Chapter?: Cat + Water= Not a good combination
"Hey mom?" Kagome eyed her twirling mother disdainfully. She'd been twirling for about half an hour now, and it wasn't looking like she was planning on stopping anytime soon. Jii-chan had fallen asleep against the wall not long after first arriving, as he was, quote, 'A tired old man'. Inuyasha sat up against the wall beside Kagome, trying his best to block everything out.
Mrs.Higurashi continued twirling, she didn't seem to have heard her daughter.
"Mom?" Kagome tried again.
Nothing.
Raising the volume of her voice just a little, she tried once more. "Mother?!"
Growing tired of this, Inuyasha rose from his spot beside Kagome and stomped over to Mrs.Higurashi.
"Kagome's mom, Kagome wants you."
Mrs.Higurashi stopped immediately. "Hmm, what is it Inuyasha?"
Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Kagome, you know, your daughter, she wants you."
"Oh! Why didn't she just say so?" With a slightly puzzled expression, Mrs.Higurashi skipped over to her daughter and sat down beside her. "Did you need something sweety?"
Trying her best not to scream in exasperation, Kagome formed a very forced smile that ended up just looking plain eerie. "Um, yeah Mom, the wedding party, it's on the next new moon right, that's only about a week away… well, I was wondering who all you've invited."
Mrs.Higrashi clasped her hands together girlishly, her eyes sparkling with unnatural stars. "Oh honey! Don't be silly, I didn't invite anyone!"
Kagome and Inuyasha both began to feel an overwhelming dread. "Eh?"
"I let Souta handle it!"
And then they both felt overwhelming relief. After all, Souta knew better than anyone else who Kagome would and would not want at her party. Plus, Souta was by far the most sane.. Erm, reasonable, person currently residing within the Higurashi house.
"Thank Kami.."
"What was that sweety?" ,
"Um.." Before Kagome could think up any sort of excuse, Mrs.Higurashi interrupted her.
"Your little friends will be coming right? Kawaii Sango, Kawaii Miroku, and the cute little foxy boy, right?"
Instead of answering right away, Kagome's thoughts came to a screeching halt. There was one very important thing they had failed to ask Kagura. She smacked herself on the head. This was why Miroku was a valuable asset to the group. If he would have went with them to get turned hanyou, he most certainly would have asked when his time of the month would be. Hell.
Inuyasha poked at Kagome. "You alright?" She sure didn't look it, what with the way her face was all contorted into some strange combination of embarrassment and terrible realization.
"I… don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know sweety? ", Mrs.Higurashi asked, puzzled.
"The new moon… Kagura… human… I'm such a.. ditz."
Alright, Kagome wasn't alright. So what to do? Poke her again! " You're not making any fucking sense bitch!"
Kagome continued staring into space as if she were an idiot, only parting her lips slightly as an automatic reaction commanded her to. "..sit.."
SMACK
Being slammed into hard rock, face first doesn't feel too nice. "What the hell was that for?!"
Mrs.Higurashi raked a fingertip across the pretty pink quartz, completely amazed.
Kagome shook her head, breaking free of her trance. "Inuyasha, I really am a complete ditz. I didn't ask Kagura to make them change on the new moon. I didn't even ask when they change! Now I have no idea whether or not they're coming to our wedding party! They have too though! It's Sango and Miroku!"
Now free from the evil, evil stone floor, Inuyasha patted her on the back, "Umm.. Well, we'll find out sooner or later." No one ever accused him of having a way with words.
Mrs.Higurashi began humming an upbeat tune, oblivious to her surroundings.
Kagome cocked her head to the side, listening intently, not to her mother's singing. "Inuyasha!… I think it stopped raining!"
~*~
Having finally herded everyone back out into the open air outside the cave, Kagome turned to her family.
"Alright, remember the rules okay?"
Jii-chan and Mrs.Higurashi nodded.
"Um Kagome, they said they would last time.. But remember what happened with Kouga?"
Kagome looked at Inuyasha wide eyed, "Are you actually standing up for Kouga?"
"Hell no! I was just saying is all."
"Right…"
Jii-chan coughed not so subtly, "Just how do you plan to find Souta?"
