InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ On a Leash ❯ Meeting the Family ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two: Meeting the Family

Being torn away from the mini-shrine, Inuyasha trotted after Kagome, taking frequent, backwards glances. What the hell is in there? He didn't get time ponder. He was led up onto a stone landing where the girl removed her loafers and gently tucked them away from the elements.

She smiled at him as she slid open the backdoor to her home. Seated in this room, presumably a dining room/living room was a young boy with black hair and dark brown eyes. "Hey, Souta," she called out to the child on the floor with a big, fat cat in his lap.

"Hey, Kagome! Happy birthday!" Feline forgotten, he jumped up-the animal landing with a comical belly flop and thump-and hugged his sister round the waist.

She giggled, heeling the pooch at her side with a firm tug on the chain link leash; Inuyasha obediently sat on his rump. They really must've of thought he was terrible if they gave me such a strong leash…. With one arm, she embraced her little brother. "Thanks. Where's Mom and Gramps?" Her cobalt eyes scanned the room for the aforementioned family members.

Releasing his sister, Souta replied, "I think they're in the kitchen talking. I was playing with Buyo."

"Buyo?" Inuyasha woofed quietly, tipping his head in question. Ocher orbs rested on the cat now sprawled over the length of the couch. "You mean that corpulent fur ball has a name?" He ceased his solitary interrogation with a snort when he found himself eye level with the young boy. "What?" he huffed.

"Wow, Sis. What a cool looking dog!" Souta exclaimed gently scratching the dog on the head for a moment.

Sighing, Inuyasha let the kid do as he pleased; he was being fairly mild, after all. I normally don't like people touching me, especially not the ears but…maybe I'm getting soft from being in this form so long…. Deciding that was the reason on which he'd allowed the wench to caress his precious, fuzzy triangles, he walked along with her when prompted to do so, the boy trailing not far behind.

The demon-turned-doggy found the carpet nice against his paws as he was taken to an adequate sized kitchen where an old man in priest's garb-he smelled kind of funny-and a kind-faced woman sat across from him at the table. White tile lined the floor, and the room looked like any other kitchen with wood cabinets and white counters.

"Oh, he's adorable, Kagome," the woman said, rising from her seat.

The girl smiled. "Isn't he though?"

"Keh, I am not adorable…."

"Mom, Gramps, Souta, I want you all to meet Inuyasha."

"Hello, Inuyasha," Mama murmured, leaning over to peer at the dog, hands resting on her thighs. "He's got such dazzling eyes and coat."

The hanyou's ego, having been fed, puffed him self up and did his cute act which consisted of rolling on his back, standing on his hind legs to shake, and doing the ever-popular head-tilt. Hey, it's not like they understand much else…they haven't an idea what I'm saying…. Besides, what's wrong with getting a compliment…? His tail wagged happily as his pink tongue hung out while he panted in his seated position.

Gramps, after a few seconds of apprehension, patted the new pet with a smile.

Since he couldn't do much else in this form, Inuyasha went with the flow; no reason to snap at these people. They all seemed nice enough, even if they lived in a shrine. It'd been a while since he'd gotten any real attention, so why spoil it? No one would ever know he'd enjoyed it. "It's not like I've got much hope getting this collar off any time soon…." He sighed softly to himself as all but Kagome went back to their normal doings, mutterings of a small birthday party flying about the room. "If I could fucking talk at least, I could tell this wench to remove this wretched thing but…nope…."

"Come on, Inuyasha," she cheerfully bubbled, leading him out of the room and up a flight of stairs.

"Yeah, yeah. Coming, girl."

She opened the door to a bedroom-he figured it was hers as the girl's scent was all over the place-and he peeked around, edging in a bit. The walls where pretty bare; a bookshelf sat in one corner with a creeper plant on top and a few knickknacks. There was a desk with some more school books laying on it in addition to a pencil holder. Against a wall, a window not far off to the left-from his perspective-was a bed with pink coverlets and a couple pillows.

"This is my room. You're going to staying in here with me." Kagome knelt down beside Inuyasha and unclipped the leash from his black leather collar; it looked almost scaly. She began rubbing behind his ears vigorously, but not harshly.

"O-o-oh…yeah…" the hanyou blissfully groaned. He could sense the urge to make that deep, resonating dog-purr far down in his throat and didn't fight against it as his body relaxed and he lay down beside her. In the same way, when his hind leg lifted and started scratching against his side of its own accord-thumping on the floor a bit-, he didn't attempt to impede its actions. He was taken aback, however, when the girl nuzzled him in the face with her cheek; she stopped so quickly that he didn't have the chance to bark his protest at her.

