Disclaimer: The characters of Inuyasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, but this story belongs to me

Chapter Eleven: Culture Clash

Day Twenty-One –

I decided that I should take Mikomi on an outing to get a little culture. After all, all kids should be exposed to art. It broadens their horizons and helps to encourage their creativity and cognitive thinking skills. That and it's a part of the assignment.

As much fun as it was to have people shaking their heads sadly at me and whispering about me being a baby having a baby, the most fun was touring places I don't usually think to go to. I had forgotten how much fun art museums can be, especially when you are taking someone who has never been there before.

Kagome snickered as the blushing dog demon turned away from her muttering something about perverts that she didn't quite catch.

ooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOoo

Even though she was sitting on the curb of a sidewalk after being thrown out of the zoo by some angry security guys, Kagome was in a wonderful mood. She was still on cloud nine after the very short meeting with the undead miko a couple of days ago. She couldn't stop the silly grin when she thought about how reluctant he was to go to the meeting in the first place and how he kept it as brief as possible. Not to mention that the look on her face had been absolutely priceless! Maybe… maybe he really does… love…

"Oi, what are you smiling about? Those idiots just kicked us out!"

Kagome looked up at the adorably pouting hanyou and tried desperately not to grin. "Well, you shouldn't have been teasing those wolves like that. Especially when the zookeeper warned you not to. Twice."

"Lousy stupid wolves." He grumbled. "Glad they are in a stinkin' cage… serves them right… scrawny no good…" He stopped and looked at Kagome curiously before sinking down onto his heels, squatting beside her and nudging her shoulder for attention. "Why aren't you mad?"

"Just in a good mood, I guess," she grinned at him. "I'm sure if I try I can work up a little anger though if it will make you feel better."

"Feh."

"Besides," she said as she stood up, stretching her arms above her head, "We spent enough time there already. We've got pictures and ticket stubs and brochures and everything. Plus I took some notes, so it was time to go anyhow."

Inuyasha sighed tiredly as he turned Kagome around and checked the straps that were holding Mikomi on. They were snug enough, so he turned her back to face him. "Where now or are we done?"

"Home. We need to change before we go to the museum."

"Why? What's wrong with what we're wearing?"

Kagome looked at the blue jeans that her brother and grandfather managed to force him into and one of her red uni-sex tee shirts that fit rather snugly on his torso. With the red baseball cap hiding his ears he almost looked like a regular boy. A regular gorgeous silver haired golden eyed sharp nailed boy with fangs… but it was close enough.

"Nothing," she said in what she hoped was a normal voice and praying that he didn't notice she was checking him out, "But we're taking pictures, and I'd rather the teacher didn't think that we did all of our cultural kind of stuff in one day, you know."

"But we are."

"But she doesn't have to KNOW that."

They argued all the way back to the shrine about the morality of falsely presenting information, regardless of whether or not she was actually lying to the teacher. Really Inuyasha didn't care. In fact, he thought it was rather clever of her. But arguing with her was too big of a temptation to pass up. It was fun!

"It's the same as lying."

"No it's not! It's just a… a…"

"See? A lie."

"It is not! It's just a lack of full disclosure."

They were still arguing as they walked up the stairs. He leaned against her bedroom door and listened to her from the other side as she changed clothes and continued to defend her position on the subject. He could tell that Kagome wasn't really mad. It wasn't just that he had a good sense of smell and could detect when she was angry. EVERYONE knew when Kagome was angry. The flames shooting out of her eyes and seemed to engulf her was a really big clue.

Quickly he moved from the door just before she opened it. His eyes warmed at the sight of her. She had changed from a plain yellow t-shirt and jeans shorts to a light blue flowery sundress.

Kagome couldn't remember what they were arguing about when he was looking at her that way. So she just smiled at him.

"You need to at least change your shirt," she told him, holding up a black tee shirt.

He grabbed the shirt and yanked off the one he was wearing. Kagome squealed and quickly turned around.

"You could have changed in my room or the bathroom for privacy, idiot!"

She could almost hear him smirk. "Why? It's not like you haven't seen…"

"Ack! That's different!" She put her hand over her eyes and turned around to face his direction as she used her scolding voice on him. "That's just to put on bandages or ointment or something!"

