Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Who would copy from that show? It's magnificent. No no, its brilliant. No, there are no words to describe its perfection, so I am forced to make one up, and I will do so right now... scrumtrilescent (I pity the fool who doesn't get it)

I'm not going to get into all of those review thank yous rightnow, but thank you anyway.

Dog

by Sun and Moon

Chapter 3

His eyes were still clamped shut. He was afraid of the light that he might see–or better yet what he might see in general. He could hear the two gentlemen arguing in the background, well more like whispering to each other loudly, but picked up their conversation. However, he was quiet to make sure they wouldn't know he was eavesdropping, a talent he had picked up over his years of life.

"What did she say we had to do with it?" the elder man whispered to his confidant.

"Him Mushin, it's a him."

"Sorry. What did she say we had to do with him."

"Just bring him to the house. She would take care of it from there."

What were they talking about? Where was he going? With his eyes still shut, he internally panicked, but held in his fear. Fear was a sign of weakness and vulnerability, and he wouldn't stoop himself to such a level as that of a mere child.

"How are we supposed to get him into the house Miroku?" the man called Mushin whispered.

The younger voice, belonging to the one called Miroku, sighed in frustration. "Were you not paying attention when she was talking?"

Silence.

"She said to bring him around the back of the house." Miroku said, obviously frustrated. "Remember?"

The car came to an abrupt halt and it threw him forward. Not being used to driving in a car, let alone one that was driven by madmen made him extremely uncomfortable. He heard the slamming of car doors, and the opening of another. He turned around, and carefully opened his eyes. Looking back at him was a young man, most definitely Miroku, the reckless driver. That was all he was able to point out however, it was too dark outside.

Wait a minute...

Too dark?

Crap. New moon.

He didn't even realize...

"Are you sure he's the right guy?" the elderly voice said. "He looks pretty normal to me."

"Yeah," Miroku answered. "Definitely the right guy. Nobody else was in that cell except him." Miroku turned to him again. "Come on, get out of the car."

"Where we going?" he asked. Having not talked in a while, naturally, it came out as a whisper, and was hardly audible to human ears. They didn't hear him. But obediently, he stepped out of the car and closed the door behind him.

"Follow us," Miroku ordered.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked again. Not heard...again. He followed him. He looked back and noticed the old man–Mushin-- standing by the car, a beer bottle in his hand. His hand supported him against the car, as he took another swig of the bottle, and dropped it on the ground. It shattered into little pieces. Mushin just reached into the car and grabbed another.

He looked around at the rest of his surroundings as he walked. He was being lead up to what looked like an upper middle class home. Very upper middle class. The home was three stories high–an old Victorian home with what looked like an attic at the very tip– and judging by its surroundings, it belonged to a very proper family. He guessed maybe a lawyer or doctor. Maybe even a legislator or congressman. Miroku took him to the side of house, and opened the wooden gate to the backyard. Even the backyard was spacious. Around the perimeter of the large square laid little mounds of what looked like flowers. Miroku walked to the back door and tapped three times softly. Almost immediately an elderly woman answered. She was short, stocky, and had an eye patch over one eye. He recognized the eye patch, but he couldn't get the memory out from the back of his mind.

"You brought him?" she asked.

"Yeah. Now, do I get what I asked for?"

She held up her index finger– one moment– and retreated back into the house. Miroku rocked on his toes, his hands linked behind his back as he waited. He turned towards him, and gave him a half smile, as if to lighten the situation and make it less awkward then it already was. He turned away, and crossed his arms. He realized for the first moment in a while how utterly hideously he was dressed. His pants were in rags, torn in various places, and he had no shirt and no shoes. The shoes he could of dealt with, but he was freezing without a shirt.

The old woman returned and handed Miroku a piece of paper. He took it and opened it. He squinted to see in the dim light, smiled, and folded it, putting in the back pocket of his pants. "Ye may go now. Thank ye for all your help."

"No, Thank you." He shook her hand and retreated, leaving him alone with the elderly woman. He heard the start of an ignition, and the screeching of tires before it was quiet again. He turned towards the elderly woman.

"Come in," she told him. She held it out. He didn't take it, but followed her in anyway.

Then she said something that made his heart skip a beat.

"This is your new home."

Kagome's eyes flickered open as the first beams of sunlight shone in through her window, illuminating the once dark room. She rubbed each one, stretched each muscle in her body and sat up. Her vision blurred over for a moment, which naturally happens when one gets up quickly, but quickly cleared. She looked over at her clock. The big hand pointed straight up, and the little hand pointed to the seven. Seven o'clock. On the nose too. Rarely does one wake up to the time being right on the hour. Kagome chuckled at this thought, pulled back the covers and got out of bed. The wooden floor was like ice. Kagome felt around with her hands for her slippers, which she knew were underneath the bed. She found them. They were a gift from Sango for her birthday last year. They were pink with faux fur. She loved them. When she slipped them on her small, dainty, feet, she felt the sudden rush of warmth flow through her.

She loved the warmth.

She walked, still half-asleep, to the bathroom across the hall. The door was closed. Who else is up at this hour besides me? she thought to herself. She knocked on the door and waited patiently for an answer. A familiar voice answered.

"Shit."

"Kaede you almost done?" Kagome asked, her ear held up to the door. She listened in for an answer. She wasn't entirely sure, but she could of sworn she heard a male voice coming from behind the door as well as her elderly housekeeper's. "Kaede?" She knocked again. Still no answer. Still the muffled voices. Kagome waited, leaning against the wall next to the door, and hummed to a tune in her head, a favorite of hers.

