InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Buffy the Youkai Slayer ❯ Shopping with the Slayers ( Chapter 27 )

Author's Note: Thank you, everyone, for your continued wonderful reviews. I'm so glad you're enjoying my story! I'm having a hoot writing it, even if my pace has slowed down a bit recently due to overwhelming deadlines at work.

And now, just a harmless bit of fluff after the intensity of the last chapter...

27. Shopping with the Slayers

Higurashi Shrine, Tokyo, the present day

Buffy, the Portal Key tucked securely in her jacket pocket and Shippou riding proudly on her shoulder, slowly made her way back to the scene of the battle. She suspected that she was going to be really stiff and sore when she woke up tomorrow morning.

As she mounted the last of the steps to the shrine's upper terrace, she saw that the others had finished the youkai mop-up. Koji, Sango, and Faith were hauling demon-corpses to form a crude pile. Faith didn't look too happy about being on cleanup crew, but she at least she was doing her part.

Huh. Guess her stay in prison really did reform her.

"...just throw them in the well," Grandpa Higurashi was saying. He was still sitting on the ground, but he looked livelier than he had earlier. "They'll disappear in a few days. That's why we call it the Bone-eater's Well, you know. It's been part of this shrine for centuries..."

Buffy left his droning voice behind, and headed for the center of the courtyard. Inuyasha and Kagome were still huddled on the ground, and Kouga was sitting cross-legged next to them.

"I've been trying to get Dog-Turd to stop bleeding on my woman," Kouga said, peevishly, as Buffy approached. The wolf-prince looked a bit battered around the edges, and one of his leggings was matted with drying blood. "Maybe he'll listen to you."

"I'm not leaving her," Inuyasha growled without looking up.

"How is she?" Buffy asked, trying to spot Kagome under the concealment of Inuyasha's hair and the sleeves of his kimono-thingy.

"I'm awake now," Kagome said, her voice sounding a little muffled. "And...okay, I think."

"Then will you please ask Inuyasha to let you go long enough so that someone can drive you to the emergency room?"

"I'm going with her." There was steel in Inuyasha's tone.

Buffy reached down and--gently--tugged one of his velvety puppy-ears. "Then you'd better let me patch you up."

Inuyasha jerked out of her grasp. "I don't need your fucking bandages--I'll be healed by tomorrow."

She gave an exasperated sigh. "Oh yeah? Well it's today that I'm worried about."

"What do you mean?" Raising his head at last, he pinned her with his golden gaze.

Buffy put her hands on her hips, and returned the glare. "Here's the deal, dog-boy: if you don't let go of Kagome, let me bandage you up, and at least put on a clean shirt, then I'm going make sure you don't make it past the gate of this shrine."

"Keh. Just try to stop me," he said with his usual bluster, but his face was absolutely colorless.

Probably blood loss, Buffy noted. Wonder if he's gonna pass out if tries to stand up?

She wrinkled her nose "There are three Slayers here. And I'm sure Kouga-kun would help me."

The wolf-prince gave a short laugh. "You don't have to ask twice." He started to get to his feet, but Buffy put a firm hand on his shoulder, keeping him down.

"Though," Buffy said, thoughtfully, to Inuyasha. "Considering how much blood you've lost in the last twenty minutes, I could probably hold you down myself."

"You're always such a bossy bitch," Inuyasha grumbled, but Buffy sensed victory.

"It's for your own good," she said. "Because if you show up at the hospital in the shape you're currently in, they'll have you tranq'd and in emergency surgery before you can say Sankontessou!"

"Keh!" But he allowed Buffy to give him a hand up.

As she'd predicted, he swayed dangerously as soon as he gained his feet. Buffy looped her arm around his waist to steady him, carefully avoiding his wound. At the same time, Kouga swooped in and deftly caught Kagome before Inuyasha could drop her.

"Gah." The wolf-prince held her at arms'-length and surveyed her. "Can we bathe her before she goes to this 'hospital'? She reeks of dog."

