Disclaimer: Yeah, Yeah. I don't own them. There Happy! *goes off to sulk somewhere*

Authors notes: I'm sorry about that last chapter. I just had this evil streak that jumped out of nowhere and ambushed me! Ok, well anyway, the Inu-Polls are currently tied between Amanda and Rogue, I don't need to figure it out for a few more chapters yet, so be sure that you tell me who ya want me to stick the puppy with, ok. I love all of your reviews. You'll never know how much they motivate this story. I'm positive that I would never have been able to get these chapters out so fast if you guy's didn't always motivate me. Well, that's it for those. So here you go, a nice long chapter for you. Enjoy!

Chapter Eight: Confusion is the Name of the Game

Sesshomaru turned his cold gaze to Kagome. She flinched, waiting for the lightning quick strike she knew was coming. And come it did.

"Kagome! It is lovely to see you again." Sesshomaru had leaned down and swooped her up into his arms. Arms. As in two.

She was so confused.

He then turned his sites to Kurt, who was standing awkwardly in the doorway and looking about as confused as she felt.

"And Kurt! Still not letting her out of your site are you." After one more squeeze he set Kagome down next to Kurt and looked at the both of them.

Then he did something truly terrifying.

He smiled.

Not a grin. Or a smirk. Or even a half smile. It was a full on 'I'm so happy to see you' smile.

Kagome's brain had decided that this was just too much so it activated the safety measures and shut down. Leaving her nothing to do except twitch.

"So, Mr. And Mrs. Wagner. Care to join me for dinner? They have the most wonderful food at this place."

They both twitched.

Placing a hand on their shoulders, he was about to steer them inside when he was blindsided by a mini Kurt replica.

"You stay away from my Momma and Papa!" The little spit-fire yelled, small arms throw wide as if to shield them from harm. "I won't let you hurt them!"

Kurt blinked, then looked down at Shippo in shock. 'Papa? He thinks of me as his papa?' A pleasant warmth spread through Kurt's body at the revelation.

Sesshomaru just raised an eyebrow. "Why on earth would I want to hurt your parent's pup?" Then he sniffed and looked down at the child in puzzlement. Leaning down so they where at eye level, he sniffed again.

"Shippo?" He asked incredulously.

"Yeah, so what!" The child cried back defiantly.

Shock settled onto Sesshomaru's usually expressionless face. followed by confusion, then puzzlement, and finally understanding. Eye's slightly widened, he looked up at Kagome and Kurt.

"Oh." He stood back up. "Well.this is awkward."

Kurt finally decided that he'd probably better say something before he choked on all the tension in the air.

"Er, I sink zat you must have us confused vith someone else."

Sesshomaru shook his head. "No, no I don't." Sighing he looked in Kagome's direction. "You know, this ability of yours can be rather bothersome at time's. I never know which version of you I'm running into."

"How many versions of me are there!!" Kagome cried frantically. Darting her eye's around as if she might see herself coming around the corner.

"No, no, no. it's nothing like that." He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Why don't we go in and have dinner. I'll explain then."

Kagome was shocked. Sesshomaru being nice? What was he doing here? What about his arm? This was just too weird.

What was next? Was Kikyo going to come waltzing in the doors, give her a big hug and apologize for ever trying to kill her because they had always been the bestest of best friends?!

Pause. Marvel. Shudder at the concept.

They ordered some food, then sat in a tense silence. Shippo shooting evil looks in Sesshomaru's direction from his place in Kurt's lap.

+++++++++++++

"What the heck is Sesshomaru doing here?!"

"What! You mean you know that hottie!" Amanda cried from their hiding place behind a park bench.

Sango looked at her like she'd just declared her undying love for Jaken.

"Unfortunately, yes. Come on, we need to get closer." So together they proceeded to dodge behind different objects on there way to the window seat were Kagome, Kurt, Shippo and Sesshomaru sat.

++++++++++++++

Sesshomaru finally cleared his throat. "Why don't you tell me what you've been doing recently so I can discover what we're dealing with."

Not having anything better to do, Kagome told him. Everything she could up till the date.

"Wait, you mean this is your first date!" He cried incredulously. At their nods he put his head in his hands, then ran his fingers through his shoulder length hair. Blowing a breath out, and propping his head on his arm, he tapped his claws against the table for a minute.

"This is one of those time paradox thingy's, isn't it?" Kagome said while trying to massage away her headache.

