InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ I'm Teaching Myself To Dream ❯ Taxi Trouble ( Chapter 10 )

I'm Teaching Myself To Dream

Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha or any of the songs, lyrics, music, all songs are work done by geniuses who I think are awesome, so please, Don't sue me please… About the scratch card/lottery thing…-________________________________________-…False alarm… Also, I'm sorry if this chapter is lame... which by the way, it is...

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I'm Teaching Myself To Dream

Chapter 10: Taxi Trouble

I still believe...I still believe...

{The scene becomes almost completely black… The music and voices are completely gone…complete silence… All you see is two silhouetted figures of faces mere millimeters apart…before the scene blacks out entirely and the dream has come to an end…}

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Inuyasha's eyes snapped open instantly. He didn't move nor did he breathe. Everything was silent except for the small boy next to him. The only thing Inuyasha could hear was Shippo's quiet steady breathing.

Inuyasha blinked a few times, not sure of what had happened. He slowly sat up, careful not to disturb Shippo. He blinked some more before bringing up his hands to rub his eyes sleepily. Suddenly he panicked, he didn't know where he was. He looked around nervously taking in his surroundings.

`Oh, yeah.' He thought. `Almost forgot.'

He slowly looked up, out through Kagome's old window. The sky was a bright blue with only a little pink. The sunrays were shining down through the glass, making the white room even brighter.

Inuyasha yawned widely before stretching his arms above his head. He slowly and quietly took the covers off of him, also uncovering Shippo, and stepped out of the bed. He headed towards the window. When he reached the window, he opened it and rested his elbows on the sill. Sighing again he stared out at the view.

To his left was the well house, and the stupid God tree was right in front of him. Suddenly the tree didn't seem so stupid anymore. He sighed heavily, obviously thinking of the dream.

`What was that all about?' He thought, knitting his brows in confusion. `Was it some kind of sign? I wanted some way to contact her…other than that blasted phone…is this his way of communicating with her?' He shook his head slightly. `She couldn't have had the same dream…could she? What if she did? What would it mean to her?' He thought about the way they looked at each other and the way the almost… `What if she feels the same way I do?' He thought hopefully, temporarily dismissing `the kiss' from his mind. `What if she doesn't?' He thought, not as hopeful. `Ugh, forget it.' He thought. All this dream mesh and sign stuff was giving him a headache.

There was a soft whimper behind him. He glanced back at the bed to find Shippo shivering from the lack of blankets despite the summer's heat. Inuyasha mentally scowled before closing the window and walking back to pull up the covers.

Once the warmth was restored, Shippo stopped shivering and snuggled peacefully into the blankets. Inuyasha shook his head at the little ten year-old and walked to the door. He carefully opened it, making sure it didn't creak.

`Wonder if Souta's awake.' He thought.

He tiptoed over to Souta's room, careful not to wake anybody up. When he reached the door that he remembered to be Souta's room, he wasn't so that that's what it actually was any more.

`What do these funny pictures mean?' Inuyasha thought scratching his head while looking at the "CAUTION" sign. `O well.'

Inuyasha quietly opened the door and instantly brought his hands up to cover his nose. He made small gagging sounds as he tried to get the awful scent out of his lungs.

`UGH! What does this kid do in his room?' He thought disgusted. `Eat parts of moldy carcasses and leave the rest to rot?'

Inuyasha saw Souta snoring peacefully on his messy bed. His feet were at the end with the headboard, one on the bed, one dangling at the side. His head was hanging off the side of the bed with one of his arms and foot, while the other parts of his body were resting on the mattress. The pillows were thrown on the floor, and the comforter and sheets were wrapped around his body messily. Oh and how could he forget…there was the slightest bit of drool sliding down his cheek from the corner of his mouth.

With his hands still on his nose, Inuyasha stepped over the million pieces of clothing, trying to make it to the window. When he reached his destination, he lifted the collar of his shirt up over his nose and took a deep breath. Now that his lungs were full of air that didn't smell like moldy carcasses, he removed his hand.

Inuyasha quickly opened the window's lock, threw open the window it's self, and pushed his head outside as fast as humanly possible. He took big, deep breaths of the fresh air. Fresh air had never smelt so good…

`Can't imagine what it'd be like to come in here while I was half-demon.' Inuyasha thought with an involuntary shudder.

Slowly and reluctantly he pulled his head back inside. With the window open, it wasn't as bad as before, but it was still VERY bad.

