InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Creature Comforts ❯ Burgers and Fries ( Chapter 3 )

Author's Notes: Getting back on with Creature Comforts after a little nagging from Ithilwen. ^_~ (Nagging pays off, apparently.)

Creature Comforts

Chapter Three

Burger and Fries…

So… how exactly am I supposed to win over this girl?

How else? You stalk her!

Inuyasha wasn't exactly sure how much a scatty cat's advice was worth, but apart from taking another suicidal leap into the well, there wasn't much else he could do around this strange new world other than suck it up to some human teenager. By now he was already scraping by as the lowest of the low… one more humiliation didn't really matter, did it?

Too exhausted to even pretend to act wary and cautious, Inuyasha sloped up the steps to the "Sunset" shrine like the tramp he resembled. He didn't particularly want to butter up some stranger - a human female, no less - but the cats insisted that this girl was the only person likely to take him in.

His lanky form trickled between shadows like an extension of their darkness. He kept up this pattern of movement, not really wanting to wander into the moonlight for that was when he felt most exposed. It was almost as if he didn't fancy anyone looking at him while he was in this state.

He gave a doggish snort. "And what have I got to be vain about?" he said aloud. The only response he got was a sharp rustle in the plants beside him as something small and furry ran away in fright.

Inuyasha wasn't a naturally vain person. However, after seeing his reflection in a few shop windows, he couldn't help but feel slightly bitter. His familiar (and fairly handsome) face was gone, replaced by this alien looking muzzle with excessive facial hair. More disturbingly though, Inuyasha was actually beginning to forget what he had looked like before…

He'd had white hair and golden eyes… but… what had he looked like?

Had he even been that good looking…?

One thing had to be said though: this new nose wasn't something to be sniffed at. His eyesight may have been a little poorer, his sense of taste seemed almost non-existent, but who needed sight and taste when you could follow the exact path of a scent to its source? Inuyasha put this to work as he tracked his way across the shrine grounds to the Higurashi household. He knew this was where the girl lived and slept since all human scents in the vicinity seemed to lead to and linger in this very place.

The lights were out… no one seemed to be home.

Probably sleeping… Inuyasha reckoned as he parked his furry rear on the front porch of the house and gave his neck a hearty scratch.

Scratching was wonderfully relaxing… but while he scratched, the synapses in his simple brain seemed to forget to keep up his train of thought, as if it took every bit of his concentration to scratch that itch. After he'd lowered his foot to the ground, he struggled to remember what he'd just been thinking about.

Inuyasha deadpanned, staring into the distance while he tried to remember.

Ah yes! He was waiting to meet the girl so he could worm his way into her oversized heart and get a few square meals in the process. The mere thought of food was enough to have his stomach howling again, and Inuyasha whined pitifully as he finally lay down with his chin resting on his paw.

What time was it? Midnight? Early morning?

A small, peculiar shiver ran down Inuyasha's spine, and his jaws clamped together in an irritated response. He lifted his head to peer around the moonlit shrine grounds. This was the same feeling that he'd had the night before… except it was much weaker now. Something was calling him, but it was far away and pitiful. Inuyasha easily resisted as he curled into a ball, nose to tail.

Inuyasha had thought that he'd escaped the 'calling' when he'd left his world for this place. He couldn't be in the same world… it was just too different and decidedly wacky. But there it was. That same calling - faint, but present.

Perhaps this was the same world after all?

Sango blinked wide, golden orbs up at the silver moon as she flexed her whiskers idly. It was full and perfectly round, casting enough light around that it might as well have been daylight.

How many full moons had Sango seen as a cat? Six? Ten? A hundred? She couldn't remember…

"Dah-ling!"

The black feline redirected her gaze to the pavement below her and watched as her companion came trotting forward. In a moment, Miroku had leapt up beside her and deposited his prize next to her hind foot. "I got you a present, Sango dear."

"It wasn't dead already, was it?" Sango asked suspiciously, eyeing the small mouse beside her. "You know what happened last time you ate a scavenged mouse."

Miroku stared at her blankly. Then he said, "Remind me again?"

The female cat sighed loudly. "You nearly died yourself!"

"Oh… how awful." Miroku looked genuinely concerned, but then he beamed. "Don't worry - I assure you that this one was perfectly healthy up until a few minutes ago."

