A/N: There's a crazy headcanon inside. IIt's made for this story only, but if you want to play around with it feel free to do it.
My lovely beta: Cstorm86

The Fox in the Kitchen

"Wash this bowl too, please," Kagome put a mixing bowl dirty with some dough in the sink. Two little clawed hands armed with a sponge reached to take care of the vessel while the miko put the cake in the oven.

"Yeah," As a penalty for all his wrong doings in the shrine, Shippou was washing all the things she needed to make a new cake for Inuyasha.

The hanyou was sitting by the table, crushing nuts into tiny bits with his uninjured hand. It was a penalty for trying to skin the kitsune after finding the first cake burnt and on the floor. He was glaring and growling at them both now, because Kagome had used the kotodama so she could dress his other hand, now safely hidden in his sleeve. Beside growling the sound of crushing nuts was all the noise he was making.

Shippou, on the other hand, turned out to be a chatty fellow. In the short time that passed since he had learned that his dad wasn't purified by Kagome, he did a total shift in attitude. Gone was the vengeful fox, now he was a cute, happy boy. Well, maybe not that happy while washing the kitchen tools and vessels.

"So, how come you harbor a hanyou?" Shippou asked Kagome. "I thought humans were terrified of youkai and thought hanyou were abominations."

"Shut up, brat!" barked Inuyasha from his seat by the table. Kagome ignored him, looking at the boy.

"Inuyasha is the shrine guardian that agreed to form a bond with my family. Now he's my partner and I don't want you to be mean to him or call him names. He's a person and he didn't do anything to warrant your disliking him," she said firmly. She missed the vision of Inuyasha's stunned face, his jaw hanging for a moment as he stared at her back.

"Yeah, he did! He hit me on the head!" Shippou disagreed. "And we foxes don't hate hanyou and humans that much, he wouldn't get hurt if he didn't..."

"Only because you were trying to harm me," Kagome pointed a finger at the pouting boy. "And you ruined my gift for him too."

"Uh..." Shippou looked away. "Sorry for that."

"You should apologize to Inuyasha, not me," the miko continued he scolding. The little boy looked from where he stood on the edge of the sink towards the pouting hanyou.

"Uh, sorry," the kitsune muttered without any enthusiasm.

"Feh," Inuyasha shrugged. Kagome smiled, realizing that it was the best she could expect from them right now. She turned to make some tea for them while they were waiting for the cake to bake.

"So, Shippou, you came all the way here to find your dad?" she asked.

"Yeah!" the boy put away the last bowl and wiped his hands before he leaped to an empty chair by the table. All the way from the youkai lands and across the human land!"

"How did you cross the barrier?" Inuyasha asked before Kagome could voice her own curiosity. The miko looked at the scowling hanyou and raised an eyebrow.

'What do you mean?' she asked. One ear cocked her way, but otherwise he was focused on the tiny fox.

'There are two worlds and a barrier between them,' the shrine guardian explained. 'There are points where you can cross or breach the barrier. One's the dry well. If not for the seal youkai could pass here and humans go there. You would've known that, were you raised properly;'

'Hey! I was raised properly!'

Their quick talk went unnoticed by Shippou, who shrugged at Inuyasha's question.

"There's a cave at the foot of the mountain. The kitsune inn dad left me in before coming here is located next to it and we call the cave the Mountain Ass. I went through there."

"It's called the Mountain Pass, moron," Inuyasha growled while Kagome tried not to giggle. Pondering over the new information had to wait for a calmer time, she knew that if she spaced out the two youkai would do some crazy stuff. Just as she thought that Shippou stuck his tongue at the shrine guardian. And since Inuyasha no longer had nuts to crush Kagome decided to quickly direct the talk towards a new subject. She walked to stand behind Inuyasha and reached to a high shelf for cups, resting her hand on his shoulder as if she needed support and not that she wanted him to stay seated.

"So, you were waiting for your dad at an inn?" she asked Shippou, who nodded and stuffed a handful of crushed nuts from the bowl on the table into his mouth.

"Yeah," the boy swallowed and smiled. "The innkeeper is my great uncle."

"And... Where's your mom?" Kagome asked gently. The whole time Shippou had been only talking about his dad, so she wondered about his mom. She was a bit afraid it'd be a delicate topic, but she decided it was better to ask.

"Mom works away and rarely visits home," Shippou shrugged. "I've been with my dad since he gave birth to me, so I guess it's fine she works far away and we don't see each other often."