Waving a hand in front of his nose, Inuyasha walked over to the bed. Souta continued snoring loudly, oblivious to his surroundings.

Inuyasha poked Souta's shoulder softly but Souta didn't move. He poked him again, just a little bit harder. Nothing… Inuyasha was starting to get annoyed and poked him hard. All Souta did was give a very loud snort, causing Inuyasha to stumble backwards in surprise.

`Who knew sounds like that could come out of him…' Inuyasha thought looking at the snoring thirteen year-old, twisted in his own blankets.

"Souta." Inuyasha whispered. "Souta." He tried the poking method again, more gently this time.

"No, I don't want to go to school…" Souta mumbled in his sleep in between snores. Inuyasha had to strain to pick out words of the incoherent sentences without his demon senses. "Big test…Fail…No…" Souta said moving around on the mattress and somehow managed to turn away from Inuyasha towards the wall. Inuyasha's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"Souta." He said calmly. "Souta." He said a little more forcefully when Souta did nothing.

Souta stopped snoring and mumbled some more "no's" before covering his head with his comforter. Inuyasha glared at Souta through the fluffy blanket.

`Enough of this…' Inuyasha thought. Inuyasha slowly reached for the covers. When his fingers just barely touched the fabric, Inuyasha ripped the comforter off in one swift motion. Souta inhaled sharply from the sudden loss of warmth, and started to twist himself back up into another blanket.

"Oh no you don't!" Inuyasha said grabbing Souta's shoulders firmly to keep him from moving. Souta wiggled and squirmed in his grasp.

"No!" He mumbled. "No school, no test!" Souta said again.

"Souta! Wake up." Inuyasha said calmly. "Wake up!"

Souta stopped moving around so much, and his snores had died completely now.

"Huh?" Souta said groggily, still having his eyes closed. All he remembered was his Mom's voice telling him to wake him and make him go to school to take his algebra test. Still being half-asleep, Souta rubbed his eyes and yawned widely.

Inuyasha gagged as Souta opened his mouth and his bad morning breath filled that little section of the room. Inuyasha coughed a little once again trying to free his lungs of the horrendous smell.

"You'd think having Kagome as a sister this kid would have better personal hygiene…" Inuyasha thought out loud.

Souta didn't hear his mom's voice any more. Instead he heard a deeper, more masculine voice. It sounded familiar, but being only half-conscious wasn't enough to make the connection. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times trying to clear his vision

It was fuzzy, but he could still make some things out. He was in his room, in his bed, there was someone in front of him with long, black hair, brown eyes, the window is open…and there's someone with black hair, brown eyes in his room with an open window…Souta suddenly gasped.

"What?" Inuyasha asked, clearly confused.

Souta took a deep breath before…

"BURGULAR!" Souta yelled. "BURGULAR! HELP! HE-" Souta's screaming was interrupted when Inuyasha clasped his hand over Souta's mouth.

"It's me genius." Inuyasha said not too happily.

Souta was fully awake now and his poor little brain started to function properly again. The thousands of little men running around inside his little head were making the wheels turn, searching through ridiculous little filling cabinets, and searching the computers.

"I've got photos and information on everyone he knows with long black hair!" One tiny man said as he ran through the brain carrying a handful of photos paper-clipped to papers.

"I got info on brown eyes!" Another shouted with a stack of papers in his arms.

"You two!" A leader-like man was walking around through the stock-market type of place. "Get those reports up to Control Center! Take them to the Connection Making Room!"

"Yes sir!" Both men said in unison as they saluted and took off for the section of the brain.

When they reached the section filled with other little men, they handed the papers to the other men at the computers. The men sitting at the tiny little computers eagerly took them and began searching for a face.

"Mrs. Hachi, his first grade teacher has brown eyes, brown hair!" One man shouted.

The leader-like man had conveniently popped into the Connection Making Room and took charge again.

"Scratch her off the list!" He shouted as fifty little men rushed around the room, eliminating every person Souta had ever met that didn't have long black hair and brown eyes from "the list."

"Come on!" The leader yelled. "We're losing him!" He looked up in front of him.

In front of him was a wall. The bottom half of the wall was white, and just like any other wall, but the top half of the wall was a glass window. The glass window showed the entire inside of the brain including all the little people running around trying to find anyone they missed.

They were all in a GIANT room with mushy walls (they are in the brain) and when the leader looked straight in front of him at the GIANT wall, he'd see a giant TV screen showing him what Souta saw through his eyes.