"Oh, well then you shouldn't have." Sango let the catty side of her respond to Miroku's generous offer. Once upon a time, Sango would have been appalled if her boyfriend had turned up at her door with a dead mouse rather than a box of chocolates, but these days she preferred the rodents to anything else. She was honestly flattered by the gift, even though a tiny, deeply buried part of mind still refused to admit that she was a cat - reminding her that she had too much humanity to forget who she really was.

Peeking up at Miroku, who was cheerfully busying himself by washing behind his ears with a paw, Sango felt a sting of worry. He was adapting too easily, forgetting his real nature, not questioning the changes inside him. Maybe he liked being a cat? Was that why he was forgetting faster than Sango was…?

Miroku snapped a quizzical look on her. "Are you going to eat that or not?"

Of course, even Sango could be overwhelmed by her feline mind. She hissed, grabbed the mouse and trotted off a few feet to eat in peace.

Miroku flicked his ear - a feline shrug - and went back to licking his paw clean. "I wonder if that black dog boy will have any luck with the Higurashi girl." he said to Sango's turned back. "Do you think he's telling the truth? That he's really the guy who did this to us?"

"I don't think he did this to us." Sango replied, licking her lips as she finished off her meal. "I reckon that… um…" She thought hard for a moment. "Yes - the dog that stole his body is probably the one who has been going around and transforming humans into dogs… and cats. Here, do you want the tail?"

"How thoughtful of you… but no. I'm full, thanks." Miroku yawned. "I wonder what possesses someone to go around turning people into animals…?"

Sango gazed off into the bleary distance. She'd lost touch with a lot of emotions, and tonight was not a good night to try and decipher human motives - motives which she'd once understand all too clearly. "Dunno…" she sighed. "Anger… hate… jealousy…?" But that was just about all cats understood… along with irritation. Then she remembered one emotion she'd forgotten for a long time now. "Maybe he's just cruel."

It was true. Cruelty was something beyond them now… among other things.

"How very…" Miroku broke off with another yawn. "… human of him."

Sango glanced at her companion through narrowed, slit-shaped eyes. Had that been a hint of distaste in his voice?

Waking up was a bittersweet experience for Kagome. There came the pleasantly muggy half-dream state as she began to rouse, and then the glowing feeling that accompanied the stretching.

The bitter part came when both her mother and her cat popped their heads round the bedroom door to inform her that she had to get up for school in five minutes.

"No…" Kagome croaked, pulling her pillow over her head. "I'm ill. I think I just might die."

"Well then, get up and come down for breakfast, and if you're still ill then you can go back to bed." Mrs Higurashi told her blandly. This was the normal routine for whenever Kagome or Souta got ill, but Kagome knew that by the time she got downstairs she would be feeling normal again.

Maybe that queasy feeling was the test she was dreading?

Buyo entered the room after Mrs Higurashi had gone, and pulled himself onto Kagome's bed to join her in a state of lucid laziness. "Morning, Buyo." Kagome scratched his ears fondly as the cat began to purr so violently that Kagome nearly mistook the sound for roadworks.

"Better face the music." Kagome sighed, slid Buyo onto her arm in the manner of a towel, and carried him off downstairs to greet her family at the breakfast table. "Morning." she said as she found her usual chair and deposited Buyo near his food bowl.

"Mornin'." Souta chirped, already wide awake and dressed. He was reading the kiddie's puzzle on the back of the cereal box.

"Good morning, Kagome." Grandpa responded in a slightly more mature and noble fashion. The effect was ruined, however, as he was busy cutting out interesting articles from the morning newspaper - probably his latest and most eccentric past time yet.

"Good morning, honey." Mrs Higurashi greeted her warmly. "What would you like for breakfast?"

Kagome pointed uggishly at Souta's cereal box, too busy yawning and stretching to articulate all that well. "I'll just have that… and…" She looked around. "Where's the milk?"

Her mother looked at Souta. "Souta, get the milk."

Souta looked at Buyo. "Buyo, get the milk."

Buyo looked at Grandpa. "Meow."

"Oh alright, I'll do it." Kagome staggered up from her chair and blindly made her way out of the kitchen. Unlike normal people, who had their milk delivered straight to their door, the Higurashi's had their milk delivered to the top of the shrine steps. This meant that Kagome had to tread all the way across the shrine grounds to find breakfast.

