"What do you say we stop for a while?" asked Kagome, gesturing to a small café on the other side of the street. "Don't know about you, but I could really do with a large juice right now. God, I'm so tired. And it's hot, isn't it?"
It was no wonder she was tired, thought Inu-yasha to himself. She had dragged him through half of town, showing him all the big sites and also many favourite places of her own – cheap shops, nice restaurants. All in good neighbourly fashion... but nothing else. She didn't seem to even consider the fact that Inu-yasha might be interested in her as something else than a friend, something he found a tad irritating. Oh well, she was probably only temporarily blinded by that stupid wolf demon's charms – if he had any.
"Hey, you're pretty quiet. You OK?" Inu-yasha woke from his thoughts to find Kagome smiling at him. He smiled back, putting the thought of Koga out of his mind.
"Yeah, fine. But I'm a bit tired as well. Let's grab a seat."
"I love this place," said Kagome as they took their seats at a table in the sun outside the café. "I have my favourite waiter here, he's such a sweet guy. I think you'll like him too, almost everyone does. Here he comes now!"
Inu-yasha turned around as she pointed to someone behind him. His eyes nearly fell out of his head.
"Shippou?!"
"I'm sorry?" The young fox demon stopped in his path, frowned in confusion. "Do I know you?"
With the puzzled eyes of both Kagome and Shippou upon him, Inu-yasha had to think very fast, coming up with something that would explain how he could recognize the other demon. Not knowing what to do, he said the first name he knew was closely tied to Shippou and would possibly know him in this life too.
"Manten mentioned you some time, showed me a photo..."
As soon as he had said the sentence he cursed himself. Good, Inu-yasha! Say the name of his most hated enemy last time around! Whatever contact Shippou might have had with him in this new life, it couldn't have been good.
"Manten?" Shippou frowned thoughtfully, scratching his neck. "Can't say I recall the name. Might have been an old class mate, of course. I'm not very good with names and shit..."
"That's it!" said Inu-yasha gratefully, a drowning man knowing a plank when he saw it. "Don't know him too well myself, but he showed me a photo from the year book once and said you were very good at... at..." Inu-yasha floundered wildly. The plank had turned out to be rotten through... "at cards! Card games and stuff! Yeah, because we were discussing poker. That's it, now I remember." He grit his teeth, waiting for the what the hell are you talking about. Surprisingly, however, Shippou merely grinned bashfully, rubbing his neck.
"Aw, don't know if I'm that good..." he said modestly.
"Oh, come on, you know you are!" Kagome exclaimed, smiling broadly at her friend. "You conned Koga out of fifty bucks when you met at the pub once, he told me."
"Yeah well, that was Koga."
As the two continued talking and teasing each other, Inu-yasha breathed a deep sigh of relief. That had been close, too close. He had to keep in control and not reveal what he knew of their past lives – not yet, anyway. He had hit Jackpot this time – talk about lucky guess – but he probably wouldn't get that same luck again.
He watched, smiling, as Shippou and Kagome laughed together. Well, they had been fond of each other last time too, hadn't they? Inu-yasha himself had never liked the runt. Alright, so that wasn't entirely true – the kid had been funny, after all. But oh-so-obnoxious.
He felt a bit jealous as he watched the pair. How come everyone found Kagome so easily? Inu-yasha himself had searched his entire adult life until he met her again, but Koga and Shippou seemed to have just stumbled upon her. Of course, their souls were drawn to each other, but they didn't have to become such good friends, did they? And Koga! Stealing Kagome like that! Who did he think he was?!
"Orange juice for you as well, Inu-yasha?" smiled Kagome, and he came back to himself. Not trusting himself enough to speak, he merely nodded.
"Right, ma'm. It will be ready in just a minute." Shippou made a mock bow and left, walking stiffly and primly but throwing them a playful look over one shoulder. Kagome grinned back and then put her nose in the air, sniffing at him and making a great show of being an old upper-class lady. They heard him laughing as he stepped into the café.
"He's such a funny guy, don't you think?" said Kagome, turning to Inu-yasha with a big smile on her face. "I went so often to this café during one period that he started recognizing me, and every time I'd come he'd be waiting at my table, always telling little jokes and cheering me up if I was in a bad mood. I first really got to know him during a party we both happened to find ourselves at... he's one of my dearest friends now. I sort of think of him as a younger brother."
"I thought so," said Inu-yasha, thinking back on the days when she'd devote herself to the young pup Shippou, play with him when he was sad, protect him when he was in danger, hug him during cold nights. Miroku might be right when he said that souls change, but some things still stayed the same. "You have a "real" little brother as well, don't you?" he asked. "Sota?"
Kagome's eyes darkened.
"How do you know about Sota?"
"Oh!" Inu-yasha fidgeted, mentally slapping himself. Did it again... "You... er... mentioned him before..."
"Did I, now," said Kagome, and in her eyes was something that could only be suspicion. Then they cleared and suspicion gave way for sorrow. "He died when I was very young. He was six years my junior, and only four years old when he died. A demon took him, a crow demon. It was exorcised three days later, but he was still dead."
Inu-yasha stared at her, dumb-founded.
"And still you don't hate demons?!" he asked, incredulous. "Many people in your place would have blamed it on the entire demon-hood. Why don't – "
"You can't judge an entire species on one individual," said Kagome simply. "It would be like hating all humans because one human committed a murder. I loved my brother very much, and although both he and I were so small when he was killed, I've often felt sad about it. But killing crow demons or detesting other demons will not bring him back." She shrugged. "So what would be the point?" She looked away from him for a few seconds, then turned back, smiling. "But what am I doing, talking about silly things like this? Sorry, you shouldn't have to hear that."
"No, it's alright," answered Inu-yasha hastily. "It doesn't worry me. I want to know a lot more about you. I think you're the most interesting person I have ever met." So many sides of her that he hadn't had time to find before the end... so much he had missed in their past life together.
"You know, that's exactly what Koga said to me when we met," grinned Kagome, already in better spirits. However, as her mood lightened, Inu-yasha's fell. The wolf. That stupid wolf couldn't be forgotten. What right did he have to barge into Inu-yasha's life again? Inu-yasha growled silently to himself as Kagome happily chatted on, ignoring the little voice inside him that was reminding him that it had in fact been Inu-yasha who barged into Koga's life this time.
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Sorry for the delay... I've had trouble with the computer. But now it's hopefully OK again. :)