Chapter Twelve

The next morning everybody was up and packing everything up after breakfast. "How can you not be tired when you've been waking up every hour?" Miroku questioned noticing how wide awake Kagome was.

Kagome smiled and said, "One time I got only three hours sleep. Hana always wakes up at night so I'm used to waking up in the middle of the night to make sure she goes back to sleep."

"NYA!" Hana shouted trying to keep from being fed.

"Kagome-chan, help please?" Sango asked looking worried. "She won't eat."
Kagome nodded a little and started singing a crazy song which resulted in Hana laughing a little. "Now." Kagome said.

Hana's eyes widened when she tasted food and attempted to raise her arms. "Why doesn't she want to eat?" Shippo asked looking curious.

"She's just stubborn." Kagome answered. "Hey, nightingale, you've gotta eat something."

Hana shook her head and stuck her nose up in the air. "Feh, if she's not going to eat then don't feed her." Inuyasha said.

Kagome shot a glare at Inuyasha before helping Sango feed Hana. Once Hana was fed, the ten year old was pouting until Kagome handed the ten year old to Inuyasha. Sqealing with delight, Hana grabbed Inuyasha's hair and refused to let go, even after she had fallen asleep. Inuyasha glared at Kagome and demanded to know how she could have done such a thing to him. "believe me, Inuyasha, that's MILD compared to what I do to the guys back home when Hana's involved." Kagome said with an innocent smile.

"What do you do?" Inuyasha asked, slightly nervous from the way Kagome's eyes were dancing.

"Well, one time I had Chuu, he got beat by my cousin head butting him, take care of Hana when she was in a very pissed off mood. Makai lost about fifty demons, the lowest ranked demon being an E-class and the highest rank being a B-class." Kagome answered. "Koenma-sama didn't have any idea what hit the Makai cause the demons didn't see what hit them."
"This twerp killed fifty demons and didn't get killed!" Inuyasha asked looking shocked.

"Yeah. She would have done more damage except Chuu knocked her unconscious. When I got her back, he warned me never to do that to him again."

"Did you?"

"No. I left Hana with Hiei the last time. Guy nearly gave me a slow and painful death afterwards."

Nobody was sure if they should laugh or not. They all remembered Hiei and from the impression they got, Hiei was not the kind of guy you wanted to piss off. "Did he almost kill Hana?" Shippo asked.

"Hiei? Nah. Hiei takes good care of Hana."

They walked in silence for a few hours, sometimes glancing at the sleeping girl to see if she was sleeping or if she had woken up. Around lunch Hana woke up and started protesting loudly causing Inuyasha to hand the fussy girl over to Kagome. "Okay, okay." Kagome said setting her backpack down and going through it.

"How can something so small be so loud?" Inuyasha asked covering his ears.

"Believe me, she is more than capable of getting louder." Kagome said giving both Shippo and Hana some candy to keep them quiet until lunch was ready.

"bribery." Miroku commented as Kagome started making some ramen.

"Whatever works." Kagome answered helping Hana sit up and put a hand under one of the young girl's arms. "Okay, sweetie, I need you to lift your arm. Can you do that?"

Hana looked like she was concentrating as she slowly raised one of her arms before protesting when she couldn't lift her arm very far. "Here." Shippo said holding some candy in front of his sister.

Hana sniffed the air lightly and her eyes lit up when she smelt the chocolate. She leaned forward to get the chocolate but pouted when Shippo moved the chocolate away from her. "Grab it." Shippo said.

Slowly, Hana reached forward struggling to keep her arm up. She knew Kagome's hand was under her arm but she wanted to prove that she was strong. That she wouldn't give up just because something was hard. She wanted to show that she wouldn't quit until she got what she wanted and right now, she wanted the chocolate.

She gave a satisfied smile when she grabbed the chocolate and let her arm drop into Kagome's waiting hand. She had proven her point and was honestly tired now. Quietly, she gave the chocolate back to Kagome who gave it back to Shippo. "Thank you." Shippo said quietly munching on some chocolate and putting the remaining pieces in Kagome's backpack.

"Lunch time." Kagome said when the ramen was done cooking.

This time Miroku offered to feed Hana. Kagome looked a little doubtful but allowed the monk to try. "Okay, Hana, lets see if you'll take food a bit easier then you did last night and this morning." Miroku said picking some ramen up with the chopsticks.

Hana protested loudly and turned her head away from the food, her mouth shut tightly. "Want me to try?" Kagome asked.

"No, I can do it." Miroku said with a smile.

"Good luck."

Miroku smiled again before pretending to eat the Ramen, watching how Hana turned her head slightly in Miroku's direction. "Beef flavored." Shippo said seeing the slightly questioning look in Hana's eyes.

Hana looked thoughtful and nodded a little before opening her mouth and closed it before Miroku could get the food in the young girl's mouth. "You didn't think she'd make it easy, did you?" Kagome asked with an amused look.

Miroku gently handed the chopsticks to the young girl and helped her lift the chopsticks. Hana smiled happily and ate the ramen without any complaints. "You're about as stubborn as Yusuke." Kagome said with a small smile.

Hana looked proud and smiled again as she ate until she was full. When she had eaten enough, she yawned and surprisingly resembled a neko. Quietly, Hana managed to lie herself down and curled up in a ball before falling asleep. A soft smile spread across Kagome's face as she ate quietly, watching her younger cousin's face show a small amount of trust.

When they had all eaten and packed everything up, Inuyasha willingly picked Hana up and carried her while the others walked behind him. Things were now different, but they didn't know exactly how different things would be by the time the full moon came.

Little did anybody know, they were in for an adventure that would forever remain in their memories.

lostmoonchild: Okay, thanks for the reviews! I don't own Inuyasha, YYH, or any of the songs that may appear in this story unless I say otherwise. Everybody else is mine. Read and review, flames are accepted.