InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Family Joined ❯ Chapter 3

A/N Hola! Hey! Have any of ya'll noticed how horribly OOC I've made everyone?

Inu-Yasha: YES!!!

Chirri: Meep! Gotta run before Inu-chan slaughters me! Reviews DO make my universe work better!

Inu-Yasha: GET BACK HERE!!!!

The next morning found Chirri blinking sleepily as her mother and father tried to bustle about, amounting not much more than a dragging plodding pace. She forced herself awake enough to bundle up her blankets and put them into one of the packs designated for such a task. She helped clean the rest of the site up before realizing that she was finally awake. Her father wasn't though. Between enormous yawns he was muttering an argument he only half unerstood at Kagome.

"Wha time is it?'

"An hour after sunrise," his mate retaliated.

"Sunrise?! Are you insane?! I was asleep!!!!" the recalcitrant hanyou bellowed. The last statemant had fully awoken him, and he was not happy. Then again, early morning Inu-Yasha rarely was.

"And so was the rest of the area until a moment ago," snapped the headless body that was shoving things in and out of the largest pack. To the casual observer, the two were at each other's throats. The actuality was that they were sometimes happiest when screaming. At any rate, the conflict had been silently resolved when the signal to move out was sent. Chirri had awaited the perfect minute that had just presented itself to ask the questions that had barged into her head the night before. She took a breath to begin the interrogation when a blurry flash of reddish brown collided with the small traveling party.

Kagome and Chirri curiously looked on as the brownish streak solidified into a blob. A blob that was bouncing energetically on Inu-Yasha's chest.

"Gahhh! You insolent puppy, GET BACK HERE!!!" Inu-Yasha screamed as he wrestled the thing off of him. Apparantly recognizeing the intruder, he was now chasing it all over the road. Kagome was almost choking in her effort not to laugh and eventually gave in to humor, falling over sideways with the gusto of her laughing. Chirri was overseeing it all with more than mild interest until the thing ran over her too.

She stood up with the help of the proffered hand to giggle briefly at her glowering father. That's not going to improve his mood, not to mention- hello! Her mind gave her the proper tweak to introduce herself to the tasty morsel in front of her. Reddish brown hair crowned a very attractive if slightly round face with gorgeous green eyes. His, because this was definetly a boy, body was made tantalizingly but not brutally obvious under a barely stretched top. All that was going through Chirri's head were barelly formed prompts to simply say hi. She finally ground something out and was saved further embarrassment by her father.

"Dammit Shippo! If you are going to run over my daughter, kill my mate from laughing, and beat my chest to a pulp, the least you could do is say sorry! Or drag your sorry carcass-"

"SIT!" *WHUMP!* Kagome had recovered enough to realize Shippo's injustice at her mate's hands and had responded accordingly.

"Mmuffmmllupmmm."

"Fine. Just don't attack the guest." Inu-Yasha had by now found his voice out of his small crater and was spluttering incoherantly about the impossibilities of road guests for their lack of a home. Kagome quirked her eyebrow and he began on a quieter rant on how mates should be more respectful of one another, especially with children watching.

Chirri was indeed watching. She hadn't seen this particular trick of her Daddy's yet. Interesting. Shippo turned his attention back to Chirri and dazzled her with a smile.

"Hiya! I'm Shippo! I've been told you were the baka's long-lost kid, and I didn't believe it until now. I used to travel with them before you were born. Geez, but you're different than when you were a few days old," he scrutinized. Chirri flushed. Nuts, too old for me. I wish Sessho-maru had told me boys were so good looking. I might have actually found something to say to him.

"Hello, Chirri's my name. Did you really travel with Mama and Daddy? Was it fun?" Shippo made a face in obvious good humor.

"Oh, yeah! We had a ball, didn't we, Inu-Yasha?" The hanyou made a face right back. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, but they had all packed up and were moving along. Chirri sighed as she reached for her pack to find Shippo shouldering it for her.

"No need for you to carry it while I'm around, Chirri!" he grinned at her. She grinned back. This guy was stuffed to the brim with good humor. It was then that Chirri remembered her self appointed task of ferreting information.

"Mama, what is that thing you never let out of sight?" Chirri wasted no time in diving right to the heart of the matter.

"This?" she asked, looking down at the jewel on a chain around her throat. She smiled faintly in what might have been memory.

"It's the Shikon no Tama, and boy did we have a hell of a time getting all the pieces together," spoke Inu-Yasha.

"Yes, and it contains some very powerful magic, which is why we never let it out of sight. If another evil demon ever got hold of even a tiny sliver, it's powers would increse infintesimally. That was the original problem when I, uhm, ah . . ."

"Broke the damn thing," Inu-Yasha bluntly stabbed in. Kagome eyed him with a special word on her mind, which promptly made him shut up.

"Wow. That must hae taken some effort," Chirri said, formulating and rejecting plans as soon as they became coherant.

