Return of the Hanyou

By: Lady Tiger LiLy

Chapter 7: Awkward Moment

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Kagome had caught up with the group, returning safely with Kirara. "Hey, everyone!" she waved as the giant cat youkai came down to land on the ground as gently as she could.

Though it wasn't evident, Inu-Yasha was most relieved to see his wife had returned safely with a happy smile on her face.

"Welcome back," Miroku was the first to greet.

"How did it go?" Sango asked as she shifted her Hiraikotsu that she was carrying over her shoulder.

"I have great news for you and Miroku-sama!" Kagome replied to her friend. "When I went to go find Kaede baa-chan, I found Rin-chan instead!"

"You did?" Sango responded, sounding anxious.

"Yes, she and Mamoru had returned to the village not long after we left." Kagome smiled happily.

Sango looked much relieved to hear that her son was alive and well. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her heart. "Oh, thank heaven," she spoke most sincerely.

Miroku approached Kagome. "How is he?" he asked.

Kagome knew what he meant. She looked into his eyes. They were somber for he already knew the answer. "He is fine now… He and an entire village have Rin-chan to thank," she replied.

"I must thank her too," Miroku replied.

Kagome could see the guilt in Miroku's eyes. He blames himself for passing his curses onto his son.

Sango went to Miroku's side and placed her hand on his left shoulder. "We must thank her," she smiled lightly to him. "He is our son."

Miroku moved his gloved hand up to gently clasp his wife's hand that rest on his shoulder. "But it is my curse. Mine alone. I must apologize to Rin-sama for all the trouble I surely must have caused her and Mamoru."

She looked at his gloved hand on hers and frowned up at him. "Miroku, what happened to Mamoru is not your fault. It is Naraku who is to blame."

He smiled gently to her and patted her hand. "Yes, Naraku is to blame. And he shall be stopped." He then looked over to Inu-Yasha. "Well, shall we be moving on?"

Inu-Yasha nodded. Kirara returned to her smaller form and trotted after Sango as the group moved on.

Sango followed closely behind the group, watching Miroku as they went. 'You are not alone in this, Miroku… Or is it that you want to be?'

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Junko followed after Shippou but at a distance. She followed him at such a distance, she couldn't see him and had to follow his scent to know which way he was going. She was following so far behind because she didn't know what she was going to say to the kitsune boy.

She finally did it; she had truly pissed him off.

She followed him to the river not far from the village. She saw him sitting on a large rock by the river, throwing a flat stone he had found and watching it skip across the water's surface before it lost its momentum and sank. Actually, he had a small pile of them sitting next to him on the large rock. After the previous one sank, he grabbed another stone, and threw it with a flick of his wrist. It had skipped across the water several times before sinking to the bottom of the river just like the last. Shippou then proceeded to reach for another rock from his pile to skip across the water.

Junko approached him without hurry being she still didn't know what she should say. She stopped a few feet behind him and the large boulder he was on. Shippou did nothing to acknowledge her presence, but she knew that he was aware if her company. Junko nervously played with the hem of her kimono's sleeves and bit down on her lip in thought. She stood there silently for what seemed liked forever. She felt so guilty about hurting Shippou's feelings like that. She owed him a huge apology.

She swallowed and was just about to open her mouth to speak when Shippou's voice cut her off. "Want to sit down?" he asked, his voice holding no hint of anger.

Junko jumped a little, not expecting him to say anything. She thought he would just continue on ignoring her. "Mmhm," was all she managed as a reply.

She climbed up onto the rock, sitting next to him, but facing the opposite way he was, her back to the river. There was an awkward silence. At least, it felt awkward to Junko. She sighed inwardly. What was she doing? She shouldn't be here. He probably doesn't want to see her right now. She should just apologize and leave.

Junko's long silver hair fell forward to curtain her face as she looked down at her hands that were folded in her lap. "Um, Shippou… I just came to tell you that… that I'm really, really sorry. That was… I was very insensitive and I just… I'm sorry," she finished lamely.

She shifted as she was about to get off the rock and head back to the village but stopped when she felt a warm hand cover her own. "Wait."

Junko turned to her right to see Shippou leaning back on one hands, while his other one had grasped her hand closest to him. "Don't leave yet."