"Right. So I can't tell you everything. I don't want to chance screwing up history."

Kagome nodded. His past was her future. But, she lived in the future. Or was that the present? Ow, headache.

"I can tell you that I eventually befriended your group and helped you on your quest. I've also seen you regularly for the past five hundred years." He shrugged.

"So if there are me's popping up all over history, how do I keep from running into myself." Her head was swimming.

Sesshomaru smiled. "You cannot run into yourself. There can't be two of the same person in the same place and at the same time. Think of it like a board game. You can't land on a space already occupied by another game piece. So you move one space ahead. It's kind of like that." He shrugged.

"But, how did you get here?" she questioned.

Sesshomaru smirked. It looked suspiciously similar to Inuyasha's. "Demon's have very long life spans."

"And the arm?"

He glanced down at said arm. "Actually, you fixed that, believe it or not." He lifted it to show her and smiled.

"I what! How the heck did I manage that!"

His smile became gentle. "You'll figure out how when the time is right."

They talked for a while, staying off the subjects of time travel and the past in general.

Kagome discovered that this Sesshomaru was easy to talk to, and had a wicked sense of humor that matched Kurt's perfectly. In fact the two got along as if they had been friends for years. Even Shippo began to relax around him. She also learned that he was a very wealthy man in this time and lived not too far from the institute. After giving them the number to his private phone they all got up to leave. Promising to pay a visit to him soon.

"Vell, zat vas fun. I liked him, he's funny."

Kagome and Shippo both had weird looks on their faces.

"He was completely different from the Sesshomaru that we know. But I suppose in this time it's how he's supposed to act." She shrugged. "He did have five hundred years to grow up after all."

Kurt looked down into his arms at Shippo. There was something that he had been wanting to ask him about.

"Shippo." He got the boys attention. "Do you really think of me as your papa?"

Shippo stiffened and his eye's filled with fear. "I-it, um." He lowered his head. "I'm sorry if I made you mad. Do you hate me?" The little fox whispered.

Kurt lifted his chin so he was looking him in the eyes. "I vould never hate you Shippo." He said seriously. Then grinned. "Of course, if I am to be your papa you must learn all the tricks of the prankster trade, how to do acrobatics up on ze rig. Help vake your mother up every morning, since she iz zo very charming vhen she first vakes up." He grinned at Kagome. "And you must call mein sister auntie Rogue." He nodded decisively. Then looked at Shippo with soft gold eyes. "But yes, I vould be honored if you vould consider me your papa."

Shippo's bottom lip trembled and his eyes where huge and filled with tears, making them a brighter green. With a cry of joy he hugged Kurt around the neck while Kurt hugged him back.

'My family! I have a momma and a papa again. A real family!'

Shippo stayed snuggled in Kurt's arms, one hand wrapped in Kurt's shoulder length hair and the other clutching his silk shirt.

Kurt looked over at Kagome to see tears sparkling on her cheeks and a bright smile on her face. She came over to stand next to her two boys and Kurt's tail wrapped itself around her waist.

Shippo suddenly jerked up. "Oh yeah, that's right!" He turned to the bushes surrounding the windows. "Sango! Amanda! You can come out now, the date's over!" He yelled helpfully.

Kurt and Kagome's heads whipped to the left.

Sheepishly the two women came out of the bushes. Covered in leaves and dirt.

"Sango!"

"Amanda!"

Both girls winced.

"You were spying on us!" Kagome glared at the two who where shuffling their feet on the pavement.

"Well, so sorry to have bothered you, well just be going then, shall we." Amanda grabbed at Sango's arm and together they made a break for it.

"Hey! Get back here you cowards!" Kagome made to run after them but Kurt grabbed her arm. She turned to see him grinning wickedly.

"No liebling, let them go for now." His grin turned positively malicious. "After all, revenge is best served.Cold."

She wasn't too sure what Kurt had planned, but from the look on his face she almost felt sorry for them.

Almost.

++++++++++

On the way back to the mansion, and while plotting various types of ways to torture Sango and Amanda, a red blur suddenly sped toward them, then darted behind Kurt and tried to use him as a shield.

"Is she gone?" A fearful voice asked.

They turned to see Scott. Hunkered down and trying to hide himself using Kurt's significantly smaller frame.

"Who?" Kagome asked.

"Oh Scottie! Here boy." Whistling sounds. "Come'er Scottie."

Scott made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, then turned and sped off in the opposite direction of where the voice was coming from.

