Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha.

--------------------

Chapter 9 - Old Relationships

The clearing was just out of sensing distance of the group. A stream ran through, the water as clear as it was on Earth, but reflecting the odd colored sky and clouds. One slim hand cut through the water then to life up to eye level. Blue eyes watched as the water slowly slid down her skin, some of it dripping off of her fingertips, some sliding down to her bent elbow.

She heard the soft footsteps behind her, familiar weight that settled onto the ground beside her. Blue eyes met violet and Kagome sighed. "Hey Miroku."

"Kagome. Running away isn't like you." Kagome couldn't help but smile. He was so to the point with her. At least at the moment he was. Sometimes he danced around the subject. Not today apparently.

"I know. But...there are so many issues that everyone's having. The jewel, you two coming, whatever happened with Kikyou... I don't know if I can handle this." Kagome's gloomy face suddenly jerked into surprise as Miroku began to laugh. A great belly laugh that scared some nearby birds.

"What are you laughing at?" Kagome's snap did nothing to deter the young man and she had to wait until he calmed down before he would answer. He was grinning at her, a gentleness in his eyes she rarely saw. "You Kagome. I'm laughing at you for daring to think such a thing. Obviously you aren't really thinking at all."

"What?" Kagome tilted her head, confusion plainly written across her face.

"Look Kagome, you were barely more than a baby when your father gave you the Guardianship of the Shikon no Tama." Miroku stopped as Kagome scowled, letting her interrupt him.

"I was not a baby! I was almost seven years old!"

"And how many seven year old girls with big blue eyes do you know who could be given the responsibility of the most dangerous mystical object in existence?"

Silence descended and Miroku sighed. "And how many fourteen year old girls can rise up against their boyfriend, not because he betrayed them, but because they were trusted with something precious. How many sixteen year olds are trusted with the secrets they hold, and with so many more responsibilities?"

"How do you know exactly what to say to cheer me up?" Kagome asked, trying to keep a hold of her stormy mood.

"Because I've known you for way, way too long." He flashed her a grin and held out his hand for her. She took and they got up. They had only gone a few steps when Kagome stopped and rolled her eyes. "Don't even try it."

She could feel him pout and they walked back towards the group smirking. Miroku looked curiously at the blue horse waiting for them. "When did this get here?"

"That's Tairi. She went to play with Elako after it seemed I wasn't going to cheer up just by her saying I should. She's my Ancient. Where's Elako?" Miroku looked at her quizzically as she seemed to be listening to something and nodded her head. Her eyes briefly unfocused and then she was walking again.

"Do they... speak to you?"

"You couldn't hear her?" Kagome seemed surprised, the smiled, shaking her head. "Of course you can't. Only I can. And apparently Yusuke. I hope with all the emotions stirring about in the air she doesn't get any wrong impressions about people. I want her to form her own, but with her in my mind, I'm not sure if she will. Or if she can. What if she's supposed to have the same opinions as me?"

Miroku chuckled and shook his head. "You worry too much."

"But-"

"Shush. Listen. They're yelling about something." They continued walking, coming up as quietly as they could, and crouching down as they got closer, not wanting to interrupt the conversation. Or perhaps it was just because they were with each other again and old habits die hard.

"O didn't do it on purpose! It just happened!" Keiko's raised voice floated over to the two quietly creeping towards the group.

"What, you fell on his lips? And that wasn't the only time his scent was on you!" Inuyasha sounded as arrogant as always. And pissed as hell.

"Look, I've apologized, and it was over with a year ago! I'm supposed to be here on business, not so you four can bite my head off because I kissed Miroku!" Keiko instantly gasped at what she said and there were angry cries from the three other girls. Kagome looked at Miroku. "She's the one Sango and you broke up because of."

"Yeah." Miroku looked wary as Kagome stared at him, but all she did was smile and turn back towards the others.

"I thought he smelled familiar. It must be because of when I and Inuyasha sniffed your clothes." Kurama's calm voice had undertones of fury that Kagome could see as she crept forward were changing his eyes to gold.

"You... the girl Miroku was seeing. And you're still together?" Sango sounded dubious. And a bit jealous.

"Yeah. Off and on, but we've been together for a good three months straight this time. The last few times were much shorter and we kept breaking up for silly things. Not this time!" Keiko said it proudly.