Mrs.Higurashi laughed as if Jii-chan had said the funniest thing in the world, "With her doggy powers of course!"
~*~
Using their um, 'Doggy powers', Kagome and Inuyasha followed the scent of Souta and their friends until it lead them to… Kaede's.
Shrugging, they all entered the hut, only to be faced with Kaede grinding herbs, Miroku helping her, Kirara untransformed in Sango's lap, Souta and Shippo helping Kaede and Miroku, and Sango sitting so close to the fire that she might as well have been in it, wrapped up in one of Kagome's towels and shivering.
Kagome raised an eyebrow at her brother, deciding that he was probably the sa- most reasonable person in this hut as well.
Souta rolled his eyes. "Remember what happens when we let Buyo outside on rainy days?"
Kagome nodded, memory's of the cat dashing madly back inside in a torrent of claws forever etched into her mind.
Shippo looked up from his herb grinding, "And you know how Kirara doesn't ever seem to have any problem with the rain?"
"…Maybe this isn't quite the wisest topic of converstation..", intervened Miroku.
His suggestion fell on deaf ears.
Kagome nodded yet again, Shippo was right, Kirara never did seem to be phased by the rain.
Souta broke in once again, "Well, it seems that Sango-san is more closely related to Buyo than Kirara."
Sango scowled at everyone, "The rain was… it was all icky!"
Inuyasha tried his best to retain a quizzical expression, rather than bursting out laughing. "..icky?"
"Yes! Icky! Disgusting! Gross! Rainy! Wet! Icky!" She wringed out her tail, grimacing as her finger tips came into contact with the dampness .
"..Sango-chan…" Not knowing what else to say, Kagome racked her brain for some change of topic.
"Kagome, is this your family?" Kaede paused her herb grinding (gasp!) and stood up.
"Oh yeah!, My family, Mom, Jii-chan, this is Kaede, she's the first person I talked to after falling into the well!"
Jii-chan bowed, thoughts of how beautiful and historical Kaede was running through his head, "It's so nice to finally meet you." And what beautiful clothes she wore! Those were the traditional miko robes! A miko, his granddaughter was friends with a feudal miko!
"It's nice to meet you too, I've heard so much about you from Kagome. She's always asking me for some random relic to take back to you. She says you rather enjoy history."
"Oh yes! Yes I do! And what a fine piece of history you are! I mean, no, wait, the miko robes, history, right!", Underneath all the folds of old man skin-wrinkles, Jii-chan was blushing.
Kaede gave him a funny look, but said nothing. Kagome had told her , her grandfather was a little odd…
"And you must be Kagome's mother, correct?"
"Why yes! Yes I am! Oh, it's so very, very lovely to finally meet you! So very lovely!", Mrs.Higurashi spontaneously glomped Kaede, "I just want to tell you how thankful I am that you were here for my daughter! It just makes me so happy to know that she was taken care of all the times I couldn't take care of her myself! Thank you so much! You're just such a great person!"
Backing away from Mrs.Higurashi slowly, Kaede tried her best to mirror Mrs.Higurashi's humongous smile. She couldn't, it hurt to bad. She'd been warned by Kagome's little brother that his mother was a tad bit… insane, but she had know idea it was like.. This. It was amazing, that Kagome had came from these people. Yes, they were kind hearted and nice people, but they weren't exactly 'save the world with demon companion five hundred years in the past' material.
"Souta made his way over to stand beside his sister. "What took you guys so long anyway?"
Kagome nodded towards Jii-chan, "He likes rain just about as much as Sango-chan."
The old man struck a dignified pose, smiling heroically at Kaede. "Rain? I'm tough! Strong! Powerful! I can't be stopped by such things as rain! I laugh at rain! Ha ha ha ha Ha ~~AAK", Jii-chan's sentence died off into a fit of coughs.
"Miroku, throw me that bottle of red herbs to your right.", Kaede pointed out the bottle of red herbs, amongst all the other red herb bottles.
Herb bottle now acquired, she removed a pinch of the red herbness inside and handed it over to Jii-chan,
"Here swallow this and it should help that cough out a little."
"Thank you so very much! Oh, what a kind and beautiful soul you have! Oh what a nice, wonderful person you are." Jii-chan bowed deeply.
