A Hanyou in Tokyo

By socchan

Three: Social Needs

Inu-Yasha grunted and opened his eyes a crack to the sunlight streaming in through the window. He glared at the clear glass and rolled over, growling, only to be choked a bit by the necklace he now wore. Kagome's grandfather had dug up the insidious torture device the previous night to hide Inu-Yasha's demonic features, making him look pretty much like he usually did on his 'human' nights. The old man had strung the thing around the hanyou's neck before Inu-Yasha could form a protest. He found it a bit disconcerting to be unable to swivel his ears to the direction a sound was coming from, but was grateful that at least this obscure torture device did not dim his senses. For reasons he couldn't fathom, he was unable to remove the necklace himself. To add insult to injury, any time Kagome said the word 'sit'—accidentally or on purpose, both of which had happened over the course of the evening—gravity increased for him and he came crashing to the ground. Kagome had said she would try not to make him wear it too often, but he agreed to wear it that night to get used to it. Growling further at the indignity of it all, Inu-Yasha pulled the covers over his head in an attempt to snatch the fleeing remains of sleep. He had to admit, these modern beds were comfortable, but it just wasn't the same as sleeping outside.

"Inu-Yasha!" Mrs. Higurashi was knocking at the door. "Time to get up! I'm going shopping, and Kagome wanted me to take you along to buy some new clothes."

Inu-Yasha buried his face in his pillows, letting out a groan and giving up on the idea of more sleep.

Several minutes later, a fully dressed (and decidedly grumpy) Inu-Yasha emerged from his room. Mrs. Higurashi handed him a Styrofoam cup. Inu-Yasha sniffed the semi-clear brown liquid inside, wrinkling his nose at the combined scents of the bitter brew and non-biodegradable material. He raised a skeptical eyebrow at Mrs. Higurashi, but her encouraging smile did nothing to ease his discomfort. Taking a deep breath and clenching his eyes shut, Inu-Yasha raised the cup to his lips, and took a swig. His eyes popped open, and he stared incredulously at the brew in the cup. "What is this stuff?" he asked, eagerly, licking his lips for any residual traces of it.

"Coffee." Mrs. Higurashi told him, a slight smile on her face and eyes twinkling with hidden amusement.

Inu-Yasha lifted the cup again, tilting his head back to drain every last drop of the substance from the container. "This is good!" he said, eyebrows raised in appreciation.

"Kagome thought you might like it." Inu-Yasha glanced at the woman beside him. He could easily understand where Kagome got her sense of humor. That pigheaded attitude of hers was a complete mystery at the moment, but that ridiculous smile that made him melt inside every time he saw it definitely had its roots here. It was as if this woman's only purpose in life was to produce a child who would someday outshine her, but, unlike most demons he had known, she had accepted this destiny whole-heartedly, happy that her offspring would be her better.

"Keh." Inu-Yasha stated blandly, trying not to betray his thoughts.

Mrs. Higurashi smiled at this, and Inu-Yasha once again found himself comparing the action to Kagome's. Yes, Kagome's smile definitely was an evolutionary achievement of mankind. "Shall we get going then?"

Inu-Yasha shrugged, apathetically. "You're the human."

Sparing him another smile, Mrs. Higurashi lead the way to the market.

Inu-Yasha stepped out of the store wearing a T-shirt and jeans that fit better, with several bags of new clothes draped about him. He didn't mind carrying them; their weight, which would have been fairly troublesome for a human, was almost nothing to him. He had objected at first to Mrs. Higurashi paying, which she had countered with the infallible sense of logic Kagome seemed to have inherited from her. He blushed slightly in memory. He was their guest, so he didn't need to worry about such things. If he really wanted to pay so badly, he could, but whose money would he be using? Certainly not his own, because he didn't have any. Besides, she had to do something with those alimony payments…

He had closed his mouth at the last one. He was unready to deal with unfamiliar words, and from the sound of it, this one wasn't very pleasant. After that, he just guiltily let Mrs. Higurashi try clothes on him like some oversized doll. Nor could he dissuade her from buying him new clothes—he mustn't look shabby, or it would reflect badly on Kagome's family, and he didn't want that, now did he?

A blush dusted his cheeks when Mrs. Higurashi stepped out after him. He caught her shoulder briefly, and dropped his hand when she turned to look at him. "Uh, thanks. For the clothes and stuff." He said, a bit awkwardly. It had been a very long time since he'd had a mother, and Mrs. Higurashi acted very much like one towards him, despite only having met him the previous night.