Yet, somehow, this girl was the 'chosen one' deemed worthy enough to grace his ears…why? Because she gave one hell of a rub, that's why!

She scooted away from him over by a desk. Pulling out some books from a small, black school case near it, she straightened up and reseated herself on the chair to her left. "You're going to have to wait for a bit; I've got school work to do," she said, giving her books a straightening tap on the desktop.

"SCHOOL WORK! What in seven hells are teachers assigning to students these days?" Inuyasha got up and trotted over to the window where he placed his front paws on the ledge of the sliding window and peered out at the dusky sky. "It's already evening and you STILL have work to do?! That's ludicrous! I heard that schools have gotten stricter since I was in school but this is ridiculous…." Glancing over at the girl, who was avidly working on some homework, the dog slumped to the floor in a defeated heap. Resting his head on his paws, he began drifting his eyes closed. Guess all I can do is get some sleep….

An hour or two slipped by as Kagome did the last problem on her English assignment. She finally tore her tired eyes away from the world of black-and-white and gazed at her dog. A small smile crept over her lips. "What a handsome boy…" she murmured, moving away from her completed work and over to the dozing pup. She sat back on her heels as she stroked his side.

Incited from his frightful reverie, when his own gaze landed on the girl, he barked out, in muffled alarm, "K-Kikyou!"

"Inuyasha?" inquired Kagome softly, still rubbing him, recovering quickly from being startled. "Are you all right?"

He blinked for a second prior to looking away and breathing in deeply. "Yeah…fine…fine…" was his shaky response.

His new mistress continued her tender ministrations to his silken body with a quiet grin that put Inuyasha at ease. Her fingers were nimble and gentle, and she seemed to know where all the sore spots that needed to be remedied were. She hummed in a beautiful, still way that trod nicely in his super sensitive ears that he found himself humming along in that low doggy-purring-or friendly growling as he preferred to call it. Before long, he found that half an hour had zoomed by and he could smell something good coming from down stairs.

The girl appeared to notice the pleasant aroma, too as she took a little sniff. "Are you hungry, Inuyasha?" she asked sweetly, patting him on the head, looking into his eyes.

He gave a bark in response, staring back into the girl's stormy orbs. "Does my name mean 'dog demon'? Of course I'm hungry!" Tipping his head to one side, Inuyasha thought, This wench actually has really pretty eyes…for a bitch, that is….

Kagome shook her head. "Dumb question. Come on. I'm sure Mama's got some food for you." Slapping her leg and making a clicking sound, the girl motioned for the dog to follow.

Figuring that there was no problem with going after her, Inuyasha scampered down the stairs. "It better not be dog food, it better not be dog food…" he chanted silently to himself.

Damn.

On the floor was a stainless-steel bowl with-what else?-dog food in it.

Inuyasha trotted over to it and gawked incredulously at Kagome. "You have GOT to be kidding me."

She didn't notice and sat down at the table dog boy had seen her grandfather and mother at earlier. There was some food already placed on it, and Mama came sweeping passed him, napkins and chopsticks clasped in her fists. Souta bounded in and sat beside his sister, while Gramps sat across from them.

Staring longingly at the delicious smelling oden and roasted fish, the hanyou-in-a-dog-suit sighed and slumped underneath the table. "Like hell I'm gong to eat that slop. I'd rather starve…I didn't like it when that bitch Kikyou fed me it, and I still don't like it…."

The normal dinner conversation ensued after a few moments. About five minutes went by, Inuyasha still moping on the cold tile, when a hand came down with a large hunk of fish clasped in it. The scent danced its way into his nostrils, and he perked his snout up to take a deeper inhalation. Ambry eyes flicking open, Inuyasha soundlessly rose to all fours and made his way to the feminine hand that he recognized as Kagome's. He ran his pink tongue over his chops before taking hold of the tasty morsel and settling at the girl's feet, taking his time in devouring it.

"So, how was school today, Souta?" Mama asked, handing her son the soy sauce.

He snatched it out of her hand and generously added it to his fish and white rice prior to answering. "Not much. Kohaku and I are entering a project for science fair this year."

"Really? What are you planning on doing?"

Grinning broadly, the boy elaborated, "We were thinking of doing a volcano, but Mr. Yoshida suggested-"

Kagome's insane giggling fit broke Souta's sentence and he frowned at her.

"Higurashi Kagome!" her mother scolded. "That's not polite to laugh at your younger brother's idea, even if it is your birthday!"

Souta nodded vigorously, shooting daggers at her.

