When Shippo made his way back into the clearing, the animal was nowhere to be found. It didn't really surprise the boy since he had been gone for over two hours. He could still smell the lingering scent of her especially where she had rested with him in the grass. She must have left only a little bit ago. He felt bad because he was almost sure she had waited for him. He said he'd be back. He inhaled deeply once more to confirm to himself she was nowhere to be found, then turned and headed back to the village to find Kagome and get some of her boxed noodles.
Kagome had been waiting for him. She smiled brightly as he entered Kaede's cabin and sat beside her. Sango had gone back to her village for a few days and Kaede was checking in on a pregnant woman a few huts down. Shippo hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to Sango before she left this time. It made him feel unimportant that it was the other mortal woman who gave him the goodbye from the demon slayer.
"It's almost done Shippo. Inuyasha and Miroku already ate. I waited for you though." She smiled and noticed the look on his face. "What's wrong, Shippo?"
He shook his head and crossed his legs. "You took longer to finish school than you were supposed to because of us, didn't you Kagome?"
That seemed to surprise her and she lowered the spoon she was stirring with across the pot. "Why do you say that Shippo?"
The boy youkai looked away and answered. "You said a couple years ago about taking—tests. Entrance exams?" He looked at her and she nodded. "Well weren't you supposed to go to school right after that?"
Kagome nodded solemnly. "Yes Shippo, I was supposed to go to college right out of high school. But, I didn't." She picked up the spoon and continued to stir. "Ready." She began ladling out the thick stew into two bowls.
"Why didn't you?"
She sighed as she handed him his bowl. He took it from her and she sat back from the fire and clutched her stew between two hands, looking into it as if it had the answers. "I…didn't pass at first."
"You didn't?" He was surprised. Kagome always seemed really smart to him.
She shook her head and pointed at him with her chop sticks. "Better eat or it will get cold."
He gulped down a little of the still-too-hot food to appease her. It seemed to do the trick and after she had bitten into a large mushroom, she resumed her explanation.
"I didn't have the proper time to study. It was while we were really onto Naraku's trail, and I just couldn't bring myself to accomplish my own tiny goals when so many people were dying at his hands. My family was always understanding about that. The greater good and all." She sighed.
Shippo stared at her. She had never told anyone in their group that she was neglecting her own life for everyone else's in this time. "You said…"
She looked up with a carrot in her mouth. "Hmm?"
"You said at first. So you passed the second time?"
She nodded. "In my time we can take classes to prepare to retake the exams the following year. I didn't, but I did have more time to study after we caught Naraku."
He looked down to his stew and took another slurp."So, you passed that time."
She smiled warmly. "Yep. I only lived one year as a ronin." She laughed at that.
"So you should have been in college last year?" Her mouth was full with another mushroom, but she nodded. "We weren't fighting anymore. Why did you stay?"
Kagome swallowed her food and sat back with a still half full bowl. "I…" Shippo didn't fail to notice that her eyes became a bit too moist before she continued. "I thought that if I stayed, I could find a place here. That there would be no need for me to go to college."
Shippo knew the rest. Inuyasha hadn't asked Kagome to be his girlfriend, woman, mate, or marry him, whatever she hoped for. He hadn't asked yet, and Kagome had given him a year. A year free of any problems with Naraku, without Kikyo, and with Kagome's nearly undivided attention. During that year, she had barely gone home for any longer than a few hours at a time, and Inuyasha often went with her. She gave him her full time. They were closer than ever, sleeping together nightly, sharing kisses now and then, but nothing said aloud. Nothing committed. He hadn't asked her, and Shippo always wondered why Kagome just didn't ask him.
"So what will you study in school?" He found himself asking the question absent mindedly as he raised the bowl to his lips for the last slurp of stew. He thought he might ask for seconds.
Kagome was finished with her food and had set her bowl aside to clean up later. She sat stirring the rest of the stew which Shippo figured was actually dinner and not lunch, but that Kagome had just made it early so he wouldn't have to wait so long since he skipped the former meal. Now she was keeping it hot without scorching it so that Kaede, Miroku, and Inuyasha might have warm stew for dinner. Shippo looked at her then and felt a large warmth spreading through him. He loved Kagome very deeply and he hated that she was always subjected to taking care of him. But at the same time, he didn't think he would have made it to this age without that care.
"Hum…" Kagome had been thinking while he had been. "I dunno. I'm thinking either nursing or journalism. Nursing would help a lot here and I already have a head start. I like helping people."
"Journalism?"
She laughed and waved him off. "Probably won't happen. I have a real love for gathering information and writing, but I don't expect I'll be constantly on the other side of the well. It wouldn't do me any good here."
"But you want it more."