Rogue came around the corner a few minutes later.

"Hey have you guy's seen Scott around here anywhere?" She asked sweetly.

Kurt was looking at her funny. "Rogue? Are you ok?"

She turned and looked at him, eyes slightly glazed. "Of course ah am. Ahm." Then her eyes cleared and she stared down at her hand. Ripping the fabric off she looked at her hole-free appendage. And let out a whoop of joy.

"It's gone! It's gone! It's finally gone!" she jumped around before stopping and going completely still. "Ah can't believe ah acted like thaht." She turned and looked seriously in Kagome's direction. "Don't evah let me touch Miroku again."

Kagome nodded, indicating that she'd try her best.

"Don't worry auntie Rogue! I'll protect you from the pervert!"

"Auntie what!" Rogue turned to see Shippo smiling at her from Kurt's arms while Kurt tried valiantly to look like he wasn't about to die of laughter.

It wasn't working.

"Kurt? Your not really his fathah, are ya?"

"Of course I am! He ist mein sohn!(son)" Kurt cried mock indignantly.

"But how? And you, and her" She turned and looked at Kagome, then back at Kurt. "But yu've only been on one date!" she cried in confusion. Thinking that, maybe, they had used Kagome's power somehow.

"Rogue! He ist mein adopted son." Kurt heaved a dramatic sigh and threw his arm up to cover his eyes while the other still held Shippo. "My own sister! How could you think such a thing!" He pretended to act mortally offended and shocked.

When Rogue looked somewhere between running away and trying to comfort him he peeked out from behind his arm. And grinned.

Rogue growled and smacked him over the head. "Ya idiot!"

Kurt just continued grinning and rubbed his head. "You do love me!" He cried joyously and slung an arm around her shoulder.

"Get off ya blue moron." She tried shrugging his arm off but it wouldn't budge. When Shippo crawled into her arms and grinned up at her she just sighed in resignation and all four of them continued the walk back home together.

+++++++++++++

As they where coming in the door, Kitty came in from the living room.

"Oh hey, Kagome. Your mom called and left a message for you."

Kagome looked up from where Kurt was helping her out of her jacket. "Oh thanks. Did she say why she wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah, but it was really weird. She said 'the dog is out of the well.'" Kitty scratched her head. "I always thought that saying was 'the cat was out of the bag'?" Shrugging, Kitty went back into the living room to watch T.V.

Kurt, Kagome and Shippo all looked at each other.

"Well. Might as well get it over with now." Kagome sighed and went to the phone in the hallway.

It rang a few times before someone answered.

'WHAT!'

She jerked the phone away from her ear. "Inuyasha! You don't have to yell!"

'HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW YOU COULD HEAR ME! YOUR ALL THE WAY IN FUCKING A-MER-I-CA! I DON'T KNOW HOW YOUR STUPID FUTURE SHIT WORKS!'

"Stop yelling into the phone Inuyasha!"

"I'LL YELL IF I WANT TO WENCH! AND WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING! TAKING OFF WITH THAT DAMN BLUE DEMON!"

"INUYASHA, SIT!"

'SLAM!'

People where starting to poke their heads out of the rooms to see what was going on.

'OW! YOU BITCH! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?! I FUCKING WORRY ABOUT YOU GUYS, AND THIS IS WHAT I GET!'

Kagome's anger evaporated. "Oh, Inuyasha. Where you worried about us?

Silence.

She grinned. Of course he was too stubborn to admit it.

"We're fine Inuyasha. You don't have to worry." She assured him.

'Keh! You still need me to protect you wench. None of those weakling humans are strong enough to keep you out of trouble.'

That almost sounded like an insult, but before she could say anything Inuyasha continued.

'Besides I..promised to keep you safe.' He whispered. 'How can I do that if your all the way over there?'

She could just see him with his ears all droopy.

"Inuyasha. I can't come home yet. I want to stay here and learn how to control my powers."

'Then I'll come there!' He demanded.

"Well..I don't know.would you behave yourself?"

'I ALWAYS FUCKING BEHAVE MYSELF!'

That was not so encouraging.

There was the sound of a scuffle on the other end.

'Don't use that kind language in the house Inu-chan.' A yelp, then 'Hello sweetheart! How did your date go? Did you get your first kiss?'

"Moommm!" Kagome cried, mortified because Kurt was standing next to her and heard every word.

He grinned.