Kagome spared a look down at the street below as she bent down to pick up the milk bottles. Yep. Those two black cats were sitting there again. Still on their wall. Still staring at her. Kagome stared back for a moment, before shaking her head and looking down at the milk bottles.

They were empty.

Kagome frowned deeply, opening her mouth to say something disbelieving… but words failed her. She glanced back to where the cats were, and they unerringly stared straight back. Were they to blame?

"Weird…" she muttered to herself, putting back the empty bottles before looking around in case the milkman had hid the real bottles under a nearby bush.

The nearest bush was a rhododendron. But the only thing under that was a rather large black hound.

Kagome jumped back with a sharp yelp. The dog who had, up until Kagome's scream, been sleeping quite peacefully under the bush, jumped up with a startled bark. The monstrous animal looked around hastily, trying to identify the source of its disturbance - but by then, Kagome was already hightailing it back to her house.

The school girl slammed the door shut in her wake and stumbled into the kitchen with a flourish. "Wolf!" she cried.

The Higurashi family blinked at her.

"Huh?" Souta hazarded a question.

"What's the matter, honey?" Mrs Higurashi asked anxiously as her daughter came wheezing past her to peek out the window.

"It's there - look - a wolf!" Kagome jabbed a finger against the window pane.

One by one, each of the Higurashi's came over to see what she was pointing at. "Oh, my word…" "What on earth…?" "It's huge!"

The 'wolf' was currently sniffing its way closer to the house.

"Have you ever seen anything like it?" Mrs Higurashi stared in amazement.

"That's not a wolf." Souta complained.

"Well, I've never seen a dog that big and ugly." Kagome admonished. "It fell down the well yesterday and I helped it escape… and now I think it's trying to kill me."

Grandpa stroked his beard. "It looks like a runaway."

"It looks dangerous to me." Kagome rebuked. "Maybe we should call the pound or something."

"No!" Souta cried. "They'll kill it!"

"So?" Kagome said, rather callously, even though the thought didn't really appeal to her.

By now the dog had snuffled his way over to the front door, where he sat on the porch and look expectantly up at the handle as if waiting for someone to come and let him inside. Kagome worried her lip between her teeth. "What do we do?"

"Well, youre still going to school, young lady." her mother responded, watching the dog curiously. "I suppose we could always throw a string of sausages one way and run in another."

Kagome's eyebrows tilted up. "How cartoonish…"

"No, Ma." Souta shook his head thoughtfully. "That'll just give him the energy to run after us faster."

They regarded the dog silently, watching as it mindlessly scratched at something behind its ear. A flea, no doubt…

"You know…" Grandpa began, folding his hands behind his back with a light smile. "I don't think it looks all that dangerous. It probably just wants to be your friend, Kagome."

"Yuck…" The teenager pulled a face to show what she thought of that idea. "No way! It's evil - it growled at Buyo yesterday, didn't it, Buyo?… Buyo? Where's Buyo?"

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was now almost certain that he had a couple of fleas hiding away behind his ears… and maybe a few around his shoulders. They were irritating little beggars, not all that different from the bouts of nits he'd suffered as a child. At least… he remembered how irritating nits were, but he couldn't actually place a point in his life where he'd had them. Had his memory always been this bad?

A round, patched white head suddenly popped out of the tiny door before him. "No waifs or strays, thank you." the whiskered face drawled. "Whatever you're selling, we don't want to buy. Now push off."

The head vanished back through the hole, the small wooden flap clapping in its wake.

Inuyasha blinked at the odd flap. He crouched down a little and pushed his snout against the flap, forcing his way through the hole. But for some reason, only his muzzle would fit through.

He caught a strong whiff of a vaguely familiar smell.

"Hey… you're that cat from the other day." He remembered now.

"Yes, and you're that stupid dog with his nose stuck in my cat flap." There was a hiss and something pricked his tender nose. Inuyasha drew his snout out of the door sharply with a barely smothered yelp.

The cat's head popped out again to regard him. Inuyasha was almost certain that the cat was grinning… even though he wasn't sure it was a physical kind of grin. "What's wrong? Cat nearly got your tongue?"