"Three months compared to two fucking years. Yeah, that's such a big comparison Keiko." Yusuke's voice would have put boiling water to shame at how scalding it was.

Kagome winced slightly. And she'd though Inuyasha had been bad. At least theirs had been a short and very fake relationship. The couple of others boys she'd dated hadn't even been for half that length. She glared at Miroku. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"As she said Kagome, it's been over a year. Don't be so protective just because you like the boy." Miroku grinned as the reaction was instantaneous.

"I do not!" She hissed.

"Do not what sister?" Kagome and Miroku both craned their necks until they saw Kikyou standing behind them. Two nervous smiles and a two pushes later and Kagome and Miroku gave identical yelps and used their momentum to roll to their feet in the middle of the gathering.

"That wasn't nice, Kikyou." Miroku frowned at her as he spoke and Kagome huffed and crossed her arms. Kikyou raised an eyebrow. "They couldn't send someone else? I liked having a more normal Kagome. With you here, I'm going to have to start checking the food and weapons for new pranks."

Two innocent grins split their faces. "We have absolutely no idea what you're talking about Kikyou. We never play pranks!"

"That's right. They're works of art, not pranks," Miroku added to Kagome's statement. There were looks of growing horror from Botan and Sango.

"We're going to die. I mean, there were security cameras at the dorms before we split up, and they still managed to not only sneak out of their rooms and meet, but sneak into ours!" Botan's eyes were slightly wild.

"He took all my bras and strung them on the tree outside that one time, too," Sango grumbled. "Personally, I think he performed all the tricks, Kagome just polished off his ideas."

"We never could catch them." Kikyou sighed and stared at the two who both had a strange twinkle in their eyes.

"Pranks? You never mentioned pranks." Keiko's voice was sharp and suspicious and Miroku winced before catching Kagome's amused smile and his own face lit into a grin.

"They weren't worth mentioning. But, if it so pleases you Keiko, you will find out al about them. Very soon." His voice was practically a purr, and she didn't seem to catch the mischievous undertones until Kagome began giggling."

Can we help too? We can, can't we? Kagome grinned as she felt Elako and Tairi's presence in her mind. She caught Yusuke's eyes and saw him smirking at her.

'Sure. That will be useful.' The two Ancients seemed satisfied and Kagome was smirking herself.

"Pranks, them? I never remember Kagome playing pranks." Inuyasha had his head tilted and his ears pointed forward, his face screwed up into a thoughtful expression.

"I think it's cool! Kagome deserves a little fun!" This was from Shippo, piping up from the back of Elako who was trotting towards them. Presently, the horse like creature was small, but not small enough that Shippo couldn't perch on him.

"I and the girls were on vacation from most of our training. Miroku still had his. Things were getting boring before you showed up. Afterwards I regretted ever thinking we needed something interesting to happen." Kagome's voice was brittle again.

"Why the hell did you want the jewel anyway?" Yusuke was eyeing his friend askance, the question just coming to him.

Inuyasha mumbled something under his breath. Apparently only Kurama and Shippo heard him and Kurama's eyes flashed gold. Shippo squeaked and hid himself behind Kagome.

"You would use the Shikon no Tama for something like that? You could have permanently turned it dark! You would have called Resurga and Naraku straight to it! Inuyasha, what were you thinking?" There was a small silence as Inuyasha stared at Kurama before crossing his arms across his chest. Surprisingly, he didn't even get to attempt to defend himself.

"Leave him alone. It was two years ago. He's grown up since then." Kikyou's voice was surprisingly full of anger. Inuyasha looked stunned by her defense of him against his own teammate. Botan began to smile. This would definitely work out.

"Do you know what he was planning to do with it?" Kurama's snapping apparently got on Kikyou's nerves as her miko aura flared about her. "I'm not stupid. Of course I do. Kagome told me."

"Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?" Yusuke snapped at them all angrily.

"Inuyasha wanted to use the Shikon no Tama to become a full demon." The calm reply was from Kagome, who was staring at them all curiously. "We really do need to talk more. There are so many things we don't know about each other."

You might want to start this later. Two more of the eggs are hatching. Tairi's voice in Kagome's mind was excited and Elako neighed sharply, startling Shippo into getting off of him.

