My Girl

by Foayasha

Disclaimer: The epic of Inuyasha, while wonderful, does not belong to me. Thus I cannot, and do not, claim to own any of the characters in this short story... including the one who thinks the important stuff is covered.

Shagsthedustmop you make me happy when skys are grey.

My Girl Chpt 5 – You have to say 'Like' 2 times

Kagome sat with Sango on a wooden park bench while watching their young children play an intense game of tag through the playground; the pace was quick enough to put most human athletes to shame. She had never seen Aimi go full out before, mostly because she was very cautious when human children were playing also. Occasionally they would trip each other up, and slam into a piece of equipment on the playground; then they would get up as if nothing was wrong, continuing the game without any change.

The two girls sat in companionable silence for a few minutes after exchanging basic back-stories. Kagome learned that Sango and Miroku were college sweethearts. When they met, they hadn't gotten along in the least. Miroku would be found flirting with every girl, while she was the typical tomboy. When they finally looked past their exterior appearances, and got to know each other, they fell in love. Sweet story really.

Kagome had explained the basics of her early marriage, and divorce; her profession, and finished with the adoption of Aimi. When she brought up Aimi being adopted as well, Sango explained that Shippo's family was killed by anti-youkai extremists. Fortunately he was so young at the time, he didn't remember the details. Miroku and herself had decided to be foster parents for a short time, and met Shippo. Eventually they ended up adopting him, and they had been a family since.

"When you adopted Shippo, did he look the same as he does now?" Kagome queried. The differences in life spans of youkai, compared to that of a human, had always fascinated her.

"Not really, he's a Kitsune, and their aging rate from birth into puberty is very similar to a humans," Sango explained. "Although, when he hits about 15 or 16, he'll start to age much slower. From what I understand, it's the same for some hanyou, and hanpa. So, your Aimi may experience the same thing."

"Oh, so you could tell she was part youkai as well?" Kagome said, feeling foolish for being the only one who wasn't sure on the subject.

"Well, Miroku and I are both from families who are very familiar with youkai," Sango questioned, seeming surprised. "You mean, you can't tell? Aren't you a miko?"

"Who me? I'm just a plain girl, nothing special. Maybe, somewhere in my past there were miko's in my family, but we've lived in the US for several generations now. Nothing of the sort was mentioned, or encouraged, so I had never even thought about it." Kagome finished with a slight shrug, the notion of being a miko wasn't something she had ever thought of, and really, she wasn't interested. Those who had high spiritual powers, such as mikos and priests, had the ability and knowledge to harm youkai. Why would she want power like that?

"Well, I'm no expert, but I have a good feeling. If you looked into it, you'd realize you're a little more than just a plain human," Sango smiled at her. A silence drew, and it was obvious that the woman had another question, but was holding back. However, after a few moments, the pressure was building beyond her capability to control it. "So, are you going to talk to Inuyasha again?"

"Er… what?" Kagome gasped, not expecting the subject to change to, well... that. "Talk to him? I'm not really looking forward to a rematch."

"Well, I told him he was a prick for giving you such a hard time the other day," Sango explained.

"You did what! Oh my god, Sango," Kagome grabbed the sides of her head. "How could you do that? I mean… now he knows he's an idiot, and that I think he's an idiot," she whined.

"That's nothing new," Sango said, "He can be pretty stupid."

"Well, now there's no way. I'll never be able to face him again. I'd never be able to have a parent-teacher conference. Or pick up Aimi when she's sick. I'll have to change school districts. How embarrassing," she finished her exaggerated rant.

"I don't think you have much to worry about. He seemed upset that you weren't picking up Aimi today," Sango smirked as Kagome perked up a bit.

"Really? You mean, he wanted… to see me again?" she replied in awe. After a moment she frowned, and continued with a snort. "Could have fooled me, he doesn't even like me. As a matter of fact, I think he gets sick at the sight of my face. He's constantly glaring at me, and hasn't shown any sort of interest, other than an interest in pissing me off."

"Oh, but you're interested?" Sango teased.