"Kouga-kun!" Kagome frowned at Kouga's words, an expression that the wolf-prince utterly failed to notice.

Inuyasha growled, but weakly.

"Well, she'll need a change of clothing, at any rate," Buffy said, then quickly called, as Kouga's eyes lit up with unholy interest: "Sango-chan! Can you help Kagome put on a clean blouse?"

* * *

"I can't believe you let Naraku get away with the shards," Inuyasha grumbled as Buffy taped a thick square of gauze over the stab wound in his back.

The threat of being left behind had been enough to make him submit--more or less quietly--while Buffy cleaned his wounds with disinfectant..

"It was that or let him have the Portal Key, and I didn't think we wanted him back for a return visit," Buffy pointed out. "Turn around."

He huffed a little, but obeyed her. He had draped the thick mass of his hair over his shoulder to keep it out of Buffy's way. Now, he swung it back over his shoulders and let it drop. It reached almost to his butt.

Speaking of which, Buffy thought, sneaking a look down. He had insisted on keeping his baggy red pants on, so she still hadn't discovered whether he had a tail. The rest of him was very nicely muscled. Lucky Kagome!

She turned her attention to the exit wound on his torso. It had already stopped bleeding, and was just seeping a little now. He heals as fast as Slayers do, thought Buffy as she folded a second gauze pad, and began to cut lengths of first-aid tape.

Then, since they were in the bathroom, anyway, Buffy made Inuyasha bend over the drain set into the floor tiles. Using the showerhead on its flexible cord, she quickly rinsed the matted blood and dirt out of his hair.

"Okay," she announced, handing him a towel. "I think you're presentable enough to escort Kagome to the hospital."

He threw her a sour look as he dried his hair. "You wouldn't have really stopped me."

"Probably not," she agreed, taking back the towel, and handing him one of Grandpa Higurashi's traditional Japanese shirts. "But you look better now...a bit damp but at least you're not sporting the massive bloodstains any more."

They emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, Inuyasha sulking, and Buffy in successful possession of his stained jacket.

Inuyasha claimed the fire-rat fur would repair itself in a day or two, but she was determined to run it through the washing machine anyway while dog-boy was sitting in the ER, waiting for Kagome and Grandpa.

Kagome was perched on the stairs, phone in her hand. "Mama says she'll meet us at the hospital," she reported. "And we should come up with a plausible story about why Grandpa and I are injured."

"Um, you were doing some renovations on the shrine, and, um something collapsed? Fell on top of you?" Buffy suggested.

Kagome pursed her lips. "I guess that's better than saying we got hurt while fighting off a time-traveling demon," she said, a little doubtfully.

Koji, who was standing nearby, said, "I hope you don't mind if I leave for a while, Summers-san. I promised to drive Kagome-chan and Higurashi-san to the hospital."

Inuyasha crossed his arms and raised his chin, his golden eyes staring intently at the young Watcher.

"And, um, Inuyasha-san, as well, of course," Koji added hastily.

"No problem," said Buffy. "I'll try to keep the gang entertained...and out of trouble." She turned to Kagome. "Is there a grocery store nearby? I'm pretty sure that your Mom wasn't counting on an extra seven people for dinner."

Kagome looked pale and shaky in the aftermath of the fight. "That's very kind of you, Buffy-chan."

Buffy shrugged. "I'm sure Sango might be interested in seeing where all the ramen comes from."

Inuyasha's ears perked up--literally--at the word ramen, and Kagome smiled fondly at him.

* * *

Koji left shortly thereafter to fetch his Toyota from its parking space a couple of blocks away. Inuyasha escorted Kagome and Grandpa across the shrine grounds, a red baseball cap firmly pulled over his ears.

The rest of the gang had made themselves comfortable in the living room, sitting on the futon couch and on large cushions scattered across the tatami floor.