"I believe that's a goo- Hey!" Keiko yelped and stumbled backwards as the blue winged horse ran by her. Kagome leaned in a hand to help her up. Keiko blinked at the girl but took her hand.

"Elako was just excited. Two more of the eggs are hatching." Seven pairs of startled eyes widened and then seven pairs of feet went off towards the hatching eggs.

Miroku and Yusuke were left standing besides Kagome and Shippo as the rest of the group plus the curious Keiko stumbled off towards the egg clearing. Miroku seemed to sigh and then grinned. "So, shall I tell you why we're here now? No interruptions and no old feuds to hash out."

"Do. Now." Yusuke had turned a glare onto the older teen and Miroku shrunk back before straightening his shoulders and doing his best to pretend he was an innocent in this situation.

"As you know, we are Comets. One of the things we will be doing is transporting you and the others plus the Ancients off of this world once they have hatched," Miroku began.

"Why can't we use our old ships?" Kagome cut in.

"For one, they've been called back. A while ago. How unobservant of you." Miroku took this time to smirk at her. "Besides that, we could not risk your lives. The enemy could have identified the ships, and destroyed you once you exited the atmosphere. We also needed real weapons on the ship. Comet ships may not have the best weapons, but they have a hell of a lot better weapons than regular transport ships."

"That's it? They just send you for transport? Why you two? You can't be long out of training!" Kagome, despite that she was happy to see Miroku, saw something a bit suspicious in that story.

"Well, after we take you to Mars-"

"What?!" Kagome and Yusuke both gaped at him. Miroku smiled nervously. "Well, you see, the demons have apparently started to sense there's something here, so you guys have to move quick when we move, and they'll just keep going after you, so the Council decided to get straight to the source of the problem. Naraku'[s the one sending most of the lower demon hordes, so they thought they'd just send us to him to see what we could about him."

Kagome sat down. Hard. She was slack jawed as she stared at the comet boy who was taking this so calmly. It wasn't exactly an every day occurrence that you get told you were going to be thrown onto the planet that was known to have highest demon population of any of the planets.

Yusuke was in a similar state of mind. He stayed on his feet for his open jawed and bug-eyed look. It was left to Shippo to respond to it. After all, it only made sense to cut off the snake at its head.

"You said 'us'. Are you coming?" The tiny kitsune's curious question seemed to snap the two humans out of their trance long enough to wait for an answer.

"Yes, actually. I and Keiko will be joining the group." Miroku actually bowed, his hand sweeping forward with a flourishing gesture.

"Great. We've got eleven now. It started out as eight..."

"And it will end in sixteen." Miroku and Kagome stated together, both with a grimace.

"What the hell are you talking about? How the fuck will we get sixteen people?" Yusuke was unhappy enough with these two joining. He didn't need to be taking care of five more people after this!

"Who knows?" Miroku asked rhetorically.

"It's all tied into the prophecy." Was Kagome's bitter answer.

"What prophecy?" Instantly Yusuke was searching around his unorganized mind for thoughts on prophecies. He didn't like what he came up with.

"There is a prophecy about the Shikon no Tama. I don't know all of it. Only bits and pieces. Only the Great Prophets have ever known the whole thing, and that's usually only one prophet every few generations. Perhaps ever generation if we're lucky. They don't tell many people." There was an old hurt slipping into Kagome's voice as she spoke, one that neither Shippo nor Yusuke understood. Yusuke heard Tairi's soothing comment in his mind, obviously directed at Kagome. More than that, he saw Miroku's understanding look. He didn't like that the boy who had just landed here knew more about what was going on with his team than he did.

"Is there one now? 'Cause, maybe they'd tell us!" Shippo was on the tips of his paws, practically bouncing as he thought of a solution to help Kagome. Perhaps if he found this 'Prophet' she wouldn't be so sad anymore!

"There is. I'll ask Kikyou later who it is. She'll know if anybody does." Kagome flashed them a bright smile, walking towards the egg clearing as Tairi and Elako's chatter went up a level. They were making all sorts of noise, out loud and in her head.

"Why would Kikyou know?" Yusuke was easily walking beside her and watched as a strange emotion passed over her eyes. "A good question. She seems to collect information like that. Observant that way, isn't she?"

