AN: Sorry it's taken so long guys! but as I had said before this is a time filler for me and well my time has been taken up by other things... such is life I suppose...

As the weeks passed, Hani started to warm up to the other members of the group, however her favorite person was still easily InuYasha. He was the only one she could readily communicate with, however she was beginnning to learn how to communicate with the others with a crude sign language and the few words of their spoken language that she had learned with InuYasha and Kagome's help.

The said pair were currently on the other side of the well, Kagome went to restock on supplies before they headed out for another search for the jewel shards and InuYasha had gone to make sure that she didn't take too long. This left Hani in the company of the others, and while she and Shippo had been drawing with the crayons that Kagome had brought from her own time, Hani soon became bored with it and left shippo with a small yip of assurance that she was alright.

As she walked out of the hut, she tugged down on her kimono to straighten it and pulled up her hakamas, since she was still a rather wild child by nature and needed the freedom of movement and it was decided that she wear hakamas and a long kimono that was split up both sides to the hip to give her that movement, much to her appreciation if the excited yipping was anything to go by at the time. Kagome had also tried to get shoes on her at one stage but Hani had promptly ripped them off, much to the amusement of InuYasha. So like the elder Hanyou she walked, ran and played barefoot.

Instead of finding the monk and slayer as she had intended, Hani stumbled upon Kaede in the fields, picking various herbs for different remedies. Still relatively cautious around the old Miko, Hani slowed her pace as she approached Kaede carefully, sniffing at the scents carried on the breeze. She was startled when Kaede spoke to her over her shoulder.

"So much like InuYasha ye are.. Trying to take me by surprise were ye?" she asked with an easy smile as Hani came around in front of her with a shake of her head, sending her hair cascading in ripples around her shoulders. "Then what brings ye out here child? I thought ye were with Shippo?"

Hani took a deep breath as the breeze picked up and played with her hair, tugging the moon-silver strands this way and that before she finally sat cross legged in the grass across from Kaede and gave a small shrug before faking a yawn her honey-amber eyes watching the old priestess carefully as her ears turned forward at attention.

"I see... While Shippo can stay in one place for some time, ye easily become bored and need to move around and enjoy the outdoors, am I right?"

Hani nodded firmly, casting a glance over the basket of plants Kaede had next to her before she scooted closer, pointing to the herb collection with one hand and putting the other hand behind her ear.

"Ye wish to hear what they are all called?" The old Miko smiled at the girl as she nodded once. "Alright then.."

Several hours later the sun was setting and Kaede looked over at the girl who had come to keep her company for what had turned out to be most of the day before she stood with a small grunt, making Hani turn to look at her with a hint of concern. "It's nothing Child... Just age catching up to me.." Kaede said holding her hip with one hand as Hani grabbed thelarge and now heavy basket of herbs and fell into step beside the old Miko as they made their way back to the village, just in time for InuYasha's shouting to be heard coming from the hut.

Hani's ears lay to her skull as the shouting became more agitated and Shippo's protests reached her ears and she let out a small howl. Almost immediately she heard Shippo hit the ground and InuYasha push through the reed mat at the entrance to the hut.

InuYasha had come back to the hut with Kagome to find that Shippo was still colouring and drawing but Hani had dissappeared, when he questioned the young fox as to the whereabouts of the girl and didn't get an answer he liked he was getting a little worried about her, but was taking it out on Shippo. Until the howl caught his attention, Dropping the kit on his head and heading outside, relief had flooded through him as he caught sight of Hani with Kaede.

Kagome exited the hut with a teary eyed Shippo in her arms and glared at the back of InuYasha's head before shouting, "SIT BOY!"

InuYasha fought the subjugation but inevitably ended up face first in the dirt, making Hani whimper along with him as she watched him attempt to fight off the spell.

Kagome's scowl lessened after checking that Shippo was alright and looking over at the pair of Hanyou, one struggling to get up from the subjugation spell and the other crouching down over him trying to help him up, the basket of herbs all but forgotten beside them.

"Not his fault.." Hani said, testing the phrase she had heard many times from Kagome over her own tongue as she tugged on InuYasha's hand. "I needed to run... fresh air!" she smiled at the shocked expression the elder Hanyou was giving her before it turned into a playful smirk.

"Oh going to start taking her side now are you?" he growled and lunged for Hani, breaking free of the spell and scooping her up in one arm and tickling her with his free hand, laughter bubbled up from her chest at the onslaught.

Watching the display, Kagome couldn't help but laugh to herself at how open InuYasha had become in the past few weeks. Before Hani he hardly ever genuinely smiled and never laughed like this. 'it's like he's a completely different person' she mused 'I might bring it up with him at some point... then again, if it's not broken...' She shook her head, that was the point, InuYasha was broken in the past and Kagome herself had been the cause for most of the healing, but being from another era, she could only understand half of what needed to be understood about the interactions between humans, youkai and hanyou... 'No what he needed was someone who understands what it is to be hanyou completely, so they can heal each other..'