A/N: Am I updating too fast? I need your guy's feedback on how my chapters are going. So leave a review and just tell me the truth. I can handle it. Don't worry.

I hope you like this chapter though. It has more stuff going on in it than the last one. Enjoy!

Chapter Three

Marriage?

Inuyasha chuckled to himself when he heard Kagome's scream. He had taken the rat that Myoga caught for him and hung the rodent by its tail from Kagome's doorway. He had asked Kaede where Kagome room was, telling her he needed to give her something, a rat.

He heard footsteps hurrying up the stairs to Kagome's bedroom. She stopped screaming. It was probably Kaede that took care of the rat. "I hope she didn't kill it. That rat helped me get that girl back." He thought silently. Inuyasha heard hushed voices, but couldn't make out the words. He didn't care and went to bed, smiling at his effective prank.

&

Inuyasha rose early that morning. His bedroom faced the east and the sun shine was pouring into his bedroom. He made a quick change of clothes and headed down for breakfast.

Kagome had been up for about an hour now, getting the food ready for the new day. She hadn't slept well that night, since she kept on worrying about seeing another rat in her room. "That Inuyasha!" Kagome fumed to herself just when she saw him going down the stairs.

"Good morning," he said with the biggest grin. He could tell that she hadn't slept well the previous night due to him.

She eyed him dangerously and stomped off towards the kitchen. "Hold on there, girl." Inuyasha grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. "I want you to give a tour of this town today. There are probably so many sites to see." He had her and he knew it.

"I can't just leave and give you a tour."

"Really? Kaede!" Kaede walked out of the kitchens to see what was going wrong now.

"Yes, sir?"

"I would like to have Kagome here give me a tour of the city." He laid down a piece of gold and set it on the table. "You can take the gold and find someone else to take her place for today, can't you?"

The gold was worth about as much as the whole restaurant would make in month. "Of course Kagome can give you a tour." She took the gold immediately. Kaede wasn't greedy, but they were always low on money.

Inuyasha turned and smiled at the girl. "I told you could go, but I would like breakfast with you first."

"You are the most…" She didn't have time to finish her sentence when Inuyasha interrupted her.

"I like oatmeal."

&

Kagome headed for the kitchens to fix the both of them breakfast.

"Kaede, I don't want to spend the entire day with him," she complained.

"I know, but this month I really don't know how I am going to come up with enough money to pay the taxes. Even with the gold he gave us today. I might have to close this place down." Kagome could believe what just came out of her aunt's mouth. Closing down the place?

"You can't sell this place. It's been in our family for so long. Are you sure there isn't any way?"

Kaede slowly shook her head wearily. The taxes that the government imposed had gone up this past year. It was getting harder and harder for them to pay them off. Now they were in debt and the end of the month was ever so near.

Kagome didn't want to sell their restaurant. It probably even meant more to Kaede than it did to Kagome.

She racked her mind to see if there was any way to come up with some money. She just couldn't see how they could…

&

Kagome finished making two bowls of oatmeal and headed towards his table.

"If I had to depend on you to cook me food, I would be dead." She had taken extra long in making the food, since her mind kept on wandering off. She wanted to figure out how to keep the restaurant.

"I'm sorry." Kagome wasn't about to have another argument.

"Well that's a change." He noticed that Kagome was saddened by something, but didn't bother to ask. Instead, he chowed down the oatmeal.

They both finished quickly and headed out onto the streets. The streets were lined with carts, selling all types of different things, from clothes to food. People were out and about doing their morning shopping. Inuyasha's eyes brighten at this.

"Wow, this place looks really…beautiful." Last night when he had arrived the streets lay bare, but now it was like a totally different world.

"I guess it is. Everyone is milling around and doing their shopping." Kagome turned and looked at Inuyasha for his response.

"Where did he go?" She just let him out of her sight of second and he was gone.

"Over here!" someone yelled from a crowd. Kagome found him buying some cakes and other desserts. He handed her one and gobbled down the other.

Inuyasha went for cart to cart buying everything that fancied him. Kagome had to run to keep up with him. Finally she caught his sleeve and held him back before he could run off to the next cart. "I thought I was giving you a tour of this town not chasing after you everywhere."

"Right, but I want to buy some more things and then we can go see some sites."

"More things?" His pockets were over flowing with stuff.