She shook her head. "Not really. It's kinda boring unless you get the cool news. Usually it's education meetings and people bickering over minor details in the local laws. Plus, I'm not so good at sitting still anymore. Those meetings can last hours."
Shippo nodded, knowing she wasn't just saying those things. "So nursing?"
She kept stirring. "Yup. I could learn a lot about helping people. Doctors are the ones who diagnose and do big stuff like surgery, but nurses are the ones who do most of the mild to moderate work on patients. I couldn't perform surgery here anyway." She laughed. "I'd have to drive a small truck around with supplies."
Shippo didn't get the surgery thing so much, but he understood everything else. Even truck. Kagome had talked about them before and he knew it was no small cart.
"But if you could be a doctor, wouldn't you have more knowledge?"
Kagome winked. "They'd like you to think that, but no, not really. Maybe a little. But since nurses are the ones who actually do all the hands on work, it becomes second nature to them. Plus it takes years to become a full doctor and school costs a lot."
"How long does it take?"
Kagome scratched her head. "Well about eight years just in school, but then you have to do four more years of internship and residency. After that, you are a doctor."
Shippo sat back. "Holy crap! How long does it take to be a nurse?"
Kagome laughed while she spoke. "Two or four years."
Shippo fully understood why Kagome would have more time for nursing.
She smiled. "Anyway, I'll be going to a local college, so I can still come back here on the weekends and holidays. Want me to take that?"
Shippo hadn't realized he was still holding his empty bowl. "Eh, sure." He handed it to her.
Kagome looked pleased he had finished it. She put it to the side but stopped before she dropped it on top of her own. "Want more?"
Shippo considered but decided against it. "I'll have another bowl when we eat with Inuyasha and Miroku."
Kagome nodded. "It won't be too long now. I think I'll just take this off the fire and cover it. It should hold the heat alright."
The boy looked at the now young woman. He couldn't imagine her being tied up at school and apprenticeship for another twelve years. He couldn't imagine that long without her being here regularly. He also couldn't imagine that she would like it.
"Kagome?"
She glanced up from moving the pot to the side and covering it. "Uh-huh?"
"Maybe…" He searched for the words he wanted. Miroku could have said it easily.
"Yeah?"
He held his breath. He didn't like to get too involved with Inuyasha and Kagome's odd relationship but he felt he needed to plant a seed in her head. For how smart Kagome was, she was also just as stubborn as her dog.
"I think maybe Inuyasha needs you to ask him."
She looked like she was about to ask him what he meant, but then a look of understanding came over her face. "Really?"
"I think so." He nodded and stood. "Yell when they get back. I'm gonna go searching."
He didn't smell her anywhere. He knew he shouldn't be concerned with that animal any more than he should with any squirrel that he might have run across. But he was. For one thing, she didn't smell like she came from around here. When he found her she was being chased, and while she didn't seem like she needed much help taking care of herself, he still felt a strong pull to know what became of her. He had also never heard of anything breathing on you and making you horny.
There was another reason he wished to find her, but he pushed it down and ignored it. He didn't deny that he might be truly attracted to the thing, but he didn't need to think on it either.
He decided a good way to find her was to lead her to him. She seemed to have taken a liking to him, and she would certainly know what he smelled like. Shippo decided he'd leave a trail she could follow back to his one stable place. Kaede's hut. The animal wasn't dangerous he was sure, and had after all saved his life.
One by one be placed some of his crying mushrooms by the well, the clearing where he met her, and sparsely all around the village. He trailed them all inward toward the hut, spacing them closer and closer together in proximity to the hut. The mushrooms were alerts, but they also smelled like him, and he'd just turn off their cries so as not to worry the humans around. The people also knew him well enough to know what his mushrooms looked like by now, and they shouldn't pick them and mess up the trail. If this didn't attract her, he didn't know what else to do.
After he finished, he hurried back to Kaede's, knowing he was already late for dinner.
"Jeesh, Shippo. Kagome's been calling you for about fifteen minutes." Inuyasha met him before he reached the hut. "What's with all the mushrooms? It smells like you all over the place."
"That's the point." Shippo kept walking, but the older male behind him stopped and watched him as he lifted the screen at the door and entered the hut.
"That's the point, huh?" he muttered to himself. Shippo had been acting strange all day, and now he was spreading around his scent all over? Well, he was at the right age to be marking his territory, but it was an odd way to do it. Maybe that's just the way kitsunes did it.
Inuyasha got his thoughts together when he heard his stomach growl loudly, and walked back to the hut for food and sleep. He found himself wishing to bed down sooner at night now that he was spending them with Kagome. He used to fight sleep, but not now. The dog demon grinned as he entered the shelter and closed the flap behind him.
Thanks for reading!