soon, don't you worry about that……..