"Hey now, don't get any ideas." Kagome hunched over, giving her companion a sideways glare. "It's not like that. I mean, sure I want him to like me. But he doesn't need to 'like like' me, but if he did 'like like' me, than it wouldn't be bad. I mean... not that him 'like liking' me is good, I mean... er, yeah." Kagome stuttered.

"So tell me Kagome, really... if he 'like liked' you, would you 'like like' that?" Sango chuckled.

"Oh shut up, this is serious. I just don't know how to explain it," Kagome sighed, and slumped a bit on the bench.

"Well, sorry to break it to you, Kagome, but this isn't middle school anymore. Worrying about if a boy is 'in like' with you shouldn't deter you from confronting him. You seem like a very strong woman, stand up for your daughter and yourself. If anything, I think it will make him 'like like' you even more," Sango smiled encouragingly.

Kagome laughed, and smiled back, "You're right Sango. I do need to talk to him, either way. Like or no Like."

[:::]

Off in the distance, Aimi and Shippo were watching the two adults carefully. Shippo's mom had changed the topic once more to boring stuff, like the place that he went to the doctor, and how hard it was for him to take a bath. The two children looked at each other, and both found sly grins.

"What do you think she means 'like like'?" Aimi asked quietly.

"That's when two people really like each other, more than just regular liking someone, so you have to say 'like' two times," Shippo answered.

"Is it the same as love? My Mommy won't get married again unless she's in love," Aimi said knowingly.

"So? Why does that matter?" Shippo replied.

"Because."

"Because, why?"

"Because."

"Because, why?"

"Because, if my Mommy doesn't get married, than I can't get married," she explained.

"Oh, so I can't marry you unless your Mommy gets married first?" Shippo answered.

"Right, so if double liking someone means that they love you, we need to get Mr. Takahashi to 'like like' her for sure," she said with a confident smirk. "I already started, just in case."

"What do you mean?"

"I already told him about all the great things my Mommy does," she said.

"Like what? Did you tell him she was pretty?"

"Uh huh, I told him she's really smart. She found me in my 'super secret doublety triply hardest place to be found'."

"Oh wow, she is smart," Shippo nodded in careful thought. "What about how much money she makes?"

"Yep, and that she cooks good sometimes."

"Well, I guess you got all the important stuff covered," Shippo acknowledged prudently. "We'll just need to help him out I think."

"Ok, we can start tomorrow," Aimi smiled. Soon after they had agreed on their plot, Aimi heard her mother calling, and the two children ran back to the bench. After saying their good byes, the two hugged, and smirked at their secret, before walking to their cars.

[:::]

Kagome had a hard time making her way into the school the following afternoon. She had already botched her opportunity to speak with Inuyasha that morning, and hadn't helped the awkward tension between them.

That morning she had prepared herself well to speak with the hanyou teacher, and had steeled her nerves, ready to handle any of the insults he may throw at her. She boldly walked with the small girl, marching directly into the classroom. Sitting in the teacher's desk, the young man she had met the other day, Koga.

Inuyasha wasn't in the room.

Well, that's ok, that would just give her more time to prepare, and discuss everything with the man while his students weren't all sitting in the room as well. Perfect, she would talk to him later then.

She was mentally congratulating herself as she turned around to run smack into a wall; a wall that hadn't been there before. She placed her hands gently onto… a muscular chest, and slowly pushed away. Oh yes, a very built chest, attached to a very sexy teacher. How could he disintegrate any articulate thoughts in her mind by just being?

Completely embarrassed already, she looked up to see his expression was a mixture of surprise, and if she didn't know better, disgust. What nerve he had! It made her so angry, without even realizing, she accused him of not watching where he walked. Of course, he immediately picked up the bait, and countered her accusation with one of his own. Needless to say, after a few minutes of bickering, the two parted ways feeling even angrier than before; and feeling a little something else.

She shuddered at the memory, and sighed heavily at the entrance to the elementary school. The final students had walked out a moment before, and she knew she was again later than she needed to be. Well, who would want anyone to walk in on the yelling match that was sure to ensue when she confronted him?