Miroku looked up from the herb he was grinding. "Kaede-sama, you're Yukata isn't missing is it?" He grinned mischievously. "Kagome's grandfather could help you find it, I'm sure."
"I don't wear a Yukata."
The pervert eyed her strangely, perhaps Kaede could have phrased that better, or maybe just called him a pervert, as the sentence was…
You don't think she means something by that do you? Kirara looked up at Sango.
Kirara-chan… you're a pervert.
"Kagome sweety, why is Kawaii Sango meowing?" Mrs.Higurashi, who had up until recently been amusing herself with how pretty Kaede's hut was, gave Sango a curious glance.
Kawaii… Sango? Kirara gave the cat equivalent of a taunting laugh.
I think she might be a tad bit out of it… Sango tried her best to stand up for Kagome's mother.
Hey, you're the one talking to a cat.
Shippo hopped over to Sango's shoulder. "Just be glad you didn't have to spend three days with her."
"Three days with who, Cutey Shippo-chan?" , Somehow, despite the fact that Shippo had been whispering in an almost inaudible youkai voice, Mrs.Higurashi managed to hear.
"Um.. The Evil Mistress Forlournity TorturinglyAwful Woman of Doom. She's just some random villain we fought a while back…"
"Oh! How very interesting! Tell me more!"
Actually feeling sorry for his adopted son, or, more likely just tired of Mrs.Higurashi's high pitched happy voice, Inuyasha cut short this potentially hazardous conversation. "Um.. You guys, since it had stopped raining, why don't we let Souta have a ride on Kirara now?"
I am not carrying around one human, five youkai, and two lunatics.
Sango really didn't think that was all too good an idea either. "Not everyone will fit on Kirara though." So she rephrased the remark so that it was more polite.
"You're right… Inuyasha, how about you and Miroku take Souta for a ride-ITIA!- And Shippo-chan! Shippo-chan too!", The kitsune released the pinching hold on her ear. "Me and Sango can give the rest of my family a tour of feudal Japan."
Sango stood up and grabbed her boomerang, her Yukata finally dry. "But are you sure you trust Miroku with your own little brother?" Sango knew that if Kohaku were still alive, well, she sure wouldn't leave him in the care of Miroku, who knew what kind of things he could learn from the lecher.
"Oh! I'm sure Kawaii Miroku will treat my little boy just fine! Yes , Yes! He seems like the perfect role model for him!
Everyone, including Miroku, with the exception of Kagome's family, sweat dropped.
Kagome laughed nervously. "Well um.. Shall we go then?"
~*~
Outside the hut, Kagome turned to Inuyasha. "Take care of Souta for me, explain things to him like you would want to have explained in my time. Don't let him fall of Kirara, and don't let Miroku corrupt him too much…"
Inuyasha scowled slightly, remembering how Kagome hadn't done a very good job of explaining things to him today, regardless, he knew now was really not the time to argue, and all it would ever end in was a back ache on his part. "Alright, Alright, keep the boy alive and don't let him turn into a lech. Got it. When do ya want us back?"
"Um.. How about by sundown?"
"Okay, we'll be back by then."
"And bare in mind Inuyasha, how well you do with Souta will probably affect my decision on when to have kids...", that said, Kagome left to go round up her family, one member of which was talking to Kaede with a bright smile, the other mumbling to herself about how cute the flowers here were.
Right beside the entrance to the hut, Miroku and Sango were engaging in a 'similar' conversation.
Bonk
"Sango.. What was that for?", Miroku rubbed at the lump on his head.
"It's a warning. If you corrupt that boy at all, your gonna get a lot more of those."
"Alright, Alright, you could have just told me though."
" I did tell you, in the form of Hiraikotsu.", she explained casually.
"Sango-chan! Let's go!" Kagome waved the demon exterminator over.
With one last comment muttered so low Miroku could barely hear it, even with his big fluffy dog ears, Sango left to Kagome.
"Protect Kagome's little brother…"
Miroku smiled sadly as he watched her go, not for the first time realizing how much memories seeing Kagome with Souta was bringing Sango.
~*~
Kagome and company waved to Souta as he took off on Kirara with Miroku, Shippo and Inuyasha.