"Come on!" He shouted again. "Faster! This person's getting as mad as a dog! I think I see him foaming at the mouth!"

"That's it!" The first man yelled holding up a piece of paper with two pictures of Inuyasha (one human, one half-demon). "I've got a match! Inuyasha! It's in the role model/hero files! Turns human once a month and for one month he's under a human spell!"

"Hurry!" The leader told him. "Send it to the NCC!"

"Yes sir!" The man saluted before running to a door at the side of the room.

When he went through the door he came to a hallway. There were about a hundred doors. He ran left for about fifteen feet before coming to a door that said "Nucleus Control Center."

He burst through the door.

"We've made the connection!" He yelled. Instantly someone was up to grab the papers and run over to a machine. Meanwhile another little man talked to the first man.

"What happened? It usually only takes this long to make a connection when he's in math class."

"Well, first of all, he had a dream about algebra. Second of all, he wasn't fully awake and most of the filing cabinets were still locked up for the night…"

"Ah." The little man said.

The man who was at the machine inserted the papers into the machine slot that said IN. The lights on the machine went from red, to yellow, to green. As soon as it went green, all the little men ran to their own little glass window, and all the men running around the little filing cabinets stopped to watch the GIANT TV screen.

Suddenly they could hear Souta's voice:

"Inuyasha?" He said.

Instantly all the little men inside of Souta's tired brain jumped up and down and screamed their happy cheers. The leader-like man was busy patting others on the back and wishing them a job well done.

"About time! What took you so long?" Inuyasha asked annoyed. Souta shrugged.

"Dunno, brain's not working right I guess." Souta said.

"Well, your brain better get working soon. We have to go to the um…the one place you said would take us to A-Me-ri-ka." Inuyasha tried to sound out the last word. Souta yawned widely.

"It's America, and the place we're going to is called an airport." He stretched. "We're packed and everything, we just need to get ready and get down there." He rubbed his eyes. "A taxi is going to come pick us up at 7:45, and our plane leaves at 8:00." Inuyasha just stared at him.

"I don't get what you just said." He said scratching his head.

"Don't worry, just leave everything to me and it'll be fine. You don't have to understand everything in this world yet, I'll teach you guys as we go." He stretched again. "What time is it anyway?"

"I can't tell remember?" Inuyasha said, annoyed that a thirteen-year-old knew more than he did.

"Oh yeah, sorry. Just turn that black box over there towards me." He said pointing to a black digital clock sitting on top of a nightstand to the right of his bed.

"I don't see any black box." Inuyasha said staring at the nightstand.

"It's underneath my clothes." Souta said calmly. Inuyasha looked at him funny.

"What?" Souta asked.

"I rip out demon's guts pretty much for a living and I still smell better than this room does…" He commented.

Souta gave him a look but Inuyasha didn't notice it. Instead he was plugging his nose searching for the little black box Souta was telling him about. When he found the little black box with the little green lights, he turned it so it would face Souta.

"Here it is." He said.

Souta looked at the box and his eyes widened. Inuyasha looked from Souta to the little black box, to Souta again.

"What?" He asked.

Souta just stared at the little digital clock.

"This is not good." He said. Meanwhile, the little men in his brain, especially the NCC, were staring, wide-eyed in fear at the TV screen. All of them were seeing the little digital clock with the lit numbers "7:29." Correction-"7:30."

Suddenly all the little men in the filing cabinet area started running around even faster, searching desperately for a solution.

"ONLY 15 MINUTES!" One man shouted.

"We're doomed! All hell is breaking loose! We're going down!" One man, who oddly resembled Takanaka, screamed.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" They all shouted.

Meanwhile, up in the Connection Making Room, the first man had returned and had witnessed what had just happened.

"What do we do, sir?" He asked the leader-like man who was just staring in pure horror at the clock on the TV screen. Suddenly he ran over to a microphone that was conveniently placed by a computer nearby, that was connected to all the speakers in the brain and screamed:

"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! This is not a drill! I repeat: This is not a drill!" He yelled. "NCC-EMERGENCY! Insert the EMERGENCY hyper-drive disk! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!" He screamed into the microphone, then when he was done, he took a step back to let all the little people at computers do their job.

"Sir? What should we do?" The first man asked again. The leader turned around to face him.