A small growl was working its way up Inuyasha's throat. It was more of a perturbed sound than an aggressive one. He still wasn't used to the idea of talking to cats, of all creatures, and this one was a bit too sure of himself for comfort.

And with that figure, Inuyasha doubted that the cat should have been so confident.

"So…" The cat huffed as it squeezed its porky little body through the much narrower hole in the door. "What brings you back, you glorified lama, you?"

Inuyasha watched its progress through the cat flap with a grim kind of fascination. "A girl lives in this house, doesn't she?"

The fat managed to get the bulk of its fat through the door at last and slid out onto the doormat with only his tail still inside. He looked up at Inuyasha with a suspicious gaze. "Two human females live here, but I think you're referring to the one named Kagome."

"Kagome?"

"Yes, that's what I said." The cat huddled up on the mat, curving its tail around its paws. It gave Inuyasha a hard look as it put its nose out to scent the air around him. "Oh dear… what do you smell of?"

Inuyasha looked down and sniffed. "What are you talking about? I smell great."

"Oh, of course you do. You're a dog!" The cat hissed. "You're stinking up the whole house. I've smelt you around all night. You'd better leave before Kagome comes along and dumps water all over you. Wait - was that a flea?!"

"Maybe." Inuyasha shifted self-consciously. "Doesn't Kagome like dogs?"

"No, she loves them. She just doesn't like smelly, ugly creatures like you." the cat sniffed.

"Then what is she doing with a pet like you?" Inuyasha shot back.

The cat just glared at him. "Oh, I see…" it said slowly. "You're trying to do what that other mutt did, aren't you? Well, you can forget about it - there's only room enough in this house for one pet - and that's me."

"Oh, come on." Inuyasha pointed toward the house with his nose. "If you can fit in there then I'm sure I can too."

Sharp green eyes blinked back at him. "Are you saying I'm fat?"

"Yes."

"It's glandular, you know."

"Sure."

"I can't help the fact that I'm overweight."

"Well, you could try… eating less…?" Inuyasha hazarded a guess.

"Only someone as skeletally thin as you could say something like that." the cat muttered. "How would you know what it's like to be plump? You look anorexic."

"I probably am."

"Yeah, well, I don't like skinny things so you can pickle off now." The cat tapped its tail against the doormat, waiting for Inuyasha to leave. "Ahem."

"What? I'm not leaving till I find this girl I'm after." Inuyasha snapped.

"Then you're a bit of a muppet, aren't you?" The cat smirked.

"Why?" Inuyasha scowled at the obese little animal.

The cat's gaze flicked past him. "Because she's been sneaking past you for the last couple of minutes."

Inuyasha started and twisted around to see what the cat meant. His peripheral vision wasn't so good these days, and he'd completely missed the girl who had quietly been sneaking past the pair on the doorstep. She was already at the top of the shrine steps. "Wait!" Inuyasha barked and scampered after her, but at the sound of his voice the girl yelped and hurtled down the steps at break neck speed.

By the time Inuyasha got to the road, the girl had disappeared completely.

"How's the stalking going?!" a certain male black cat yowled from across the road.

"Oh, leave him alone." the other cat admonished. "It's not his fault he's so ugly."

Stupid wise-ass cats… Inuyasha padded across the road to reach the wall where the cats sat. They watched him appraisingly as he neared, probably trying to figure out whether or not he was coming over to eat them.

"Any luck?" Miroku called in a slightly less teasing manner.

"Obviously not." Sango reminded. "Judging by how fast that girl was running…"

Inuyasha limped his way to a stop below the two cats. Another sore had reopened on his paw thanks to that motley dash, and he was certainly in no mood to play victim to two teasing cats. "Which way did she go?" he panted.

"Mmmm…" Miroku purred thoughtfully, before turning his head slowly to gaze down the road to Inuyasha's right. "She went… the right way."

"She went right! Got it!" Inuyasha hastily trotted off in that direction, nose to the ground in an effort to catch any lingering scents, trying to find one familiar thread in a tapestry of thousands.

As soon as he was out of ear shot and around the corner, Sango leaned over to her companion with a cocked ear. "She went the right way?" she echoed, almost certain that the girl had turned left instead.

"Yes. The right way." Miroku grinned at her. "As opposed to the wrong way, of course."

"You certainly seemed eager to get to school today, Kagome-chan." Eri cajoled that afternoon during their P.E lesson.