He bought some masks, more pastries, and clothing until he was fully satisfied. "Now we can go site seeing."

"Do you want to go to the Buddhist temple?"

"Sounds good." Kagome headed north to the richer part of the city.

"Where did you used to live?" She had been wondering about his status since the time he made the comments about their rooms.

Inuyasha didn't know how to reply to this. Of course he couldn't tell her the truth. 'I'm the prince of China.' That would not work.

Kagome stopped and looked at him since he wasn't answering. "I'm from…" he began slowly, "northern China. My dad is an official there and we're fairly well off. I'm going from city to city and seeing how other officials run their town."

"You're lucky that you are from a wealthy family." Kagome looked sadly down at the ground.

"Your restaurant and lodging rooms are making money. It seems that you have a nice place." For some reason, he felt that he needed to comfort her.

"We can't pay the taxes this month. They've just gone up so high." The words seemed to have slipped out of her mouth and it was all too late to take them back.

"Just get married," he said carelessly. That always seemed to be the solution to everything in the palace. When the king needed to stop an outbreak of war, he would have someone marry the other side's prince or other nobility and things smoothed itself out.

"Maybe getting married is the solution." Kagome thought to herself.

At that moment, Kouga, the official's son of this city, walked up and wrapped his arm around Kagome. "Good morning, beautiful. What brings you out here this early today?" Kouga had met Kagome at the restaurant at about the age of seven and fell in love with her ever since. Just last month, he had asked for her hand in marriage and she refused almost immediately.

He turned and saw Inuyasha. "And what you doing here? Why aren't you at the…" Kouga didn't get a chance to finish since Inuyasha had kicked him hard in the shin.

"Why are you friends with these kind of people?" Inuyasha asked Kagome as he pulled her to the temple up ahead.

"It seemed like you knew him too," she defended.

"He's my cousin… three times removed, hardly related to me at all." This fact was actually true about him. Kouga was his cousin three times removed, but him and Inuyasha had being enemies ever since they were toddlers. Inuyasha couldn't believe that Kouga almost gave his identity away. "I have to get him back for that," he thought in silence.

They approached the massive temple. It had been built recently and was the most glorious building in the town. The front had two sets of stairs leading up to the interior of the temple. The artists had painted the walls with intricate designs of gleaming gold. The statue in the front was a lady, one of Buddha's helpers, made out of pure white stone in the middle of a fountain.

They made their way up the stairs and walked into one grand room. In the center was a Buddha statue that was plated with gold on the outside. Once inside, Kagome got down to her knees and placed her hands together in front of her and started to pray.

"My name is Kagome. I hope that you may grant me just one wish. I wish that our restaurant will continue to be in our family and that we won't have to sell it. Thank you." Kagome prayed silently to herself and got up. Beside her Inuyasha was kneeling down and praying.

"My name is Inuyasha. I would want all of China to live in prosperity during my reign and afterwards." He got up and noticed Kagome looking at him.

"What did you ask for?" she asked curiously.

"For you to find another rat in your room." Inuyasha laughed and walked off to admire some for the other statues.

"It was you that put it there!"

"You can't prove it," he yelled without turning around.

Kagome counted to ten to control her anger and then walked to a table and grabbed a container of sticks each with something written on it.

She kneeled once more in front of Buddha. "Will we be able to keep our restaurant, will we be able to keep our restaurant…" Kagome recited over and over again while shaking the container until one stick fell out. She stopped and picked up the stick that had fallen out.

On one side of the room there was a man that read these sticks and would tell her what it meant. Kagome sat down on the chair and handed the old man the stick that had dropped to the floor.

He looked at the stick. "So, young lady, what did you ask for?"

"I asked if my aunt would able to keep her restaurant."

"These words here," pointing at the stick, which Kagome couldn't read, "tells me that your wish will be granted accordingly. However, it isn't that simple. Your aunt will keep her restaurant, but you will have a long journey waiting for you." The man eyed her curiously, as if waiting for her to say something.

Kagome had no idea what he meant by her long journey, but before she had anymore time to think about the matter, Inuyasha tapped on her shoulder.

"What did you ask for?"

"If we were able to keep our restaurant, and the man said yes." Kagome was cheerful to know that they were able to keep it.

"You actually believe those things?"

"Yeah, what if I do? You can't prove that they don't truly work."