"There's nothing else we can do." He turned back to the filing cabinet area. "Except pray that everything works out and he can get everybody ready in-" He looked at the digital clock that now said 7:31. "14 minutes." He said sadly, looking at the filing cabinets burst into flames, the computers explode, and all the little men running frantically around the brain, pulling their hair out of their tiny little skulls, not having a clue of what to do.

"Is that possible?" The first man asked him, also looking at the many men run around in circles.

"I don't know." He said. "We've never had an actual emergency before. Out of thirteen years of work, I don't think this kid was ever stressed as much as he is now. It's gonna take a miracle to get all of them ready, into a taxi-remember to have someone who's still sane come up with ideas on how to do that one- and onto a plane…" He sighed. This kid's got his work cut out for him, and being the brain we're supposed to do the hard work. This is out of our league… We have to send this thing into turbo-drive…"

^_^

Souta was still staring at the little black box.

"Souta?" Inuyasha asked. He was starting to get worried. "You okay?"

Souta didn't move from his spot, eyes open in terror of this little harmless box.

`What's so frightening about this?' He thought staring at the clock. `All it is is a little black box…I don't even think I saw Souta blink yet…" He thought looking back at Souta. `Unless maybe it's got his mind under a spell! I knew this tek-no-la-gi thing was dangerous!' He moved his arms above his head and was about to pound the alarm clock when Souta screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Inuyasha jumped back in surprise, but when he looked back at the bed to see Souta, he wasn't there. Instead, Souta was running through the door, in a white tee shirt and shorts. Inuyasha ran to the door and found Souta in the hallway, banging on the walls and screaming:

"UP! UP! WE'RE LATE!"

He was running frantically back and forth, up and down the hallway trying to wake the others up, screaming all the while.

"What's wrong?" Inuyasha yelled over the banging.

"We have to get ready!" He stopped yelling when he was at Miroku's door to pound for a few seconds on the door before going to Sango's room. "We're late!"

"What's going on?" Shippo asked from the doorway of Kagome's old room. He yawned a little, still holding onto the covers from the bed, and rubbed his eyes.

"Meow." Kirara said sleepily walking out of Sango's room. Souta was running back and forth, clutching the hair on his head.

"We're late! We have thirteen minutes to get ready or we miss the plane!" He stopped running to pull at his hair harder.

"Is that a bad thing?" Inuyasha asked confused.

"YES!" Souta yelled. "I'm in the middle of a nervous breakdown here!"

"What?" Miroku stepped out of the doorway of his room. "What's happening?"

"EVERYONE! Get ready! We're late!" He said. "Get dressed! Forget showers or baths or whatever you people take! Just get dressed to go!" He said as he ran back in his room and shut the door. Noises like closet doors banging against walls were coming from the room as Souta frantically tried to find something to wear.

The others just stood there for a few seconds, wondering what they should do, when Souta screamed:

"HURRY!"

Instantly all the members went to their rooms and grabbed their new suitcases. They grabbed some clothes out as fast as they could before speedily changing into them. Shippo and Inuyasha were bouncing around the room trying to get into the unfamiliar clothes as fast as possible. Shippo especially had zipper problems on his jeans, and put his shirt on backwards. Luckily, Inuyasha informed him of this little problem.

Sango and Miroku weren't having much luck either. Sango was still adjusting to the "bra" thing, and it took her A WHILE to get it right. Miroku was rushing to put his shirt on when he somehow got his head through the wrong hole. His head made it halfway through the left armhole and got stuck.

"RGh! Guh! Gah!" Miroku tried to get his head through and run at the same time, but only succeeded in tripping over a suitcase, and falling to the ground. He scrambled around on the floor with his head stuck in the armhole, kicking his feet trying to get up. "GAH!" He gasped before stopping momentarily.

`This isn't working.' He thought frustrated. He took a deep breath and decided to just pull his head out slowly and calmly. Going fast wasn't helping. So he pushed the inside of the shirt away from him and slowly slid his head out of the hole.

`Why didn't I try that before?' He thought angrily. He moved his head into the correct hole and stood up. With a scowl on his face, he stood up and quickly zipped his suitcase closed. He grabbed his bags and headed for the door.

When he was out in the hallway, hands full of bags and suitcases, he saw Sango coming out of her room. She didn't look too happy about something, but at this point, he wasn't about to ask. Souta was out of his room and running up and down the stairs yelling:

"HURRY! GO! GO!"

Miroku was starting to wonder what they were getting themselves into. Kirara came out of Sango's room, looking very happy. Miroku could only guess that it was the fact that she didn't have to wear any clothes being a cat.