The hallway was warm, and comforting, but the low ceilings and small corridors of the kindergarten wing weren't exactly what she called soothing. She got to the doorway, and paused before entering the room. Her nerves had completely taken over, and she was almost ready to turn around and wait a few more minutes.

"I know you're out there, just come in and pick up your girl," she heard his annoyed voice from inside the room. She poked her head around the door, only to see Aimi playing on a mat, with Inuyasha sitting at his desk. He seemed to be doing some sort of paperwork, but really, how much paperwork could a kindergarten teacher have to do? He was probably just busying himself, so he wouldn't need to focus on her presence.

"Mommy! Is it time to go home?" Aimi smiled at her, as she ran to give her a hug.

This was it. Say something now, or stay on his bad side for the rest of the year. "Yes, but first I need to have a grown up talk with Mr. Takahashi."

Aimi took the hint; her Mommy had a way with 'talking' to people, so she knew she was not to interrupt.

"What on earth could you want to talk about, Mrs. Higurashi? Did you want to accuse me of making the clock run too quickly, thus causing you to be late again?" he drawled, not even looking up from his stack of… finger paintings. He was placing gold star stickers on each one. Some of the better ones would get gold and a red sticker. How could she take him seriously while he was doing that?

"Mr. Takahashi, do you think you could put the stickers away for a moment?" she said, crossing her arms and waiting for him to give her his attention. "I would like to speak with you about our talk the other day."

She noticed that he did push the papers away, but he didn't get up from his desk, almost if he wanted to keep the distance between them. Oh well, it was better that way for her too. Whenever he got too close, her mind was a blur.

"Alright, Woman, go ahead," he said, seeming annoyed by her intrusion.

"First off, my name is not Woman. I'm the mother of one of your students, I would think you could give me a little more respect than that," she sneered. This wasn't starting off well.

"Alright, Mrs. Higurashi," he scowled, "What exactly, MA'AM, may I ask you came to talk about?"

"Take me seriously," she muttered.

"I am."

"Doesn't feel like it."

"Doesn't matter to me."

"Oh my god, you're insufferable!"

"Well, that's because you're an emotional human."

"And here you are, accusing me of being against youkai. I think it's you who has a problem with humans."

"Keh, Woman. You're the one who made all the claims about your daughter's blood. Did you have enough time to think about your words to convince me otherwise?" He said, obviously taking offense to her statement.

"Yes, and I think it was wrong of you to jump to those conclusions. You don't know us, or our situation. How dare you say such insensitive things, and then run out of the room, not even giving me the chance to explain!" She snapped back at him.

"It wasn't a good idea for me to stay Mrs. Higurashi. Things were getting… heated," he explained, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

"Well, I'm sure if your fat head blows any more hot air into this room, it's going to get heated again. Don't be a coward, and run away again," she jeered.

"Why you… You! I left for your safety, stupid woman," he yelled. By this time, he had stood from his chair, and was leaning heavily on the desk, with his claws digging into the hard wooden surface. "Don't you understand anything about youkai? Did you want me to put you and your daughter in danger?"

"No! Of course not!" she yelled. By this point Aimi had stood between the two adults, grasping tightly to her mothers leg, a low growl in her throat. No, this was not the direction she wanted the talk to go. Inuyasha looked furious, and both of their voices only continued to raise in volume.

It was apparent that this man had completely misunderstood her intentions, and jumped to the worst possible conclusion. With her own attitude problem, she wasn't helping the situation. If he wasn't going to calm down, than she needed to for him, and get everything straitened out properly. She took a deep breath, and worked to explain herself.

"Alright, it seems that we have gotten off on the wrong foot, Mr. Takahashi," she began. "I'm going to forget all of what just happened, how rude you have been, and how rude I have been as well. Let's just pretend it didn't happen for a moment and calm down. Maybe we can actually get a few coherent words out."

"Keh. Fine," he said in a tired voice, raking his hands through his long hair. He must have also felt the situation had quickly gotten out of hand. "Do me a favor though, if we're going to talk, just call me Inuyasha. I hate formalities."

