Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, or any nursery rhymes.

The Mother Goose Escapades

No. 17

A tisket, a tasket,

A green and yellow basket,

I wrote a letter to my love,

And on the way I dropped it.

I dropped it, I dropped it,

And on the way I dropped it.

A little boy picked it up

And put it in his pocket.

Kagome struggled out of the well, blinking in the sunlight. She clutched the long white envelope in her hand, nervousness evident on her face. As she swung her legs over the side, the absence of Inuyasha bit strongly into her.

----

The missing hanyou was nervously hiding. He had taken a suggestion of Kaede's and written down some of his thoughts about Kikyou and Kagome. Then, he had written to a more personal letter to Kagome concerning where he thought things might be going with her. The hanyou did not like to admit it, but he was scared.

From separate directions, the pair began to inch towards each other. Each was nervous, each was frightened. Had one seen the other, it might have been comical. As it was, neither one found anything funny about the situation. They both wanted to get this over with, and hoped that the other would understand what they wanted to get across.

"Hey Inuyasha! Kagome's back!" Inuyasha was almost bowled over by that little puff ball, Shippou. "Why are you walking so slow?" Inuyasha growled, irritated.

"Get off of me!" he snapped, swatting at Shippou. The mischievous fox demon noted the paper clutched in Inuyasha's hand. His eyes lit up and he snatched it out of the distracted hanyou's hand.

"Hooray!" he cheered, running away from Inuyasha as quickly as he could.

----

Kagome, meanwhile, had been accosted by Kouga. She found herself held in his arms, his breath tickling her ear.

"I came for you as soon as I could. I wanted to let you know, you are still the most important woman to me. My woman." Kagome's eyes narrowed in frustration. She opened her mouth to speak, but a sudden breeze whipped the envelope out of her hands.

"Oh no, my letter!" she cried out, panicked.

"Don't worry, I'll get it for you!" Kouga exclaimed as he dashed off.

"Wait, no, Kouga..." Kagome trailed off. She closed her eyes and hoped fervently that Kouga didn't know how to read.

Kouga caught the letter, but in the process he sliced it with his claws. Guiltily, he looked at the ripped paper, and the strange markings. None of it made any sense to him. He looked around, then decided what he needed to do. Carefully, Kouga ripped up the rest of the paper, and let the pieces fly away on the wind. Then he turned back towards Kagome.

----

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was still chasing Shippou. The little fox was ripping open the paper, trying to see what Inuyasha was hiding. He frowned in annoyance at the markings he couldn't read yet. Then he tripped, and ripped the paper in half. His landing caused the torn pieces to fly out of his hands, and into the river.

"Oops," Shippou muttered. He cringed at hearing Inuyasha's growl behind him.

----

A little bit later in the day, Kagome finally met up with Inuyasha. As the rest of the group looked on, she blushed prettily.Inuyasha wished he had his letter for her. Silently he cursed Shippou for ripping it and losing it. Kagome herself was wishing she had the letter she had written for Inuyasha. She couldn't imagine how Kouga had not found it, but there really wasn't much else she could have done.

"Hey." Kagome spoke first, smiling shyly.

"Hey," Inuyasha answered, wondering why he still felt nervous.

"How'd you get so bruised?" Miroku asked the pouting Shippou.

Author's Notes: Haha, you'll never know what was in those letters!