Disclaimer: Roses are red…violets are blue…I don't own Inuyasha…so screw you!!! (The reason I don't write poems!!!!)

Well thank you to everyone for their support on my issue of not doing a lemon. It is not because I don't LIKE writing lemons (remember what I REALLY write is romance, I love the love scenes and don't think I am too bad at them either) MAYBE I will do another story someday where I feel a little more comfortable with their ages and do one…but don't hold your breath.

Inuyasha: Who cares? The sooner you finish this stupid story the sooner I can go home.

Who said that?

Kagome: What do you mean? YOU DID!

I like having you here. Maybe I will keep you here forever.

Inuyasha: Shippo, get her.

NO! Not the perverted kitsune! Anything but him!

Chapter 22

He woke slowly, thinking the whole middle of the night encounter had been nothing but a dream. It took a moment to realize that something rested in his arms. Kagome came to me last night and fell asleep in my arms. The memory of reading to her put a smile on his face as he tightened his hold on the miko intertwined within his limbs. Burying his head in the crook of her neck, he inhaled her scent. It was something he tended to do when no one else paid any attention to what he was doing; it helped him wake for the day. He had never been able to do it in this close a proximity to her before.

Instead of invigorating him, it had an opposite effect on him today. Upon first scent, he didn't realize what the difference with her smell was; only that it had changed. Instead of the typical scent that sated him and helped him begin his day, he found he couldn't break away from her. Burying his face in her hair, he couldn't help noting the new scent aroused him like nothing ever had before. In fact all he wanted to do was trap her beneath him and lavish attention to every inch of her body as he inhaled their combined scents.

Wait?! Our combined scents? He inhaled her scent again, sure enough his scent was not only on her; it was within her. Yanking her collar down, he found the mark right away. It hadn't been a dream. After everything they had been through the past year or so they had been together, he had unconsciously marked her while they slept. He grinned while he stared at the perfect, possessive mark he had given her. She accepted me. She's mine now.

She stretched within his arms, waking slowly from her disrupted sleep. "Hey?" She whispered to the hanyou currently nuzzling her neck. The only response he gave was a contented growl as he licked his mark. Kagome shivered within his arms as she tried to look at the clock, 10:33 am. Shippo and Makoto would be here in less than a half hour! "Inuyasha?! We gotta get ready! They will be here soon." He ignored her and continued to nuzzle and lick her neck in adoration. Sighing with pleasure and frustration, Kagome tried to push away from him. Her slight resistance was futile; he yanked her back to him and resumed his obsession with her neck. "Inuyasha! We need to go, NOW!" She pushed as hard as she could and scrambled from beneath him.

He didn't look too happy as he sat on his bed, growling at her. "Oi! Get back here!" He yelled as she raced for the door.

"Get dressed! We are running late, we're gonna have to eat at the mall." She grabbed the necklace off the dresser and chanted a short spell before tossing it to him. "We need to get you used to real clothes soon." She laughed before closing the door behind her.

"Stupid girl." He muttered beneath his breath as he heard her in the bathroom starting the water for a shower. All he wanted to do is hold her and spend the day…what the hell is happening to me? He stopped his line of thinking dead in its tracks. He needed to do what she said, get ready for the day. She wanted to drag him to the mall or some shit today.

The knock on the door came about five minutes before eleven. Inuyasha opened the door to find Shippo standing on the doorstep. The kitsune immediately looked at Inuyasha with amusement. "Oi, what's the problem, runt?"

"Nothing…" the kitsune smirked before finishing. "You reek of Kagome. Did you have fun last night?" Shippo broke out in fits of laughter as Inuyasha turned bright red.

"Oi, that's none of your business!" He yelled, grasping the kitsune around the neck and lifting him off his feet. "You really did spend too much time with Miroku after I left."

"Don't forget about all of his perverted descendents, including two reincarnations." Shippo's face was quickly turning blue but he didn't fight against the hanyou.

"Inuyasha, sit! Stop fighting you two." Kagome came down the stairs, watching Inuyasha slam into the ground, taking Shippo with him. It was just what she had wanted to happen. "Bye mama! Inuyasha and I are leaving." She yelled, stepping over the pair and walking to the car where Makoto and Shinju waited for them. She climbed into the backseat next to Shinju. "I hope they weren't too horrid on the way here." She asked the seventeen year old.

The taijiya rolled her eyes and said, "Shippo was pleasant." Kagome turned to Makoto and noted the red handprint on the side of his face that looked extremely fresh. "That one is the biggest hentai I have ever met!"

"Somehow I don't find that remotely surprising." Kagome muttered watching the pair bickering outside still, the spell had worn off of the hanyou.

"Now Kagome, I only asked her a simple question." Makoto defended himself.