She was sure he was still smirking. Can you hear a smirk? It was in his voice. "That's not the only times. You've seen me without anything at all…"

"Ack! Those were accidents!"

"How many times?"

"Every one an accident!"

"Hmm."

Slowly he peeled her fingers away from her eyes. She was relieved to see that he was wearing the black tee shirt. Not so thrilled to see that he was barely restraining to keep from laughing. Then again, it was nice to see him laugh. Grinning she poked him in the ribs and let out a laugh of her own.

"C'mon, my little stripper, let's go see some art."

"Stripper?"

Kagome took his hand and pulled him down the stairs. After getting some money from her mother and kissing her good-bye, the two of them (three counting Mikomi) left to head downtown. They hadn't gotten very far when Kagome stopped near a bench on the sidewalk and sat down.

"You can't be tired already, wench!"

"I'm not"

"I'm hungry."

"Oh, quit whining. We'll eat downtown someplace culturyish."

Inuyasha cocked his head to one side and looked down at her. "It that even a word?"

"It is now."

"Oi, you can't just make up words!"

"Sure I can."

He glared at her. "You try to confuse me on purpose," he accused. The giggle he got in return didn't help his mood much.

The impatient dog demon tapped his foot. "Why are we just standing here anyhow?"

Kagome forced a smile on her face as two more people stood to stand with them. "We are waiting for the bus, Inuyasha."

He gave her a disgusted look. "I can get us there faster than a stupid bus. Safer. And it won't smell so awful either."

Kagome snorted at the last comment. The look he gave her dared her to say anything about it.

"It's all a part of the experience, Inuyasha. Plus I can use the ticket stubs for my scrapbook for the assignment. You don't have to come if you're going to hate it that much. I can go by myself." She paused, then looked away so he couldn't see her face. "Alone. I'm sure that no strange men will bother me or anything. I'm sure I'll be perfectly safe. Not THAT many girls get kidnapped or murdered or …"

"I SAID I'D GO!" he snapped.

Kagome smiled to herself as he unconsciously stood a little closer to her, eyeing each person around them like potential enemies. She wondered if she might have gone a little too far when Inuyasha threatened to gouge out a man's eyes if he didn't stop looking at her. Maybe just a bit… She felt a little bad about the emotional manipulation, though she suspected that he knew what she was doing. She wasn't sure if she felt better about that or worse.

The bus ride was no picnic either. Inuyasha snarled at anyone who even breathed in her general direction. People scrambled off the vehicle at every stop like it was on fire. Eventually Kagome and Inuyasha had the back half all to themselves. The bus driver breathed a heavy sigh of relief when they stood up to get off in front of the museum. It was the first time Kagome ever saw a bus burn rubber.

"We're not riding that thing back," Inuyasha told her, looking entirely too feral. The bus ride had been a wee bit stressful for the dog demon.

"Calm down, dog boy," she said as she pat the top of his head. "We won't ride it back."

"I'm not a dog," he grumbled, though Kagome noticed he didn't move away from the head patting. "And I'm still hungry."

"There's a café inside of the museum," Kagome told him. "They have tea, cakes, little sandwiches and salads." She pictured Inuyasha having tea and cakes and laughed so hard she literally fell over.

"What's so amusing, wench?" His glare only set her off into more giggles. "Nothing is THAT funny."

However, visions of him at a girly tea party complete with flower hats and dainty petits fours and scones had her clutching her sides as her laughter tripled in force. The funnier the looks he gave her the funnier the picture in her head got.

The laughter stopped when Inuyasha hauled her up and held her in the air to look her right in the eye. Suddenly she couldn't remember why she was laughing.

"Kagome!"

Hearing her name being screamed broke the spell she was under. She look across the street and saw her friends from school.

"Too late to hide," she whispered to herself.

Inuyasha was chuckling, actually CHUCKLING, as he set her back down on her feet. "She doesn't back down from demons, but she trembles for three scrawny females."

"And a boy," she corrected him as a familiar face followed the three girls across the street towards them. When she heard Inuyasha start to growl she nudged him in the ribs. "Be nice, Inuyasha. I mean it."