Back in Kagome's old room, Shippo had put all his bags down stairs by the door like Souta said. In Kagome's room, Inuyasha was finishing packing up a few things in his extremely large suitcase. He dropped in a few items before going to the closet, leaving the open suitcase on the bed. Shippo walked up the stairs to said room, to tell Inuyasha that Souta said the "Tax-see" would be here soon. He saw Inuyasha inside the closet going through the meaningless items, and saw a large, open suitcase on the bed. Shippo walked over to the suitcase and looked inside.

"Geese! He's so messy!" He said quietly to myself. He looked back at Inuyasha who was going through the closet, oblivious to Shippo. Shippo shrugged before tidying up the piles of clothes in Inuyasha's suitcase. Only they kept getting messed up again. "This is pointless." He said to himself. He jumped up onto the bed to work from there, but to no avail. "Stupid Inuyasha…Doesn't know how to keep things clean…" He scowled. He glanced up again at Inuyasha, only to see him busily occupied with his work of trying to find anything else to bring. He swiftly hopped into the open, but crowded suitcase. There he began tidying up, with much more ease.

"Finally." He said. He was so absorbed in his work that he didn't notice the top of the suitcase fall down on top of him, until it was too late. Squished inside the suitcase, Shippo tried pushing the top back up, but it didn't work. "Uh, Inuyasha?" He called. "A little help? Please?" But Inuyasha didn't hear the little boy's muffled cry without his demon hearing. Instead he casually walked over to the suitcase (empty-handed), and just when Shippo thought he was saved, Inuyasha zipped it up. Shippo's eyes widened.

"Inuyasha?" He called again. This time Inuyasha stopped, but only for a moment. He listened intently, but heard nothing.

"Swore I heard something." He said. As he swung the backpack over his shoulder. He started to pull the suitcase off the bed with one hand but quickly brought his other hand to help. Struggling and grunting, he tried to pick it up. "Heavy, stupid, weak, human. Can't do anything…" Finally he got it off the bed and headed to the door. As he opened the door, he looked back at Kagome's old room.

`So plain…so empty.' He thought sadly. He scanned the room for anything that would remind him of Kagome. The only thing was the tree outside the window. If a total stranger were to come by and see the room, they never would have known Kagome had lived in the room just a few years before…

Inuyasha sighed. The others still didn't know why Kagome and he got in such a big fight. He figured he'd probably have to tell them soon though…considering they were going to see her in a matter of days…

There were so many questions he wanted to ask her, so many things he wanted to know. He sighed again, something he seemed to be doing a lot these days. Kagome used to sigh at him, used to act like he was a child, and she was a parent…And in some ways, she was. She constantly took care of him, worried sick over him, and-he looked down at the unused prayer beads-let's not forget scolded him sometimes.

Ever since the well sealed, she hadn't been there for him. He was like an orphaned child all over again. Shippo and the others were there for him, but not like Kagome was. And what had he been doing while she was away? Nothing. Well, moping, sulking, and brooding, but nothing productive.

He got all the shards in the feudal era… Didn't get Naraku yet though, and believe it or not, Kikyo was still roaming the Earth. But the shards, Naraku, and… Kikyo, were just things to vent all his frustration out on. He could care less about the jewel shards… but he'd already played this little piece of information out in his mind millions of times.

He sighed, yet again and headed out into the hallway. Miroku and Sango were down the stairs and waiting at the door with their bags. As Inuyasha walked down the stairs, Miroku looked up from the doorway and waved for him to quicken his pace. Inuyasha didn't go any faster, but he didn't go any slower. He just continued casually walking down the stairs, suitcase in hand.

Miroku gave him a look, but Inuyasha didn't notice. Inuyasha's mind was still thinking about other things. Miroku nodded to Sango before going outside to calm the very nervous thirteen-year-old that was starting to hyperventilate. Sango watched the monk go outside before turning to Inuyasha.

"Did you see Shippo anywhere?" She asked.

"No, but the twerp's bags are right here." He looked down at his feet where Shippo's bags sat. "Knowing the little runt, he probably just went to go get some food or something." He said.

Sango nodded, not really believing that's where Shippo went. But then again, he was known to like food. She looked outside to see Miroku telling Souta to take nice, big breaths. Needless to say, they weren't being very successful. She shook her head slightly before walking out the door to where they stood on the sidewalk.