She smiled at him in that warm, motherly way he'd gotten used to in the past few hours, and he felt a slight warmth spreading in his chest. "It was nothing, really. And just wait until Kagome sees you in those clothes! She'll be positively stunned!"

Inu-Yasha snorted and turned away, the red on his cheeks noticeably deepening. This woman must like him better than she let on to try to set him up with her daughter so openly. He felt a pang of guilt remembering this woman didn't know he planned to kill Kagome. He sighed, deeply, as he struggled with a brief inner war. He straightened, and the look in his eyes became stronger as he settled on a decision. He turned back to Mrs. Higurashi, and smiled, gently. "Where to next?" he asked, the words more genuine this time.

Mrs. Higurashi's smile deepened at this, as if she could sense the source of his newfound conviction. (And who knows, maybe she could? She was, after all, a Mother, and Mothers are very special creatures with a power all their own.) "We're going to Kagome's school, to see if we can get you registered." She told him. He blinked at her, startled. "Well, I know you're from the past, so I thought you might like to learn about modern life."

He looked at Mrs. Higurashi, awestruck. How did she know? He smiled, touched in spite of himself. "Thanks…"

Mrs. Higurashi waved it off. "You're still a boy, and boys need to learn." Inu-Yasha didn't point out that, technically, he was over four hundred years old, not wanting to spoil it for her. Still smiling a bit, he followed her to the place Kagome called 'school'.

Inu-Yasha was locked in a room, taking what Kagome's mother had called 'entrance exams'. Only the fact that he knew it would get him nowhere kept him from bolting as he filled out question after question on the sheet of paper. As a very small child, his father had valued education, and made sure he had the finest teachers available, human or youkai. As a result, most of the questions he had little trouble with, but the ones that had to deal with more recent history gave him more than he felt was his share of problems (More recent referring to anything that happened while he took his four-hundred-some-year nap). Finally, he let out a sigh of relief, and set down the cramping torture device humans had named 'pencil'. He was finally finished. He stood and stretched as the leader of the school (called a 'principal', though where humans came up with such a ridiculous, degrading name was beyond him) entered and looked over his answers. The man's eyebrows went up. "Well, mister…" he paused to look at the name. "Inu-Yasha, I don't know your test results just yet, but I can tell you already that your chances are good."

Inu-Yasha nodded, trying to keep his inward surprise, then arrogance, suppressed. "Thank you, sir."

The man rested a hand on his shoulder, and Inu-Yasha had to bite down on the urge to get defensive of his touch. "I think you'll do just fine here, Inu-Yasha. I can see already the makings of an excellent scholar in you." He clapped Inu-Yasha's shoulder a few times, then released it. Inu-Yasha fought the growl working its way up his throat at the invasion of his personal space. "You can pick up your test results shortly after three. They should be ready by then." He walked out the door to where Mrs. Higurashi was waiting after having filled out his application, and Inu-Yasha followed. Mrs. Higurashi smiled at him, and he smiled in return, with a nod of affirmation that he was okay.

The two walked back to Inu-Yasha's new home together, filling the silence with polite small talk. "A little after three," he told her when she asked when he could see the results.

"Oh, good. I didn't know you would be able to get them so soon. You remember how to get there, right?" Inu-Yasha nodded. "Kagome gets out of school about then; you can go home with her."

Mrs. Higurashi chattered on, but Inu-Yasha didn't pay attention. His mind, instead, was focused on a dark haired girl who had brought him from a centuries-long sleep.

At three o'clock, Inu-Yasha could be found making his way to Kagome's school over the rooftops. The beads around his neck may have been able to conceal his demonic appearance, but they could do nothing about his abilities. He let out a joyful breath at his freedom as he ran above the world most mortals were forced to live in. His long mane of black hair flowed behind him as he gently landed on roof after roof, being careful not to damage anything or make any noise that would alert the occupants that there was anything larger than a squirrel on their roof. After the events of the previous day, a run on the rooftops felt quite liberating.

A bit too soon, he landed in a tree in back of Kagome's school to continue on his way without attracting too much more attention. He let out a regretful sigh, and trudged towards the front of the building.

