A/N: Have fun!
My amazing beta: Cstorm86

The Dog Dragged Shopping

The next time Kagome woke up it was morning. It was already hot and when she went to open her door to the engawa to let in some air she spotted her watchdog slumped against the wall near the shoji. Kagome smiled when she remembered the event that had occurred the previous night.

The shrine guardian was sitting with his sword resting against his chest. Kagome had never seen him without it, even if he wasn't using it. 'I guess he must feel very attached to it if he carries it around in this time,' she decided. It was nice to see his face relaxed in sleep, he looked young and serene. Just as Kagome decided to leave him be and move back in to change into a fresh kosode, one of his ears twitched and swiveled to face her.

'What? You thought I could sleep when you make all that noise?' came an amused, cocky mind voice of the hanyou when she gasped in surprise and ducked inside.

'I'm not that loud!' Kagome objected and covered her belly when it decided to rumble rather loudly.

"Keh! Just dress and go eat already! And remember my ramen!" Inuyasha called from outside and went away. Kagome listened for a moment to the sound of his bare feet hitting the wooden planks before she went to prepare for the day.

Today was the day of the week when the shrine was closed for visits, so she was free to wear whatever she wanted. Once her grandfather relinquished all his priestly duties she'd have to perform the morning prayers, but now she had the whole day to herself. Or rather to do things like shopping or seeing around.

Dressed in a pair of jeans and a shirt saying 'I'm a cat person' Kagome walked in the kitchen to make breakfast. Her grandfather came in just as she was finishing heating up miso soup from yesterday.

"I see you're already rested after yesterday," the old shrine keeper smiled. "Your reiki is still not up to it's normal level, but it won't take long. I'm glad."

"Oh, I just needed a good night's sleep," Kagome shrugged. She felt much better than before and she was in a good mood. While she finished putting food on the table, Hiro shook his head and poured himself tea that she had made just a few minutes earlier.

"Ah, the fast recovery of youth," he sighed and blew at the steam coming from his cup. Kagome giggled and opened the cabinet containing the ramen supply.

"Oh," she gasped.

"What's wrong?" her grandfather lifted his eyes from the newspaper he picked up.

"No ramen," she turned to look at him. "I was sure there was some left..." The old man grunted and hid behind his newspaper. "Hey, grandpa, don't tell me you ate the last cup!"

"You were asleep and I wanted some food before bed," came from behind the wall of paper. Kagome looked to the ceiling and sighed.

"You should've just woken me up or eaten something healthier like a sandwich or something. There are rice balls in the fridge. Ramen is a last resort food and to bribe Inuyasha," she reminded him.

Hiro's eyes met hers just above the edge of the newspaper.

"I'm not sure even I could get around Inuyasha to wake you up when you fell asleep," he said bemusedly. "As depleted as you were after feeding Tempest so much of your reiki, it made him most adamant about not waking you up before you could replenish some of your power."

"Uh..." Kagome remembered the hanyou who had been keeping watch over her at night and blushed. Was her grandfather aware that she had had a man staying in her room at night?

"You see, you're the shrine keeper now. If you don't have enough reiki to produce and hold a barrier Inuyasha will shield you with his body," Hiro said, suddenly serious. "This is yet another reason we should start a rigid training of your powers as soon as possible."

"Yes, grandpa," Kagome nodded. She hated the thought that Inuyasha could get hurt if she couldn't use her reiki effectively. "But you still shouldn't eat ramen if there's other food in the fridge."

The old man grumbled and hid back behind his newspaper, eating his food. Kagome sighed and sat down to eat just to be spooked by the sudden appearance of a certain hanyou complaining that he can't smell his breakfast.

That led to a short, but eventful discussion during which Kagome not only proclaimed she was going to do some shopping, but also that she needed help with it.

The poor hanyou never expected to meet a Higurashi so disrespectful of rules set ages ago by her ancestors.

.

The pretty girl was standing next to the shelf with shampoos. A half-filled cart was standing next to her. A tall man in red traditional clothing and with exotic looking long pale hair stood with his arms crossed just a step or two away from her. His face was shadowed from the light of the store lamp by a straw hat that went well with the traditional look he was sporting.

Tom watched the pretty girl turn towards her companion and ask something, holding up a shampoo bottle. The man grumbled something and she put the bottle back in its place before picking up another and placing it in her cart. Then the pair moved forward to the soaps.

It was that girl, Tom was sure of it. She had her hair in a ponytail and seemed more talkative than she had been when he had approached her, but it was her.

The girl who had a yama inu stalk people who were too close to her.

Tom wasn't the best of dudes, but he knew that he should warn the other guy. So when the girl went to dig in a fridge for something the foreigner approached the man in red who was standing a bit away from her.

"Hey, fellow," Tom started. The other man didn't say a word, but his shoulders tensed. "I won't take long. I wanna warn you. Don't go near that girl. A youkai is..."

Tom's voice failed when the man finally looked his way from the shadow of the hat he wore.

A pair of deadly yellow eyes shone in the shade with malice of a cornered dog ready to pounce at the first sign of weakness.

"You were saying, stinking human?" Inuyasha growled.

He smirked when the man who had approached him now fled. It made him feel a tad better.

'What possessed me to agree to come here with her?' he wondered, looking back at Kagome prancing between shelves with various items, adding some to their cart and asking about his opinion on other items. He didn't care if she bought strawberry or raspberry yogurt, he wanted out of this smelly place, out of the place where everyone could see him, back to the safety of his forest and the shrine grounds.

He stole a glance around to see that no one was paying attention to him. People who looked his way, if they did at all, just gave him a raised eyebrow and went on with their lives.

That was... Unexpected.

"Say, Inuyasha," Kagome chirped beside him. "Wanna get chicken or beef ramen?"

His ears perked under the straw hat.

"Why not both?" he asked with hope in his voice.

This girl, shaking her head, but putting both ramen packages in the cart, she was turning his world on its head. But...

He moved to the shelf and when she was busy with noodles a few steps further down the aisle, he added a few more packages to their cart. No one started screaming at the sight of his clawed hand when it moved deftly between the piles of instant food and the cart. No one seemed to care that a youkai was among them. Maybe... Maybe he could come here with Kagome sometimes and nothing bad would come out of it? Maybe he could, if he wanted, just casually walk among people without the fear of being revealed, scorned, attacked? Maybe...

"Hey!" he tensed at the gasp from beside him. Inuyasha barely controlled his urge to leap away and hide with the speed that made him seem like he disappeared into thin air. Was he wrong to think all that? Was he about to be put in his place by a command like he had been in the past? He turned his eyes that way and saw Kagome glaring at the extra ramen. "What made you think I'll pay for all of this?"

He blinked. She wasn't angry with him for being in the shop - it was stupid to think that when she was the one who had dragged him to this stinking place. He schooled his face in a scowl and put a hand on the pile of ramen protectively.

"I'm gonna bring it back to the shrine," he grumbled. "I ain't doing it for free."

When the girl grabbed his hand - again without fear or any thought about his claws - he felt a faint, shy smile on his lips. 'I guess I'm getting used to this crazy wench,' he thought, putting in some effort to defend his ramen.