I'll be Seeing you

In all the old, familiar places

That this heart of mine embraces...

She loved him. Frank Sinatra was young, handsome, and more importantly, American. More than anything she wanted to go to America. There was so much culture there, and so much freedom. Since the war ended last year, she had heard of the changes Americans went through, and just wanted to be a part of all of that change and revolution. England was wonderful, but it was so...dull. She had lived, and had been confined to the same neighborhood for way too long, probably seven or eight years. That was seven years too long. Often she would have dreams of meeting Frank Sinatra or somebody special like him in America. It was so vast, so mysterious. There was nobody in England for her and she knew it.

The song was a little old– try five or so years– but she still loved it.

All day through.

In that small cafe;
The park across the way;
The children's carousel;
The chestnut tree;
The wishing well.
I'll be seeing you;

A scream jerked her out of her thoughts. It was a scream like she had never heard before. Very unknown to her. "What was that?" she yelled through the door. She banged on it with her palm. She waited a few seconds, couldn't wait any longer, and opened the door with a jerk.

She screamed.

"It's you!" she yelped in surprise, pointing at the stranger that sat on the floor of her bathroom.

There sitting there was the creature she had her misfortune to meet yesterday in that old grocery store. There it was, on the floor of her bathroom, looking up at her in a mixture of shock, anger, and puzzlement, a lone finger held in its mouth. In the light streaming in from the skylight, she could see it more clearly. Details she had not spotted in the dim light now made its way onto the surface and fully known. She didn't notice it before, but now it was as clear as day.

Dog ears. Fuzzy, little, dog ears were hidden, blended in with his hair. They were small, and pointed. Kagome brought her finger down. She felt calmer, more at ease. This wasn't a harmful, evil demon. It was...well...a living thing. It didn't look the least bit dangerous in the light of her bathroom.

"I'm so sorry," she said, apologizing to the creature for her behavior. "I was just a little shocked to see you here. That's all."

"Don't worry child," Kaede assured her. "He's used to it."

"How do you know?"

"He told me."

Kagome lifted a dark eyebrow in confusion. For one thing, Kaede addressed it as a he. Even she was guilty of calling it an "it," rather than addressing it by a formal title. Secondly, she didn't even think it... he could talk. The five minutes that she had spent with him had made her judge him. She thought there was something wrong with his head.

"He told you?"

"Aye. This morning when the sun rose."

By this time, Kagome was intrigued. How did he get here in the first place? Kagome didn't have the slightest idea, but she had a very good hunch about who did. Kagome bent down, and whispered in Kaede's ear to talk to her outside. Kaede got up slowly, and followed the younger woman out, leaving the creature behind them, bewildered beyond belief.

Nobody in their right minds would of even looked at him, let alone apologized to him for something. Something was definitely going wrong in the world if somebody, let alone a rich, female teenager, was apologizing for something that they didn't do.

Kaede was a sweet woman, he had to admit that, but a feeling nagged him in the back of his mind, in his heart, like he wasn't supposed to like her. She was like an old grandmother, sweet and nurturing, but annoying and highly unaware of her affect on you. He looked down at his pants. They were ripped even more form the struggle between him and the old woman. When he had arrived at the house, Kaede had automatically brought him to the kitchen, and fed him. The meal was small– leftovers from the dinner the night before– but it was the most he had had in a while, and had shoved it down his throat, like a little kid with a candy bar. She told him about the house, the people who lived there, and he listened, zoning in and out every once in a while. She was an incredibly boring story-teller.

When the sun started to rise, he internally panicked. She understood completely, and took him upstairs to the bathroom. She washed her hands and face, and allowed him to exercise his vocal chords. His voice came back quickly. He didn't feel like it at first, but he told her briefly that he didn't want her giving him pity and charity. He could take care of himself.

Oh like that had worked in the past he remembered his inner conscious nagging.

That wasn't my fault!

He sure as hell didn't remember telling her he was "used" to ridicule from others. She had merely inferred that herself.

That was when she told him to take his pants off.

He stood his ground. Yes, he hated the pants he was wearing (they hardly counted as pants to begin with), but like hell he was going to strip down in front of an old woman that for some reason, acted like she knew him.

And all hell broke loose.

"Kaede, what is he doing here?" Kagome was furious.

"I was merely helping him. After all, the way ye described his predicament, I simply thought that we could look after him for a while," Kaede was unusually calm.

"But I don't want him here!" Kagome snapped.

"I think you better hush child, he can hear us."

"We're in my bedroom! I highly doubt that he can hear us."

"Ye be surprised at what he is capable of."

"How do you know so much about him anyway? I mean, you just met him."

"Do you have proof?"

Kagome was speechless. She was right. Kaede was pretty old. There could be a small chance that she had seen him in a sideshow somewhere else. A person like that doesn't necessarily blend in with a crowd.

"Trust me, he can hear us talking."

Kagome looked at the bathroom door. She could just imagine him with a puppy ear up against the door, straining to listen.

"Do you know his name?"

Kaede nodded. "Inuyasha. His name is Inuyasha."

I've decided to stop there. I've delayed writing this chapter for quite some time, and I think people might become impatient. I mean, long chapters are nice, but do you really want them too long? Besides, this is a little longer than my others so...

In the next chapter, Kagome and Inuyasha finally converse (this is going to be fun). I'm going to bring in Sango too possibly. Trust me, Miroku's coming back. Not sure about Mushin though. And Sango and Miroku are going to meet sometime in the near future. And best of all, there is a surprise guest coming soon too! Stay tuned! (God I watch wayyyyy to much TV)

R&R pleez!

Sun and Moon