One hour and three stores later, Inu no Taisho was beginning to rethink the parameters of his 'challenge' to the little onna. It had only been an hour, and she had only purchased several items from the past three stores that they had entered thus far. And the looks that she kept giving him and his son's over her shoulder was almost enough to have his hackles raised.

Just what was going on in that obviously devious mind of hers? He wondered as she paused just a few feet ahead of them to look around for a second before triumph lit her angelic features and she began walking towards her newest destination. The store that she had picked was by far the biggest in the entire mall, and was something akin to a Macy's/Belk/Hot Topic all rolled into one.

The entire store took up more than two floors, had an café at the back of it that served some pretty good muffins, fruit, yogurts, spiced cider's and coffee's. Pizza, salads, and several other things- not excluding hamburgers with all the fixings, fries, cheese sticks, onion rings and sweet tea.

The rest of the store was almost as big as a football field and was nothing but gothic clothing and accessories on one floor, jewelry on another, and of course day to day semi formal and formal attire.

Frankly it was a great place to while away the hours.

In other words, the blasted onna had picked well.

If she wandered off in here and got lost then he drew comfort from the fact that they sold leather collars with personalized tags and bells attached- and yes, he would be getting her one if they lost her. If the sound was distinct enough he and his son's would remember it enough to be able to single her out and keep track of her no matter where she was.

Following her into the store, the two elder inu watched as their little onna meandered around for a moment, checking the place out. They had noticed back at another store that she could sense things like dark aura's and such. And if she tended to sense one nearby in a store or shop, then she avoided it like it was the plague.

So seeing her check the area around her out was a mite more comforting than simply seeing her walk ahead blindly, not knowing what was around the next corner.

Once she was finished scanning the area for threats and dark aura's, she began to wander even further into the store. Flitting about from place to place like a little humming bird.

It was rather cute to see her in action actually.

And the way that she went about shopping was rather...interesting as well. She didn't do like Yasha did and just grab things at random because they were 'cool' or 'pretty'. No, Kagome had her own sort of way about doing things. She always looked for things that she felt would suit her.

She didn't care much if it was ugly (though the only real ugly thing that she had found so far was a jacket in her size that was grey with gaudy orange pumpkin patterns with glitter) which Sesshomaru had already vowed to destroy immediately upon their return home.

Gaudy things didn't suit their onna. Neither did the colors grey and orange.

No their little onna should be decked out in the finest of wools, cottons, satin's and silks. And the colors ranged from blues, greens, champagne, pinks, purples, reds, black, white and even pale yellows. As long as they had nice patterns or colors mixed in, that is.

"Pst!" Yasha said as he elbowed his father in the upper thigh, dangerously close to his- Inu no Taisho quickly smacked his youngest son in the back of the head. He didn't smack him hard enough to injure him, much less cause him to yelp and scuttle away as he usually did when he was smacked. But it was enough to get his attention rather quickly as he bit out from between clenched teeth.

"Don't. Elbow. Me. There." He didn't want his male parts injured just because his pup wasn't paying attention to where he was jabbing him.

"Sorry," The boy said in a low tone before then saying, "we've lost Sesshomaru and Kagome." At which Inu no Taisho began to look around for his two wayward pups in a panic.

(******************************************************************************************************************************)

Kagome was hanging over Sesshomaru's shoulder with her arms crossed as she huffed in annoyance from where he had suddenly snatched her up when she had been occupied looking at some dresses, several of which she had liked, and tossed her up onto his shoulder before speeding away, across the store where he carried her until they reached a specific place and he then set her down on her feet again in front of him.

Blinking her blue eyes in slight confusion as she took in the sight before her, she then turned to the inu demon hoping that he would explain why they were at a café.

"You're hungry." Was all that he said. And yeah that was true, she was a little kid after all. She wasn't used to missing meals all the time. And she had already lost some weight from when she had been... Anyways, she had refused to eat for quite some time.

But now that she had sort of gotten back into the habit again... Well she could kind of understand why he had suddenly pulled a 'snatch and grab' and practically ran off with her. Leaving his father and little brother behind so that he could tend to her need for food.

Sighing she wondered what she should do.

She could always deny her own hunger and simply wait until later to eat something. It wasn't a huge deal. Besides, it was no fun to eat alone. She had begun to grow rather accustomed to eating her meals with the inu's that had taken her from her father.

Yasha and Sesshomaru always kept her entertained, and their father always liked to sit and listen to them go back and forth. Even if she didn't participate much.

She felt Sesshomaru's clawed hand gently nudge her forward towards the counter, causing her to stumble a little bit before she managed to twist around and grab his hand and glared at him for a moment before saying stubbornly, "I'm not hungry."

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes at her for a moment before saying, "You lie."

"I do not." She almost shrieked at him indignantly, causing his lips to twitch in a semblance of wry amusement. Truly the onna must think him a baka not to be able to feel her need. It practically rolled off of her in waves.

"I can feel your hunger, Kagome. There is no shame in admitting it, nor is there any shame in letting me take care of you. Now go and get something." He said gently as he shooed her off, or at least tried too. She had a pretty good grip on his hand.