As he neared the entrance, his ears pricked at the sound of a familiar voice. He looked up, a bit startled, to see Kagome in a group of four humans, three female and one male, and a male youkai. Inu-Yasha frowned at the presumptuous male who dared get so close to Kagome—probably sensing the jewel. For some reason, a feeling of resentment to the human male arose as well. He ignored it in favor of the one that made more sense, and growled softly, threateningly, deep in his throat. The male youkai picked it up, and glanced at Inu-Yasha out of the corner of his eye; he smiled all but invisibly, but said nothing.

Suddenly, Kagome felt his eyes on her and turned her gaze to him. He automatically dropped his defensive posture for one of comfortable arrogance. "Inu-Yasha?" she asked, pausing in her conversation.

He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? What is it?"

Kagome looked flustered. "What are you doing here?"

Inu-Yasha shrugged. "Your mom helped me register this afternoon, and I came to pick up my test results." He said, off-handedly.

The youkai followed this exchange, glancing back and fourth between human and hanyou. He had to hide a grin behind his hand, but nothing could disguise the amusement in his eyes.

Kagome sent an apologetic look to her friends. "Sorry, guys, I guess I gotta stay a while longer."

"You go on ahead, Kagome." The youkai said, obviously fighting to keep from laughing. Her human friends voiced their own agreements, some of the girls whispering things it was difficult to pick up at his range, but judging by the way Kagome's face turned red, it was something that would interest him.

"Okay," Kagome said, a bit reluctantly. "I'll see you later guys!" She waved, and walked over to where Inu-Yasha stood.

"Who was that?" Inu-Yasha asked absently, watching the group walk off for a bit.

"Who?" Kagome asked, snapping to attention at his voice.

Inu-Yasha bit his lip; he was unsure whether or not Kagome knew her friend was a youkai, so he settled on a more harmless approach. "The red-haired kid." He said, vaguely.

Kagome visibly relaxed. "Oh, that's just Shippo. We've been friends for a couple of years now."

Inu-Yasha watched them vanish around the corner; so she didn't know her friend was a demon. That made things a bit more complicated. "Huh…" he said, distractedly. "Okay, then. Let's go get my test scores so we can go."

Kagome lead Inu-Yasha through the school to what she called the 'principal's office'. There, a woman sitting at a desk dug out some papers with neat writing and numbers on them. She flashed Inu-Yasha a smile. "Congratulations." She said.

"Uh, thanks." Inu-Yasha replied, taking the papers. He glanced over them, and swallowed, hard. He couldn't make any sense of them! "Ah, Kagome?" he said, nervously. "Can we get going?"

"Oh! Sure!" Kagome said, starting. She smiled at the woman behind the desk. "Thanks for your help!" With a wave, she herded Inu-Yasha out the door.

"What the hell do these numbers mean?" Inu-Yasha asked once they were in the hall.

Kagome glanced at the papers over his shoulder. "Oh, that's just how high you scored on various tests. Here, let me take a look." She snatched the papers from Inu-Yasha's hands before he could protest. "Good reading, okay science, your history is pretty much shot, but your math scores are through the roof!" She stared at him, incredulously. "How did you score so high in math?"

Inu-Yasha shrugged, frowning. "I don't know. Numbers just always made sense to me. Is that a good thing?"

"Of course it's a good thing! There's hardly a job out there where you don't need to know math!" She snorted. "I wish numbers made sense to me. Huh… looks like we're in the same class. That's good. Now I don't have to worry about what you're doing to terrorize other people without me around to keep you in line."

Inu-Yasha scowled. "I can take care of myself."

"Sit!"

The floor came crashing up to meet him. "Ow! That hurt, bitch!"

Kagome glared at him. "It was supposed to! Things have changed a lot since you were last awake, and you aren't used to a lot of it. If we're in the same class, I can make sure you don't misinterpret anything."

Inu-Yasha growled, and fought his way to his feet. "Soon as I get the Shikon no Tama…" he vowed, glaring, as gravity returned to its normal level.

"Save it." Kagome shot over her shoulder. "I've heard it all before, and I'm late enough already, thanks to you."

Inu-Yasha sighed, and followed her through the hallway. He stopped and crouched once they were outside. Kagome turned once she noticed he was no longer following her.

"Inu-Yasha?" she questioned, her eyebrows raised.

"Climb on." He replied, not looking at her.

She frowned. "What for?"

He glanced over his shoulder. "You said you were late, didn't you?"

"Yes…" Kagome said, hesitantly.

"Well, even carrying extra weight I can move a lot faster than you. So get on, and I'll have you home in a couple minutes." Reluctantly, Kagome wrapped her arms around his neck, and her legs around his abdomen. He could feel her face heat up as he clutched her thighs just above the knee. He glanced over his shoulder. "You don't want to fall, do you?"

