InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ You Are Not Alone ❯ Relatively Annoying ( Chapter 16 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Whats up? Hope everybody had a happy new year! My resolution will be that I will keep focusing on making sure I finish this thing. I know what youre thinking; ha, good luck with that. Anyways, on to the chapter, where a very special character will be appearing!

"No, no, NO! You can't be serious!" Inuyasha exclaimed, holding his hands over his ears, hoping that was he was hearing wasn't true.

"What makes you think I can be otherwise?" his father questioned, furrowing an eyebrow at his son. The boy immediately fell silent.

"But why does he have to stay here, Dad!?"

"Your aunt and uncle are going on a very special expedition in Africa, but he's too young to take along. So he's going to stay with us until they get back."

"How long...?" Inuyasha prepared himself for the punch he would soon get.

"Eight weeks." InuTaishou answered simply.

"EIGHT WEEKS!?" Pow. That hurt. "That lil' runt's gonna stay that long!? Just lookin' at him gives me nerve wreckage!" Inuyasha wanted to tear desperately at his hair at this news.

"I'm sorry, son, but you'll just have to cope. Give him a chance, and you'll come round. You never know; you could be good friends," he said, placing his hands on his child's shoulders, looking at him sternly but reassuringly.

'Sure, there's also a chance Gary Coleman could play in the NBA...'

Kagome was reading the latest issue of Shonen Jump in her living room until the phone began to ring. Taking her Naruto bookmark and sealing the place she stopped at, she got up from the couch and walked over to the phone.

"Higurashi residence," she said.

"Hey, Kagome. It's me," she heard Inuyasha's voice, and her heartbeat began to speed up a bit.

"Hi, Inuyasha. How are you?" she asked.

"I've been better, to be honest," he said, sounding like he was exhausted.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm sure you'll find out soon. Say, are you busy?"

"No, just reading Shonen Jump." she answered simply.

"Shonen Jump? You read that?" he asked, dumbfounded, but he shook it off. "Man, I've wanted to read that real bad."

"I could bring it to you. I'm almost done with it."

"Well, could you bring it to my house?"

"Now? How come?"

"I...kinda have a problem I think I might need your help with. And it's not homework." he said, kind of embarrassed.

"Okay, sure. I'll be right there." she said, and she hung up the phone. Grabbing a pencil and piece of paper, she wrote a note to her family saying where she was going and that she would let them know when she was coming back. Miroku was with Sango at the mall and her mother was at the supermarket.

Knowing Mama, she should be back in about, I don't know...three, four days? Kagome thought, giggling to herself.

Grabbing her little yellow sackpack, she packed some treats, her manga, and her cell phone. Slipping into her shoes, she went out the door.

His ears easily catching light knocking, Inuyasha immediately answered his front door, where Kagome greeted him. He led her inside, guiding her through his house. Kagome's gaze scanned the wall in his living room, which was full of pictures. One family photo caught her eye. There was Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, their father, and...

Her sight stuck to the other person. It was a stunningly beautiful woman with long midnight black hair and warm brown eyes, displaying a tender smile. In one photo, she was holding an infant Inuyasha, smiling down at him while laying in a hospital bed, with a 10-year-old Sesshomaru next to her. In the next, she was standing next to InuTaishou wearing a gorgeous white wedding dress. In another, she was smiling as she was holding a 9-year-old Inuyasha, who was about to blow out his candles on his birthday cake. And in another, she was wearing a breath-taking pink kimono with blue flowers and green leaves on it, standing with InuTaishou, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, all dressed for some kind of Japanese festival. Almost a third of all the pictures had her in them.

"Who is that?" Kagome asked, stopping Inuyasha and pointing to her in a picture by herself.

"That's my mom," Inuyasha answered with an unusual tenderness in his voice.

'His mom?" Kagome couldn't believe it. Inuyasha never talked about his mother. From what she could tell from the pictures of her smiling and laughing, she knew that she must be a wonderful mother. She wondered why he never told her about her. She pushed that aside for the moment, thinking that it was perfectly alright, since it wasn't really any of her business.

The boy guided her to the glass door to the backyard.

"So what exactly is the problem, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked as he put his hand on the handle.

As soon as he pulled the door open, however, a little critter suddenly lunged onto his leg, hanging tightly.

"Yashie, where'd you go! I got scared!!" it said.

The boy's eyebrow twitched annoyingly as he shook the kid off of his leg. He looked mad, but Kagome melted as she looked at the child.

It was a young boy about 3 or 4 years old, but was no bigger than an infant. He had emerald eyes and reddish orange hair that was put up with an aqua-green ribbon. He wore a little blue shirt with green leaves patterned and little blue shorts. Sitting on the back porch, he looked up at Inuyasha with an adorable teary-look in his eyes.

"That is the problem," he answered to Kagome simply, his voice somewhat bitter, pointing at the child.

"Oh, he's so cute!" Kagome clapped her hands together as she fell apart at his adorable face.

"Obviously, you don't understand the 'problem' part," Inuyasha responded, shaking his head.

Kagome knelt down in front of the little boy and gently shook his hand. "Hi there," she said to him sweetly. "My name is Kagome. What's your's?"

"I'm Shippo," he answered, feeling better after seeing her. "You're pretty, Kaggie!" he said, smiling brightly at her.

"Thank you, Shippo!" Kagome said, "aww"ing at him as she gave him an equally bright smile. Inuyasha made a disgusted snort.

"He's your cousin?" Kagome asked Inuyasha as they both watched him eat the cookies the girl had brought and gulping down his apple juice.

"Yeah," he responded, scratching his ear. "My aunt and uncle are explorers, and right now they're doing this big expedition in Africa. The runt's too little for them to take along, so he got dumped on our shoulders for the next two months. Since my dad's got work, and Sesshomaru has to take care of all this work from school and other crap, I'm basically the one stuck with babysitting the brat."

