1Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha, any of the characters, or merchandise.

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Chapter 5 'First Lesson'

Early the next morning, the two young children awoke with the birds. They crept slowly and quietly away from the camp to where the sleeping form of InuYasha sat- and pounced on him. This, of course, woke him up, but he restrained from yelling for fear of waking everyone up. "Are you awake InuYasha?" Shia innocently asked. "Yeah, yeah," he yawned. The three walked to a clearing nearby and InuYasha began teaching them how to hold a sword and different ways to strike with one. Later, but still in the morning, kagome and the others woke up. "Kagome," Sango called. "Miroku and I are going to the next town over to restock our supplies, don't worry about making any lunch for us!" Kagome waved good-bye to them and began to make some lunch for the rest of the gang. She finished around noon. 'Perfect timing,' she thought. She wrapped the food up in her handkerchief and walked over to the clearing where the lesson was going on. She walked over quietly, not wanted to interrupt or miss something cute or funny. She placed the handkerchief of food down and leaned against a tree to watch for a little while. Shia and Shippou were trying different lunges at InuYasha. Their "swords" were sticks InuYasha had obviously snapped off some random tree. He was blocking the attacks easily with his arm, giving encouragement as the attacked. Surprisingly, he was a little sweaty. 'Boy,' Kagome thought. 'He can handle 20 demons all at once, but two little kids take turns attacking him and he breaks into a sweat.' She giggled at her thoughts. InuYasha, with his amazing hearing, heard Kagome's giggle and turned in her direction. With this small distraction, Shippou and Shia jumped at him at the same time. When the dust settled, InuYasha was on the ground with Shippou and Shia on top of him, and, to Kagome's surprise, he was laughing right along with them.

After their laughing fit was through, they walked over to Kagome for some food. "You guys are a mess!" she shouted as she saw the state they were in. Messy, sweaty, all around gross. "You," she continued, pointing at Shippou and Shia. "Need a bath tonight!" The children huffed. "How come we have to take baths but you're not making InuYasha take one!" they argued. "InuYasha is old enough to make the decision to bath on his own," she explained. "I'm not bathing out in the open!" shouted Shia, blushing at the thought. Kagome sighed. "You could wear a bathing suit, but you don't have one with you." Shia smiled slyly. "Yes I do," she said. "I shoved it in your bag one day. I could have used it as an excuse to stay at the shrine longer." She took up a dramatic pose. "But mother," she said dramatically. "I can't leave! Why you ask? My favorite bathing suit! I've lost it! No mother, I can't get a new one! I need that one!" She took a theatrical bow and then sat down. Kagome laughed at her cousin's performance. "You're lucky Shia," she smiled. Then she turned to Shippou and InuYasha. "I've got bathing suits for you two too, if you'd like to join us." Shia blushed wildly at the thought. "Kagome!" she shrieked. The rest of them laughed. "You'll be in a bathing suit!" Kagome patted Shia on the back. After laughing so much, everyone was nearly starving. After forcing all of them, including InuYasha, to wash their hands in the stream, they sat down to eat.

After they ate, Kagome declared it bath time and they all marched back to the camp to change into their bathing suits. Shia's pink two-piece may have made Shippou blush, but it was nothing to the reaction of InuYasha to Kagome's purple bikini. She blushed as she stepped out from the spot she was changing in, behind a bush. "Uhm," she stuttered. "Maybe I should have gotten something less revealing." InuYasha was gaping at her, blushing as well. 'She looks so...amazing,' he thought. Kagome looked him up and down. She couldn't complain about the way he looked in his swimming trunks, with every perfect muscle in plain sight. The two stood there gaping at each other until Shia got annoyed. "Hello!" she shouted, breaking the two out of their trances. "Can we get moving?" InuYasha couldn't help but laugh at her. Standing there with her hands on her hips, she was an exact replica of Kagome, only a little chubby, still with a little baby fat. And she definitely wasn't as shapely as Kagome.

When they got to the cool waters of the lake they were all relieved. It was unusually hot out, so the water was more than refreshing. "Alright," Kagome began. "Time for you two to get clean!" She went to grab Shia, who slid under water to avoid being caught. She popped up near Shippou and soon and all out splash war was raging. It was basically Shippou and Shia versus Kagome and cleanliness until Kagome splashed InuYasha, who was laughing at her. They all stood in shock as the hanyou's face turned from bewilderment to a playful angry. He lunged at Kagome and held her arms while the children got closer to splash her more and more. She was laughing and sputtering and blushing all at the same time. After a while, the children got bored with splashing her and turned on InuYasha. He retaliated with picking them up and dumping them back in the water, which they found quite amusing. His arms were getting tired and he had an annoyed expression on his face so Kagome couldn't help but laugh. "You think it's funny huh?" InuYasha smirked making his way towards her. Kagome realized the mistake of laughing. He was going to dump her in the water just like he had to two children! She tried to run, but it's hard to run in water so she didn't' get far. Inuyasha caught her around the waist and picked her up. He took the opportunity to tickle her, making her blush and giggle and then dropped her in the water.

Soon they were all tired out and the children surrendered to Kagome and her bar of soap and bottle of shampoo. Shia could have cleaned herself fine, but she complained until Kagome at least washed her hair. After washing her's, Shia's, and Shippou's hair she turned to InuYasha, who was sitting in the water's shallow end. "Inuyasha," she called. "Would you like me to wash your hair?" 'Sounds wonderful,' he thought. "Alright," he accepted. He waded over to her and she began to wash his long silver hair, being careful of the two ears at the top of his head. Once she had washed her hair, they decided to go back to camp. Their hair dried quickly in the evening air and when they got back to camp Shia and Kagome brushed their hair. "Shia," Kagome put her brush down. "Brush Shippou's hair, would you?" Shia's happily agreed and the young ones chatted happily as she brushed his hair. Kagome turned to see Inuyasha pulling his fingers through his hair like a brush. She laughed and walked over to him. "Need some help?" she offered. He Shrugged and let her brush his hair. That night, everyone's hair shone it's brightest, and everyone fell asleep very early. They didn't even stay awake long enough to see Sango and Miroku return.

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Alright! Long chapter! What'dya think? It was fun to write, so I hope it was fun to read!