"Or a mis aimed arrow," Inu-Yasha again intruded. Kagome got a twitch on her eyebrow and took a deep breath to yell that special word when something muffled all thoughts. Her mate's mouth pressed softly yet insistently at hers as his questing tongue begged entry. She granted it permission until she realized that not only was she unable to breath, but people were watching. Inu-Yasha sensed her thoughts as if by magic and pulled aaway before she could protest. He smiled close by her face so only she would see and turned his attention back to the road ahead. Kagome was blushing furiously. Never mind that a kiss that chaste was minor compared to some of the deeds they had committed, it still emabarrassed her when he did that.

Chirri's eyes were going to pop their sockets any minute now. Parents just didn't do that, did they? Sessho-maru had never had any ladies over except that she-demon Kestrel, and that was because she had information. Chirri could only expect the worst for her fate, Kestrel had never been seen anywhere near for quite some time.

Kagome smiled at her offspring. The youngling regained her senses when sha realized they had begun moving again.

"Mamma, were you always a hanyou? Some stories from the villiage put it that you were human."

"Yes, I used to be. But when we got the jewel put together, It turned me into a hanyou. Not that I didn't want to be, mind you. I wanted to match your father, so it suited me fine. But it wouldn't change him into a full-blooded youkai, or a human. At some point it became obvious that we were going to be mates whether we liked it or not. We wanted to be, so we held the ceremony and had you. The jewel works in wierd ways, it made us a match so we were content."

"Not to mention we drove Naraku and Kikyo's soul into the unescapable darkness. That was a sweet moment indeed."

Shippo had been nodding along when his pointed ears perked up. Inu-Yasha's ears visibly swiveled and Chirri tensed with Kagome at the unfamiliar niose that caused the bushes to shake. A sharp odor hit all their noses simultaneously with the figure leaping from the screen of bushes. Inu-Yasha swore at it in with very descriptive language as he recognized it. The cursing made Chirri briefly wonder if that position was even possible, much less if what he was proposing the figure do while in it.

The person skidded to a halt in front of Kagome.

"Kouga! How, uh, nice to, uh, see you!" Kagome chirped with false flattery. Inu-Yasha was more to the point.

"Okay, what the hell do you want with me and mine, pond scum?" he almost yelled at the wolf youkai.

"Hey! Wait a minute! Wrong wolf, buddy! I'm not Kouga, I'm just his son!" he hastily amended. "I'm not Kouga! I'm Yusuke! Just don't kill me, please?" Inu-Yasha had to take a step back at the last statement. Kouga would have gladly argued and picked a fight with the hanyou, not practically beg for mercy. He put his hand, poised for an attack, back down by his side. He blinked as he tried to absorb the new information.

Chirri, meanwhile, was making a concious effort to re-hinge her jaw, which had dropped a long way. But- this guy- he's- how is it possible- he's- hotter than- than- Shippo! Her intincts on guys were getting sharper, she was actually able to say hello to the angular face of Yusuke without fumbling. His scruffy black hair was tied into a pony-tail and hung almost to his waist, which was trim yet strong. His body was limber looking, and he was agile, as was demonstrated by the gravity defying leap over Inu-Yasha's head.

He nodded his aknowledgement before returning his attentions to Inu-Yasha.

"I came to deliver a message to you in regards of my father," the wolf youkai stated grimly.

"What does the damn okami want now?" Inu-Yasha replied bluntly. Yusuke looked offended for minute until Inu-Yasha challenged him with a stare. He backed down quickly by then. He straightened and looked haughty despite the look Inu-Yasha pressed on him.

"He just wanted you to come to his funeral, that's all. He told me before he died last week and the ceremonie's today. Inu-Yasha was taken aback by this and was about to say sorry when he saw Yusuke's look.

"Why'd he want us to show up? I thought he hated me."

"No, he just didn't think you deserved as good a prize as dear Kagome. Come to think of it, I don't either."

"Curse you for a no-good-"

"SIT!" Inu-Yasha sat. he really couldn't help it with the prayer beads permanantly afixed to his neck. A moment or two passed before he managed to struggle up from his dirty crater.

"Now what'd ya go and do that for! He deserved everyhting I would've said!" the upset demon raged. He stopped as Kagome took a deep breath to repeat what it was she had just said.

"Are you gonna be there or not?" Yusuke muttered. It was Chirri, in fact, who saved the whole situation. If she couldn't get to Shippo, she'd have to get to this new temptation.

"Yes!" she called a little too enthusiastically. Everyone turned to look at her funny. She blushed under the heat of thier gazes as she floundered for an excuse. "It, uhm, wouldn't be polite!" she said triumphantly.

"Then, fine! We'll be there. Just you don't go gettin' us lost, ya got that?" Inu-Yasha yelled sulkily as he moved off in the direction Yusuke had come from. Everyone else followed suit while Yusuke bounded ahead of the mumbling Inu-Yasha.