A/N: As promised - two chapters up :D
Beta: Cstorm86

The Miko and the Trio

Kagome waited for her brother and friends to reach the shrine gate. Her mother was parking the car near the garage, but Souta wanted to give the three girls the chance to approach the shrine from the front. Kagome guessed he wanted to drag them up the steps leading to the main gate of the shrine, since coming from the side gate would be easier and didn't require climbing dozens of steps. As the future soccer star Souta was more than prepared to take the stairs on without even breaking a sweat. From the flushed faces of the girls following him it was easy to see they hadn't that stamina.

"Hey, Kagome!" Eri panted out. "Your brother is a wicked one!"

"Serves you right for neglecting exercises and eating in WacDonald's so often," Ayumi giggled, a tad out of breath herself.

"Kagome!" Yuka waved her hand excitedly, albeit without her usual energy. "You look great!"

"Thanks!" Kagome dropped the end of the sleeve of her miko attire she had been playing with and smiled. The next minute she was hugging Eri and Ayumi. "So good to see you, guys!"

"Well, you look like you're already growing into your job," Ayumi gave Kagome a once over and winked. "Can we get a tour, lady miko?"

"A slowly-paced one," Eri added with a chuckle.

"Sure!" Kagome turned and stepped away from the gate, leading them across the shrine grounds to the first stop, that was the small building with a fountain where the visitors could wash their hands and mouth. Right now there was no more people around, only a couple of old ladies crowded by the gift shop and talking to her grandfather. "I mean grandpa could give you a snail-pace tour, but you'd have to endure the extended story of the shrine and a bunch of legends on top of that."

The whole group laughed, Souta and Kagome had warned the trio about their grandfather's storyteller streak.

"Are there any handsome guys visiting you here?" Eri asked. Kagome almost tripped over her own zori and cast her an incredulous glance.

"Or maybe you have an attractive single shrine helper around here, you know..." Yuka wiggled her eyebrows.

"And with that Souta is officially done here!" Souta chuckled. "I better stay away from the girl talk."

"No, Souta, don't leave me with them!" Kagome called after her brother, but he was already running towards the house, laughing. Kagome could feel three shadows behind her back, three pairs of eyes looking straight at the back of her head.

"Soo...?" Eri hummed. "Any hotties digging in the miko style?"

"Eri!" Kagome waved a hand towards her robes, "It's a shrine, not a mall, even if someone handsome comes here I won't just go up to hum and ask for his number!"

"You wouldn't do that even in a mall," Yuka teased.

"It's because you already have a sweetheart. It's so cute you're staying so faithful to Hojo," Ayumi clasped her hands and they all giggled.

"For the record - I'm not staying faithful to Hojo. Now go cleanse yourselves if you want to go and pray to the gods before we go to the house. I have ice cream in the fridge," Kagome pointed to the little building behind them. "I will tell you the whole story of the kamainu guarding the shrine for teasing me!" she called after the trio, who just giggled at her.

It actually was an interesting story, since the shrine guardians carved from stone and standing guard before the shrine entrance had been given to the shrine by a samurai lord as a token of his gratitude after Inuyasha had saved him and his family. They resembled Inuyasha's huge dog form, with their ruffs fluffed out and fierce gaze piercing everyone who approached the shrine.

Of course, Kagome knew that if she told them about Inuyasha they wouldn't believe her, thinking it was but a legend to make the donation sound more special. There was also little chance of Inuyasha actually presenting himself to back the tale and give it legitimacy, the hanyou seemed too wild and antisocial, too wary of people to actually show his face around humans.

'Not mentioning the harpies would swarm him and demand his phone number,' Kagome thought as she watched the girls washing their hands and mouth. 'After all, he's pretty handsome, as a boy and as a dog.

She imagined the trio rubbing his dog ears and demanding a ride on the white dog or asking the flustered boy various questions while invading his personal space. It was amusing, yes, but she found herself not liking the idea of the trio teasing him - or her later on.

Little did she know that a pair of pale eyes was observing her from afar, frowning.