Disclaimer: Ok yeah, I don't own Inuyasha and I never will so let's get on with the story.

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CHAPTER TWO: Late

Shippo was having the time of his life. He was with a really nice (not to mention attractive) girl. The two of them became fast friends. They had walked throughout the entire village. Shippo would point something out or say something funny… and Mayu would giggle and smile. Yes, Shippo was a very happy fox demon. Now they were just relaxing by Shippo's favorite spot by the river…

"Shippo," Mayu said as she gave him one of her sweetest smiles. "Tell me more about your family…"

Shippo smiled back at her. "Alright… What do you want to know?"

"Tell me about your little brothers and sister… I've always wanted a younger sibling…"

"Well… I guess having them around is fun… Shirrow's a handful sometimes… and Noriko and Kotaro are still really young… They aren't much fun yet since they only want to do little kid things…"

Mayu giggled. "No, I mean tell me the good things about having them around…"

"Oh, okay…" Shippo cleared his throat. "Well, I guess it's fun most of the time… You never get lonely for one thing… And there's rarely a dull moment. Shirrow pretty funny… He tries to act tough like his dad, but he's still just a kid… He would never hurt anybody… Well, at least not intentionally…"

Mayu smiled warmly at Shippo. He smiled back. There was just something about the way she smiled at him… It made him so happy. ((A/N:Fruits Basket theme starts playing: I was so happy when you smiled…))

"What about Noriko… and Kotaro?"

"Heh, well Noriko's… it's like she really IS my baby sister. I'm pretty protective of her… At least, that's what Kagome says. She's real cute, too. She's a lot like Kagome… And Kotaro… I'm not sure how to describe him… a few weeks after he was born; InuYasha had me travel with a group of fox demons that were in the area. I just got back a few weeks ago… So I don't really know Kotaro that well yet. From what I can tell, he's a lot like Kagome… But he spends a lot of his time around InuYasha…"

"It seems like you have a great home, Shippo…" Mayu seemed sad when she said this. Shippo looked at her worriedly.

"So, what about you, Mayu?" Shippo asked, trying to change the subject. "I'm sure where you live it's great, too." He smiled at her.

Mayu half smiled. "I guess…"

Shippo frowned slightly. He didn't want to make her upset… he looked out towards the water. The wind caused it to ripple gently against the bank. The sunset was reflecting off of it's surface…

Wait… sunset reflecting off of it's surface?

Shippo looked up at the sky and winced. It was late.

Oh man… not again! InuYasha's gonna be really angry this time…

Mayu stared quizzically at Shippo. I wonder what's wrong… She thought. He looks worried about something…

"Shippo? What's wrong?"

Shippo looked over at her and sighed. "I'm sorry, Mayu… I have to go. I should've been home hours ago… InuYasha's angry with me already for being late yesterday, but now…"

"It's okay, Shippo. I understand. You should go. I don't want you to get into trouble…"

Shippo smiled. "Don't worry about me, Mayu. InuYasha might get angry, but he'd never try to REALLY hurt me…" Shippo looked away and blushed slightly. "So… will I see you tomorrow?"

Mayu blushed and looked down. "I… You might… I'll be here for a few more days… So if you just happened to be here in the village… W-we might bump into each other…"

Shippo smiled. "Great! How about I meet you here tomorrow? I mean… if you're not doing something else…"

"N-no, I'm not busy tomorrow… I'll come here at midday tomorrow..."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, Mayu… But I really have to go… Bye…"

"Bye, Shippo…"

With that happy thought of seeing Mayu again the next day, Shippo ran off in search of Shirrow and Mushin. He only hoped that InuYasha wasn't already looking for them…

This is awful! If I don't find those two, Inuyasha will kill me! I hope that they didn't go back without me…

As Shippo was running through the village, he was becoming more and more frantic. Suddenly he was lifted by the back of his shirt into the air. He gulped audibly and slowly turned to see an extremely angry InuYasha.

"H-hey, InuYasha…"

InuYasha only seemed to get angrier.

"So… you haven't seen Shirrow and Mushin around, have you? I turned away for two seconds and they were gone… Funny, huh?"

InuYasha growled. "Now that you mention it, I HAVE seen them. They're at home. They said you told them to walk around by themselves and that you'd walk them back later. Apparently you forgot to, because they came back by themselves. Except THEY weren't three hours late for dinner. In fact, THEY were right on time. So where the hell were you?"

"Well… You see I-"

"Feh, forget it. I don't care." InuYasha began running towards home. "Wherever you were, you're not going back until you can be on time for meals."

Shippo's eyes widened. "But, InuYasha! That's not fair! I'll be on time from now on… I promise!" If I'm not there tomorrow, Mayu will think I was only tricking her…

"Stop whining. You're staying home until you've learned your lesson."

Shippo stopped arguing. There was no point in continuing. InuYasha wouldn't listen. He'd try to get Kagome to understand when they got home.

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Shippo's day was getting worse…

"What do you mean, 'Listen to InuYasha'?"

Kagome sighed and continued cleaning the pot she had used to make dinner. "I'm sorry, Shippo. But InuYasha is right. You've been late for dinner a lot lately… I think that you staying home until you've learned your lesson is a good idea."

"But, Kagome, I don't try to be late on purpose! I just lose track of time! Please don't make me stay at home!"

"Shippo…"

"Don't try to weasel your way out of this, runt." InuYasha said gruffly. "You're staying home and that's all there is to it."

Shippo scowled at InuYasha and stormed off to his room he shared with Shirrow. He slammed the door, which woke up a sleeping Kotaro. His cries were heard, and he could here InuYasha cursing as he walked past his door on his way to Kotaro and Noriko's room.

Fine, InuYasha… Shippo thought angrily. Be angry at me. See if I care.

Shippo looked out the window and into the darkness of the night. But I'm NOT going to just stay here... I'm going to see Mayu whether InuYasha let's me or not!