"Inuyasha, I can do that. You seem to have gotten the wrong idea about me, and Aimi," she said calmly, preparing for her monologue. "My daughter, since her birth, has been treated as a human. When these changes started to happen our life was torn to pieces, she lost half of her family, including her father. I was devastated, but in the end, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I only want those who can accept her, as she really is, to be a part of her life.

"The only reason I made mention that she may be youkai is because I didn't want the school district to be unaware. Aimi is very special, she looks like a normal girl, but she is so much more. I was worried that if she wasn't properly looked after, that she could get hurt, or another child could get hurt. I couldn't even imagine someone putting Aimi in that sort of danger."

Inuyasha stayed quiet, only nodding thoughtfully. The odd silence led her to continue her explanation, almost to the point of rambling.

"Of course, I didn't realize there was a PE class for youkai, but still. If I hadn't mentioned it, the school district would have assumed she was human. Maybe she was moved to your class specifically because she was youkai. Who knows what the difference would have been if I hadn't said anything. That generally puts her, and your other students, at risk.

"Look, I'm only concerned that she be taught the proper way to deal with her strengths; and I do see them as strengths. I am very proud of my daughter, all of her. Blood does not make a person, their heart does," she finished, feeling a little flushed at her emotional explanation.

"Oh," Inuyasha replied finally, his eyes fairly wide, and his ears drooping slightly. His voice indicating his realization, "Oh... well that just makes my whole accusation incredibly embarrassing," he mumbled. His face had taken on an immature shade of red, and his hand found its way to the back of his neck. "Alright then, Mrs. Higurashi."

"Kagome is fine," she corrected quickly.

"Kagome, please accept… erm, please... *ahem* uh... damn," he fumbled. He seemed to be fighting an internal battle, and Kagome only looked amused as she waited patiently for him to finish his statement. There was a short awkward silence; Inuyasha was doing his best to keep from looking directly at her. However, when her gaze locked firmly on his face, he finally got out his words.

"I am very sorry," he finished with a slight nod, before he turned on his heel, heading for his desk.

"It's ok Inuyasha, thank you for your concern. I'm also sorry for giving you such a hard time and thank you for allowing me to fully explain," she said softly. She turned to take Aimi home, right as Inuyasha began picking up his coat and a crate with books, and paperwork. He met them at the door, and followed them out of the room.

"So Kagome, you have no idea what type of youkai Aimi might be?" he said amiably, his demeanor totally changed once he realized that Kagome was a 'Youkai Lover'.

"Absolutely none. I know her mother was human, and her father was 'John Doe'," she finished sadly. Aimi wasn't even paying attention to the adults conversation any longer, she had ran in front of them a good ways. In her hand was a paper airplane she had made in class, 'zooming' it up and down the hall.

"She's from an Inu line, like my own," his stated firmly, a light blush staining his cheeks. Kagome was a bit shocked to learn he could tell such a thing. "The Inu youkai bloodline is very, uh... noble. All of the remaining clans are of the Tai Youkai grade, which would easily explain her added youkai abilities you seem to think she has."

"You're a Dog youkai?" Kagome smiled quickly, that explains those cute ears. She didn't miss the slightly condescending way he mentioned what she 'seemed to think'. Men.

"I kind of always thought the name gave it away," he teased. He was teasing her, was that good? She kind of liked it.

"I guess I just hadn't thought about it, I don't know very much Japanese," she laughed. "What makes you think she's Inu then?"

"Well, her scent is a dead give away, but there are other clues too. Several youkai races will pass on silver hair as a trait; Bat youkai, for example. An Inu descendant can easily be detected because we have a very specific, and unique, eye coloring. It's actually a prized trait," he grinned proudly. Kagome smiled at Inuyasha's bragging, since he also had golden eyes, like Aimi. "The only problem is, I haven't heard of any Inu clans who have had children recently, and adoption is practically forbidden."

"So, someone didn't want the world to know they had a mix-blood child?" she asked. Inuyasha cringed a bit at her wording.

"I'm not sure. In my own family, there were some initially opposed to my birth," he stated sadly.

