Shippou gave a small ‘oomph’ as Inu Yasha’s hand blocked his original path. He sat on the ground rubbing his head.

"Hey, what did you do that for? You should be nice to me, it is my birthday."

"So what brat, she’s still sleeping, and if you don’t quiet down she’s going to wake up cranky." He hissed through his teeth at his best attempt to whisper. He knew from experience that Kagome was not the most pleasant person when she didn’t get all of her sleep.

"So, Inu Yasha, it seems that you and Lady Kagome had an eventful evening." Miroku came into view on a cart drawn by a small donkey. Sango gave him a death glare from atop Kirara’s back. She would have hit him, but he was just out of reach to safely hit him with her weapon.

"N..nn..nn..nothing happened. At least I don’t think it did." Inu Yasha became quite defensive.

"Your sleeping arrangements would speak otherwise." Miroku said while pointing to the young girl next to the hanyou. Inu Yasha wasted no time in grabbing a nearby rock and nailing the monk square between the eyes.

"Praise Kami that someone did it, I didn’t know how much longer I could take it before I just gave up and killed him." Sango stated. The rock had hit Miroku fairly hard and he had dropped the reigns as he sat there drooling like a brain-dead monkey. The donkey took this opportunity to have its breakfast.

"Serves you right you stupid pervert, it looks like you cleaned that village out, and on top of all that you woke me up." Everyone except the incapacitated holy man turned to look at the grouchy teenager.

"Kagome, your awake!" Shippou bound into her arms, gave her a warm hug, and fell down into her lap. "Well, did you remember what today is?" Expectant hope filled his eyes. Kagome looked over at Inu Yasha as he stood up and put his coat back on.

"Hmm, now what day could it be?, Inu Yasha, do you know if there was anything special about today." He was about to reprimand her for being so forgetful when he caught the mischievous glint in her eye. He crossed his arms, puffed out his chest, and decided to play along.

"Feh, I don’t remember anything all that special about today. Let me see, oh I know, it’s the day when we search for a town that will actually buy all of the goods that Miroku stole, and we will pay for our dinner for once instead of conning some poor sap out of it." Kagome gave him a strange look, not quite the response she had been expecting, but it was enough to get a rise out of the small Kitsune.

"Come on guys, you know." He whined

"Okay, Shippou you got us, Happy Birthday." Inu Yasha’s chest deflated slightly, he had been hoping to play this game a little longer. He enjoyed mentally torturing the little fox almost as much as he enjoyed physically torturing him. At least he knew he wouldn’t get subdued for this one, and had wanted to take advantage of that. Still, he was lucky he got the little bit of it that he had.

"So, where’s my gifts?" He looked expectantly to each person in the group and locked his eyes on Kagome.

"Not until tonight." Kagome scolded him mockingly. "You shouldn’t be so greedy."

"Well, Inu Yasha was right about one thing," Miroku had decided to rejoin the world of the living, "we will be heading into the next town, and as my gift to you Shippou I will pay for dinner and a room this once without any other motives."

"You mean that Miroku?" The entire group spoke in unison while staring at the young man whose face was just beginning to match the color of his robes.

"Don’t any of you believe that I can be honest."

"No." Seemed as if the rest of the group had been on the same brainwave.

"Tachi can vouch for me."(Isn’t that the name of the demon that follows him around?)

"Yeah, well he ain’t here right now is he? And unless I’m not recalling correctly, he didn’t seem to help out your reputation the last time we saw him." Inu Yasha had broken away from the collective thought. Miroku gave a defeated sigh.

"As my gift, I’ll make sure he keeps that promise."

"Thank you Sango. With great gifts like those I can’t wait to get Kagome and Inu Yasha’s tonight." Everyone else looked over at the white-haired stripling. ( For those of you looking to expand your vocabulary, stripling is an archaic word roughly meaning young man. Gotta study for those AP exams.) He was leaning cooly against the tree.

"What?" he gave them all a questioning look. Kagome just shrugged and picked up her bag.

"We need to go if we are going to get through with our plans before sundown." She turned to Sango, "So, what was it that kept you from making it yesterday? As if I couldn’t guess." She glared at Miroku who was now doing his best to regain control of the stubborn ass. (Don’t you love donkeys?)

"Perhaps the ladies would prefer a ride on the cart while it is available?" He flashed his sweetest smile.

"Oh no you don’t you dirty reprobate. You need to keep your hands focused on a different ass. (If it isn’t already obvious why I put a donkey in the story, then it will be soon enough.) Besides, it doesn’t look like you have enough room up there for her bike. (Yes, she had it the whole time, how else would you explain her not riding on his back? Really, if she had ridden him that far, what would have caused him to stop before meeting up with everybody else? It just was not necessary to the story line up until this point.) So, it looks like you will be all alone. Shippou, get in the basket so you can be a little more comfortable."

"Hey, Inu Yasha, is this your gift? Being nice to me?" Inu Yasha just face-faulted.

"Hey, if you don’t want to ride, then walk for all I care." He gave an annoyed growl and began walking ahead of the group, then he paused and turned to look at Kagome. "Where’s your jewel shard at?" ‘How had he noticed it missing?’she thought. She reached into the pocket of her bag and pulled out the chain. "I would feel more comfortable if you wore it." he stated mechanically and continued on his way. She stared at the fragment in her hand, wondering why he had said that.

"It is quite obvious to me that something did occur last night. Mind enlightening me, I mean us Lady Kagome? In excruciating detail if you please." Miroku looked down at the contemplative miko.

"You and your ass just move along, us women have some talking to do if you don’t mind." Sango glared at him. He then pushed the donkey ahead hoping to catch little snippets of their conversation.

***

"That does seem strange, now that you mention it, I did notice a change in Kirara after meeting you. She seemed a little more content. In fact, her seeming a little less restless is what sealed my decision to stay with you all."

"Why didn’t you say anything about it before?" Kagome looked to the girl that she now saw as a sister.

"It never seemed important. Do you know something that we don’t, girl?" She patted the fire cat beneath her that had been keeping the same slow pace as Kagome’s bike. Kirara simply acted as if she hadn’t heard or understood, but in fact, she knew everything.

"So, Inu Yasha acts weird whenever you get close to him, I don’t see what’s so strange about that." Shippou barely fit into the small basket, he had been so quiet, that the girls had forgotten he was there.

"I’m so sorry Shippou, I forgot you were there. It seems you’ve gotten bigger since the last time that you rode with me."

"It’s no problem, Kagome. It’s still better than walking all of the time. I just can’t sleep in it anymore."

"We’ll just have to do something about that later then won’t we?" Kagome smiled down at the young red head in front of her. "Hey, you guys, promise me that you won’t tell Inu Yasha about any of this, I don’t want him to worry any more than he already does."