Halfway home and having studied Inuyasha the whole time through the rearview, he deemed it safe enough to stop by the supermarket to get some much-needed groceries.

He parked the car at the end of the parking lot, away from everyone else's cars (he might not know what the car was, but he was still protective of it because it was his and he didn't want it to get any kind of nick or ding, no matter how small) and opened the door for Inuyasha.

The young man sat there, blinking up at him.

"Unbuckle yourself."

Inuyasha did.

"Now get up."

He did.

Sesshoumaru sighed and shut the door, locked the car with the click of a button.

"...Stay near me."

Inuyasha followed him through the twilight and into the supermarket. Sesshoumaru pointed to the row of grocery carts and Inuyasha got one, pushed it behind his brother.

"...What do you feel like eating?"

Inuyasha blinked.

"...Whatever," Sesshoumaru muttered under his breath.

Inuyasha was harmless as he was now. If anything, he was at least normal. Or, as normal as you could be while having regressed fourteen years of his life. He now acted the equivalent of a two-year-old. Without a tongue. And one that was obedient and trusting to the highest degree, at least at the moment, even though Sesshoumaru had been practically a stranger to him at that age. He'd only seen this Inuyasha once before.

The older male walked up and down every aisle, Inuyasha closed behind, picking up random groceries. He wasn't that good at shopping for food, but he at least got the necessities. Boxes of pasta, plain bran cereal, milk, eggs, pasta sauce, rice, soy sauce, and a giant box of individual ramen packets that Inuyasha had stopped in the middle of the aisle to stare at. Some ground beef and a few slabs of steak and pork chops.

They had moved onto the produce section and had picked up a bushel of apples and were perusing the watermelons when Inuyasha's head shot up and he looked around him. Sesshoumaru seeming to be ignoring him, instead holding up a melon and thumping it softly with his knuckles. It made a nice hollow sound. *Seemed* to be the key word, as he was watching Inuyasha carefully.

The younger man's eyes had sharpened considerably, had narrowed to their usual sense, and were looking from side to side.

Sesshoumaru was hit with the scent of perfume, strong, and he turned to where Inuyasha was now staring, at a little girl that had skipped past them to go peek at the oranges. As if she knew she was being watched, she turned around and locked eyes with the dark-haired one.

She was small, maybe only six or seven, and was wearing a pair of baggy, patched-up overalls, a messy was-once-white t-shirt, and a pair of too-big sandals. Her hair was ratty and hung to her waist, a shade of dark brown, and where the fluorescent lighting touched her locks, golden-honey highlights winked at them. Her eyes were large and the color of nutrient-rich soil, including the murkiness of that substance, where light hit and disappeared forever.

The scent had come from her. Overwhelming and sweet, stomach-churning, as if she'd dumped a whole bottle of the perfume on herself.

Sesshoumaru glanced at Inuyasha, who was looking at her with wide eyes that glinted gold. He was starting to hyperventilate.

The girl gazed at Sesshoumaru, waved shyly, and skipped away, off towards the entrance of the store.

"Inuyasha."

The dark boy snapped out of it immediately at the use of his name and looked at Sesshoumaru. His eyes were clear once more, though a spark of gold shone and withered into nothing as Sesshoumaru watched.

"Do you know her?"

Inuyasha hesitated, then shook his head, looking away.

Sesshoumaru didn't believe him, but left it at that for now.

"Now that you're back to normal, go look at the vegetables," Sesshoumaru said, waving him away.

"...I don't want any vegetables. And how the heck did I get from the mall to the grocery store?" His eyes seemed to lose their focus, his brows drawn. He'd had a lapse in memory. Again.

"Get some vegetables or I am putting the ramen back."

Inuyasha snapped out of his daze and snarled at him. Sesshoumaru threateningly let one pale hand hover over the plastic-wrap of the aforementioned noodles.

Inuyasha clenched his fists. "...I'll... get some carrots..."

"And cucumbers. And lettuce. And peppers. And onions. And-"

Inuyasha growled angrily and shoved a whole shelf-full of random things into the cart.

"Happy!?"

"No. You've broken the eggs. Go get another carton."

Everyone in the store could hear the snarl of rage that came after that.