Grrrrrr….

"Is that your baby, Higurashi?" asked the boy.

When the boy stepped too close to Kagome, Inuyasha reached for his sword, only to remember belatedly that he was forced to leave it at home… er… Kagome's home. Before he could use his claws the shred the boy up a bit, Kagome held up the doll for the others to see.

"We named her Mikomi," she said proudly.

"We?" asked the boy as the girls cooed at the dress Kagome insisted the baby wear. It was a frilly pale yellow dress with lots of lace and… oops, getting off the subject of the boy about to get his head ripped off for giving Inuyasha a skeptical look.

"Yes… WE." Inuyasha folded his hands in front of his chest angrily and glared at him.

Kagome gave a nervous laugh. "Heh heh… you guys remember Inuyasha don't you?"

The girls thought about it for a moment. Eri was the one who finally spoke up. "Isn't he that two-timing, arrogant, lecherous, violent, hot tempered boy-friend of yours?"

"WHAT?" Inuyasha glared at Kagome.

"He wasn't the lecherous one, Eri. That was someone else."

"Ohhhh."

The group decided, well, ok, Eri and Yuka decided, that they should go grab lunch together at WacDonalds. Inuyasha would have protested if he hadn't been so hungry. Of course the boy with the sandy hair (though Inuyasha felt it was more mud colored) sat next to Kagome. But somehow Hojo ended up scooted on the floor, accidently of course, and had to sit next to Yuka at the end of the rounded booth.

"You know," the muddy haired boy said while looking at Kagome with a smile, "Our babies look so similar that they could be twins. Maybe they are siblings."

Inuyasha shot down that theory in the most violently verbal way any of them had ever heard. That included Kagome too, who thought she had heard just about everything. She was glad that Shippo wasn't here, the kit didn't need any more words or phrases to add to his growing collection. The only reason Inuyasha hadn't actually leapt over the table to do a little flesh ripping was because Kagome was holding his hand in a death grip. Plus it was being held captive on her leg, so he decided to stick with a purely verbal assault.

The group was unusually quiet after he got in his last word/threat/promise of death, at least until the burgers and fries came. The girls quickly recovered as soon as they bit down into the first deep fried meat product carbohydrate laden meal. Yum.

"We're taking our babies to the museum," Eri told Kagome as she stuffed two fries into her mouth. "You want to come with us?"

"Well, Inuyasha and I were going to go to the museum by ourselves and look around."

"That's okay," said Yuka, "We don't mind if he tags along."

Grrrrr…. "Tags along?" Kagome grabbed and trapped his hand again. The decibel level of the growling dropped, but only a bit.

Kagome had never been one that was good at telling her friend's no. By the time lunch was over she had been bullied and cajoled into agreeing that they would all go together. She was surprised that Inuyasha didn't put up a bigger fight about it.

It was kind of fun hanging out with her friends… for about five minutes. Girls who fight demons and save villages don't have as much interest in the latest gossip of what celebrity was getting married-divorced-having babies. They also didn't have great interests in shoes, at least the impractical could never outrun a demon high heeled shoes that cost five hundred bucks. That's a lot of ramen.

They bought their tickets and picked up brochures (more proof that they went for the scrapbook). The first stop was looking at historical artifacts. The guards, and Kagome's friends, gave him some unhappy looks when he laughed at many of the items.

"Do you know what that pot was used for?"

"No Inuyasha. And I don't want to know either."

The dog demon shook his head at the things that people were ooohing and aahhing over. It just didn't make sense.

"It's just junk!" Inuyasha complained.

Hojo turned to him with a tight smile. "These are priceless artifacts."

Fuzzy ears twitched. "Priceless?" He turned to Kagome. "How much do you think this junk is worth?"

Kagome shrugged. "Thousands?"

"Hundreds of thousands," Hojo corrected gently. "Most of them are probably worth much more than that. Millions."

Inuyasha rolled the beads from his rosary between his fingers. "Wonder how much this thing is worth," he wondered out loud.

"Don't even think about it, dog boy."

The others moved on to the next vase to inspect. The gears between his ears started to click away. He tugged on Kagome's hand to keep her from joining her friends.