Immediately, she ceased, though a smile worked its way over her face; it was a mix of sheepish embarrassment and nervousness. "Um, sorry, Souta, I wasn't laughing at you, really! I was remembering that, um, we were supposed to be building volcanoes last year in class, and Yuka and Eri's blew up in their face; Sango and I got sprayed…. Sorry…."

"Is that all?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, giving her daughter a calculating look.

She bobbed her head. "Yeah…." Beneath the table, she wiggled her fingers as Inuyasha's sultry tongue continued to try and cleanse her of any lingering fish flavor; waste not, want not, he figured. After a bit of a struggle with the stubborn dog, she managed to shimmy her digits away to the safety of the blue cloth napkin on her lap. Having finished her supper, Kagome drew her hand fully away from her dog, who'd begun to advance towards her lap, nose in overdrive, very much to his displeasure, and gathered her dirty dishes. She excused herself and bustled into the kitchen; Inuyasha emerged from underneath the table, hot on her heels.

The girl rinsed her bowl out and did the same with her chopsticks. She glanced down when she felt a warm weight near the back of her legs. "Hmm?" Kagome craned her neck and peered at the dog resting to the rear of her. The girl's face broke out into a smile. "Enjoy that, Inuyasha?"

In response, he wagged his tail. "Not half bad, actually…hell, that was great! I'm still not gonna eat that dog food shit…." Backing off a bit so she could move, Inuyasha scampered after her as she went to answer the ringing phone. His ears-still as sensitive as they were when he was hanyou, fifty years ago-caught the sound of another female's voice on the other side of the phone. He heard the name 'Sango'-presumably the person on the line-and 'Miroku' which the dog-demon hadn't even a guess at, spare the Sango girl kept repeating, embarrassed, "THAT pervert?! You've got to be kidding me, Kagome!"

When his mistress waltzed off to relax on the couch, cordless phone in hand, the hanyou did the natural thing; he explored some of the house. Inuyasha trotted on his padded feet, long claws clicking as he passed through the rooms without carpeting, and he found himself with that kid, Souta. The little boy had his tongue creeping out the side of his mouth as he sought to defeat his opponent on the fighting game he was playing.

Inuyasha cocked his head in interested and promptly collapsed to his rump. "This is one of those video game systems I've been hearing about…. If I had opposable thumbs and workable fingers, I'd be playing, too…."

"Hey, Inuyasha," Souta greeted, having made it to the next level. He paused the game to turn around and pat the dog happily on the head. "Sis is so lucky to get you for her birthday."

Ears perking up a bit more, recalling the brief snippets of 'birthday' and 'Kagome' and 'my birthday', he woofed in curiosity, "How old is that bitch now exactly?"

The boy, turning back to his game, murmured, "She gets a white cake with pineapple filling and cheesecake frosting…. Fifteen must be an important age. I always thought sixteen was the big age." Shrugging half-heartedly, eyes glued to the screen, Souta's fingers went into frenzy over the PlayStation 2's controller.

"Fifteen, huh?" Dog boy clicked his way out of the room, to do a bit of more exploring, when a small fact dawned on him. "I got changed into this form while I was still seventeen…. Heh, wonder how old that makes me: seventeen bordering on eighteen or sixty-seven bordering on sixty-eight…?"

Damn, his life was pathetic.

After about an hour of expedition, Inuyasha made his way to the den where Kagome was finishing up her conversation, still stretched out on her back, long hair riding over the arm of the couch; Buyo the cat was, it seemed, attempting to jump up and catch it…. The feline went for a bound and…nope, landed on his butt. Stupid cat…. He paused beside the sofa, sniffing the air. He smelled…cake! And it was almost done. He licked his lips-or chops as he didn't really have lips persay-, hoping she'd bequeath him a morsel….

"Oh, you should see him, Sango! I think he's a husky or something like that. He's such a handsome dog, aren't you, Inuyasha?" the girl tenderly cooed, reaching back a hand to absently scratch behind his ears.

He made a lax bark-the equivalent of a scoff-but did nothing to stop her. "Don't neglect one ear of the other, wench…." Why not soak up the attention? She was praising him to her friend, wasn't she? At least she's got good taste… he haughtily thought, golden eyes smirking at her.

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow at school, Sango…." She sighed. "Oh, yeah, right…I'm getting really tired of Eri, Yuka, Ayumi babbling on and on about him." Kagome giggled as she finished, "I'll meet you in the library before school starts. Good night, Sango." With that, the girl hit the off button and sat up. "Shall we check on the cake, boy?"

Inuyasha simply waggled his tail, the long, glossy fur gently swaying slightly from side-to-side.