Inuyasha saw this and decided he'd better go help too. He dropped his suitcase upright on the ground next to him, none too carefully I might add, and walked out the door following Sango.

Inside the suitcase, Shippo grunted as his head was introduced in a not so pleasant way to the hardwood floor.

"Ow." He said. "Stupid bully." He commented. He rubbed his head in the tight space in which he was trapped, and tried to call for help. "Anyone?" He called. "Sango? Miroku? Inuyasha? Anybody?" He rocked the suitcase a little trying to grab anyone's attention. "Anybody?" He said again, rocking the suitcase harder this time. "HELLO?" He said, rocking the suitcase immensely. The suitcase had enough of this torment and just decided to fall over. Shippo, still being inside the suitcase, went with it. "Ah!" He squeaked, before landing with a thud on his side. "Ooooooow." He moaned.

Outside the suitcase, the cream-colored kitten watched the little suitcase episode with odd, mild amusement. She tilted her head as the suitcase called for help to her, and as it began to rock back and forth. Turning her head to the other side, she watched it fall to the ground and then say "Ow." Kirara went over to the suitcase, sniffing it carefully.

Inside the suitcase, Shippo thought he heard footsteps.

`Can see why Inuyasha misses his demon senses.' He thought with a scowl. `Can't hear a darn thing…'

"Hello?" He called, praying that someone was there. Kirara jumped back in surprise.

"Meow?" Kirara said.

Author's note: "Meow?" is roughly translated to: Who are you, and why do you have the ability to speak when you are just an inanimate object?

"Kirara?" Shippo asked, but it was kind of a dumb question. How many beings did he know that would say "meow"? "Help me out of here! It's me, Shippo!"

Kirara circled the suitcase, looking for a zipper. When she found what she was looking for, she bit the end of it, and pulled gently. When the suitcase was open, Shippo burst open the top and gasped for fresh air. Taking in deep breaths, much like what Souta was trying to do outside, he filled his lungs with oxygen.

"That stupid bully! When I get my hands on him!" Shippo held up a fist and punched the air anxiously, demonstrating what he was going to do to Inuyasha. Or at least what he would do if it was possible, but being his size, and Inuyasha being bigger, it wasn't possible.

Shippo climbed out of the suitcase not bothering to tidy up, he was done with helping Inuyasha clean. He did however close the top of the suitcase and zip it up. He left it on its side, and walked out the door. Out on the sidewalk, Souta had regained his normal breathing pattern and was ready for the many adventures and challenges of bringing people from feudal Japan to the modern world. At least he hoped so…

"Okay." Souta said. "We have to grab our bags and go down to the road. That's where the taxi will pick us up."

"Pick… us up?" Inuyasha asked. Just so slow sometimes.

"Not literally. We're just going to get into the little car, and it'll drive us to the airport. There we'll get on the plane, and it'll take us to Hawaii." He started walking towards the door. "It'll be here any minute. Grab your bags and follow me." Souta jogged into the house and grabbed his bags, passing Shippo on the way. Shippo stopped walking and looked behind him at Souta who was walking back into the house. He watched as the others did the same.

"Where's everybody going?" He asked himself. He quickly followed them. When he reached the small steps to the house, Inuyasha passed him, suitcases in hand. Shippo watched him head for the many sets of steps at the end of the sidewalk. He then watched the others, except Souta follow him, also with their suitcases. "Hello? Where are you guys going?"

"Grab your bags Shippo, we're going to leave soon." Sango told him as she continued walking with others towards the steps. Shippo shrugged, before he walked into the house and picked up his bags. He swung the suitcase over his shoulder and took his rolling suitcase with him to the door. He looked back at the house, seeing Souta standing in the living room alone.

"Come on Souta. Why are you just standing there? We gotta go see Kagome!" He said anxiously.

"Hold on." Souta said biting his lower lip. "I feel like I'm forgetting something." He shook his head a little.

"Like what?" Shippo asked.

"I don't know." Souta said.

At that moment Kirara walked through the doorway that Shippo was standing in.

"Meow." Kirara said.

Author's Note: "Meow" is translated to "Hurry, we must make our departure from this shrine or we will be unable to reunite with our friend Kagome again."

Suddenly, Souta's eyes lit up. He directed his full attention towards Kirara. Kirara was surprised and suddenly got the feeling that whatever Souta was thinking, wasn't going to be good for her.

