Note: There are sections in my writing where I just spell things out in case you missed it. Go ahead and skip if you didn't miss it.

Kagome took a deep breath of the city air and sighed heavily letting all her muscles go. With her bag slung over her shoulder, and all intention of getting out of school again as soon as possible, she ducked under the thick protective cover and into the wonderful smelling mobile food shop of Yusuke Urameshi. She dropped her bag down against the stool as she hopped up onto it leaning onto the counter to watch him serve an elderly man not too far away.

"Hey! Kagome, right? What brings you around these parts?" Yusuke asked with a warm smile and a wave with his spatula. The other customer glanced over at her before dismissing her completely and focusing on Yusuke's preparations. "This here is my father-in-law, Mr. Yukimura. I'll be with you once I finish up his meal, okay?"

"Take your time." Kagome gave her best smile and pulled out one of her school books to work on in the meantime. When Mr. Yukimura was done tutoring Yusuke in cooking, and Yusuke had satisfied the old man with his craft, he left, finally freeing Yusuke up to tend to Kagome.

"So, what's up?"

"What do you mean? I'm back in town and I thought I'd stop by, see how everything is going," Kagome offered with a soft smile.

"Yeah, but, I mean, you're here. Why are you here? I thought you guys were going back to get this thing done. Is it done?"

"Done?" Kagome frowned. "Last we talked it was because Kurama was upset with me. I gave him the jewel and left. That was a while ago."

"Well, yeah. I mean, he has us watching Shiori like a hawk. Kuwabara calls her on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I call her Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Hiei watches over the house at night and it's gotten to the point where we were starting to wonder if he was coming back at all."

"What do you mean if he's coming back? Kurama isn't in the past." Kagome sat forward.

Yusuke frowned. "What do you want?"

"What?"

"Food. What to eat?"

"Oh! Just give me anything." Kagome pulled out her wallet.

Yusuke sighed and began to cook for her. "Well, back when you left, what was it, four months ago?"

Kagome nodded.

"When you left here giving him that shard, he sort of got his shit together. He left my shop and headed home to talk to Shiori, and they made up with an agreement." Yusuke glanced at her to see if she was listening. Kagome smiled at the thought of Kurama finally making up with his mom. "The agreement was that he could have whomever he wanted check up on her at regular intervals and she wouldn't get upset about it."

"So he is actively protecting her," Kagome noticed. "That's great! I'm really glad he finally came around to his senses."

"It's a bit more than that Kagome, he is having other people protect her for him. He's gone."

"Gone?"

"The first week or so, he taught Shiori to protect herself. He had her training, basically, to defend herself against demons. He even took her out to see if she could do it in a real fight. After she passed that test-"

"How?" Kagome asked, shocked.

"Kurama gave her some spells she could use to activate plants. Basically he taught the plants to respond and protect her when she said certain words, and it worked. So the next week, week two, he re-introduced Shiori to us."

"To you and Kuwabara?"

"Yup, you got it. He re-introduced us and gave us each other's numbers, then told us to get used to calling her and going out for coffee and stuff. Now Kuwabara is basically her errand boy, going out to get her groceries and things in exchange for home cooked meals on the weekends, and me and Keiko go out with her pretty commonly too. We all were getting together most Sundays to just talk about Kurama and everything we've been through, but Shiori knows most of it now so there's really not much of a point. For the next week Kurama tried to expand the net of control Shiori had over his plants, but it really didn't get very far, so he called in Hiei on the last week, and reacquainted those two so Shiori could contact Hiei if she ever needed his help. After a month, he left."

"Where?" Kagome questioned.

"We thought he went to the past with you, but if he's not with you, and he's not in Demon World, he must be somewhere here in Human World."

"We travel a lot in the past, he might be there and just didn't catch up with us yet." Kagome frowned as she considered it.

"Then maybe he's still back there. All I know is that he's not here."

"I came here to see if he would come back and help us kill Naraku too," Kagome frowned. "I wonder where he got off to."

"He left about three months ago. I think he'd be able to catch up with you by now if he was running around in the past."

"What did he tell you?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Not much. He said he had to go when you gave him that shard, but he didn't really explain anything. He's always been kind of mysterious so I wasn't expecting an explanation."

"Do you think Shiori would be okay if I visited her?" Kagome asked as Yusuke filled a plate for her and told her the cost. She pulled it out and handed it over before digging in.

Yusuke set the cash away and pulled up a stool. "She might be alright with it. I mean, I am supposed to go over there tomorrow if you want to wait. We could go together and see how she's doing."

"Tomorrow's Wednesday. I thought that was Kuwabara's day."

"Hey, home cooked meal." Yusuke shrugged. "She wants me to help Kazuya bring in some couch or something."

"Kazuya?"

"It's Kurama's step-father. How much do you know about him, really?" Yusuke asked curiously.

"I didn't know he had a step-father. He told us about Sesshomaru, and a few things about other demons from the era, but he didn't tell us much about himself."

Yusuke watched Kagome as he dried some dishes, as Kagome ate. "Tell me about yourself."

"Mm," Kagome swallowed as she thought. "I'm in high school. I'll probably flunk out though because I keep going back to the past. Oh! I was taken to the past because of a jewel that was in my side. Some demon revived and dragged me back so she could eat it and after that I ended up waking up Inuyasha, he killed the demon, then another demon stole the jewel and I shattered it. Now we're trying to collect all the pieces so I can protect it again."

Yusuke whistled, "So you're like, a protector of the jewel?" Yusuke asked.

Kagome nodded. "I met Kurama because he stole the jewel from me."

"Yeah, I heard that bit form Kuwabara," Yusuke nodded. "He said that you had purification powers like Sensui."

Kagome frowned, "I don't know. Who's Sensui?"