When Buffy slid open the door, she saw they were watching what looked like Japanese MTV. Kouga and Miroku looked particularly fascinated by the rather scantily-clad all-girl band.

Faith looked bored. Then again, thought Buffy with some sympathy, it wasn't as if she could actually hold a conversation with anyone in the room. The only English speakers, other than Buffy herself, had just left for the hospital.

"Hey," said Buffy, weaving her way through the living room, and dropping down to sit next to her one-time nemesis.

"Hey," replied Faith. "So, you wanna catch me up on the Justice League of Japan, here?" She raised an eyebrow, and looked meaningfully around the living room.

They were kind of an odd collection of fighters, thought Buffy, looking at her companions. "Well, um, the girl with the ponytail is Sango. She's a Slayer, but from the sixteenth century."

Sango looked over as she heard her name. She smiled politely at Faith, then slapped away Miroku's hand from her knee.

Buffy grinned. "The young guy in the purple and blue robes is Miroku. He's a Buddhist monk, also from the sixteenth century. Watch out for his evil hand..."

She continued the introductions for everyone else in the room, then cleared her throat, and said, loudly, in Japanese: "Um, everyone? This is Faith, my fellow youkai-taijya from California."

Only Miroku and Sango bothered to murmur "Hajimemashite."

Shippou looked away from the TV long enough to ask Buffy, "She isn't going to try and exterminate me, is she? I'm just a little kid!"

"If she tries anything, I'll kill her," Kouga said, pleasantly, giving Faith a deceptively mild stare from his wide, blue eyes. He had his injured leg propped up on the low table in front of him. Someone--maybe Kagome--had bandaged it, probably to keep the wolf-youkai from bleeding on the Higurashi's furniture. "You can tell her that, if you like, Buffy."

"I think she made an honest mistake, and nothing else will happen," Buffy said, uneasily. At least she hoped nothing else would happen. Her fellow Slayer wasn't exactly the most stable person. To Faith, she said, "Everyone said they're pleased to meet you."

"Right back at 'em," Faith said, in English, and leaned her head back against the wall. She looked at Buffy from the corner of her eye. "I guess I'm on their shit list for shish-kebabing the guy with the ears, huh?" Without waiting for Buffy to reply, she asked: "Speaking of which, where'd he go?

"With Koji. To the hospital," replied Buffy.

"I, uh, guess I should go apologize when he gets back, huh?" Faith blinked as Buffy's words sank in. "He went to the hospital? You don't think, they'll, uh, notice?" She put her finger up to her hair, and wiggled them in imitation of Inuyasha's ears, looking more like a demented Easter bunny than a hanyou.

Shippou giggled.

"Not if he keeps his baseball cap on and stays in the waiting room like a good dog-demon," said Buffy. Privately, she was willing to bet that Inuyasha would insist on being right there in the examining room along with Kagome and the physician on duty.

"Huh." With a sense of unease, Buffy noticed that Faith was checking out Kouga. "So, um, B.? The guy with the great legs...are you sure he's a demon?"

Great, thought Buffy. I should have remembered that fighting always makes Faith really horny. "Positive. They just make 'em a little less warty in Japan. Kouga is a wolf-youkai, and the little guy, Shippou, is a fox-youkai, but a really young one. Kagome's sort of adopted him."

"And Inuyasha is a dog-demon?"

"Half-demon. I think his mom was human."

"Don't tell me Kagome adopted him, too?" Faith laughed. "Okay, so we managed to defeat the big bad. What else is there to do in this town?"

"Um, I don't suppose you'd be interested in going to a real live Japanese grocery store?" Buffy ventured. "I was thinking of picking up some food for dinner tonight."

"You've got to be kidding me." Faith fixed her with a skeptical look. "You are kidding, right?"

Buffy sighed. "Guess I'm getting boring in my old age. Not kidding, but if you wanna stay here with Miroku and Kouga, I'll take Sango."