'Oh don't mind me Kagome-chan. So are you going to be coming for Inuyasha soon.' Her mother almost sounded desperate.

Kagome sighed. "I need to talk to the Professor first. I'll have to call you back."

'All right dear.' The sound of Inuyasha cursing came through the line. 'And sweetieplease hurry.'

Then they both hung up.

She turned to Kurt and Shippo.

"Well, what do you guy's think?"

They both thought about it for a minute.

"Vell, I'm ok vith it. It might be fun." Kurt grinned wickedly, the dog-eared boy was just so easy to get riled up. Kagome raised an eyebrow, not sure if she wanted to know what was going through that head of his.

"Yeah. Dog-boy's a jerk but..I, kinda missed him." Shippo looked down at his paw-like feet.

Kagome nodded. "I kinda missed him too." She grinned and clapped her hands. "Well, let's go ask Professor X if we can get a dog!"

+++++++++++++

After talking it over with Professor Xavier it was decided that they would go to retrieve Inuyasha tomorrow, since it was already to late tonight and tomorrow was a Sunday, that way they didn't miss any school.

Kurt and Shippo had left while Kagome and Professor X worked out the details, Kagome explained as much about Inuyasha as she could so that the professor would be prepared for Inuyasha's rather.colorful personality.

She was also informed that Professor Hank and another mutant, named Forge, wished to speak to both her and Miroku tomorrow afternoon.

After leaving the office Kagome went in search of her boyfriend and adopted son. Finding them in the living room.

Kurt was sprawled out, limbs going in every direction, with Shippo curled up on his chest.

They were both purring like a pair of big, contented, cats.

Smiling softly, she pulled a blanket off the other couch and laid it over the two. Then rubbed Shippo's back, causing him to yip happily and snuggled into Kurt. Kurt wrapped an arm securely around the child on his chest.

Brushing her fingers through Kurt's hair she looked at the way he held Shippo. 'He'll make a good father someday.'

She kissed them both on the forehead then went to her room for the night.

After all, she was going to need every bit of sleep she could get. Tomorrow was going to be a very busy day.

+++++++++++++

Inuyasha sat on the roof of the Higurashi shrine the next day. Staring at the road, when a black au-to-mo-bile drove up and stopped at the bottom of the shrine stairs. As the doors opened he could already smell Kagome. He breathed it in. The scent in her room had been old, and it didn't calm him like her fresh smell.

Another smell made him growl however. That other male.

Looking down he saw the group making their way up the stairs. Kagome and that blue guy, plus another man that smelled sort of like a partial demon.

Kagome's family came out to greet them and there where hugs given out to the two teens. He jumped down, landing in a crouch. The older male that came with Kagome whipped his head around and growled.

Inuyasha growled back. It was only instinctive. The need to state who was the alpha.

Kagome stepped in front of him and blocked his view. Laying a hand on his head she rubbed at his ears and he fought against leaning into her hand and closing his eye's.

Instead he jerked his head back and laid his ears flat against his skull.

Giggling Kagome bent down and gave him a quick hug. Giving him the translator that he would have to wear for a while.

"I missed you dog-boy."

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. Inhaling her calming scent. "Why did you leave?"

She pulled away and looked into his eye's. "You know why I left."

He lowered his head. Yes. He knew why she'd left him.

"I didn't mean to hurt you." He whispered.

Placing a finger under his chin she tilted his head up so she was looking into his eyes, so similar and yet so different from her wonderful boyfriends own.

"I know you didn't. And I forgive you." She scratched at his ear again and this time he didn't pull away. "You'll always be my best friend Inuyasha."

Sighing he hugged her one more time before releasing her to go to her family. Then placed the stupid translator thingy in his ear. It felt weird.

Walking over to where Kurt stood he pressed his claws into his back. Not enough to draw blood, just enough to be noticed by the person in front of him.

Leaning forward a little Inuyasha whispered low enough so the others couldn't hear.

"If you ever hurt her, there will be no place on this earth that you could hide from me. I would hunt you down, rip out your spine, and beat you to death with it." He growled menacingly. "Got it."

Kurt didn't even flinch. "You have my vord zat I vill never hurt Kagome in any vay." He said this with complete seriousness. "I vould protect her vith my life."

Inuyasha nodded. "Good, cause you might just have to."

Kurt turned and looked at Inuyasha out of the corner of his eye. "You are a good friend to her Inuyasha."

"Keh!"