"I don't get why you don't like him; he's so adorable," the girl commented as she watched him scarf down her cookies with crumbs all over his face.

"Then you really must not know me at all, huh?" he asked, sarcasm high in his tone.

Kagome was about to rebuttle until she felt a tiny hand tug at her long socks.

"Kaggie, are there any more cookies? I'm still hungry," the boy said, rubbing his small tummy. The girl had to hide her cheeks; she was blushing furiously with adoration for the child. She checked her backpack but had found no more cookies. She looked back at the little boy, who had a pleading look in his eyes for more. Kagome wanted to cry at his look, and then a thought popped into her head. Almost immediately, she turned to Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha, can I use your kitchen?" she asked quickly.

"Uh, sure." he answered, startled.

"Thanks!" and with that, she sped off to the kitchen.

Kagome was hard at work in Inuyasha's kitchen making Shippo a snack, with the two boys just sitting at the table, watching, both with awe and confusion.

'She sure can be a handful sometimes.' Inuyasha mentally sighed as he grinned, watching her.

Taking notice of his look towards her, Shippo got up on the table and sat down in front of him, much to Inuyasha's distaste.

"What, runt?" he asked.

"Yashie, do you like Kaggie?" he asked, looking completely innocent. At that question, Inuyasha's face flushed a bit.

"What? Of course not! Not like that, anyway," he answered, flabbergasted. (No idea why I used that word.)

"Does Kaggie like you?" he asked, once again looking totally innocent.

"Wha-? Well, she--I don't know!" he answered back gruffly. With that, the little child simply got up from in front of him and went back to his seat.

During though, Inuyasha considered that question. I wonder...does she? He looked over at her, who glanced right back, smiling at him.

Aah, my head's startin' to hurt...

After about five more minutes, Kagome declared herself finished with a big "Done!" Walking over with two full bowls, she placed them in front of the two boys.

"RAMEN!" They both shouted simultaneously. They were right. In the bowls were two steaming, heaping piles of seasoned noodles. Almost immediately, they both started stuffing their faces with ramen. Inuyasha wouldn't have been beat by Shippo if he hadn't almost choked on one noodle. Kagome immediately came over and patted his back gently, which helped him regain his composure.

"Thanks," he said, coughing a bit.

"It's no problem. I never knew my ramen could be that good to scarf down like that," Kagome teased, giggling.

"Then why don't you try it yourself? A good cook always has to test his work, right?" Inuyasha boasted.

"Hmm, okay." she agreed. He picked up his chopsticks and snagged a couple noodles, lifting them to her mouth. She eagerly ate them, slowly sucking in the noodle that hung over her chin.

"Mmm, tasty!" she said with a grin. Inuyasha laughed.

Shippo glanced curiously at them both while eating his noodles. He made a pouting face.

Hmph, Yashie's a liar. he thought. ~I'll leave that for you guys to ponder.

The rest of the day, Kagome and Shippo played together while Inuyasha watched. They played hide and seek, which Kagome had to surrender; Shippo was just too good at hiding. Inuyasha added that was his fault. Kagome laughed. Picking some winterflowers in the backyard with Inuyasha's permission, Kagome taught Shippo how to make flower crowns and necklaces. While he was napping for a few minutes, they placed one around Inuyasha's neck. When he woke up, he started complaining about a really bad itching at his neck. It turned out he was allergic to the flowers, and he ended up getting a minor rash. Shippo found some itching ointment and Kagome applied it to his neck, apologizing endlessly. They played on the treeswing, had snacks together, and while laying on the grass, they watched the clouds and guessed what shapes they were. Inuyasha joined in on this one. While watching, they all laughed as Inuyasha saw a cloud shaped like a baby with the body and a snake and a cloud that looked like a lizard with an afro.

Early afternoon became mid evening in seemingly no time at all. Inuyasha and Kagome watched the burning crimson sun sink below the mountains as Kagome cradled a sleeping Shippo in her lap. He was snuggled close to her chest as he snored lightly.

"Wow," Inuyasha realized. "Today was almost fun."

"Almost?" Kagome asked, raising an eyebrow at him. He shrugged.

"Oh yeah, I know you," they both laughed quietly.

"You're pretty good with kids," Inuyasha noted, watching as she gently stroked Shippo's back.

"Thanks," She smiled, "I was hoping that if I could go to college, then I could obtain a degree in teaching, so I could teach elementary school children." Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she continued, "I was a lonely child, to be honest. Mostly the one that everyone pitied. My heart, to me, was like a bubble then; beautiful, but empty. I don't want that to happen to any other little child. No, I want to be the big, bright lighthouse that guides them across many stormy seas. To give them something that I never had. That is a dream that I have come to see clearer than anything before because of the wonderful and even scary opportunities that I've seen," she looked at Inuyasha with a whole new tenderness behind her chocolate brown eyes. "That's something that I'll never forget."

"Kagome..." Inuyasha only stared at her with an amazed and touched look in his eyes.

Looking back at the sunset, Kagome suddenly realized that if she didn't return at that time, then she would arrive home past her curfew (Goodie goodie, much? Nah, Kagome's okay.)

"I have to go," she said, carefully picking up Shippo in her arms and handing him over to Inuyasha. "My family'll be worried."

Inuyasha walked her to the door, where they said their "see-you-laters." He watched her run down the driveway and onto the sidewalk, heading home. Blinking twice, he felt like he was drowning in mixed emotions as he watched her go. He almost wished that she didn't have to leave; that she could just stay with him and that they could talk more. He knew that was selfish, even for him.

She looked back for a couple seconds, smiling and waving, before scurrying home and out of sight.

What is this...? he thought, and he closed the door behind him as he went back inside.