"Where are we going first?", Sango asked of Kagome.
"Umm.. I don't really know… I guess just a few of the places here that mean something important to us. How about that?"
Sango nodded. "Well, then let's get going."
"Kagome.. I think.. I'll stay here and help Kaede-san with her herb grinding…"
Kagome turned to stare at her grandfather. "What?!"
Kaede echoed her inquiry with equal disbelief, of course, hers also had a tinge of dread in it too.
"I just thought she might need some help is all. Her beautiful, delicate hands do not need to work alone. It would be rude of me to leave such a historica-um.. Wonderful person alone while we go out on a tour of feudal Japan!"
"No, no it's quite alright. These hands aren't delicate at all, they're just old and coarse from the ravages of old age. They're quite ugly hands really. And I'm not wonderful, or historical for that matter, really, I'm just as newfangled as um.. Kagome!", Kaede assured, laughing rather nervously.
"Oh, but you are so modest! I insist on staying!"
Kagome and Sango exchanged a look, and, if Mrs.Higurashi weren't so interested in the 'beautiful blue sky' she would have exchanged one too.
"Um, if it's alright with Kaede, than I guess its fine." Behind Jii-chan, Kaede was waving her hands frantically and shaking her head no. Kagome ignored this, after all, this way she'd have one less lunatic on her hands. "Great, well then, we'll be going now. We should be back around sunset."
With a defeated sigh, Kaede saw them off, whilst Jii-chan grinned broadly and ranted about how historical/beautiful she was.
~*~
"Oh Kagome! What a lovely, beautiful tree! But.. Hmm.. I can't quite place it.. But something about it seems very familiar." Mrs.Higurashi glomped onto the tree.
Sango looked at her dubiously, then looked to Kagome for some sort of explanation for the strange woman's acts. Kagome only shrugged.
"Well Mom, this is the tree Inuyasha was pinned to for fifty years. The reason it looks so familiar is that you see it every day, it's lived into present day."
"How fascinating! How lovely!"
Kagome placed her hand on the tree, a flood of memories coming back. It seemed like so long ago, that she had fallen through the well and saw the dog eared boy on the tree.
"This.. This is where I first met Inuyasha.", she smiled gently. *AN*. Kami, for all the times she had passed this tree, never had she felt so strange just looking at it. Never had she stopped and thought about how significant it was.
"Kagome?" Sango tapped her friend on the shoulder. "Are you alright?"
"Hm? Oh, just thinking is all." She turned to her mother (who was still glomping the tree). "Hey Mom, when I first met Inuyasha, he was pinned up on this tree, you know what the first thing I did was?"
Mrs.Higurashi released the tree, looking interested. "Tweak his ears?"
Kagome giggled "Yep!"
"Does he know that?" Sango smiled at the thought of Inuyasha's ears being tweaked without his knowing. Back before she didn't even know he existed… back before she met Miroku… Back when her family lived and Kohaku was a happy little boy who would never hurt a fly.
"Hey Kagome… I think I know where we should go next…"
~*~
Aboard the flying cat demon Kirara, Souta was having the time of his life.
"This is better than a roller coaster!", he laughed, gazing down at the ground so far below. "Except a little scarier…"
"Role-er Coest-er?", Miroku tried his best to mimic the way Souta had said the word.
"Roller Coaster.", Corrected Inuyasha, having already had the same mistake the first time he had heard Souta mention one.
"It's a ride at an amusement park.", Souta explained.
"Amusement park?" Someone should really remind Souta that he's dealing with a monk from 500 years in the past.
Souta looked at the two (not easy to do from on top of a flying feline youkai), for the first time realizing how much time his sister must spend a day just explaining simple things to her friends. "It's a park with lots of things in it that people use to amuse themselves."
Miroku eyed the boys back dryly. "I gathered." Amuse themselves? Just what kind of 'amusement' did he mean.. this 'Roller Coaster' it sounded kind of..
He stopped himself, memories of a certain boomerang and a certain warning flashing through his mind.
Shippo grinned at Souta, "So what'da'ya think of Kirara?"
"She's awesome! Sister has all the fun. I mean, she gets to spend time with demons and…", he eyed Miroku, failing to see what the cool aspect of a monk was…
"I used to have a whole in my hand that sucks things up!", Miroku supplied.