"Gee, let me guess. To bear you a child?" Kagome said sarcastically.

Makoto turned red, "No, if her father was a thief." Inuyasha and Shippo came grumbling into the car just in time to hear the end of the conversation.

"A pick up line?" Kagome laughed. "A really bad pick up line at that. Even Miroku had a better pick up line."

"What the hell is a pick up line?" Inuyasha demanded. Shippo turned around as soon as they entered the car and gasped at Kagome. "No, Shippo! We will talk in a little while. The answer is NO."

"But…but…I smell it. You did…I know you did." He grabbed for Kagome's collar, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.

"Shippo!" She slapped his hand away from her chest. "What are you doing?"

"Kagome, Inuyasha and you-" The kitsune was interrupted by the hanyou again before he could finish the sentence.

"Take a real good smell, Shippo. It happened as we slept." Inuyasha bit out knowing this was going to create problems with the kitsune.

"But that…"He stopped, finally taking a good smell of the air. "Holy shit! You…you! That has only like happened once or twice. I thought it was just a myth."

"What happened?" Makoto asked; curious about what Shippo was having such a hard time believing.

"Nothing." Inuyasha bit out, not wanting it discuss his life with everyone yet. He barely knew these people. "What is a pick up line?"

"Well, Miroku used the fact that he needed a child to carry on his quest after he was sucked into his wind tunnel to pick up women." Kagome began. Inuyasha snorted, remembering how the monk would ask almost every woman he asked. "He used the sad story and asking each of them to bear his child as a pick up line."

"Okay, I get it." Inuyasha said. "What did Makoto just ask Shinju since he didn't ask her to bear his child?"

Kagome laughed as Shinju and Makoto gasped hearing about the monk's use of asking woman to bear his child. "Only the most unoriginal and uninspiring pick up line of this century. I am not surprised Shinju was so offended. I would have been too if it had been used on me."

"Here let me show you it, Inuyasha." Shippo turned around and grabbed Kagome's hands, as Inuyasha growled at them. "Stop it, she belongs to you. I have known that for centuries you mutt! Anyway, Kagome, was your father a thief?"

"No."

"Are you sure? He must have been! He stole the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes." Shippo paused, waiting for the reaction from the hanyou.

Inuyasha raised a brow. "That was horrible. You actually used that on Shinju? No wonder she slapped you. Gads, I thought Miroku was bad but hell, you are worse."

"Hey, now in my defense, I don't have the use of a wind tunnel to help me pick up woman." Makoto said sarcastically.

"Oi!" Inuyasha hit the kid over the head. "Thank your lucky stars for that! Miroku worked his butt off to take that curse off you. We all did."

"No kidding. I may not talk about it much but that wind tunnel was one frightening thing that he was thankful to have gone." Shippo added as Makoto pulled into the parking lot. "Besides, if we hadn't beaten Naraku, Sango and Miroku would have never had their children and none of you humans would be here."

Kagome laughed, "That is just too weird, that I was involved with getting a pair of my ancestors together." The group piled out of the car and headed inside. Inuyasha kept close to Kagome, he had been to the supermarket before, but never an actual mall.

As they walked inside, Inuyasha stared at everything in awe. Kagome couldn't help but smile. "There are so many people." He whispered in awe.

"I know…you will get used to it, I am sure." She replied. "Are you hungry?" He nodded. "Hey, we haven't eaten yet. Would it be okay if we ate and let Inuyasha get used to all of the people?"

Agreeing with her they headed toward the food court and settled in to find some lunch. "Alright, are you ready to try something different? You are now a teenager in my time, Inuyasha. It is a requirement to eat things like cheeseburgers and French fries."

"If you like ramen, wait till you try cheeseburgers. They are the perfect food." Shippo added as the three of them headed for the WacDnalds stand. Makoto and Shinju headed to find something else to eat.

"Alright; if you say so." He answered before asking "What is a cheeseburger?"

Kagome giggled before answering, "You are about to find out." She got to the front of the line and ordered the biggest cheeseburger she could get for the hanyou with a large order of fries and a coke. She then ordered her lunch and the two of them walked back to the table Makoto had found while Shippo ordered behind them. Setting their lunch in front of them, they sat down. Inuyasha still took his time taking in the sights, sounds and smells in the mall, he looked a little overwhelmed. "Just focus on us here, I know it is hard with so much going on around us. Here, try your cheeseburger." She handed him the burger she had gotten him and squeezed his hand in encouragement. "You will get used to everything soon, trust me."

"How do I eat this thing? What is it?" He asked as Makoto smiled at them.

"Hold it in your hands like this and eat it." She demonstrated with hers. She swallowed as she watched him eat his first bite. His face turned to delighted surprise as he ate it.