"That's it!" Souta triumphantly snapped his fingers in the air. Then his face went from a victorious expression to an apologetic look. "That's it." He said with less enthusiasm.

"What's it?" Shippo asked. Kirara was suddenly too afraid to meow.

"Well uh," Souta started. "You see, the airport… They have a thing, um… A rule about animals who board the plane…" Souta started.

"Souta!" Sango called from outside. She ran up the steps and stood with Shippo in the doorway. "I thought you said we had to leave soon." She looked around the room to see a very frightened looking Kirara. "What's wrong with Kirara?" She asked.

"I was just telling her about the airport's rules for animals." He said.

"You mean-she won't be able to go?" Sango asked fearfully as she went over and crouched down next to Kirara.

"No, she'll be able to go. It's just that, she won't be able to ride with us." He said apologetically.

"Well," Sango said looking down at Kirara. "Where will she ride then?" She looked back up at Souta.

"Um… Well, after Buyo, our cat, died, we kept some of his stuff." He started. "We still have his traveling things, so she could ride in there."

"Oh, that doesn't sound too bad. What were some of your cat's traveling things?" Sango asked.

"Well, uh…" He trailed off as he looked in the corner of the living room where a small animal carrying crate sat.

"She's has to ride in that thing?!" She exclaimed.

"Fraid so…" Souta said.

^_^

"There's no way I was about to let her ride in that thing." Sango said as she stood on the sidewalk by the road. "Absolutely no way."

"Just hope they don't find her. If they do, we might not make it to Oahu." Souta said. He was going over the imaginary checklist in his mind…

`All lights, electronics, and appliances off in the house. Check. Doors and windows locked. Check. Thermostat off. Check. No metal on us.' He remembered making sure that none of them had any metal on them for when they went through the airport's security. `Kirara in crate.' He looked at Sango's coat. In the center was a ridiculous large looking bump that happened to be moving.

"Kirara, stop moving please." Sango told the bump.

"Meow." Said the bump.

Souta sweat-dropped anime style and then sighed.

`Kirara in crate.' He looked at the bump. `Compromised.'

Shippo was sitting on his suitcase with his eyes closed and arms folded, much like Inuyasha's famous pose. He was deliberately choosing not to talk to Inuyasha, apparently he was still upset about the little `suitcase episode'.

Miroku was very interested in a piece of lint that happened to be on his shirt, and started picking it off. Inuyasha was just leaning against one of the railings to the steps, staring out at the streets thoughtfully with his arms folded. Sango was trying to find a way to make the bump look a little less unnatural, if possible. And no, she wasn't having much success.

"Are you sure all of our things will be alright here?" Sango asked.

"Yeah," Souta said. I even left a note for my mom telling her what happened… Although I don't know how she'll react to finding out I took four people and a kitten from the past to Hawaii…" Souta thought for a minute, but was snapped out of his thoughts when Inuyasha asked him a question.

"When is the thing gonna get here?" Inuyasha asked impatiently. Souta looked at his watch.

"It should be here any minute." Souta said. "I can't believe we got ready in time. Talk about miracles."

It sounded so easy to Souta now. From here on out, they would only have few difficulties and overall things would go smoothly. They'd get in the taxi, he'd give the airport his extra tickets, and they'd be on their way to Hawaii in one of Kagome's private jets… They'd have to get in the taxi. Souta sighed angrily. There's always something that makes it hard. How was he supposed to get a bunch of people from the feudal era into a taxi, let alone a plane?

`Okay, Souta think.' He thought rubbing his forehead. `You can do this. You took them shopping, you let them watch Scream and the Lion King in one night, getting them in a taxi shouldn't be complicated.' He looked at the gang. Sango was still fiddling with the bump, otherwise known as Kirara. Miroku was oddly interested in the lint, Shippo somewhat resembled Inuyasha as he sat on his suitcase, and Inuyasha was impatiently tapping his foot. `Well, not too complicated anyway.' Souta looked around the empty street and then his watch. `7:44.' He looked up at the street again. "Come on." He whispered anxiously.

Then he saw it. The taxi was only a normal, little, yellow taxi, but to him at that moment it was a sign from god. He looked up at the sky, held up his hands and said:

"Finally!" Souta turned to face the gang. They were all looking at him expectantly.

"Well?" Inuyasha said. "Where is it?"

"It's just down the road." He told him. "Now guy, remember: If I'm not freaking out, you guys don't have to freak out. Okay? If I'm fine, then there's nothing to worry about."