Kagome smiled back at the friend standing behind her in the queue, tucking a stray bang behind her ear. "Yeah, well there was this freaky dog hanging around outside the door and when I left, it tried to chase me." A girl a few places ahead had stepped up to take the rounder's bat and the two friends shuffled up. "It's a good thing you and your mother came by in your car; otherwise I'm sure that dog would have caught and eaten me before registration."

"Oh, Kagome." Eri admonished. "It was probably a little Chihuahua, wasn't it?"

"No way - it was like this tall!" Kagome put a hand to her waist. "And it was about as long as I am tall!"

"You're kidding!" Eri seemed vaguely impressed, but not in a believing sort of way. "What was it, a Wolfhound or something?"

Kagome shrugged. She didn't really know enough about dogs and the various breeds. "I don't know… it was just big, ugly and had overly large teeth."

Eri chuckled, further proof that she didn't truly believe Kagome had been in any danger. "Oh, have you heard anything about your Beau yet?"

Kagome shook her head sadly.

The line of girls had now moved along completely until it was Kagome's turn to step up and take the bat. Adjusting her sports shorts (which were actually more akin to knickers with a thick lining) to make sure her shirt was tucked in correctly, Kagome bent down to retrieve the bat that had been dropped on the dusty ground of the field and held it before her as she took position.

The P.E. teacher shouted various pieces of advice. "Feet apart - remember the triangle posture - keep your eye on the ball!"

Kagome obeyed automatically and narrowed her gaze on the bowler with the ball in hand.

Concentrate… you can do this… concentrate on the ball, Kagome…

The birds tweeted in the nearby trees, the boys shouted indiscernible things as they played football on the opposite end of the field, and sweat began to trickle down the back of Kagome's neck.

"No pressure, Kagome." the teacher drawled.

No… not that… theres something watching me… Kagome would have turned to scan her surroundings, but the bowler was warming up and if she turned away now she risked getting brained by the ball.

Suddenly the ball was in flight and coming at Kagome with remarkable speed. Time slowed down as Kagome judged the distance and aimed her swing as best she could.

Ball connected with bat, and a cheer erupted from Kagome's team as the ball went sailing clean over the fence and into the park of blossom trees beyond.

"Woo!" Kagome threw down her bat and took her leisurely time in making her way to first base. It wasn't often she hit a full-run, so she could afford a bit of cheeky celebration. "Who rocks?! I do! Yeah!"

Yuka, who'd been doing her stretches at third base, poked Kagome playfully as she passed. "Now who's going to get that ball, you idiot." She grinned.

Ayumi, at fourth base, broke through the sounds of cheering. "How about that dog?"

Kagome glanced at the timid looking Ayumi as the sounds of cheering ended almost abruptly. Soon everyone was looking in the same direction… and Kagome followed their gaze with building dread.

That monster was there. It sat on the other side of the fence with a ball in its mouth - the very ball that Kagome had just sent over there.

It had retrieved it.

"Uh… let's get back inside, girls." The teacher's voice warbled fearfully. "Hena, get the bats. Yuka, get the balls and the poles. Back inside, everyone!"

None of the girls felt the urge to hang around while that dog was loose. With sharp haste they turned heel and began power-walking back towards the school. Only Kagome seemed frozen to the spot and refused to tear her gaze away from the dog.

"You followed me… didn't you?" she whispered.

The dog blinked at her, then slowly dropped the ball on the ground and gave a mighty yawn - displaying every single one of its fangs in the process. Kagome gulped as she realised that she had effectively been left behind. She quickly turned, intending to catch up with her classmates.

The whining stopped her.

Pivoting to face the dog again, she frowned. "Was that you?"

The hideous creature turned its head to the left, then the right, almost as if to say "You talkin' to me?"

"Of course that was you, you're the only dog here." Kagome took a cautious step forward. "Don't you have a home or a master to go to?"

The dog watched her approach keenly. Kagome stopped dead and pursed her lips. "What's the matter then? Why have you been following me everywhere?"

The fact that she'd halted seemed to make the creature anxious. It whined again, urging her on, and Kagome almost instinctively complied. The dog was on the other side of the chain-link fence… there was no way it could get to her, right?