Junko said nothing as she complied and stayed sitting there. Her eyes couldn't help but glance down at his hand that had taken hers. Shippou shifted and turned himself towards her on the rock and she did the same upon seeing this. As she sat facing Shippou, Junko found herself fighting back a blush though she wasn't sure why she was starting to blush. Maybe it was because he was still holding her hand…

"Listen, Junko," he began to speak, still no anger to be found in his calm voice. "I'm sure your mom was doing what she thought was best for you at the time. And as far as her not telling you as you got older about you being a hanyou, well, maybe she wasn't sure how to tell you or how you would react. You've been human most you life. That is what you grew up as and it is what you've always known. How can someone go up to someone and tell them that they aren't really who they thought they were all these years?"

Junko shifted uncomfortably as she kept her eyes averted from his face. "Why are we talking about this? I thought that 'discussion' was finished?"

"You mean when we 'discussed' it very loudly in front of the entire village? No, that 'discussion' isn't finished. And why we are talking about this is because we need to talk about this."

"Is this about what you said about… um, the mother thing?" she asked cautiously.

Shippou looked down as he exhaled. He seemed to be noticing their joined hands for a moment. Idly, he began to caress the back of her hand with his thumb. "I'm really sorry about that."

Junko looked down at her hand when she felt the gentle strokes of his thumb. She felt goose bumps form on her skin from the simple action. Her face was growing hot again as she watched his hand for a moment, nearly missing what he was saying. "Um, sorry about what?"

"About blowing up like I did," he explained, looking up to meet her eyes.

"Oh, Shippou, no. You shouldn't be apologizing. You were just reacting to what I said, and I don't blame you for it. I shouldn't have said what I said to you. I forget that you don't… That your mom passed away while I still have my mother…"

"No, I'm not upset about not having my mom around while you do," he spoke. "I was upset about how you were talking about Kagome." He averted her gaze for a moment. "I hate seeing you take for granted what you have," Shippou sighed before looking back to her again, "because, Junko, you don't realize what it means to have a mom until you loose her," he said sincerely. "And I think Kagome is one of the best moms anyone could ever want."

Junko frowned lightly and looked away. "Well, you didn't grow up with her for a mom."

"In a way I did."

"No, you didn't! I've spent fifteen years under the same roof with her! You only saw her when she came to this time!" Junko replied, her voice rising a little in anger. "And she pampered you and spoiled you! That is not what my mom did for me! She made me eat my vegetables and do my homework. Not give me sweets and crayons to color with whenever she came back to this time!"

"Ok! Ok, maybe you're right! I don't know what it's like to have Kagome for a mom. But to me she was a mother-like figure during our travels."

"Yeah, and see, you knew everything while she kept secrets from me! You knew all about her life while she didn't tell me anything about the well being some kind of portal to the past and that's how she met my father!"

"You know, that brings me to an interesting question," he spoke, frustration and confusion beginning to show in his expression. "Why are you so mad at your mom and not your dad? He kept it a secret too, you know."

"Yeah, well, he had to because it was my mom's decision. She was the one who wanted me to have a 'normal' human life! It's not his fault! He would have told me if he could have!" she spoke heatedly.

"Did he tell you that?"

"Well, no…"

"Why do assume that then? Why do you see your father as this super great guy?"

"Well, why do you see him as some mean ol' grouch?" she countered.

"Because he was always mean to me as a kid! He was always kicking me around and knocking me in the head!"

"Well, he was always loving, protective, and fun with me! He was my only real friend!"

There was a pause in the conversation.

Junko sighed as she turned to look out at the river. "I'm upset that she keeps making all these 'important' decisions for me without talking to me about it."

Shippou began to pat her hand with his free hand. "Your mom was doing what she thought was best; giving you a chance for a normal human life. And even if that was a mistake, she's only human and it's in the past now."

She turned back to him. "But-"

"Junko, you got to let it go."

Junko was silent for a moment. "I'm going to head back to the village now."

"Junko…"

"What? What do you want from me? I can't make any promises," she replied firmly.

Shippou looked down with a small nod. "I'll go back with you," he replied, releasing her hand.

As they both left from the rock, Junko and Shippou each noticed how the warmth quickly left their separated hands.

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"There you two are!"

Shippou and Junko were approaching Kaede's hut when Kohana popped out from the hut. They froze in her spots at the surprise appearance of Kohana.

"Oh, no…" Shippou groaned, knowing Kohana would probably now ask him again about going for a walk with her alone.

Junko leaned over to Shippou slightly. "Do you think she sees us? Is it too late to make a run for it?" Junko asked in a quiet, serious tone though she was only joking.

