He followed her into the kitchen already determined to dislike miss perfect in every way possible, and murmuring under his breath about such. She'd only been here a few hours and she'd already cleaned, he could still smell the disinfectant, and some of the surfaces glinted just a little too brightly, and now he was finding out that she'd taken it upon herself to make dinner. She'd sure made herself at home fast, he half wondered if she'd searched their rooms too. He wouldn't put it past her. Glaring at her back Yusuke finally glanced past her as she stepped to the side of the door and promptly froze in the middle of a step, nearly throwing himself forward. "I… didn't think we had half of this stuff."

"Oh… well I didn't know what everyone would like so… I kind of made a little bit of… a lot of things." She giggled nervously at the odd look he was giving her, and tried to avoid his eyes, "I hope… that's okay… If you don't like any of this I can make something else."

"Okay?" He spun to look at her now, his eyes wide before he broke into an almost manic grin, and for a moment he looked like he might cry, "Its… fantastic."

"Oh… I'm glad." Kagome couldn't help smiling a little as he moved toward the counter and began scooping random portions of everything onto a plate as he practically floated around the island counter to the table. "I'll just let you eat then… goodnight…" She turned and walked toward her room, not wanting to test the limits of this good mood before it was gone. If she wanted to get along with Yusuke she was going to have to try a little at a time, pushing too hard wasn't going to do her any good.

"Hey…" He looked away as she turned back toward him, "Why don't you… have some with me?" He was beginning to think that he might have been wrong about her, after all she seemed to be trying really hard, and Yusuke was never one to be outdone. If she'd gone to this trouble he was going to make an effort too, whether she wanted him to or not. He wasn't going to sit around feeling like a jerk over her.

"Well I already had some, but… I guess sitting with you couldn't do any harm." She glanced at him for a long moment before moving to sit across from him at the table, leaned forward on her elbows to watch in something between awe and horror as he began shoveling his food down at a speed she'd only seen Inuyasha and Shippo rival. "So… is everything okay?" Though she couldn't understand exactly what he said in response Kagome assumed it was because he didn't stop eating.

Somehow he had hit the jackpot. He hadn't even wanted a sister before, and now he'd won the sister lottery. She cooked, didn't complain about cleaning up, even knew how to patch up his friends when they came home in bad shape, and didn't even ask stupid questions about it. It was almost too good to be true, which meant that he would be coming up to the flaw any time now, but for the moment she was great. Kuwabara was going to kick himself with jealousy, so far his sister was way better than Shizuru. He swallowed a bite and looked over at her, surprised to see her jump as his eyes met hers… funny how they were almost the same brown as his. "So… Ka… Um…"

"It's Kagome." She leaned back with her arms crossed now, her eyes narrowing slightly for a moment before she looked away.

"Yeah… Kagome… look I'm … sorry … I didn't give you the best… welcome… or whatever."

"It's alright, I understand." When he only looked at her Kagome continued, tipping her finger up to her chin thoughtfully, "I don't think I'd be happy to have someone dropped in my house without anyone asking me. I mean all of a sudden you have some stranger standing in front of you who's supposed to be your sibling. It took me a while to get used to the idea too." She smiled suddenly, "It would have been easier to deal with if we'd gotten to meet before this. I think we would have gotten along really well."

"I would have settled for knowing about you. Before today I didn't think I had any brothers or sisters."

"And now you have two."

"Two?" He nearly dropped his fork, but managed to save the food on it at the last moment even as he stared at her.

"Yeah; me and Sota my… I mean our little brother."

"So I have a… we have a little… brother… wow." He'd never had any idea; all he'd ever thought he had to care about was his mom and his friends, but a little brother… that was something he should have known about. Whatever his mother's excuse there was no way it could have been good enough to make up for not telling him that. A sister was one thing, sure you were supposed to look after your sisters, but a brother was someone you could teach useful stuff, like fighting, to and stick up for.

"He wanted to come too, but I think Mom would die if Sota was gone for more than a night or two." She chuckled a little and made her way to the sink for a glass of water. Even after around a month back in the modern era Kagome still found herself ecstatic about indoor plumbing.