Ever so slowly, whilst trying hard not to make any sudden movements, Kagome crouched down a short distance from the fence until she was eye level with the creature. "Are you a friendly dog?" she asked, putting a tentative hand out to show she was harmless, even if it wasn't.

The dog looked at her hand, then looked back at her face. At least it wasn't growling or making any attempt to pounce at her, fence or no fence. Kagome took this as a promising sign and inched a little closer. "What's the matter? Do you need a vet?"

But despite the fact that the dog looked like a walking corpse, it didn't seem to need any kind of immediate medical attention. Its fur was so matted that it looked as if slabs of carpet were hanging from its hide, but this did nothing to disguise the prominent way the spine protruded from its back, or the way the ribs stuck out from the flanks

Maybe it looked more hungry than evil…?

"Do you want food?" she asked.

The dog almost stood up again, its tail giving the tiniest of wags. Kagome figured that it must have spent time with humans enough to know the word 'food'. She guessed it was probably an old timer on its last legs, cast aside by an owner who wanted a younger, prettier dog.

Pity welled up within her, even though it was hard to sympathise with something so… cross looking.

"I'm sorry, I don't have anything with me." She showed her hands to prove this. "But… I guess… if you're still here by the time school finishes then I'll buy you a burger or something. Then will you leave me alone?"

What could only be described as an intense light of hope shone in the dog's golden eyes. Kagome felt herself soften a little more. "Maybe a side order of fries as well…" There was something warm about those eyes, a softness that belied the rest of the body.

The school bell rung behind her and Kagome straightened, knowing that she should already be getting changed into her uniform for the next lesson. "Catch you later, doggy." She gave a little wave before jogging back towards the school entrance. She turned to look over her shoulder every now and then, only to see the dog watching her with the same eagerness as before. Again, Kagome felt sorry for it.

It was still there an hour later when Kagome was sitting in her history class. She was three floors up, and even though she was beside the window the dog hadn't noticed her. Even so, it stayed by the fence vigilantly and lay down with the cherry blossoms.

"Someone's got an admirer." Yuka cackled quietly as she leaned over to follow Kagome's gaze. "He's taken a shine to you."

"It fell down the well in our wellhouse last night…" Kagome mused. "Someone's probably neglected it."

"Are you sure he isn't feral?" Yuka cautioned. "Might have rabies or something. Sure looks evil enough."

Kagome shrugged and ignored the warning. "How do you know it's a boy?"

"A girl could never be that blasé about their appearance." Yuka snipped out. "Obviously male."

This came from the girl who had collected three female dogs, each of them having more money spent on their appearance than the humans of the household. Kagome smiled slightly and went back to listening to the teacher. She didn't want to fail another history test on the Sengoku Jidai.

That girl sure was taking her sweet time about finishing this 'school' business. Inuyasha lay down on the grass and waited…

…and waited…

Then for kicks, he caught the scent of some ground-walking bird and padded off to track the damn thing, unaware that the pigeon in question was only a few metres ahead of him the whole time. His nose told him what he needed to know and tearing it off the ground for even a moment to use his eyes seemed to be a waste of time.

The bird eventually outsmarted him and flew off into a tree. Then it was back to the fence for Inuyasha.

A few groups of children were still out playing the strange games of this world, but for some reason they didn't want to stray too close to the fence where Inuyasha sat. The dog was glad the humans kept their distance, though. Humans had a very odd smell compared to other animals, and Inuyasha wasn't sure he liked it. Plus, he didn't want to associate with any more teenage girls than necessary.

But eventually that ghastly loud bell rung off in the building, and before long there were people streaming out of the doors. Inuyasha sat up hastily and tried to scan the crowd of humans to pick out the girl who had promised him a "burger" and "fries".

It was perturbing to realise that the humans all began to look the same.

The only way he would catch her would be if he caught her scent… and that meant getting closer to the gates that the kids were leaving through. Hastily, in fear that he'd already missed her, Inuyasha stood up and padded off towards the flood of kids… unconscious of the fact that he'd picked up the rounder's ball in his mouth and was toting it along with him for no explainable reason.

One or two youths saw his approach first and their squeals and yelps alerted the rest of the humans. By the time Inuyasha reached the gate, he'd cleared a nice straight path. Planting his rear bang in the middle of the two gate posts, Inuyasha dropped his ball and carefully scented the air for a sign of "Kagome".