"Nah, I'll go," Faith said, relenting. "Maybe we can talk girly Slayer stuff. You know, like the most disgusting demon we've ever killed. That sort of thing."

* * *

"So, it's true?" asked Sango, as she, Faith, and Buffy walked over to the corner market. "Taijya are supposed to fight the undead first, and rogue youkai second? But aren't youkai more dangerous?"

All things considered--and with frequent pauses in the conversation as Sango got distracted by items in the store windows they passed--the conversation between the three Slayers was going pretty well, with Buffy acting as a translator.

Shippou trotted along proudly their heels. In Kagome's absence, he had begged them to take him along, and Buffy hadn't had the heart to refuse him. He was wearing some of Souta's clothes, the cuffs of the jeans dragging on the ground and concealing the fact that none of Souta's shoes had fit his little paws. His bushy tail was hidden by an oversized jacket and an empty backpack.

"In our world, the vampires are definitely more dangerous," Buffy said, after translating Sango's comments for Faith. "They're smart, strong, and they prey on humans. Most demons--at least the ones that appear in our dimension--sort of try to blend in, and humans aren't their primary food source."

"Exterminating the undead?" chirped Shippou. "It's too bad you didn't encounter that undead miko that's Inuyasha's obsessed with. Kagome have been relieved to see you eliminate her rival. "

"Rival? Kagome has an undead rival?" Buffy asked, blinking.

"Kikyo," Sango said, quietly. "A demon sorceress resurrected her from bones and grave-soil last year. Now, Kikyou has sworn to drag Inuyasha down to hell with her, because he betrayed her in life." She shrugged. "I do not know the entire story--Inuyasha refuses to speak of it, and Kagome says very little."

"THAT Kikyo? The same one who put dog-boy under a spell for fifty years?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah," said Shippou, clenching his little fists. "I hate her. She tried to hurt Kagome, and she stole Kagome's shards and gave them to Naraku. Kagome would be happy if Kikyo died again."

"No, no," interjected Sango, thoughtfully. "Kagome-chan is too kind. She knows Inuyasha would grieve if anything happened to Kikyo, especially since he failed to protect her while she was alive, and so Kagome would never do anything to harm Kikyou. Kikyou on the other hand..." Sango's face darkened. "I despise her. She should have stayed dead!"

As she translated for Faith, Buffy considered this information in light of what she'd seen of Inuyasha and Kagome's relationship. He seemed so totally smitten with Kagome...was he really two-timing her with an undead girl?

"Does the undead chick drink blood? Faith asked.

Buffy relayed the question to Sango.

"No, she devours the souls of the dead," answered the youkai-taijya. "Mostly young girls, but I've heard she also treats the wounded after battle, and devours those who don't survive their injuries. "

"Ewww. That's even grosser than neck-biting," commented Faith. She gave Buffy's scarred throat a significant glance, and Buffy felt her face heat.

She was saved from having to reply by Shippou's excited shout: "Is this the market, Buffy?"

They went through the glass doors, and all of them--even Buffy--gawked.

How on earth am I going to find anything for dinner, when I can't even identify most of the stuff here? she thought, as they walked up the nearest aisle. It seemed to be some kind of deli section, the large refrigerator cases crowded with all kinds of food in shrink-wrapped styrofoam trays.

"Um, Sango...?" Buffy ventured, after a few stunned moments of looking over packages of something that looked like dessert. They were dyed virulent shades of pink and green. Not for the first time, she regretted that Gile's language charm didn't cover written Japanese.

Sango examined the package as if it contained about-to-hatch youkai spawn. "The writing says it is fish-cake, but the color..." she wrinkled her nose.

"Okay," said Buffy. "No fish-cake, then. Maybe, uh, grilled meat? We could get some chicken and barbeque it on a hibatchi."

They continued their exploration. Shippou dashed back and forth, bearing handfuls of lollipops, chocolate bars, and boxes of weird straw-shaped cookies dipped in chocolate.