Grinning, Kagome hopped off the couch, and got to the entryway of the kitchen.

"Oh, there you are, sweetheart," Mama said, opening the oven door. She reached in and retrieved a round cake pan between her rooster oven mitt and her navy colored one. Expertly setting the hot pan and its contents on a raised coil of metal, she removed her mitts and began searching through the drawers for a knife. "I'll let it cool a bit before taking it out and making it yummy." She smiled happily at her daughter as she traversed further into the room.

"Thanks, Mom. You're the best. I love your cakes so much more than store bought ones."

Mama beamed more, bringing her daughter into a small embrace. "Thank you, Kagome."

Giggling a bit when released, the girl looked down to Inuyasha, who was sniffing the air with a doggy grin akin to yearning. "It'll be done soon, boy."

After about ten minutes or so, Kagome eagerly waited in the living room in front of the low coffee table, resting her rump on her heels; Inuyasha was spread like a streak of white beside her, ocher eyes glancing around a bit as his muted eyebrows scrunched and un-scrunched with every shifting for inspection.

Souta sat across from his sister and her pet, brown orbs focused expectantly on the kitchen doorway. "Gramps," he said, addressing the old man seated next to him, "how much longer do you think Mom's gonna be?"

Clearing his throat with a 'sagely' cough, he replied, "It takes as long as it does with women, Souta. They can't do anything rushed."

Glaring from across the way, Kagome interjected, displeasure on her face, "Oh, and what exactly is that supposed to mean, Grampa?"

"N-nothing, Kagome…" he nervously laughed, shrinking back from the crackling fire the seemed to have suddenly appeared behind her. He took much interest setting out the cake plates.

Inuyasha made a low chuckle, though having scooted away a bit for precautionary sake; even his instincts were telling him this was a dangerous situation. Glad that ain't me…

The girl's fit of annoyance was replaced by bubbly jollity-much to the three males' relief-when her mom entered the room. The birthday cake was carried on a silver plate, and was done up well with pink and yellow rosettes along the bottom and top. The fifteen candles followed the curve of the cake, creating a ring of fire.

Then the birthday song was sung, and Kagome beamed happily, while Inuyasha pinned his ears down, unnoticeably, due to how off pitch Souta and Gramps were singing.

"Make a wish, Sis!" Souta said excitedly.

The girl nodded and thought for a moment. A soft smile graced her lips preceding pursing them with enough space for a jet of cool air to extinguish the flickering flames; the dog-demon only hazily wondered what her wish was. After clapping and cheers, the dessert was cut and served; Souta was sent to the kitchen to fetch the French vanilla ice cream and some spoons.

Even Inuyasha was let into the festivities a bit when Kagome playfully left a teaspoon sized amount of ice cream on his nose. "Huh?" His tongue automatically came out and licked off the frozen, creamy treat. He continued to do so till it was all gone; he'd managed to restrain himself from snatching her cake. He sure as hell didn't want to be placed in that animal shelter again.

Kikyou actually might find him this time.

Shaking the frightful cogitation from his furry head, the hanyou stared at his mistress. Laying a paw on her thigh he gave a short bark.

"Hmm? Oh, did you like that, Inuyasha?" she asked, turning her gaze to him. His response to her was a wag of his tail. "Ok, well, another teaspoonful." She took a rough guess at the amount as she put the melting ice cream on two fingers and wiped it on his already cold and wet nose.

The dog didn't do much except wag his tail as he ate, not moving from his position.

"Kagome, do you really think that's a good idea?" Gramps queried.

She nodded. "As long as he doesn't have a lot, he'll be fine. Dogs get sick if they eat chocolate, though."

"Do you have any idea how much that sucks?" Inuyasha piped in. "I only have chocolate once in a new moon."

Presents were bequeathed, and the girl accepted them with a bright smile that Inuyasha thought was getting on his nerves; however, that annoying thing in his head-his conscience, the thing he believed he'd smote-had other ideas. She looks pretty, doesn't she? The dog-demon placed one paw over his muzzle to rub at it in irritation. "Aw, shit, shut up. She's a human wench, ugly as all get out."

"It's weird to talk to yourself," a new male voice said to the hanyou.

The dog perked his ears warily and his orbs fixated upon Buyo, who had been curled near Mama's legs. "You actually can talk?"

"Of course I can talk!" the feline fumed. "Why wouldn't I?"

Inuyasha blinked stupidly for a moment. "I thought maybe you were too fat and it was crushing your vocal cords or something." He smirked evilly at the cat, to which Buyo gave a short hiss.