"You can bring things through the well, right?"

"Yeah. I do it all the time." She looked down at the hand on her arm as stealthily as possible. It was warm. That squishy feeling came back. She was glad that the others were far enough away that they couldn't see her blushing.

"If you brought something back with you could you sell it?"

Kagome looked away from the hand resting on her and looked into his eyes. They were intense… and hopeful. Obviously he was waiting for a response. What was it he asked her again? Something about bringing stuff back from the past. Was he thinking of selling things? How much would a vase in perfect almost new condition from the feudal ages be worth? Her eyes opened wide.

"Inuyasha… you're… you're… BRILLIANT!" She glomped a hug around his middle and started jumping up and down without any of her next words making any sense.

"Keh, I could have told you that."

Her joyous squealing was cut off by an irate curator and several grumpy patrons. It was difficult to keep from bouncing through the rest of the exhibit. Seeing the pieces in the glass cases held a whole new meaning as they looked around. Kagome wondered if they had any sort of technical dating equipment that would make selling the pieces difficult. I mean, even if it came from five hundred years ago, would it show that it was only a few days or months old? Would they be better off hiding their loot to be found in this time? Or should they look for certain people who are famous in this time and seek them out for stuff? Kagome decided that maybe she should spend some more time studying history and maybe antiques.

Suddenly Inuyasha was taken away from her.

"You'll find this one interesting, Inuyasha," Eri told him as she pointed to an old painted scroll.

"Yes," agreed Hojo. "After all, you were likely named for it." Kagome began paying attention so the young man launched into a short history lesson. "This is a depiction of one of the lesser gods, the dog god. He was said to be a master of the sword and merciless with his enemies. He had power over not only humans, but other gods as well."

Kagome peeked at the scroll closely, paying close attention to the two appendages on the top of the god's head.

"What was his name?" she asked reluctantly.

Hojo smiled brightly at her. "Why, Inuyasha, of course!"

"Hear that, Kagome? I'm a god!"

"No no, you were just named after one," corrected Hojo. Inuyasha just smirked in reply, Kagome groaned. She decided to pretend she didn't hear a thing and turned her attention back to planning how to make their fortune.

Fun as it was to start thinking about how she would be spending her potential newfound wealth, they reached the end of the historical exhibit. The group was torn between checking out the modern art or the classical. Eri decided on the modern art and began dragging her friends away.

That's where Kagome and Inuyasha ditched them.

Besides the fact that Inuyasha was already getting antsy being around her friends for so long, Kagome wasn't so sure that the modern art exhibit would be the best place for a rather consertive half dog demon. Classical art would surely be a better choice. So when her friends turned right, Kagome turned left. It surprised her just a little bit that she didn't feel even a smidgen of guilt about it.

Under each painting the artist's name was listed, along with the title of the piece and a little bit of history behind it. Kagome read each of the plaques to a very uninterested hanyou. He didn't try to hide his boredom and often showed off his fangs with loud and long bone cracking yawns.

As Kagome began reading the title of another painting she heard a strangled sound behind her. Panicked she whipped around. Inuyasha was crouched on the floor with his hands over his eyes. Kagome looked around for the source of his distress but couldn't find a thing. There were just paintings. Nothing weird or hideous or freaky. Just nice classical art.

"THAT WOMAN IS NAKED!"

Sure enough, the painting was a tastefully done nude. Kagome couldn't help but giggle. Crouching beside him she began pulling his fingers away from his eyes.

"It's art, Inuyasha. It's a thing of beauty. It shows a freedom of movement and expression. Just the body language alone tells a story that you couldn't put into words."

"IT'S PERVERTED!"

Kagome tried to explain about the human body and art. There was nothing perverted about it. Eventually she got him to open his eyes, but he refused to look at the painting again. Or any of the others that portrayed unclothed ladies. Kagome rolled her eyes and led him to the next section. Sculptures.

"No more paintings," she told the hanyou cheerfully.

"Good. Buncha perverteAAAAAAAKKKKKK!"

Suddenly the world went dark for Kagome and she sighed heavily. It wasn't surprising. She expected it really.