"N-no…" Kagome said, face red as a tomato.

He smirked. "Good. Now hold on." His muscles coiled and released as he took to the sky. Kagome squeaked, and gripped him tighter; his smirk grew wider. He landed softly on a roof, then bounded to the next one, enjoying how Kagome buried her face in his hair. "I'm going to speed up, alright?" he called over his shoulder.

Kagome gulped, nervously. She pressed her body closer to his, afraid of falling. "A-alright!" she called back. She clenched her eyes shut and leaned into him as the hanyou gained speed.

Inu-Yasha was so wrapped up in the sensations he was getting from running with Kagome, he hardly noticed how frightened she was. He glanced back at her when he felt her fingers dig into the flesh in his shoulders, and the pungent scent of fear met his sensitive nose. "Damn…" he muttered. "Have to make her relax." An idea crossed his mind, and the arrogant smirk returned full force. Hang on, Kagome.

Inu-Yasha landed lightly in front of the Higurashi shrine. He loosened his grip on Kagome, and waited for her to do the same. "Kagome," he said, over his shoulder, "We're here."

Kagome blinked her eyes open, and took in her surroundings. "Oh," she said, slightly dazed. "So we are." Kagome quickly regained her senses, realized the position she was in, and scrambled off Inu-Yasha's back. Inu-Yasha suppressed a chuckle, and Kagome had the decency to blush. "Uh, thanks."

Inu-Yasha shrugged. "Whatever. Could you get this necklace off me now? It's really starting to get on my nerves."

"Oh! Right." Blushing, Kagome unclasped the beads, and stuffed them in her bag. Inu-Yasha let out a sigh as his features returned to normal. Kagome watched, fascinated, as his ears elongated, came to a point, then crawled up the sides of his head.

Inu-Yasha noticed her staring, and turned to face her. "Yes?"

Kagome turned dark red. "Nothing!"

Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes. "Humans." He muttered, and started walking up the steps. Kagome growled, and stomped after him.

That night, when Kagome was about to put on her pajamas, she was interrupted by a light tapping on her window. Looking up, she saw Inu-Yasha there, scowling lightly. She squeaked. Inu-Yasha's scowl deepened, and he rapped again, harder this time. Kagome hurried over to the window, and opened it. "Yes?" she asked, a bit snappish.

Inu-Yasha's expression faltered a moment, as if he was nervous, then went back. "Climb on," he told her, "There's something I want to show you."

Frowning, Kagome did as she was told, biting back a gasp when he took off. She clenched her eyes shut, and clutched at the cloth of his red T-shirt. She thought she heard him try to reassure her, but the wind whipping past her ears distorted it. The up-and-down journey continued, seeming to get higher, but Kagome couldn't be sure. She buried her face in his shoulder, searching for some form of comfort, and ignoring his thick white hair as it whipped back at her. Suddenly, they stopped moving, but it was still windy. "You can open your eyes now, Kagome." Inu-Yasha said softly in her ear.

Cautiously, Kagome followed his instructions to find his face mere inches from hers, wearing an expression she couldn't read. Silently, he released his grip on her thighs, and she let go of his shoulders reluctantly, letting her feet touch the ground at last. Frowning slightly, Kagome searched his eyes, for what, she couldn't tell. She saw only reassurance, so she went to stand next to him. She looked away, not finding any of the answers she sought, and her breath caught in her throat.

The city of Tokyo lay spread out at her feet, each building lit from within and glowing like a jewel. Scattered drops of mercury glittered in the black liquid silk sky, the nearly full orb of the moon smiling down on them, watching over the world protectively. Cars moved busily down below, but Kagome ignored them, their flashing lights only a minor distraction. The sight of the city laid out before her like an ancient jewelry collection distracted her from everything else, even the height. For once, she wasn't afraid to fall.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Inu-Yasha commented beside her. "I noticed it last night, when I was trying to find you, but I didn't stop to admire the view."

Kagome nodded. "This is what you wanted to show me?"

He glanced at her. "Yeah. You seemed scared when we were running, so I figured I'd better do something about it. We might be doing a lot of running like that in the future, and I could use your help watching my back. I figured that the best way to get you used to it would be to show you how nice things could look from up high." He smiled slightly, then leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Don't worry; I'll never drop you, Kagome.  I still need you." He moved from her side to lean on the railing at the edge of the roof, looking down.