"So you're a hanyou, right?" she questioned, getting very into the whole conversation. They had already reached the end of the sidewalk, and were standing there chatting.

"I'm half human, half youkai," he explained. He seemed a little uncomfortable; maybe he didn't like talking about it. "If I were to have any pups, they would look like Aimi does, but any of my relatives children would have had my ears, or at least a tail."

"Aimi said she wanted a tail," she giggled, and he smiled at her. Wow, he looked great when he did that.

"Well, I'll look into it for you. The other Inu clan might have some delinquent hanyou who's running around fathering bastard children," he joked.

"Well, what about your family, couldn't someone from your clan have done it?" she teased back.

"Keh, fat chance, the only ones from my line who are still around are me and my full blooded brother," he said with a quirked expression.

"Ok, Inuyasha. It was nice finally talking with you, we'll see you around," she said. They waved and she swept the girl into her arms, twirling her playfully as they made their way to her car.

[:::]

"And here they are!" Kagome said with a flourish, placing the warm comforter in a heap on Aimi's bed. "It's all clean now. Next time, let's not use the blankets for a fort when you and Shippo want to have a pudding fight. As a matter of fact, let's never have a pudding fight again."

Aimi cringed slightly, but giggled. She had already been scolded by her mother for that idea, and wasn't so much in trouble any longer. She had already gotten ready for bed, dressed in her pink 'jammies', but her hair was still a little damp from her bath. She helped her mother tuck in the corners of the blanket, and once it was complete, she climbed in underneath.

Once she was tucked in, Kagome found the book she would read the girl, and sat down next to her on the bed.

"Mmm, this is warm, mind if I sleep in here tonight," she teased her daughter.

"No…" she whined lightly, and joked, "Mommy, you don't fit."

"You sayin' I'm fat!" Kagome said with a mock gasp, and began tickling the little girl through the blankets. "I'll show you fat."

Aimi laughed uncontrollably, "No mommy…" she managed to get out. "I didn't mean… that you were… *giggle* fat *giggle*… I just meant *hehe* that you were *hah* too big for my bed."

"That's not any better girly!" she said, continuing her 'punishment'. Though, she didn't want to clean the sheets again, so she ended before Aimi pee'd the bed.

"So, tell me, what are you doing in school tomorrow?" Kagome questioned after letting her catch her breath.

"Oh, another PE class, and we can actually do stuff this time," Aimi said excitedly. "Mr. Takahashi teaches the class mommy. When he does, he changes his shirt."

She eyed her daughter, "what do you mean 'he changes his shirt'?"

"He changes his shirt. He wears this one shirt, it's tighter than the other one he wears," Aimi nodded. "I think you would like it."

"Eep! What? I don't know what you're talking about Aimi," Kagome blushed. Well… maybe she would want to see Mr. Takahashi in his 'tighter shirt'. To be honest seeing him at all would be nice, but… the school hallways were so terrible. She didn't want to wear out her welcome anyways. He may have just been being nice to her. No reason to give him another reason to yell at her right?

"Ms. Wolfgang said that it was his 'hot shirt' and that it wasn't appro… appropri…"

"Appropriate?"

"Yeah, that it wasn't appropriate for him to wear in school," Aimi nodded again. Humm… yes, she wanted to see this shirt.

"So, you have another PE class, and you get to do stuff?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, you be sure to show Mr. Takahashi how fast and strong you are," Kagome smirked. Recalling how he hadn't believed her.

"I will Mommy," she said with a smile.

"Alright, well, let's start this story," she said, opening up the story book. "Once upon a time…"

[~A:|:N~]

4070

Vocab Time!

Inu – dog (like you didn't already know)

Miko – Shinto Priestess

Like Like – Its when you really like someone, so much so, you have to say like 2 times.

I think these chapters are getting pretty fun. ^_^ And I finished polishing the final chapter and epilogue last night, and let me tell you, I am DYING to post it! Just waiting for my final spelling check and what not. I will still only post chapters one at a time, but the full stories gonna be up soon. Thanks for everyone who's been following, it has really made it worth it to see how much people enjoy the story.

- Foayasha