"That's a naked MAN, Kagome! A NAKED man!" he growled at her with his hand firmly over her eyes. "You can see his… his… he ain't got nuthin' on!"

Kagome giggled as she tugged on his wrist in a futile attempt to get her eyesight back. "I can't see anything," she reminded him while tapping on his fingers. "At least not anymore. Don't get so worked up, Inuyasha. It's art. The human body is a beautiful thing that artists have been…"

"He's NAKED!"

"Seriously, Inuyasha, it's nothing to get worked up about."

The next thing she heard was a snarl. Then she felt her feet leave the floor as she was spun around back towards the exit.

"We're getting out of this place!"

Movement stopped for a moment and Kagome could hear Inuyasha sniffing the air. She guessed that he was trying to determine the quickest way out of the museum.

"Higurashi!" Oh goody, her friends arrived.

"Hi guys," Kagome said cheerfully as if she wasn't being held in the air with a hand over her eyes.

"We must have had a miscommunication," said Hojo. "But I'm glad we found each other again." There was a slight pause. "What a beautiful painting. The brush strokes are amazing, don't you think?"

Ignoring the mutterings about perverts coming from behind her Kagome responded, "Yes, it is lovely. It's amazing that they can take a bunch of paint and turn it into something like that. I can't even imagine how they could do that. It is truly awe inspiring." In a quiet whisper she hissed, "Can you uncover my eyes please?"

"No."

She could hear Hojo clear his throat and the three girls giggling. Kagome recognized that sound. This wasn't going to be good.

"There is a new exhibit opening next week if you would like to go with me, Higurashi."

"You… you want to take KAGOME to another one of these… these…." Everything else was pretty much a series of growls and snarls. It was understood by MOST of them that this was his way of saying that she highly unlikely that she would be accompanying him any time in the near future. Or ever, really.

"I'm sorry, Hojo, but…" as luck would have it, Mikomi started screaming her lungs out. She felt Inuyasha take the baby from her pack and start pressing buttons until she quieted down. This was quite the feat since he still hand one hand over her eyes.

It is possible that the babies were programmed to respond to each other, because Hojo's baby began crying as well.

"I think we have more than enough here for the scrapbook," Kagome announced. "I think we're going to go."

"What about the movies? Or karaoke! I know how much you love to sing! We can hang out for the rest of the day."

"I dunno, Eri. I still need to work on the assignment. I'm so far behind in all my homework. I really need to catch up."

"Hojo could help you," Yuka volunteered.

"No." That's all her over protective dog demon friend said before Kagome found herself practically in flight. She wondered if he had forgotten that he was still covering her eyes.

"We can't just leave without saying good-bye."

"Feh."

"Take me back, Inuyasha."

"No."

"Take me back now!"

He chuckled. "You can't tell me what to do. I'm a god."

"Your a ... oh for the love of..."

"...Inuyasha," he finished her sentence for her with a smirk as he continued to bound away back to the shrine.

ooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOoo

Sometimes friends are a blessing, and sometimes they are a curse.

It's sad when you realize that you are growing apart from your friends, though. Values change. They change. You change. People you used to be close to are suddenly people you have to force yourself to be around. Sometimes they are reminders of a time gone by. It's like they are the memories in a way. Though often they are reminders of how life has changed and how you have changed.

I can't believe I have about a week to go on this assignment. I wonder what it is going to be like to sleep again. Through a whole entire night! I don't know about anyone else, but I plan on sleeping for three days straight when this is over.

I have to admit that there are some things that I'm really going to miss about it though. I've kind of liked the feeling of having my own family.

My mom panicked when I told her that, by the way. So now I have to deal with THE embarrassing talk and her forcing me down THAT aisle in the pharmacy. Of course you realize I blame you for that. The only bright side of that was that she made a guy friend of mine go with me. To get back at her for making me go through that torture I made her tell him exactly what the products were for.

I didn't know anyone could turn that shade of red. Thank goodness I still had my camera with me.

Kagome Higurashi

ooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOoo

Author's Notes:

Thank you guys so much for the reviews. I always love reading them. Okay, some of them I re-read. Thanks to y'all there are more a few more chapters added than I originally intended.