Her scent was there… but it was old. She hadn't been through here since morning.

Inuyasha was quite uncaring to the fact that he'd now cornered off an entire school of children by sitting at the only exit. He scratched his shoulders and shook his head, oblivious to the kids behind him looking on anxiously at their friends who were still stuck inside the school gates. Everyone was too scared to inch past him.

"Is that a dog or a wolf?" someone asked someone else.

"I think we should get a teacher…"

"I think we should get the dog catchers!"

"Do you think it's vicious…?"

"Who's it waiting for?"

"Is it a stray?"

Inuyasha ignored the twittering voices around him and concentrated on finding that lone scent among hundreds of others. Occasionally a youth or an adult would approach him, trying to shoo him out of the way, but all Inuyasha had to do was growl and snap at their hands to keep them at bay.

He effectively held the entire school hostage.

Then he caught her scent.

Inuyasha darted his eyes towards the crowd gathered inside the school gates. Was that her? The one standing slightly apart from the others who stared at him in utter horror and despair?

"Is that you?" he called to her, but all that came out was a slightly inquisitive "Woof!"

The girl jumped and suddenly she was moving towards him. "What are you doing?!" she hissed under her breath as she neared him. "You're holding up the entire student body!"

"I want my food now." Inuyasha stood and found his tail automatically wagging at the thought of a full stomach. "Let's go!"

"I guess you want that burger, don't you?" The human girl sighed and sagged slightly, then moved past him to continue on her way. Her classmates jumped aside to make room for her as Inuyasha tottered after.

"Is that your dog, Kagome?!" someone shouted.

"No!" was the girl's angry response. Her stride didn't break as she marched off down the pavement, away from the others.

"I thought her dog went missing."

"Nah, that ain't her dog. She had a small terrier, right?"

These voices soon faded as Inuyasha followed Kagome down the street, and he noticed how the girl's posture became less rigid the further away from the school they went. She also began to slow down a little, and Inuyasha was forced to adjust his own pace to match hers. "Don't forget the food, girl." he reminded as he drew alongside her. "You promised me food."

She didn't seem to hear his words and merely glanced at him blankly before turning her eyes back to the pavement.

She seemed upset.

She seemed to miss her old dog.

Inuyasha didn't bother her after that. She was obviously taking him somewhere since she hadn't tried to lose him yet, and Inuyasha almost pranced in anticipation. The promise of food was making his stomach ache so hard that he found it hard to control himself. It was almost too much.

The route that the girl chose took them across many roads and down crowded street walkways. People gave the girl and the dog a wide berth, but only the girl seemed to notice and flushed with embarrassment. The smell of cooking food was ever present in this part of the town, and Inuyasha couldn't stop himself from salivating when the most predominant smell was meat…

He had to admit that he was getting quite concerned at the fact that they were actually walking past most of the shops and stalls that sold food.

His patience bore fruit when Kagome suddenly veered off towards a shop doorway with the word "WacDonalds" pasted across the front. "Wait here." she told Inuyasha, before disappearing inside.

Inuyasha pressed his nose against the window and watched her closely, not wanting to miss a second of the action. The girl joined an agonisingly slow queue inside the shop, and Inuyasha licked his lips as his attention was drawn to a small girl who as eating something rather juicy looking only a few feet away from him. He stared at the little girl, but the little girl was probably too little to understand fear and evil, and so didn't shy away from the window as several others had already done. She did, however, seem to understand the concept of mental torture. She grinned at Inuyasha as she chewed her food ever so slowly.

Inuyasha was so enraptured with the little girl's food, that he barely noticed when the big girl came back.

"Here." she said shortly as she unwrapped a parcel of paper and crouched down to lay it on the pavement. "Enjoy."

Inuyasha didn't even bother to say thank you as he lunged at the alien-like food and began wolfing it down. It may have been poison, it may have been unhealthy, or it may not have been food at all, but it certainly smelt wonderful and edible. Inuyasha wasted no time with manners and simply tore his way through the burger.

It was gone in thirty seconds, but Inuyasha spent almost a full minute sniffing around the paper and the ground for an extra crumb that he may have missed. By the time he raised his head, the girl was gone.

A/N: The next chapter is 50 done. Stay tuned...