"What about you, she doesn't care if you're gone?" He saw her stiffen and after all his experience with talking with Keiko recognized it as a sign that he had said the wrong thing, even if he wasn't sure what it was.

"She minds… I'm just… older than Sota, so…" Kagome turned back, plastering another smile on her face as she fumbled ahead in search of exactly what to say, "Besides it's almost like I'm never home anyway so…" She shrugged and quickly began sipping at her water again, hoping he would find something else to talk about soon.

From the look on her face he'd hit a sore spot, and he wondered if maybe she had a mother like his, or if maybe her mother was just too caught up in the youngest sibling to care about the other, but he didn't say the thoughts out loud, Yusuke knew how much he hated when anyone that wasn't him talked badly about his mother. Instead he stared awkwardly around, searching for a new topic. "Did you… learn first aid in school or something?"

"Some." She was smiling again, a small relieved one, "I have some friends… who… had a tendency to get into… to get pretty scraped up, so I got plenty of practice cleaning them up after."

"Yeah, how do you explain those weird plants in your first aid kit huh?" It had been a large source of entertainment earlier, watching Kurama stare in shock at the random plants she'd been setting off to the side, when she'd named them and exactly what they were used for Yusuke and the others had thought the fox would bite or swallow his own tongue or just fall over from the shock.

"Oh… those… well Gramps likes his home remedies, so he… grows all these herbs around the shrine and tucks them into the first aid kits." For the first time she was glad of her grandfathers obsession with odd antiques, because it made the excuse sound plausible even to her. In reality Kaede had taught her about the herbs, and while they had been traveling some time ago she'd ended up replacing some of her diminishing supplies with whatever happened to be around. She'd just never bothered getting rid of them.

"So you picked it up from your Grandfather, you must be pretty smart." He murmured through a still partly full mouth.

"Oh… I used to help out in the garden… I didn't mean to pick it up, but… hear him talking about them long enough and it tends to stick in your brain I guess." She shrugged, still searching for something new to talk about. She already hated lying to him, but what was she going to tell him, the truth? He'd think she was insane… if he didn't already. "So, what about you, what do you like to do?"

"You know… the usual stuff."

"What's that mean? Video games or something?"

"Or something…" And he was off, explaining the greatness of the various games he played then the fights he'd been in, and when she only watched in interest Yusuke found he couldn't stop. While he couldn't tell her about some of his best fights, he could downgrade them some and still tell her some of the parts. It was nice to have someone who hadn't heard all of his stories to impress after all.

"I should probably get to bed… first day at a new school tomorrow." Kagome yawned as she stood, then smiled back, "Goodnight Yusuke."

"Yeah you're right… goodnight Kagome." He was almost sad to watch her go, but smiled and waved anyway. Somewhere over the last several hours his determination to dislike her had wavered, then vanished entirely. For some reason however he'd looked for a reason to not like her he just couldn't find one. It should have bothered him, but it didn't. He considered getting another plate, but quickly decided against it as he turned toward his bedroom and his eyes began drooping a little. Yusuke yawned to himself as he moved away from the table, glanced at Kuwabara who was snoring loudly on the couch still on his way through the living room. Yusuke entered his room stretching, knocked the door into its frame with his heel, listened to it snap into place.

"Yusuke I've been waiting."

He spun quickly, already gathering his energy into his pointer finger and prepared for a fight. "Kurama?" Sighing he dropped his hand and stared at the red head standing across the room from him, "Man, what are you trying to do give me a heart attack? I thought you left hours ago."

"I wanted a word in private."

"Hey, all you had to do was ask. I was just enjoying some bonding time with my new sister… turns out I've got a younger brother too."

From the way he was beaming about it Yusuke had clearly been won over by the girl. She'd managed that quickly. With how Yusuke was talking earlier he had expected it to take several days at least, but apparently she was more accomplished at making friends than he had imagined. Still, Yusuke shouldn't have given up his position quite so quickly. Perhaps he wasn't the only one with a sympathetic story, while his friend normally hid behind an act that solidified his casting as a delinquent and thug, he had a far softer heart than he let on, after all hadn't the spirit detective attempted to give up his life for Kurama and his mother once? Hadn't he nearly died to save countless others? Hadn't he cried when his teacher had been killed?

