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Disclaimer: No own InuYasha et cetera et cetera.

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Jizen Kaerizaku

Before I Can Return

Chapter 6 - Secret - Letting the…Dog Out of the Bag

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Mattaki sighed and dropped his hands, and Kagome glared at the man who had entered the clearing, "None of your business."

"You should tell him, you know…" Mattaki said gently, sitting beside her.

"I don't want to tell him," she breathed, not taking her eyes off the narrowed brown ones in front of her.

"Please, my Kagome? Why are you hesitant?"

Her brow furrowed and she turned to face him, InuYasha forgotten momentarily, "I don't want to tell him, because I like you being for me. Why does everyone need to know?"

"Eh, Kagome? You feelin' alright?" InuYasha asked, blinking in confusion.

"Shut up, InuYasha," she ground out, still looking into the faintly amber eyes of Mattaki.

A hand grazed across her cheek and she leant into it, "I am not going to run away because you tell my son you can speak to me. I rather enjoy being at your side. As long as you'll have me, I'll stay. Not like I have a time limit, ne?" he quipped, a grin tugging on his lips. She laughed, flicking his nose and making him recoil as he actually felt it, only succeeding in making the miko laugh harder as he rubbed his nose sulkily.

"Oi, wench, I think you've lost it. Do you need a looby bin to go to?" he said, eyeing his laughing friend warily.

"Idiot pup. Tell him he's an idiot."

"Your father says you're an idiot, InuYasha."

To say the man was surprised was an understatement. InuYasha reeled back as if struck, then fell to the ground with a thud, making Mattaki snicker.

"See, wasn't that fun?" he asked through laughter.

"It wasn't that funny, Mattaki."

"Of course it was."

"Was not."

"Was so."

"Was n--oh, I am not doing this with you, you pain in the ass. Last time we did it for a half an hour."

"You're just sore because I won."

"You didn't win, I fell asleep!"

"So I won."

"Its an unfair advantage that ghosts don't need to sleep!"

InuYasha watched what he saw as a once sided exchange with wide eyes, "What in the hell is going on?" he asked slightly hysterically.

Kagome turned from Mattaki and sighed, "Long story short, I befriended a spirit form of your father without knowing who he was, he followed me home, we became the wonderful friends we are tod--don't give me that look, my lord," she drawled sarcastically, "Hey, if you can touch me, go poke InuYasha and see if he can feel it."

InuYasha stood ramrod straight and looking around fearfully, when out of nowhere a pain shot up his arm. Had someone just pinched him?! He held the spot and gawked. Kagome giggled, "You didn't have to hurt him, you know."

"Oh, is the widdle puppy hurt?" Mattaki asked with a sly grin.

"He apologizes for hurting you."

"I did very well not!"

She grinned cheekily for all of two seconds before she was knocked off her feel by a grinning inu and laughing as he tickled her sides, "Mercy! Ahh stop it!" she choked out, "Fine, he didn't apologize, I lieeeed!"

Mattaki winked and rolled off of her, leaving a very rumpled miko shoving her fingers through her hair and glaring at the Taiyoukai ghost, "You'll get yours Oh Drooly One, mark my words. Does purification work on ghosts? Hmm, shall we find out?"

InuYasha watched yet another one sided exchange, but this time with a wary fascination. He couldn't deny what he had felt, or the very real surprise on Kagome's face as she had been forcibly knocked off her feet. He had seen her shirt indenting where invisible knuckles had been digging into her sides. He was more than a little perturbed at the bond his 'father' seemed to share with his once best friend, and not a little jealous at the easy camaraderie they apparently shared.

Mattaki had been studying his son as the boy was lost in thought, smiling gently. He tucked a strand of dark hair behind the boy's human ear, making him jump away, "Please…tell him he looks just like his mother now. And that he's become a fine man….for the most part, when he's not causing you undue pain and when he actually thinks before he speaks."

Kagome smiled softly, "Your father says you look just like your mother now that your human, and he thinks you've become a fine man…" she trailed off, "I won't say the rest, Mattaki."

"What else did he say?" InuYasha asked with wide eyes, staring straight ahead of him and unknowingly at his father's neck.

"Tell him, Kagome. This comes from me, not you."

She sighed, "He says you have become a fine man when you actually think before you speak, but he's disapproving of some of the things you've said to me recently," she blushed darkly, "He is usually there with me and has to listen to me once we get home."

InuYasha put out a hand in front of him and was startled to meet resistance in the seemingly empty air. He poked it and Kagome laughed, "He says that if you poke his stomach again, he will bite off your finger."

InuYasha blushed and smiled a little, "This is so weird…but…thanks, Kagome, for telling me."

The girl smiled back, blushing as well, "I wasn't going to, honestly…but I'm glad I did. I was selfish to keep this from you. This makes him happy as well, to be able to talk to you in some fashion, even if it's through me. He didn't say that, but I can tell," she put a hand up to her shoulder where Mattaki had just placed his, smiling up at the youkai lord.

"So, what's he doing here?" InuYasha asked, taking a seat across from the girl.

"We don't really know," she said with a frown, "We only know that he is unlike a regular spirit, and just before you showed up was the first time he had ever been able to have any real contact with me. Usually one of us touched the other and it just went though…like a real ghost. But now…"

"This is so weird…" InuYasha murmured, pieces going together in his mind as he stared at his best friend.

She didn't see the look on his face and nodded, "I know, because when we met he was just grey nothingness…and over the course of a day he changed until he was humanoid like most ghosts…and now he can touch things?"

InuYasha continued staring, "This is so weird…" he repeated, this time Kagome caught his look.

"Wait, what?"

Mattaki traveled back to her side from where he had wandered, "What's going on?"

"I don't know, he's looking at me like I just told him I wanted to have puppies."

Mattaki laughed lightly and pushed her hair behind her ear, relishing in being able to trace a claw down her cheek and jaw. He nearly grinned as she closed her eyes and smiled wistfully as he did so.

"My god…" InuYasha said, like he had just had an epiphany.

Kagome's eyes snapped open, "What?"

"YOU HAVE A THING FOR MY DAD!!!" he exclaimed, clambering to his feet and pointing at her accusingly.

Kagome flushed scarlet and her eyes blazed, "Would you shut up, InuYasha?! BAKA!"

Mattaki did grin now, though she couldn't see him, since he noticed she had not refuted his son's claim in the slightest. The boy was still staring in horror at her, and this made Mattaki slightly concerned. He stepped towards the boy, ready to slap his hand over his mouth if he was going to say something stupid, when Kagome burst into tears and ran down the path, leaving a fuming Taiyoukai alone with the son he had never known.

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