Watching him, Kagome felt a smile come to her lips. He came all the way up her just so she wouldn't be scared? That was awfully… nice of a guy who was planning on killing her. Her smile grew wider as she studied his figure; long white hair blowing in the light wind, slightly loose red T-shirt, tight black jeans… Nice butt… Ah! Bad Kagome, bad! Still, if I am going to have a protector, it's nice to know he's going to be good-looking… Kagome mused. And sweet, once in a while. Good; I can't stand anyone who's too sappy. And he's strong, handsome, and he's got a pretty good base personality, even if he does tend to be an arrogant, over-bearing, insensitive, self-indulging, egotistical jerk. Plus, those dog ears of his are über-cute. And I just can't help feeling safe around him… Not just because he promised to protect me, but because that's just how it is. I… trust him.

Is that it? Kagome thought, walking over next to him and watching him out of the corner of her eye. I trust him? Or is it something else? Something deeper? He turned his head and smirked at her, gently, and her heart began to beat faster. Is it… love…?

Inu-Yasha quirked an eyebrow at her. "You want something?"

Blushing, Kagome shook her head to clear it. "Nothing. I just wanted to say thanks."

Inu-Yasha's expression turned from a quizzical smirk to a warm smile. "Ah." He said, nodding slightly. "You're welcome." He turned back to look at the glowing city, and Kagome followed suit.

Maybe it is…

=^-,-^= End Chapter Three =^-,-^=

Awwwww… How cute ^_^… Hope this doesn't turn out to be just forty chapters of romantic tension, or something, tho. That would just be boring.

There was Shippo. You all must admit that he would make a totally hot bishie. Again, one of the main reasons I decided to write this was to portray Shippo this way.

Okay, a few things before I close this up. First off, I've had a couple of conflicting views on Kagome's string of logic from the last chapter. My good friend Teo felt it was too good, while tenshineko felt it was fatally flawed. The truth is, tenshineko is right; there are flaws to it. Kagome's logic was based off of two things. One, that she does, in fact, have the Shikon no Tama in her. While for all purposes of the story this is true, Kagome doesn't know that for sure. Two, that anything that happens to her can potentially harm the Shikon no Tama. And while this is theoretically true (long explanation), we know from the series that it takes something actually cutting Kagome's side to release the jewel. Neither Kagome nor Inu-Yasha know this, however. For all they know, Kagome's soul may be the only thing tying the jewel to the mortal plane in the first place (which it may very well be). So that means, if Inu-Yasha wants the jewel safe and unaffected by Kagome's mood, he has to make sure nothing bad happens to her. What I really needed that logic string for was to make sure that Inu-Yasha had an excuse to stick around Kagome. I'm just too lazy to find a way for the jewel to shatter so they have to go hunting all over the modern world for the shards. Not to mention trying to come up with all sorts of different ideas for monsters and demons to attack them without directly following the manga. So this is what I did. On the plus side (for him, not for us), Inu-Yasha now has a good excuse to worry about Kagome when her feelings get hurt.

*shakes head * Jeez, tenshineko, you are just too good at this. Guessing my plans, that is. I just hope that you haven't figured out everything I plan to do yet, though you'll probably be able to unravel decidedly more by the time the next chapter is over. I am in deep sh/t if you figure out what I plan to do to Kouga before he shows up…

A special hello once again to the Aishiteru Guestbook Gang ^_^! I hope you know what's going on this time. Well, Victory-chan should, at least. If not, I suppose I'll have more explaining to do.

Disclaimer: If I owned Inu-Yasha, I would probably have done a much worse job with him and the rest of the crew than Takahashi-san has done. For this, I thank her. But I don't own it, and that means that it is the wonderful story we all (supposedly) know and love. Thanks for listening!

Edit (12-31-03, really late at night): Looking back, I can't seem to recall where that 'I'll never drop you' line came from…  seems too sappy for this early in the story… I really should've made Inu-chan more of a jerk.  I couldn't seem to bring myself to delete it, so I altered it a little.  Also, I was somewhat annoyed at the fact that no one seemed to notice that I said 'maybe' at the end.  Maybe Kagome is in love; does she know it yet, though?  No!  She has to do a lot of soul-searching before she decides, and things will get more complicated in the future.

Also, I had decided from almost the very beginning that Inu-chan would be a coffee buff; I'm planning a little side-story with that for later…

-socchan