Yusuke decided it was time to shut up at that point. Kagome's brow was furrowed and she looked like she was thinking hard about something. Even when they reached the clearing and the others stopped in shock she kept moving a few more steps before noticing.

She looked up and stared at the image before her. Hiei was glaring hard enough to burn a hole in the creature he was staring at if it wasn't fire resistant itself. It was slightly larger than Elako and Tairi, but by the gangly way it was built, Kagome had a feeling it would be a hell of a lot bigger than those two when it was full-grown.

It only took a few more seconds before Yusuke threw his head back and began to laugh.

"It's not funny." Crimson eyes were almost glowing as he glared at his 'friend.'

"Aww, but its so cute Hiei!" Yusuke's said through his giggles. Apparently the small creature took offense.

Yusuke quickly stopped laughing when the baby opened its mouth and almost gave him a fire bath. He jumped away, staring at the thing that had quickly gone from silly looking too dangerous. "Holy shit."

Hiei looked smug. "Good dragon."

The furry black and red creature actually purred at the faint praise, its feathered wings extending and then folding again as its tail wagged happily against the ground. Large red eyes peeked out at him, bliss shining happily from them. Hiei ground his teeth.

Botan was looking every bit as unhappy as Hiei. Despite the rather girlish color of pink with a white line worming down her spine to the tip of its lizard like tail, it wasn't very girlish looking.

It too looked like it would grow bigger, but there were no gangly wings and awkward oversized limbs. This dragon was all deadly grace and sharp features. Not a bit of fur on her, only scales, and this dragon didn't have wings.

"If things keep going this way, the boys are going to be very put out until their cute little Setrans get older." The word slipped out before Botan even realized what had happened. Kagome was regarding her oddly.

"Memories?" It was all Kagome needed to ask. Botan nodded. Kagome grinned at her. "Setrans sounds nice. Better than calling them ancients."

"Stop that. You are a dragon, albeit a strange looking one. Act it!" Hiei's snap sent the mostly black dragon into a howling wail. Kagome gasped as it took a breath and began wailing louder. It was pure black besides it's wings and a mane of fur at it's neck that extended into it's wings and four lines on its face, two on its neck and chin, the other two on his head and passing above his eye. He was showing off these two to anybody who would look.

Shippo, Kurama, and Inuyasha clapped their hands over their ears. Inuyasha snarled at the dragon. "Dammit Hiei, shut the damn thing up!"

Hiei attempted to, but the malice in his voice against the creature that had chosen him did nothing to make it stop. Kagome extended her mind to Tairi. 'Can you make it stop?'

Him. He's a him. Dedran is upset that his chosen does not like him. I see no reason why I should even try to stop him. He is in the right. Have Elako or Ketria do it. Kagome winced at the anger in Tairi's tone. Apparently she hadn't appreciated Hiei's tone either.

'He'll call any demon nearby to us!' She tried reasoning with no effect.

Finally, it was Botan's Setran who, in annoyed logic that only made sense to a child, decided he deserved whatever he got for wailing so loud. No one had to ask it of Ketria, she did what she did for free, though she might come to regret it later.

Dedran shut up very fast when he found his pelt was now very wet. Large red eyes met large pink ones. He opened his mouth and spit fire at her. A ball of water splashed into it. Neither material reached the other dragon. The onlookers stared. Shippo reacted first.

"Wow. Do it again!"

---------

Choas Babe: Sorry it took awhile! Too many stories about.

Fire Kitsune Goddess: Heh. What kind? There are four, and different kinds of elelments they get too. :)

helen: I hope this answered all your questions, and yes, more Yus/Kag scenes coming up soon.

blazingsunstar: Thank you.

Kurama and Hiei's lovable miko: Thank you! I love you stories too. 'Specially the Yus/Kag ones.

Winged Knight: Yes, he'll definitely be changed by a life threatning event. I like him all demon-y

Shadow Stone: You don't sound bad, it's just that I work on this when I feel like I can. I can't just go 'whoosh' and finish it. You really want to bother me join my Yahoo group and talk to me there. It's easier and faster than reviews. Plus I read everything on the group as soon as I see it's posted. :)