Yusuke sighed, "He was a former spirit detective who went rouge."

The two continued to trade stories as Kagome ate. When Kagome finished up, the conversation turned to Kurama. "Does that mean you're not really that close to him either?"

"I think we're close. I mean he's been through so much with us, killing Game Master, being paroled to us, the whole Dark Tournament, then the Netherworld and seeing Kuronue again. If he's not close to us, than who is he close to?"

"That's sort of where I'm at with him. I mean, he seems real close to you guys sometimes, but other times, he seems really lonely." Kagome sighed. "It's like he's not letting himself open up."

"What are we going to do though?" Yusuke asked with a defeated sigh. "I mean, when he was with Yomi, I didn't hear a word from him. It's sort of expected of enemies, but still, I feel like he could have at least talked about it afterwards. I still don't know if anything serious happened or if he's fine."

"Have you asked?" Kagome questioned.

"Sure, I asked a few times when we were out of range, but he still wouldn't say anything. He is so tight lipped about things that I just let it drop in case I'm pressing on a nerve I really shouldn't be touching."

"I understand that," Kagome nodded. "Sometimes when we were traveling, he would just stand and stare at one spot for a while, like he wasn't around at all. I'm too afraid to ask him what's going on in case he snaps my head off."

"Yeah. When he gets back we should sit him down and see if we can rat him out of it for good between the two of us."

Kagome smiled, "Deal. I can't stand to see people this distant, even from their own friends." Kagome stood up and held out her hand to Yusuke. Yusuke took it and shook. "When are you meeting with Shiori tomorrow?"

"Eh, we were planning on around four if you can swing it."

"Sure! Where at?"

"Her house." Yusuke replied. "If you don't show up, it's no loss off my back, but I'll be expecting you."

Kagome got up and latched her bag over her shoulder bouncing it in place. "If I can, I'll be there. I don't know what I'm going to do now that I know Kurama might be back in the past already."

"You'll figure it out." Yusuke waved to her, "See you! Send your friends by here if you can, I need the customers."

"Will do! Bye Yusuke." Kagome waved and left the stand.

Shiori straightened up when she opened the door the next day to see Yusuke and Kagome standing on her porch. She glanced between the two of them, then stepped back, twisting the spatula in her hand. "Hello Yusuke, Kagome. I'm glad you're both here."

"It's no problem Mrs. Minamino." Yusuke stepped inside and looked around at the small living room they stepped into. "Is that the couch we're moving?" Yusuke asked pointing towards a long couch with warn out arms.

"That's the one," Shiori agreed. "He will be home with the new couch in about half an hour. Would you two like some tea?"

"Sure," Yusuke smiled. "This here is Kagome. I hope you don't mind that I brought her along. I think you two have some talking that needs to happen sooner than later." Yusuke took off his shoes at the door replacing them with slippers and flopped down on the couch they would be moving.

Kagome stood nervously in the doorway.

"Thank you Yusuke," Shiori said, appraising the boy. She turned her focus back to Kagome. "Well, take your shoes off dear, and come with me to the kitchen so we can talk."

Once they were settled in the kitchen, Shiori bustled about at the stove filling up her old black tea-pot and putting it on the gas stove. "I'm sorry to run you off like that Kagome, I was very upset when I saw Shuichi run off like that and I just lashed out at the closest person, which happened to be you. I do apologize."

"It's alright Mrs. Minamino, I'm sorry about what happened as well."

"Please, Shiori is fine. My last name is Hatanaka as it is, but I'd rather you just call me Shiori."

"Shiori," Kagome blushed. "I'm very sorry Shiori, I didn't mean to clue Kurama off to the fact that you knew. Really I didn't think he'd react like that and since he did, well, I was shocked. I thought he would at least talk to you."

"He did, eventually," Shiori nodded. "He just needed some time to get used to the idea I think."

"I should have told him that my mother was looking for you," Kagome folded her hands in her lap and stared at them.

Shiori sighed and sat down at the table with her. She reached out and touched Kagome's arm. "It's alright dear. You couldn't have predicted that your mother could find me, and none of us thought that I would guess it. As it is, I thought I was crazy when I said it, and it wasn't until Shuichi came and explained everything to me that I really understood."

"Shuichi?" Kagome frowned.

"My son's name. I know his real name is Kurama, but he is still my Shuichi." Shiori gave Kagome a gentle smile. "You know, I don't think he expected kindness from a stranger. You're a very sweet girl Kagome. I'm glad he's found you."

"Found me?" Kagome stiffened and sat back. "Oh no! There's nothing romantic going on with us!"

Shiori sat back and frowned, "What?"

"We're not in a relationship. No! I love Inuyasha, my traveling partner back in the past." Kagome laughed a little. "Kurama is just sort of," she frowned, "He's a friend, and I hope we'll be closer, but he's hard to get a read on."

"Oh." Shiori sat back and stared at the girl. "Oh, I'm sorry for assuming that," Shiori blushed and turned her head away from Kagome thinking.

"Kurama sort of thinks of me as a child, so I'm not sure a relationship could work."

"Oh." Shiori frowned. "When he came back with that shard, he thought it was the best thing in the world. He spoke about getting it from you like he finally had confirmation of some deep relationship. If you aren't going out, are you sure he doesn't have feelings for you?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty positive. He has a lot of feelings for Midoriko though, and she's the one locked in the jewel."

Shiori got up as the water began to whistle. She pulled out some mugs to make the tea. "If that's the case," Shiori picked up a cup and held it out to Kagome, who took it. "Then he has completely forgiven you, at the very least, because you showed him such trust to keep that shard. It was very special to him."

"Thank you for telling me Shiori, I am happy I could make a difference for him."

Shiori just smiled and nodded, then brought out Yusuke's tea with Kagome on her tail.