So instead of running the risk of accidentally injuring her while trying to pry her fingers open so that he could extract himself from her grasp, Sesshomaru let out a soft chuckle and walked over to the counter. Basically carrying the onna as he went, and placed two orders.

He ordered a burger with everything on it, no mustard or ketchup, a large soda, and onion rings. And for Kagome...well he ordered her a cheese burger with everything on it with extra pickles, onions and mayo. But minus mustard and ketchup, with an order of cheese sticks and some onions rings (that he fully intended to help her eat) and a sweet tea.

Once he was finished paying for everything, he then waited patiently for the food to be served and then once it was, he picked up the tray that it was sitting on and then walked over to a table not too far from the back door to the store and sat down.

Oddly enough he managed to do all of this with Kagome still hanging onto his hand like a leech. However once he was sitting down, he wrestled with the onna for a moment before finally managing to free his hand and setting the child in his lap and then carefully placed her food where she could reach it and uttered, "Eat." As he picked up an onion ring and popped it into his mouth and began to chew.

Kagome was still a little bit reluctant to even try, but after Sesshomaru went after her order of onion rings- she let out a soft growl of annoyance before smacking his hand away from her food and then promptly digging in.

The two ate in silence even after Sesshomaru polished off the rest of his food and then sat there quietly watching the onna in his lap as she ate. Taking it upon himself to quietly measure how much she actually devoured for future reference.

Kagome managed to eat a majority of the onion rings, and burger, but inevitably had to push what was left of her food away because her stomach was starting to hurt.

Which left about three cheese sticks and one large inu bite left of her burger.

Sesshomaru remained quiet as she leaned back against him with her drink in her hands, taking deliberate slow pulls from her straw so that she could finish it off, and deemed what she had managed to put away acceptable and then quickly polished off what she had left so that nothing went to waste.

Once that was done, he finished off his soda and then carefully removed the onna from his lap so that he could take their trash and throw it all away. Leaving Kagome alone for a moment as she wondered if she should continue to drag the three inu demons around.

Despite the fact that they were letting her do so without complaint, she felt badly that they in some way felt as if they should just to get her to like them.

And though she could already tell that they were a great deal different from her father had been...she was still kind of scared of trusting them completely.

As it was right now, she was merely being complacent in the hopes that if they felt inclined to hurt her like her father had- them maybe they would be gentler with her? Was that even possible? She wondered and nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a large clawed hand lightly touch the side of her face.

Her blue eyes widened in a fear-like reaction and her heart rate accelerated in her chest as she stared up at Sesshomaru who was leaning over her a little bit. He noted her reaction to his touch and slowly pulled away from her to rest his hand on the table and watched her as she quickly composed herself and cleared her throat as she gave him a slightly shaky looking smile.

"Did you need something?" Kagome finally managed to ask him causing Sesshomaru to raise a brow at her before simply saying,

"Not all males are like your father Kagome. Not all of us want to hurt you."

Kagome chewed her lower lip for a second before muttering, "I know that...but- How do I know that all of this doting on me and stuff isn't some sort of sick game?"

Sesshomaru was silent as he realized that perhaps he and his father had overlooked something else while trying to bond with her. He understood that victims of crimes such as abuse and rape usually didn't trust people like they had before- if ever. And that went doubly so for small or young children.

Though a majority of them were able to bounce back within a few months, however something was nagging at him that it might take Kagome years. Which wouldn't do at all.

Don't get him wrong, he knew that they were likely to mess up from time to time with the girl. However currently they were at war with themselves. Rationality dictated that they allow her to heal before fully taking her place within their pack. Whereas instinct drove them to establish a bond immediately so that she would trust and rely on them to care for her when she needed it.

And she would need it. He could tell just from her current frame of mind that she had yet to totally wrap her mind around what her father had done to her. Much less accept it and properly grieve, true that she was partially there, but at the same time not so much. She seemed to be attempting to hold herself together as best as she could.

But he knew that when she did finally manage to wrap her mind around it, and begin the proper grieving process, she was going to absolutely freak the hell out on them.

She would likely trash her room, break things, rip apart many of her clothes and toys and destroy other things as well. Her mind and temperament would become volatile, and she would lash out between going through the steps of grief.

Or at least that was what he thought. It was what he had experienced in other victims, though there had occasionally been a few who became suicidal and murderous. And while he hoped and prayed that she didn't get that bad he knew that there was a possibility that things might.

He hated that fact, but there it was.

"Just remember Kagome, that all we want to do is take care of you and give you what you need. Whether you realize it or not- you are one of our family now. There is no distinction between blood. You are pack. And we take care of our own. Keep that in mind, alright?"

Kagome was silent as she considered his words carefully before slowly nodding her head.

He gave her a strange looking smile, and then straightened to his full height and then held his hand out to her and said, "Come. Last I recalled, you were looking at some rather lovely dresses. I think we should go and get them before someone beats you to them." As he carefully took her hand in one of his and helped her up out of her seat and began walking back towards where they had left his father and brother.