There was also the chance that this strange ability was something the siblings shared, like eye color, or their black hair. After all Kagome had won over Yusuke, who in turn had won the trust of several people and demons who would have been happy to kill any other. But Kurama couldn't shake the feeling that it was more than that. "You seem to have changed your opinion of her."

"Yeah… guess I really deserved that smack to the head earlier…" He rubbed the back of his head as if feeling for a nonexistent bump for a moment before his previously shining eyes lost their happy glow and hardened, "Not that I'm not going to give Hiei a piece of my mind over it later." He grumbled as he made his way to his bed, dropped onto the end to cross his arms loosely and lean back against the wall, "What's up?"

"Well, I came to speak with you" This was going to have to be done with a different kind of care now, he'd been prepared to deal with a disinterested or possibly even hostile Yusuke, not one practically eating out of the young woman down the hall's hand, "about Kagome."

"Oh… hey no lecture needed. I already got the message from Hiei that you guys were pretty annoyed with me about all that crap earlier, and I can admit I was wrong, she's pretty cool… for a girl." He stood and smiled, ushering the slightly startled redhead toward the door.

"I'm glad Yusuke, but it isn't quite why I'm here." He wasn't completely sure why he was here either, at first he thought he'd wanted to warn Yusuke about the danger she could have been, why would she have those herbs and that poison in the other room, those strange weapons, but she didn't seem very threatening, and he didn't want something to happen for her if she was handing these things without knowing, but he also couldn't tell his suspicions to Yusuke now, it would be asking for a fist to the face, and frankly however good his intentions were Kurama just didn't feel like being punched at the moment.

"Then why are you here?" Yusuke stopped short of the door and turned with a confused look that quickly moved to an annoyance that was almost anger, "Oh man… you aren't going to start pulling a Kuwabara on me are you? Look… let's just get this out of the way right now. My sister is off limits, you hear?"

He nearly sighed and looked down, "Again, that isn't quite what I meant."

"Then what exactly did you mean?" Yusuke demanded, trying to sound a little less harsh than he wanted to. Getting on Kurama's bad side, while he was sure he would survive it, wasn't exactly on his list of things to do tonight.

Sighing to himself at once again underestimating Yusuke's protective instincts Kurama plunged on, trying to word his statement carefully, "Those herbs she had… some of them can be very dangerous if not used in the right way… and when I was collecting the first aid kit earlier I glimpsed some very… unusual things in her room."

"You searched her room?" Yusuke looked a little shocked at first, though it quickly became anger, "What possible reason did you have for that?"

"I didn't search her room, I just happened across a few things, like a pile of sutras, and a…"

Yusuke burst into only slightly subdued laughter, "Oh man…"

"Yusuke, I don't see what is so funny here?"

"Her family runs a shrine, and her grandpa takes it pretty seriously. That's why she knows all those herbs and stuff, he grows them, and he probably gave her those sutras. I guess he's got something for old stuff like that." His laughter quickly subsiding he looked away, "See whatever you were worried about there was no reason."

For a moment Kurama considered him for a moment, wondering if he should bother telling him about the poison and the knife, of if they were just gifts from her grandfather, that was doubtful, no one would just give a grandchild something like that. Still, it was a good possibility, and he wasn't one to make unfounded accusations, "Oh, still, you should keep your eyes open, just in case of trouble."

Yusuke smiled a little, "Look, I know it's weird just finding out about her after all this time, but if she was in some kind of trouble I'm sure she would have told me. As far as I can tell there's nothing to be worried about. Still, thanks for looking out for us."

That hadn't been quite what he'd meant, but Kurama realized a lost cause and quickly found his way to the door. "Well, I couldn't in good conscience keep my concerns to myself. I'll show myself out, goodnight Yusuke." This was one of those situations that seemed off just a little, and at the moment his best course of action was to just watch for inconsistencies and search for answers quietly on his own. When he knew more he could come up with a better plan, but for now Yusuke wasn't going to be of any use on that front.