"I don't know why the mistress chose a mongrel like you."

"Feh."

"Oh, wow, thanks, Souta! You remembered!" Kagome held a copy of Spirited Away to her chest, completely unaware of the smack talking going on between her cat and dog. She had gotten a new portable CD player and some herbal soaps from Mama. The only one left to give her anything was Grampa.

Gramps cleared his throat importantly several times before thrusting his package at her. "This is for you, my girl."

The girl put on a smile, silently pleading, Please, don't let it be another mummified hand of a kappa water-sprite…. Her prayer was heard when she removed the penguin covered wrapping paper to find a bottle of expensive perfume.

Aw, great, now something to make my eyes water… Inuyasha griped to himself.

"Thank you, Grampa!" Kagome began to pick up the excess papers and jetsam and flotsam, throwing them away, prior to gathering her gifts. She hugged and kissed her family. "This was a great birthday. Sango, Miroku, and I are going to hang out on Sunday at some little café Miroku knows."

Nodding, Mama smiled gently. "I think you should go take a bath and relax."

"Mm…a shower sounds so good…."

Doing as advised, Kagome took a nice, long bath; she was in there for nearly an hour and a half. She spent another thirty minutes drying her hair, thankful that she hadn't had much studying to do. The girl shuffled to her room, clad in a pair of comfortable blue and green swirled pajamas. Upon entering, she found something on her bed. "Hey, you, what're doing on my bed?" she half scolded to the dog resting there.

Inuyasha cracked an eye open. "I was sleeping, stupid." He didn't even move from his spot along the length of the bed. "And I'm not moving. Keh." Kagome walked over to the bed raising her hand a bit, making the hanyou regret his actions a bit. Shit…she's gonna hit me…. Just like Kikyou did…. He began to uncharacteristically whimper; he realized how pathetic that sounded, but no matter how much he used to snap and bark at that bitch, Kikyou would never desist thrashing him. It really was bad that he was demoted to such…domestication, that he couldn't merely tell her to shut up and leave him alone, and if all else failed, threaten her with his claws.

Then again, if he was his half-demon form again, he wouldn't be in this position, would he?

The girl blinked in slight confusion, before bringing her hand down upon the cringing dog's side in a pat. She slowly stroked his fur, moving to sit on the bed's edge. "Did you think I was going to hit you? I'm sorry…. I'd never do that. I don't believe in cruelty like that. I promise I'll never ever hit you without a very probable cause, and sleeping on my bed isn't one of them."

Not noticing that he had his closed, Inuyasha peered up at the girl. Her expression was mild and sympathetic, like her tone, and she seemed to be really sincere. Inadvertently, his heart softened a bit. "Guess you're ok, after all, Kagome. At least you're fucking decent."

"Now, to let you sleep on my bed…." She stared at the dog for a moment. "Well, the animal rescue league said they'd given you all had baths today."

"Which was torture in and of itself."

Kagome got up and moved to the doorway, hitting the light switch that shut off the light from her ceiling fan; Inuyasha could still make the girl out clear as day. "I'll let you sleep with me. Just, don't do anything gross, like throwing up or, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, I won't."

Her voice, nearer this time, said happily, "Well, if we understand each other, let's go to sleep." The girl made her way to her clock and made sure its alarm was set. With that accomplished, she turned down her covers, somewhat awkwardly, and slid in. "Guess you're starting to like me a bit, huh, Inuyasha?"

He snorted. "I'm here 'cause it's getting cold and…I felt like being nearby. You said you needed a guard dog, didn't ya?" he finished brusquely, attempting to make up for the brief sound of caring; forgetting for a moment she couldn't understand him.

"Goodnight, Inuyasha," she yawned, leaning up a bit to kiss him in between his ears.

"Keh, night," he responded curtly, only because he could feel the heat rising in his ears which started spreading throughout the rest of him.

Maybe having fur had its advantages.

~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Phew! Sorry for taking so long so I'm very sorry. School started, I've been working on lots of stuff, but I haven't forgotten this one. I should get working on "On Vacation" as well. In any case, what did you think? R+R, people!

Inuyasha: Why do you torture me so?
It's fun, cheap, and easy.

Inuyasha: You're going to draw out this dog thing for a while, aren't you?

*smirks evilly* Good things do come to those who wait.

Any way, please check out my other stories: "The Mysterious Little Visitor", "On Vacation", "Shikon High", "Codename: HANYOU", "My Immortal (And other Song Fics)", and "Hugs and Kisses (And other One Shots)". Thanks again!

Ja ne,

~Moonlight Shadow