InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Love Ain't Forgotten Easily ❯ Pancakes ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3

Kagome stretched, feeling a fuzzy something tickle her arm. Startled, she looked down and it took her a moment to remember Shippo.

His eyes blinked open sleepily. “Kagome?” he murmured.

“Good morning, Shippo.” She smiled at him, remembering Inu-Yasha's words about how the boy might be distant.

He grinned back and pounced on her stomach, making her giggle. “Do I get to meet the rest of the people who live here now?”

Oh, yeah, how am I going to explain this? “Uh, Shippo?”

“Yeah?” He looked at her curiously.

“What tricks was Inu-Yasha talking about last night?” If she remembered right, kitsune were known for being shape-shifters.

“Like this!” He placed a leaf on top of his head, cried “Multiply!” and, quite suddenly, the room was full of Shippos.

“Ahh!” She jumped, causing the boy to tumble off of her. Instantly the others disappeared and she was left with one giggling kitsune child.

“Neat, huh?” he said, looking up at her from his upside-down position.

“Yeah,” she agreed, nodding and reaching down to right him. “Uh, hey, Shippo?”

“Hm?” He looked up at her, cheerful like any normal child.

“Can you make it so it looks like you don't have a tail?”

“You want me to look like a human so your family won't get scared?”

“How'd you know?”

“Not many humans are as accepting as you are.” He placed another leaf on his head, muttered something, and his tail, fox paws, and pointy ears were gone. He now looked the part of a four-or-five-year-old human boy. “Can I meet them now?”

“Yes you can.” She smiled, and picked him up. “Normally I wouldn't ask, but we don't want to give old Jii-chan a heart attack first thing in the morning, do we?”

“Nope!” Shippo shook his head adamantly as they made their way to the kitchen.

They were in the front hall when she realized she had no idea where the kitchen was. “Hey, Shippo, I don't suppose you know where the kitchen is, do you?”

“Huh?” He looked at her. “Oh. It's to the left of the staircase.”

“Thank you!” She hugged him, then made her way to the doorway.

Before she could reach it, however, the doorknob shot out of its socket and bounced off the wall behind her. Then the hinges went, causing it to fall.

“Uh-oh.” Shippo paled. “Inu-Yasha's in a bad mood.”

“Hm.” Determinedly, she strode into the kitchen. There was no one there yet, but the cupboard, refrigerator/freezer, and oven doors and drawers were banging open and shut, the stove was turning off and on, the dishes were dancing across the counter, the lights were flickering—all symptoms of a ghost inhabitant.

“Inu-Yasha, stop!” she shouted. Immediately movement ceased.

A very ticked-off-looking ghost in red appeared before her, seemingly out of thin air. “What do you want, wench?” he barked.

“For you to stop making this racket,” she said sternly. “Now listen. We aren't moving out of this house; it cost Mom and Dad a lot of money, and we aren't about to scram because of some spooky `occurrences.' So just stop, okay?”

“Feh.” He stared at her. “You'll be surprised what I can do.”

“Inu-Yasha, please don't make her move out.” It was Shippo, using his most adorable expression (the one that actually works on Inu-Yasha).

“Huh?” He raised an eyebrow at the kid. “Are you attached to her already?”

Shippo folded his arms. “Yeah. What of it?”

If Inu-Yasha had been corporeal, he would have ruffled the kid's hair. But, as he wasn't, he had to settle for a smirk. “Finally grew a backbone, eh, squirt?”

“Yeah. I want Kagome to stay.”

“Okay, but—” He held up a finger. “I want to do the haunting every now and then, got it? Just to remind them that I live here too.”

“Okay, but don't scare Jii-chan too much. He's got a bad heart, and he might try to use some of his scrolls on you.”

“What about the other brat?”

“Sota? Didn't you get him enough yesterday?”

“So he was scared by my little light trick?”

“Terrified, Inu-Yasha. I think he needs a break.” She grinned. “Try Dad. He's unflappable. But do it while the rest of us are around, okay?”

“Got it.” He vanished, leaving Kagome and Shippo alone in the kitchen.

“Well.” She looked down at the boy in her arms. “Are you hungry?”

“Yes!” Shippo looked up at her expectantly, his tail reappearing in the excitement.

Kagome laughed. “Not that it isn't adorable, but lose the tail.”

“Sorry.” It faded away again. “Do you have flapjacks?”

“What? Oh, pancakes!” She set him down on the counter. “I don't know. Why don't we see if we have the mix?”

“Mix?” he repeated, confused.

“Just help me look for a box with the word `pancakes' on it, okay?” She opened one of the cupboards.

“Oh! All right.” Shippo stood, but had to stretch in order to reach the cupboard.

Inu-Yasha became visible, but only to Shippo. “Cupboard on the end, second shelf,” he whispered, leaving sight again.

The kitsune shut the cabinet he was in, and went to the one indicated. He managed to swing the door open, but had to climb onto the bottom shelf in order to reach the top.

“Kagome! I found the box!” he called seconds before slipping. “Ahh!”