"Since birth?" Kagome repeated. Families split because one parent had to work abroad weren't new to her and she was glad that the boy didn't seem to be bothered by not seeing his mother often. The shocking part was that the boy claimed to have been born by his father.

"A funny tale," Shippou giggled and stuffed his face with nuts before continuing. "The previous time my parents took the tail exam they both had to seduce a human. They both switched sex and luck had it they stumbled on each other and didn't notice that the other was a kitsune in disguise. The next morning my dad found out he couldn't change back to his male form and some months later I was born. Neat, eh?" the boy grinned at the stunned miko and Inuyasha who forgot to scowl at him.

Kagome stared at the happy boy, who so casually admitted to being born by his father and seemed to be pretty amused by his parents' antics. The kitsune continued as if this was totally normal.

"Of course they both failed their tests," he said. "After all, they both got tricked and didn't recognize another kitsune."

"Uh," Kagome uttered and turned to pick up the kettle to pour water in the prepared cups. She had to focus on it very hard, because her mind was running towards imagining the fateful encounter where both participants were pretending to be the opposite sex.

"So," Inuyasha cleared his throat. "You disobeyed your father's orders and crossed to the human lands. Don't you think it's dangerous for a baby youkai here?"

"No way!" Shippou bounced on his chair. "It's not that dangerous when you're a kitsune! Everyone likes a prank or two from time to time! And you know, since I'm a full-blood I can always turn into my true form and pretend I'm a mortal fox!" then he looked at the hanyou curiously. "How come you can turn into a true form? You're a hanyou."

"I'm way stronger than a regular hanyou, kid," Kagome smiled when she heard more than a bit of pride in his voice.

"So how come you're living in the human world?" Shippou asked "If you're so strong, you could just live in the youkai world. It's sure less smelly and you don't have to hide that you're not human."

This piqued Kagome's curiosity. The miko sat down by the table, pushing the cups of tea towards the two boys. Shippou immediately leaped to the table top to walk across it to the sugar bowl and put some of the sugar in his cup. Inuyasha didn't reach for his drink.

"I chose to live on this side," he said after a moment. "I can go there whenever I wanna," he added.

"I'd like to see the youkai world one day," Kagome chimed in when Inuyasha grabbed his tea and started to drink it. "It must be a lovely place."

"Oh yeah! You must visit the Kitsune Inn!" Shippou nodded. "And you don't have to worry, kitsune are usually friendly towards humans, so no one will try to eat you!"

"Feh! She ain't going without me, so no stupid youkai are gonna eat her!" Inuyasha barked, but was ignored by the boy describing to the young woman the wonders of the youkai world. She watched him walk around the table, barely avoiding stepping into their cups and the sugar bowl, gesturing with his hands and tail as he depicted the place where he lived.

From his words she gathered that the youkai world was somewhat similar to her own, but wild and inhabited by all kinds of weird and often scary creatures. According to Shippou, humans were rare there - most of those that passed by the barrier ended up as some youkai's meal.

"But don't worry, most youkai don't even eat humans," Shippou smiled up at her. "From what I heard you taste rather bad."

"Uh..." Kagome wasn't sure if she should be more relieved or offended.

"Anyway, there are a few places where humans actually can live in the youkai world," Shippou added as an afterthought. "If we kitsune find a human that stumbled in our world we bring them to those dwellings. Of course after pranking them."

"Um, that's good," Kagome smiled at the boy giggling behind his little hands. Then she looked up to the hanyou who sat quietly, looking into his cup. "Will we go there one day?"

"Keh! Not before you get some training done," Inuyasha grumbled, his ears perking up a bit. "It's dangerous and despite what the brat says many youkai would want to eat you because you're a reiki user. They'd get stronger that way."

"What is this heavenly scent?" came an old voice from the main doors. "Kagome, are you baking?"

The miko turned her head towards the door and saw her grandfather walking in.

"Yes, grandpa," she nodded. She was about to introduce Shippou to him, but when she looked to the boy she didn't find him where he had been. She glanced to Inuyasha, who pointed with his nose to a bowl of cookies standing on the table. It wasn't standing there a minute ago and it had a lovely acorn design around the blue-colored rim.

"Ah, tea and cookies, just what an old man needs after a long visit to a friend!" grandpa said and reached for a cookie. As soon as it was right in front of his face it disappeared in a puff of smoke. "What...?"

"We have a kitsune," Inuyasha growled. "And if he doesn't cut the pranking shit he'll be missing a tail."

Kagome giggled and hurried to do some damage control before the situation got out of hand.