"Cool!"
"Hey Souta!", Inuyasha called over the wind, "Kagome's mom said that she let you pick the humans invited to our 'wedding party'. Who'd you invite?"
"Just her closest friends… and Houjo"
"Houjo?" Houjo sounded like a boys name. Why would a boy be invited to their wedding party.
"Oh, he's just some dense boy who's in love with Kagome, though she doesn't return his feelings. And, for some reason, he's completely oblivious to this.
"Kouga?", Miroku intervened.
"No, Houjo." Souta said the name slowly, assuming Miroku had misheard.
"You meant that boy we saw that time I went to 'skoool' with you?", Shippo asked, remembering the strange idiotic boy from Kagome's time that kind of reminded him of Kouga.
"Yeah, him."
"Oh, he really was an idiot."
"Why in hell did you invite some fucking human idiot who's fucking in love with fucking Kagome to our fucking wedding fucking party!?!". Inuyasha wasn't very happy.
Miroku whapped him on the head with his staff. "You should probably watch your language in front of Kagome's brother."
"..fucking lech.. What do you fucking know about being fucking wholesome.."
"Oh, don't worry Inuyasha, Souta told him she was married.", Souta informed.
"And that she has cancer!" Souta smiled brightly, proud of himself.
"…cancer?" Miroku raised an eyebrow, did this boy always speak in future terms. Hm, well, actually, he probably did, considering he was from the future and all.
"What the hell is cancer?" In Inuyasha's mind, it had became some kind of great thing that attracted lots of guys.
"It's a disease that kills you, slowly, and painfully."
"…Oh.."
Miroku stared at the boy, confused. "Why did you tell him that?"
"Kill!? You probably jinxed her baka!" Obviously, this was the first time Shippo had heard of what this 'cancer' thing was.
Inuyasha patted Souta on the back, glad that Souta had managed to get it across to that Houjo guy that Kagome was off limits, granted, it was because she was dieing.. But… "Good job."
~*~
Far away from the boys, the girls were quite somber, having finally reached the destination Sango had taken them.
"Sango-chan…"
"You said places that meant something to us, Kagome… Higurashi-san, this is where I grew up… this is my village… where I lived before I began traveling with Kagome and everyone…" Sango bent down and placed some fresh flowers she had gathered on the way , onto her father's grave.
Mrs.Higurashi didn't appear to be her usual bubbly self. Kagome had told her the sad story of the young demon exterminator. She had always considered it to be one of the most tragic of all the tales she had heard of from the feudal era. "This is why you killed the big evil guy isn't it? "
"Naraku. Yes. He destroyed my life." She broke her sad gaze away from the grave of her father. "But, I suppose if he hadn't destroyed that life, I wouldn't have this one."
"Do you mean that you would choose this life over the other? I don't mean to.." Kagome cut off her own sentence. That wasn't the right thing to say.
Sango smiled somewhat forlornly. "I wouldn't choose one over the other. I can't. We aren't meant to. Fate decides these things and we just have to accept what we get. Sometimes, what we get isn't exactly what we wanted. Sometimes, it seems like it's much worse and can only hurt us. But things are always changing, and we force our selves to accept what we've been handed. And then, one day, we realize that we don't
just accept things anymore, but we've come to value what we've been handed just as much as we once did what was taken away.
Mrs.Higurashi nodded. The girl, though young, spoke with the wisdom of years of experience.
Still not finished, Sango continued. "But then… one must wander, will this too be taken away?"
She clutched at the small bulge in her stomach, small, almost unsightly, but still there. It amazed her how fast her signs of pregnancy were showing. Though she knew it was simply because youkai pregnancy's were much shorter than humans. The baby inside her was growing, but she still felt unsettled. It had almost been taken away from her… surely this battle wasn't over.
"Sango-chan… it's getting late.. Why don't we fix up the graves a little then head back?"
~*~
Inuyasha, Miroku, and Shippo each cocked their heads to the side.
Miroku, still not accustomed to placing faint noises quite as well as some people, looked to Inuyasha, "What is that noise?"
"What noise?" Souta asked, confused.