“Shippo!” Kagome took off toward him, knowing she couldn't get there before he hurt something but determined to try.

She needn't have worried.

A cooking mitt had flown out of a nearby drawer to catch the small boy, and it was now floating in midair.

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Inu-Yasha.”

The youkai appeared, his hand under the mitt. He set Shippo down on the counter and sent the glove flying back to its proper place.

Finding Shippo to be fine, she took the boxes of pancake mix from him. Inu-Yasha floated up and sat next to the boy, watching Kagome as she started her work.

“Hey, Inu-Yasha,” she said, pouring the water into a bowl.

“Yeah? What do you want, wench?”

“How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Float things…and yourself?”

He shrugged. “Ghost power. I guess whoever created specters felt sorry for our inability to touch anything, so they gave us telekinesis instead.”

“But how do you sit like you are now?”

“I'm making myself float. I've just been a ghost for so long, it's second nature.”

She nodded, pouring the batter onto the hot griddle. Shippo crawled over and watched her work, practically drooling.

Silence reigned for a few moments.

“Inu-Yasha?”

“Wench?”

“It's Kagome. Can other people see you?”

There was a pause. “No humans before you. Youkai and animals can.”

“Why do you suppose that is?”

“Maybe you have that `sixth sense' thing.”

“Hm.” She returned to her task in front of her, flipping one of the pancakes so it was perfectly done. “Ha!” She turned to Shippo. “If you go get a plate, you can have this first one. I suppose you haven't had anything like this for a while, huh?”

“You're lucky to get anything decent around here.” Inu-Yasha opened one of the cabinet doors next to his head and floated a plate to Shippo. He then motioned the drawer in front of Shippo open wide enough for the boy to grab a fork.

“What were you doing, memorizing the layout this morning?” Kagome slipped the pancake onto Shippo's plate.

“Yup.” He opened the refrigerator and placed the syrup in front of the two. He then floated the jug of milk and a glass next to her. “But watch this.”

He opened it, but instead of the milk going straight into the glass, it swirled about into little loops and shapes before landing.

“Hey, how come you never showed me that before?” Shippo asked, picking up the glass and inspecting it.

“I did, when you first came here. I showed you with the water, remember?”

“Oh, yeah.” Shippo attacked the pancake. Kagome had poured on the syrup during Inu-Yasha's milk show.

She returned to her job, and soon found Inu-Yasha helping her.

“You have good timing,” she remarked, watching another pancake turn, perfectly brown. “But once my family gets here, you'll have to quit. I don't think they'll understand flying flapjacks.”

“Then I'll just tell you when they're done.” He jumped off the counter. “They're coming, anyway. So, do you want me to get your father this morning?”

“Yeah, why not?” She shrugged. “It'll be less like a haunting since he's not fully awake, but you can get that later.”

Shippo looked up from his third pancake. His face and fingers were sticky; it appeared that he had a fondness for loads of syrup.

***

“Kagome…” Hiroshi and Komiko Higurashi both stared at their daughter and the strange boy in her arms.

Sota and Jii-chan didn't care; they were more interested in pancakes.

“Mom, Dad, this is Shippo. Now please listen. He's an orphan who's been living since his parents died. That was a long time ago, and nobody's been taking care of him, and we've got all this extra room anyway—”

“He can stay, Kagome, we just wanted to know why you didn't show him to us earlier!” Komiko grabbed Shippo from her and hugged him tightly.

This seems to be happening a lot, he thought, shaking hands with Hiroshi. At least he didn't hug me.

He was handed back to Kagome, who set him next to the griddle as she finished up her last few pancakes. Inu-Yasha was standing next to her, `helping.'

When she finally took her seat at the table, Shippo hopped into a chair next to her (he disappeared), and Inu-Yasha stood beside her. She gave him an imperceptible nod, and the games began.

Hiroshi reached for his coffee cup, but it backed away, making him lean farther and farther over until he was almost flat on the table.

“Are you all right?” Komiko asked, watching him.

“Guess my cup slipped.” He caught it, and brought it back to him.

Kagome grinned behind her mouthful. Shippo was peering over the edge, giggling quietly. Inu-Yasha was only smirking.

Next he made the silverware float away while the lights flickered.

“We have really got to get the electricity fixed.” Hiroshi grabbed his fork, not even noticing its levitating an inch or so above the tabletop.

“Now for the fun part.” The ghost grinned.

The next instant, the pancakes were floating about. They all watched as the food started swirling about above their heads. Kagome and Shippo were giggling, which Sota joined in on, but the adults were unnerved.

And Inu-Yasha? He was having a great time, making the flapjacks dart at the stunned adults and making one zoom into Kagome's open mouth. She didn't choke, but had to cough a bit to get it down. Yet she still giggled like crazy.

“So what do you guys think of our ghost?” she asked.

“Kagome! Did you rig this up somehow?”

“Yep!” Even if I had decided to give Inu-Yasha away, they wouldn't believe there was a ghost in our house. So better just to make them think it was me.