"I told you!" Shippo said from behind him. "It's better than ramen. I never understood why you never brought us these."

"Shippo, I brought you chocolate. Wasn't that enough?" She teased.

"Kagome! Kagome!" She heard several voices calling her name. She turned to see Yuka, Eri and Ayumi running toward her.

Great, how do I explain all of this? "Hi, how are you doing?" He friends grabbed her hands and dragged her away from the table.

"Kagome, what are you doing with all of these people. I thought Inuyasha got really jealous of other guys. There are three guys with you and only one girl. What will he do when he finds out?" Eri asked, upset that she was with three attractive boys who did not go to their school.

"Um, calm down. I am sure Inuyasha will not mind that I am with them." Suddenly she felt an arm drape over her shoulders and looked up to see Shippo standing with her.

"Yuka, it is good to see you again."

"Shippo! How are you? You said you would call me. I haven't seen you forever."

Kagome looked on in shock as the kitsune spoke with her friend. "Would you like to meet our friends?" Shippo asked the girls, walking them over to the table. Kagome just stood there with her mouth open wide. How did Yuka know Shippo? Kagome followed, watching Inuyasha immediately recognize the girls as friends of Kagome's he had met before.

"Kagome, since you know everyone. Why don't you introduce us all?" Shippo said.

"One second everyone." She dragged Shippo a couple of feet away. "They have already met Inuyasha. The silver-haired, golden eyed, Inuyasha. That," She pointed to her concealed hanyou. "Is not the Inuyasha they have met."

"Yuka knows…she always has. She is a youkai herself and has helped protect you when you were at home."

"What? Why did I not know there were youkai's in this time until just the other day? That one of my best friends has been a youkai this whole time. Shippo, I feel like hurting someone, can I purify you when I get home?"

"No, you used to be so friendly and caring Kagome."

"You used to be an innocent kid, Shippo! What am I supposed to say?"

"Introduce them to Inuyasha and see what questions they have. Simple as that." Shippo turned and walked back to the table, leaving her alone.

"Argh…why is everything so complicated?" She muttered walking back to the group. "Alright, this is Yuka, Ayumi, and Eri. They are friends of mine from school. These are some friends of mine; I have known some of them for a while, in one way or another." Gee, can this get more confusing? "This is Makoto, Shinju, and Shippo and well, um…you've already met Inuyasha."

"Um…Kagome, we have met Inuyasha remember? This…is not him." Eri answered, saying exactly what Kagome knew would be said.

"Yeah, Kagome, that is not the Inuyasha we met last time." Yuka said, "Are you sure you just don't say that every guy you meet is named Inuyasha? Maybe you want to pretend you are the Kagome from that legend Sensei Hikotaki has been talking about."

Inuyasha snorted next to her. "Why pretend? She is the Kagome from the legend. I met you all a few months ago, remember. I had silver hair and yellow eyes. I am the same Inuyasha; I just have a disguise on right now."

"It is the truth, I am Makoto Hikotaki. My father is the teacher you speak of, this is the Shippo, Inuyasha and Kagome that were in the legend. In order to protect our Kagome here, the real ending of the story and where she came from needed to be kept a secret."

Knowing from the grin Yuka gave Kagome, she knew the truth. The other two would be more difficult. "Um…Wait…Remember what Sensei said about the necklace? I am sorry Inuyasha, sit!"

She watched as the chair busted beneath the weight of the spell, sending a very upset hanyou to the floor. "Kagome! Dammit, knock that off!"

"I am sorry, Inuyasha. I had to do it." She knelt down and said loudly for the people who had stopped to stare at the situation, "Gee…these chairs are really flimsy. I can't believe it broke so suddenly. Maybe we should not trust them." As everyone went back to their own business, she helped her hanyou to his feet. "I am sorry, I owe you for that."

"Keh, you better believe it." He muttered with a scowl on his face.

She turned to her friends, "Well, if that doesn't convince you, come visit me at home later. I will introduce you to the real Inuyasha and explain what is going on a little better. Right now we have shopping to do so I will see you later." She stood up and grabbed Inuyasha's hand, dragging him away from the table. As soon as she turned away, an arrow hit right where she had been standing. All she could think was what now?

Hee hee…um…(runs off from people throwing things because of a cliffhanger.)

Inuyasha: Maybe someone will get rid of her this time.

Kagome: We can only wish.

Inuyasha: Keh, we are all alone. What do you think we should do?

Kagome: Um…Are you sure you and Miroku didn't switch bodies before pinning yourself to the tree? You sure have been a hentai lately.

Inuyasha: She said no lemons! She said nothing about any limes!

Kagome: sigh Inuyasha, sit!