Shippo looked entirely taken aback. "Inuyasha… that noise.. That smell.. is that…"
Inuyasha's expression mirrored Shippo's. "Sesshoumaru!?" It sure smelt like him…
"Laughing hysterically?!", Shippo asked incredulously.
Souta glanced around nervously. "Who is Sesshoumaru?"
Oh I bet this is going to be fun as hell… Kirara smirked (well, she gave the feline equivalent of) and landed gracefully on the ground…
…Thus having the entire group come face to face with a (oh dear god that art in heaven!) hysterical, Sesshy, Rin atop his shoulders, squealing like Mrs.Higurashi.
Souta pointed at the laughing Sesshy, "Who is she?"
And then Souta was dangling in the air, a good 4 feet off the ground, being held by his collar by a no longer laughing (but still yet grinning) Sesshoumaru. "He. You meant He."
Hmmm… Kagome probably wouldn't be ready to have kids if Inuyasha let his own brother kill Souta on the first time he had to watch him… "Hey! Put him down!"
Souta was sufficiently scared to death. What was this girl talking about? He? What did he mean by that?
His eyes traveled lower, unable to meet those frightening (pink eye shadowed) eyes. And it was then that he noticed something. A lack of female anatomy. Oh… HE!
"Erm…. Oh, you must have thought I was talking about you! Oh, just a simple misunderstanding, I was talking about the girl on your shoulders! Who is she?" Souta prayed to all that was fun and yummy that the girl on top of his shoulders was, in fact, a girl.
"Half breed. Does this boy mean anything to you?" He sniffed at Souta. "It smells like your bitch."
"That's cause it's her brother!" Inuyasha grabbed Souta away from Sesshoumaru and sat him on the ground.
"She has family? I always just assumed she was an orphan."
"Why does everyone keep saying that!?"
"Hello! I'm Rin! Who are you?" Rin hopped off of Sesshy's shoulder and miraculously landed unharmed on her feet.
Souta brushed the dirt of his clothes. "My name's Souta."
Rin gestured towards Sesshoumaru. "This is my Sesshy-maru! He takes care of me! I wuvuv him!"
Sesshoumaru cleared his throat loudly, hoping to silence Rin. "What do you want half- breed?"
Shippo, braving the all powerful Sesshy-maru, came out from hiding. "We came to see who was laughing hysterically, and why."
Sesshoumaru was… blushing!? "Um.. Oh.. That… That wasn't me."
"Yes it was.", Miroku eyed the effeminate male strangely. "We saw you."
"No you didn't."
Inuyasha shook his head as if his brother was retarded. "Yes we did."
Souta hid behind Inuyasha, not daring to oppose the one they called Sesshy.
Sesshoumaru accidentally looked at Miroku, which, up until then, he had been not so subtly avoiding . And then he started laughing hysterically once again. And then Rin started squealing once again.
"Kawaii!"
It was at this point that Miroku remembered the big, fluffy things protruding from his head. "…hell…"
"Damn you monk! You're making me laugh! I haven't laughed in.." Sesshoumaru stopped as he did some mental calculation. "Sixty seven years! And that laugh was half evil! Damn you! You've ruined my image!"
"How do you think I feel!? I've got fluffy things on my head?!"
Sesshoumaru stopped laughing and petted his tail/boa/hairball/overgrown underarm hari/thing. "No! Do not slander the fluffiness. It isn't the fluffiness that is embarrassing. It is the curliness. Fluffiness is fine as long as it is used properly." That said, Sesshoumaru scooped up Rin and was on his merry way, leaving four gaping males behind him.
"Inu-no-onii-chan? Who was that?"
"…my half brother.."
"Oh.."
Shippo perched on Souta's shoulder. "That.. Was strange.."
Miroku had hopped back on Kirara, sulking.
And Kirara was content, this had been fun.
~*~
"Oh, Kaede-san, do you need help with that herb?" Jii-chan reached over, clasping her hands in his own. "The one in... this hand?"
Kaede gave him the same glare she had given Miroku on the night he had woke her from her herbly dreams. "No. I think I can manage."
"Oh.. But.. Are you sure? You're antique, historical hands should remain in mint condition!" Jii-chan sure did know how to sweep a woman off her feet.
