A Distant Promise – Mini-Chapter # 38

"… for comparison's sake?"

Shippo stared, as Kagome trailed off at the end of her dialogue. The fox-demon looked troubled and vaguely appalled. Nervously, she shifted in her seat. Why was her adoptive son gawking at her, like that? It had not been such a terrible idea.

"So, you had a wonderful weekend with Sesshoumaru," summarized Shippo, "And now you want to visit Inuyasha."

"Yes," she answered resolutely. "You worked very hard to try to reunite us. Seriously, managing to talk Sesshoumaru into assisting you, that was beautifully done. And I have a stubborn streak. I know this. The only reason I resisted visiting Inuyasha earlier – that was because he had refused to visit me! It was… um… payback?"

"So, you like Sesshoumaru," the kitsune paraphrased, yet again. It seemed like he still could not wrap his mind around the idea that she had presented. "But you want to double-check whether you still like Inuyasha too."

Wide-eyed, the priestess shook her head frantically. "Hey! I'm not proposing a three-some, here!"

Shippo's eyes crossed, before he closed them and slumped into the sofa. Demonic energy began to leak into the lounge, where the kitsune sat across from her. Luckily, no one else in the dorm lingered in the student-lounge very often, so there were no witnesses to view the eerie blue flame swelling around his body.

"Don't ever talk about… that… in front of me, again," moaned the fox-demon, rubbing his rust colored hair, distractedly. "Please. It's bad enough picturing one of them naked. Both would be fatal."

With a sigh, Kagome rose from her chair and reclined on the sofa beside her favorite fox-demon. "All I'm saying is that I should give Inuyasha a chance to explain himself," she explained gently, "Before I make any decisions about his brother. You remember which one of them came first."

Shippo traced an unremarkable outline onto the couch cushions with one claw. "Did you mention this to him?" inquired the kitsune blandly. "Sesshoumaru, I mean?"

The blush that covered her cheeks responded to the question just as thoroughly as words. She shook her head.

"I promised to stay by his side," Kagome murmured, uneasily. "But I haven't. Attending a university, that isn't the same as…"

Roughly, her companion interrupted the speech by standing and walking toward the door. "Don't be ashamed of your education," growled the kitsune imperiously. Then, with one final glance in her direction, he nodded in agreement. "I'll set something up."

Strangely, the expression that accompanied his promise looked almost like regret.

Because she was not familiar with guilt pervading her son's countenance, Kagome held still, watching Shippo's back as he departed. Eventually, wracking her mind for the reason behind it, she lowered her eyes in confusion. It had been his idea, all along, to save the day by solving the problems in her relationship with Inuyasha. Yet now…

Why would a decision to speak with the ex-hanyou annoy the one person who planned a reunion, in the first place?