"Pleeeeease, Buffy?" he begged each time he returned. "Please? Kagome always brings me some treats..."

Buffy, who had a younger sister and was thus immune to his big pleading eyes, shook her head, and repeated, a little less patiently than before: "One treat, Shippou. Just one. I don't want your little fangs to rot away from all the sugar."

His eyes grew huge. "It makes your teeth ROT?"

The next time he returned, the three Slayers were examining the produce section, and Buffy was feeling more than a little dizzy from the prices. Four dollars for just one apple? Granted, it was a perfect apple, and beautifully wrapped in tissue paper, but still...four dollars!

"Let's get this for Inuyasha!" The little kitsune was cradling a bag of what looked like potato chips at first glance. Then Buffy saw the picture of the dog printed on the bag.

Faith started laughing. "He wants to buy dog-treats? For the guy with the ears?"

Sango shot her an unreadable glance, then knelt to look Shippou in the eye. "Put that back, Shippou-chan," she said, very quietly and very firmly "It's not nice to treat Inuyasha like an animal."

The kitsune's eyes began to swim with tears...Manipulative little kid trick number three, thought Buffy. And from the stern look on her face, Sango wasn't buying it, either.

"But Inuyasha's always so mean to me! Why can't I be mean to him, once in a while?" wailed Shippou.

"Because, mean or not, Inuyasha is your protector, and you should treat him respectfully, like you would an older brother."

Shippou's shoulders slumped. He looked hopefully at Faith, who returned a quizzical glance. "What's he saying?"

"He wants to buy those for Inuyasha. Sango and I both think that's a bad idea," Buffy replied.

"What...the dog-demon guy doesn't have a sense of humor?"

A hundred explanations about the treatment of hanyou five hundred years ago sped through Buffy's brain, but she said only, "Kagome's the the only who can get away with teasing him. And I agree with Sango: Inuyasha's a nice kid, and I think this would hurt his feelings."

"Okay," said Faith, but Buffy noticed that she and Shippou had locked glances again.

* * *

"You smell just like Kagome!" Shippou exclaimed, delightedly, jumping shamelessly into Mrs. Higurashi's arms the moment she entered the house.

The family was finally back from the hospital. Kagome looked really out of it, and Inuyasha had her by the elbow as they entered the house. He even knelt to help her remove her shoes, Buffy noticed, approvingly.

Grandpa was sporting a cast on one arm, and Kagome's little brother looked beyond excited to meet the rest of Kagome's friends.

"You must be Shippou," Mrs. Higurashi said, hugging him and smiling. "My daughter talks about you all the time."

"Really?" demanded Shippou, his face buried in Mrs. Higurashi's neck. "What does she say?"

Before she could reply, Miroku stepped forward,.

"I am honored," he said, smoothly, taking Mrs. Higurashi's hand. "To meet the woman who has sent us so many delicious bento over the past months." He gave her his most charming smile.

Mrs. Higurashi turned pink. "Oh no, please don't mention it," she murmured.

"And may I compliment you on your two fine children? You must have been a mother at an early age--you look so youthful, Higurashi-sama!"

Oh no, thought Buffy. Don't say it, Miroku!

Inuyasha had stopped, and was regarding his friend with narrowed eyes. Kagome closed her eyes, and to Buffy it looked as if the girl were praying for patience.

Miroku clasped Mrs. Higurashi's hand even tighter. "Could I ask a favor of you? Have you ever considered bearing a third child...my child?"

The kitchen went dead-silent.

Mrs. Higurashi stared at Miroku, obviously taken aback, and Buffy saw Sango move in, ready to whap the monk upside the head.

Then Kagome's Mama smiled sweetly at Miroku. "I've heard of you, Miroku-sama," she said softly. "Aren't you the one who's always hiding in the bushes, trying to watch watch my daughter bathe?"

Score! As Inuyasha guffawed, Buffy saw Miroku's face turn a deep crimson shade that clashed with his purple overrobe.

To be continued...