"Actually, I need help with that one. Over there. Far away from me. Go grind it. Over there. Far away from me."
"But my antiquely Kaede-san, I would be too far away from your aged presence! Can you imagine Kaede-san.. In my time.. You're dead! Oh so historical you are!" Again with the sweeping off of the feet…
Kaede nodded curtly, her eyes in mere slits, this time not just because her skin was so loose and wrinkly that it fell down over half her eyes. "I can imagine. You know what? I'm actually so 'aged' as it is, that maybe, if we're both lucky, I might die right here."
Before any dieing could take place, Kagome and the girls bursted through the door. "Jii-chan, have you been nice to Kaede?"
"Oh, what kind of evil person would be mean to a person so historical as Kaede-san?"
Kaede glared at the old man, then quickly turned her gaze to Mrs.Higurashi, smiling.
"Did you have fun with the girls? Did Kagome point out any herbs?"
"No, but she did point out lots of pretty flowers! But I'm sure the herbs are absolutely lovely too!"
Sango muttered to Kagome so low only Kagome could hear. "You didn't point out any flowers."
Kagome shrugged. "I know."
Just then, Inuyasha and the boys came to the scene.
"Hey Souta, you have fun?" Kagome grinned at her little brother.
"Yep!"
"Did you get into any trouble?"
Souta hesitated a moment, taking note of the two adult males shaking their heads frantically. "Um.. No?"
"Good."
"Well, Jii-chan, I can tell you're probably getting tired, and Mom, I know you wouldn't want to tire Jii-chan. So, Inuyasha, why don't you take my family home? We have to go shopping tomorrow, so I figure we should just stay the night there. I have a few things I need to sort out before I leave, so why don't you go on and I'll be there in a little while?"
"But I'm not tired at all Kagome!" Jii-chan scooted closer to Kaede.
"Of course you are!.. Ha ha ha, surely you jest jii-chan! You're just a tired old man!"
Kaede mouthed a silent thank you in Kagome's direction.
"Of course I wouldn't want to tire Jii-chan! We should leave right away!"
Inuyasha shot Kagome a pleading look. Why did he get stuck with Kagome's family?
Shippo leaped onto Mrs.Higurashi's shoulder, using his ultra cute face. "Kagome's mom? Can Souta stay the night here? Kagome can take him back after she gets back from shopping tomorrow. Please?"
Shippo had came to be friends with the Souta, after all, he didn't exactly get to play with a lot of kids his own age.
Mrs.Higurashi smiled, how else, Brightly! "Of course he can… tomorrow is a school day.. But.. I'm sure Jii-chan can think up an excuse!"
"Thanks Mom, I'll see you tomorrow then." Souta was happy, he had came to like Kagome's friends from the past, they were much cooler than those kids she used to hang out with in the present time.
"Well! I guess we'll be going now! It was lovely meeting you all! I hope to see you sometime soon!"
"Yes, nice meeting you too.", Kaede waved as Mrs. Higurashi was led out the door by a grumbling Inuyasha.
"Good bye, my lovely antique." Jii-chan kissed Kaede's hand and followed Inuyasha.
After they were gone, Kaede shuddered violently.
~*~
"So, Sango-chan, Miroku, is there anything specifically you want for your house?"
"Um.. We aren't exactly familiar with future things…" reminded Sango.
"If it weren't for the fact that Sango has a tail, we would go with you… despite the forest fires… Why don't you just buy whatever you think we would like?" suggested Miroku.
"Get candy! Lots of candy Kagome!" And that pretty much summed up all Shippo could ever ask for.
Kagome nodded. "Well, I'll try… I guess I should go now, before Inuyasha does something stupid… care to see me off Souta?" She looked questioningly to her little brother beside her.
"You mean… I'd have to walk back.. On my own.. In the dark.. With youkai everywhere…"
"No, Kirara can go with us, she'll take you back."
"Sure!"
~*~
"So.. Souta.. What do you think of my friends? My life here…", Kagome glanced around at her surroundings easily, taking note of the fact that Souta was probably having a lot of trouble just seeing the path ahead of himself.