Junko didn't make jokes often so Shippou was caught off guard by this one. He managed to hold back a snort of laughter, until he saw Kohana headed towards them. "No, no it's not!" he replied quickly.

Junko blinked. "What? I was just-"

"Come on!" he interrupted, quickly grabbing her hand and pulling her along with him as he began to take off. They headed toward Kohana, and as they ran on by her, Shippou shouted out, "Sorry, Kohana! Gotta go now! Bye!"

Kohana was left speechless for a moment as the two youkai sped on by. "Huh? W-Wait a moment, Shippou-chan! Hey!" she called out to him. She tried to follow, waving her arms as she ran. "Stop! Come back! Shippou-chan!" She soon stopped and gave up, knowing she could never match the speed of a youkai. She let out a growl of frustration as she angrily stomped back to Kaede's hut.

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Junko's heart was pounding as she followed quickly behind Shippou, trying to keep up. He was, after all, a full-blooded youkai and could run much faster than her. Once they broke into the woods, she finally took notice of Shippou's tight grip of her hand. He sure has been holding her hand a lot today.

Shippou finally came to a stop. Any further and he would have made him and Junko fall into a vertical dip into the forest floor. Besides, they were a good distance into the forest. Shippou was sure that Kohana wouldn't find them anytime soon if she decided to go after them. But being Junko's thoughts were focused on Shippou's hand, she hadn't anticipated him stopping and crashed right into him, knocking him unbalanced.

"Whoa! Junko!" He held on tightly still to her hand to keep her from falling over as he also tried to keep his balance.

Junko fought to keep steady being the forest suddenly was no longer passing under her feet at such a fast speed. She tried to catch her breath while regaining her balance, but all hope of that was lost when she suddenly let out a burst of laughter. Shippou looked astonished at this but not for long as Junko threw her head back as she laughed. One wrong step by Junko and Shippou was pulled along with her as they tumbled down the slope of the dip in the forest floor. As they fell, they had let go of each other's hands and they both rolled separately to a stop at the bottom, the ground softened with lush green grass and covered with leafy vines.

Shippou rose slowly onto his hands and shook his head to rid himself of his dizziness. He turned around to the sound of laughter coming from behind him where Junko lay. "Junko! Junko, are you ok?" he asked urgently, crawling over to her side and hovering over her slightly.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" she replied with a wave of her hand as she continued with a bright smile and a sound of glee in her voice.

Relieved, and still feeling dizzy, Shippou let out a sigh of relief and plopped backwards onto the ground next to Junko. She soon began laughing again. Shippou propped himself up onto his elbow and turned towards her. Hearing her laugh was the strangest, most wonderful thing to hear. It was strange because he had never heard her laugh before, which is why he looked so surprised when she first started laughing. But it was wonderful because it was laughter coming from Junko.

And he found he loved hearing her laugh.

Though he didn't understand why she was doing it. "What's so funny?" he finally asked.

Junko calmed down a little, smiling brightly as she turned her head to look at him. "The whole situation! Us running away from Kohana! And did you see the look on her face when we ran past her? It was priceless!" She began laughing again.

"Actually, I did see her expression. And now that I think about it…" He started to laugh as well. "I guess it was pretty funny!"

"Yup!" Junko agreed as she still kept on laughing.

Shippou laughed along with her, gazing at her happy face. When she was happy, that was when she looked most beautiful…

They laughed together, Junko soon having tears of mirth forming in her eyes. Shippou soon began to laugh as hard as Junko and collapsed into her side, laughing into her shoulder. Junko's laughter softened slightly as she slowly became aware of Shippou's hot breath pounding on the skin of her exposed neck as he laughed. Soon his laughter faded away. Junko sobered up quickly when, within mere seconds, she felt his warm lips on her skin and then…

"Ow!" she shouted out in pain.

In the blink of an eye, Shippou moved back from Junko. She sat up, with her right hand rubbing the area where her neck and shoulder meet. "You bit me!" Junko stated with anger and surprise. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" she demanded angrily.

Shippou looked more horrified and confused than Junko did. "I-I don't know…" he managed to get out. Without another word, Shippou quickly got up and ran off into the forest.

"Shippou?" Junko called out in confusion at his hasty leave. She opened her mouth to call to him again but said nothing. If she kept on calling him, he might answer her and come back.

And after what just happened, she wasn't sure she wanted him to…

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AN: Needless to say, Shippou just freaked out Junko. Don't worry! The situation will be resolved in the next chapter!