"What about this morning?" Shippo asked innocently. "You weren't fine this morning."

"Well," Souta laughed embarrassed. "That wasn't really all my fault. My alarm clock never went off-"

"Alarm clock?" Shippo asked.

"I'll explain later." Souta said, all this explaining was exhausting. "Anyway, when we get in the taxi, or get on the plane, or go through security for that matter," Souta paused. "I'll explain the stuff to you and you won't have to worry." He said.

`Course I'll be the one worrying.' Souta sighed softly, too quiet for the others to hear. `I'm gonna have worry wrinkles by the time I'm fifteen.'

"Alright. Here it is." Souta said as the Taxi pulled up to the shrine's steps. "Remember guys, If I'm fine, everything's alright." Souta said. "Stay here for just a sec." He walked to the driver's window. He told the driver that they needed to go to the airport and then the driver told Souta what the cost was.

"But that's not what the cab company said on the phone!" Souta exclaimed.

"On the phone we only discussed driving one person." The Driver said calmly.

"More money for more people? We're all going to the same destination! This is ridiculous!" Souta said.

The driver shrugged and pointed his thumb to the back. Souta scoffed angrily before walking over to the trunk. He lifted up the trunk's door and then nodded for the others to come over. The gang walked over to Souta with their bags.

"Put them in here." Said Souta. "When we get to the airport we can take them out, but they'll be safe in here while we're riding to the airport." The gang put their bags in one at a time, then they stood around Souta, looking unsure. "What?" Souta asked.

"We have to…" Said Shippo. "Get in that thing?"

"Don't worry, it'll be fine." Souta said encouragingly.

"It smells funny." Shippo complained. He put his hand up to his nose. "And I don't even have my demon sense of smell."

"Well, there's a lot of these here." Souta said looking at the car. "If you want to see Kagome again, you'll have to get used to it." Souta smiled, just a little. But it was enough to make Shippo smiled too. "Come on guys. You traveled 500 years in the future, you went shopping at the mall… Don't let the taxi stop you…"

The gang exchanged glances with each other before smiling. Souta opened the door to the backseats. It went Sango (plus Kirara), Miroku, Shippo and Inuyasha. Shippo had to sit on Inuyasha's lap, much to his annoyance to make room. It wouldn't have been such a problem if Shippo were demon size again, but instead, he was a fairly heavy ten-year-old.

Souta got in the front seat of the taxi after showing the gang how to properly "buckle up." When he was finally done, the driver gave him a weird look, but Souta didn't notice.

`Crazy people today…' The driver thought. `Don't know how to fasten their seat belts… They mental or something?' He glanced back at the gang, who were talking quietly about pizza and the mall thing. `Don't look like it…' He sighed a heavy sigh before putting the car in gear. As he drove down the road, he thought about his job. `Should've listen to ma and gone to law school… But no0o0o0o0o0o… I wanted to be a professional cab driver like in all the movies…' He thought angrily.

Suddenly the driver heard the conversation between the odd people cease. Then he heard the one with a weird looking necklace on say something that made him look at Souta.

"Souta," Inuyasha said. "What exactly is this "plane" thing we have to go on again?"

Souta laughed nervously before turning to the driver.

"Heh heh, he's kidding. It's role-play… They're uh, pretending that they're aliens from the moon that have never seen our… technology… Heh heh." Souta sweat-dropped.

`Kids.' Thought the driver annoyed.

"Sure, whatever kid." He said sounding bored.

Souta sighed with relief before telling the gang that'd he explain what it was when they got there.

The driver listened to their conversation for the first few seconds before thinking:

`I hate my life.'

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ello, I'm sorry if the little men in the brain thing was lame. I just watched an episode of Spongebob that had something like that… enough said. It just occurred to me that I never did a disclaimer for Leo… The character Leo is mine, but the name Leo Wyatt, is something I got off a Charmed. So there! No one can tell me I stole it now! Well, no one did yet actually…o well. I've said it before, and I'll say it again…I'm lame.

Also, someone told me (thank you by the way) that there's a guy named Joe, that drives a limo in the book called Paradise, I think it was… He was also a crazy driver, just like Kagome's driver is. Anyway, I had no knowledge of this (The only novels I'm not too lazy to read are the ones written by Stephen King), and I just remembered that in The Princess Diaries, there's also ANOTHER limo driver named Joe… What is it with Joe's being limo drivers? I swear… Anyway, until next time, (KC) kcook220