"I'll prove to you right now." Inuyasha walked over to the same table where Kagome got the container with the sticks and grabbed one. He got down on his knees and started shaking them.

"Will I get married tomorrow, Will I get married tomorrow…" Inuyasha recited this aloud for everyone in the temple to hear. He got questioning stares from the others in the temple. After saying this over and over for about fifteen times a stick fell on the floor.

"Now were going to see if I will get married tomorrow." He took at seat across from the old man and handed him the sticking, the whole time smiling at Kagome.

"Hmm… you asked if you were going to get married tomorrow, am I correct?"

"Yes, I really want to know if love is in the air for me." He snickered jokingly.

"Well, this says that there is love in the air for you." Inuyasha raised his eyebrow at this. The man continued, "Yes, you are sure to get married tomorrow."

"Okay, we'll see if you are true to your word then." He stood up to leave. "I'm NOT getting married tomorrow, girl," he said when he turned to see Kagome giggling.

"We'll have to see, won't we?"

"Whatever. I'm hungry. Let's go back from some lunch."

"Right this way." Kagome was now in a good mood. She was now comforted that Kaede would be able to keep her restaurant, but then where would they get all the money? She sighed to herself and headed back to the restaurant.

&

The rest of the day went on without too much difference. Kagome was now lying on her bed resting from a wearisome day. She was trying to recall what had happened just a few minutes ago. Why had she done that? Had it been the right thing to do?

Kagome creaked the door open to Kaede's bedroom and walked in. She found Kaede sitting very still on the edge of her bed.

"Kaede?"

Kaede wiped the back of her hand across her face to wipe away the tears. She turned to Kagome. "Kagome, dear. I know you are worried about me and this place, but don't trouble yourself." Kaede seemed tired and worn. Kagome never noticed how old Kaede was and especially today she seemed to have aged a decade.

"But I want to help." Tears were forming in her eyes as she kneeled down by her beloved aunt. "I want to keep our place…"

"There, there," Kaede smoothed Kagome's hair. "We can find some other place to run our business when we get some money. It could be a newer, brighter start for the both of us."

"I like it here. Isn't there any way at all Aunt Kaede?"

"If we don't come up with 1000 yen by the end of this month, the government will make us close it down and take it. We really don't have much of a choice you see."

Kagome bite her lip. She wasn't sure if she should tell Kaede her idea from earlier today that she got from Inuyasha. She wanted to keep this building so much; she would do anything for the money. "I have an idea to get us 1000 yen."

Kaede looked sharply at her. "How?"

"I… I could get… get married." Kagome said this slowly and avoided her aunt's gaze.

"Kagome, you are too young. I do not want you to be unhappy the rest of your life because of me, you understand that don't you?"

"No, I want to marry Kouga. He has always liked me and asked for my hand just a month ago and I refused. Now that I've thought about it, I know that deep down that I would be happy as his wife." Kagome knew that this was all lies. She had never liked him and never would. He was just a coward that had a rich father. Kouga was nothing without his parents and it didn't seem fair that he was so rich and she was so poor.

"You don't love him."

Kagome had to convince her somehow that Kouga was the husband for her. "Yes, I do. This morning I meet him and he just changed my perspective on him. He got down on one knee and handed me flowers and recited a lovely poem that showed his love for me." She was already getting sick for telling all these lies. "Please, it's not just for the dowry money. I love him." Kagome couldn't even believe that she actually said that.

"You don't have to do this, Kagome. I know you don't love him." "How had she known that?" thought Kagome.

"I love him," she insisted. "I'm going to tell him tomorrow that I had made a mistake for refusing earlier. I want to marry Kouga."

"Don't make this any harder than it is honey." Tears were streaming down her cheeks. "I don't want you to have to put your whole life at stake. I want you to be happy."

"I will be happy being Kouga's wife. I will…" Kagome squeezed Kaede's hand to reassure her.

"Why do you keep claiming you love him when you don't? Why…?"

"It's going to be okay." She got up and left for the door or else she probably would have broken down in front of Kaede.

Kagome didn't know if what she did was right. It was getting late, so she got under her covers to go to bed. "Tomorrow will be another day. I'm just going marry Kouga…" she said to herself before dozing off.

A/N: I know what you're going to say: Kagome can't marry Kouga. Just keep reading.