But they both knew that they had come to some type of understanding. Both cared for Kagome, and both would protect her. Until the last breath left their body.

Inuyasha leaned against the wall and glared at Logan while Kagome and Kurt talked with her family. When it was time to go Mrs.Higurashi gave Kagome a suitcase full of clothes that she'd bought for Inuyasha yesterday. He'd refused to wear them though. Kagome sighed and figured she'd force him into them once they were back at the institute.

After assuring Inuyasha that the car wasn't trying to eat him. And no, he couldn't cut one in half just to be sure they weren't alive, they piled into the van.

The X-Jet presented a whole different set of problems. After stopping him from trying to kill the plane with a few sits, he had then refused to believe that a 'Huge piece of fucking metal' could fly. She'd tried telling him that it could but he was terribly stubborn and wouldn't listen to any of her explanations. After sitting him into unconsciousness they'd had Logan drag him onto the jet. He woke up about half way through the flight and had freaked out. After discovering that it was, in fact, perfectly safe, he'd begun running up and down the ails like a two year old. Completely fascinated with everything he saw.

+++++++++++

After landing in the hanger and pulling Inuyasha along to keep him from investigating everything, they managed to get him into Kagome's room. Where she hoped her scent would keep calm him. They did, in fact, have to force him into a pair of jeans and a red shirt. Logan and Kurt did this while Kagome left the room. Much cursing and sounds of struggle issued from behind the closed door in front of her. Then she'd had to sit him again to get a pair of shoes on his feet and brush his hair. Pulling it back and tying it with a leather cord. She left the two long locks hanging in the front. He'd refused to give up his sword though. She didn't argued the point since she knew how much it meant to him, but she did extract a promise that he wouldn't try to use it to frighten the humans.

A knock on the door heralded the arrival of Shippo, Sango, Miroku and Kirara, who all greeted Inuyasha excitedly.

They talked for awhile before Kagome and Miroku had to leave for their meeting with Hank and Forge. Kagome informed Inuyasha that he could stay in her rooms for as long as he liked.

Shippo and Kurt offered to baby-sit him for Kagome.

The enraged dog demon chased the two all over the room, with Kurt teleporting away just before the dog-boy could catch them. The two said their good bye's and went off to see what Hank and Forge wished to see them about.

++++++++++++++

"Ah, thank you for coming." Forge indicated that they should have a seat.

"What's this about?" Kagome questioned curiously.

"While Hank was running some statistics on the powers you and your friends posses, he ran across an interesting parallel."

Forge looked up at the identical looks of puzzlement on their faces and realized he'd been speaking in science jargon again. He really needed to stop doing that, it made him look like a dweeb. Sighing he tried to explain further.

"I once created an invention that accidentally took me into what I called 'Middleverse'. There is an interesting similarity between my 'middleverse' and Miroku's wind tunnel. Their energy's are almost exactly the same. So your wind tunnel is really just sucking things up into a separate reality."

"Oh." Miroku didn't really know what to say. It was all kind of confusing, and at the risk of sounding like a complete moron, he figured in this case silence is definitely golden.

"That's nice and all, but, why are you telling us this?" Kagome asked.

Forge smile at her. "Because I think, with your help, we might be able to contain the separate reality. Preventing it from expanding any further and eventually taking his life."

Shocked silence.

"You can do that?" She whispered.

He smiled at her. "With your help I think we can pull it off."

"How? What can I do?"

"I need to work directly with the tunnel itself, but can't without the risk of being pulled in. If you shift us into freeze time then that's not a problem. I also need your miko abilities to help contain the reality in the vessel I've created for it."

Forge then turned to look at Miroku. "The rip seems to be linked genetically so there is a chance that it will be passed on to your children, but if this works on you then it shouldn't be a problem for them. I can't guarantee it will work though since it's never been done before, but there's a good chance." He looked at Miroku, the question clear in his eyes.

Miroku sat in deep thought.

"Miroku-sama?" Kagome questioned softly.

Miroku looked up, determination flashing like lightning in his dark blue eyes.

"Let's do it."

+++++++++++++

Authors note: Well there ya go. Hope that you liked it. Stuffs starting to get interesting. Inu's at the Institute. What kind of trouble will he get into? How will the other X-Men react to the stubborn hanyou? Will him and Wolvie fight? He, he. And what about Miroku? Will the experimental surgery work? Remember to review and let me know what ya thought! Later. Sayin_girl n_n