"Inuyasha's great… I'm really glad you're with him… I never imagined you'd end up with a demon from Fuedal Japan… But.. I'm really happy everything has worked out. I'm glad you didn't end up with some idiot like Houjo." He petted the cat demon in his arms. "And Kirara's awesome, I mean, I have to say I'm pretty jealous that you get to ride around on a giant cat demon. Miroku-san is funny, and Sango-san is really nice… Kaede seemed grandmotherly, I liked her.. Though her herb grinding was a little odd… "
"Yeah.. That is kind of weird.."
Souta kept his eyes on the ground. "You know… I used to be so jealous of you. The way you got to skip school and go spend time fighting demons… saving the world. I mean, talk about sibling rivalry. Most brothers and sisters try to out do each other, but I never even had a chance. How can anyone compete with saving the world? And I used to think that you didn't care about us… why else would you be leaving every chance you got, in favor of risking your life?"
"Souta.."
"Don't worry sis, I said used to. I've grown up a lot since you first fell in the well. I know you were only doing what you had to. And now you're only doing what makes you happy. There's nothing wrong with that… It's the same as if you got married and moved away… you just happened to have moved very far away. I'm not sad, or jealous anymore.. I'm just happy for you…"
Kagome smiled at her little brother. "Thanks Souta… I really did miss you all a lot…"
Souta grinned mischievously. "Hey, it's not like there aren't a few perks to being the brother of a time traveling hanyou. How many other kids my age can honestly say that they've been in the past and ridden on a demon? I had fun today. I like visiting your time. Shippo's a lot cooler than all the kids at school."
"So where all did Inuyasha take you?"
Souta delayed his answer, considering whether or not he should tell his sister about the girly guy. "We did meet up with some guy who looked like a girl, named 'Sesshy'."
Kagome stopped in her tracks. "You did what!?"
"We were on Kirara and then everyone heard hysterical laughter, so we landed and there was some weird guy, who I thought was a girl… he doesn't like it when you mistake him for a girl.."
"What happened?!"
"Oh, he just dangled me a few feet off the ground. I really thought he was gonna kill me. But then he said something about Inuyasha's bitch, which I guess meant you, and Inuyasha grabbed me away."
Kagome smacked him upside the head. "Watch your mouth. You've been hanging around Inuyasha too much."
"Oh, so you can go in the past and do kami knows what, but I can't even say a few little curse words?"
"Hey, you said it yourself, I'm saving the world."
"The worlds already been saved, now your just here going into heat and stuff."
"What!? Who told you that!? It was Shippo wasn't it!?"
Souta smirked. "Relax. It's not like it's unusual around here is it? You're a demon right? It's normal."
"Easy for you to say." Kagome conveniently switched the subject, "So, who did you invite to my wedding party?"
"Eri-san, Yuka-san, and Ayumi-san."
"That's all? Thank Kami." Having arrived at the well, Kagome stood on the ledge, "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Kirara, take him home after I leave."
"Bye Onee-chan!"
"Bye Souta!", Kagome jumped through the well and passed into the future… but not until after hearing Souta's taunting yell.
"Oh, I almost forgot, I invited Houjo-kun too!"
Souta… That little brat.
~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~**~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
*… heh…the line about smiling gently.. It's a fruits basket inside joke thing that isn't really an inside joke at all, and I'm the only one who will get…
*~**~*~**~*~*~**~*~**~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~**~*~*~**~*~*~**~*~*~*
A.N*
Heh.. Took a while for this to get out, ne? Okay, I did have a big pretty A.N typed up, but for some reason, my computer killed it.. So, anyway, I'll do the whole Author talks to readers thing next time, kay?
I'll just say this, THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR REVIEWS!
I'm almost at 1,000... Thanks so much you guys,you just don't know what this means to me…
Now for three Author talks to reader things..
Sorenesen: *sends Imaginary rin*… happy?
Lord agamus: Yay! They're dead! Next murder victims… the intire cast of such disgraces to anime as Yu gi oh and Pokemon' Kill them. Kill them all.
Vold: As always, I've just got to think you for being such a great reveiwer! I would say more, but its 501 in the morning and I'm terribly sleepy..
Well, PLEASE REVIEW EVERYONE!
The Deity,
Heather
