Curiosity – Chapter 23 – "Nine, Ten, Ugh… Her Again"

Ever so slowly Kaede eased herself down the stairs. She had spent the entire night wrapped in the arms of her long missed husband and already she was yearning for the warmth of his arms that surrounded her earlier. When she had awoken the first thing to meet her sight was Yasuhiro's twin pools of amethyst and a loving smile, one that she had returned with earnest. Before she knew it, his lips were upon hers in yet another passionate kiss, one that lasted close to ten minutes. Both of them just felt the need once again to make sure that the other was truly there, that they were actually together again, and boy did they make sure through many, many long-lasting kisses.

According to the "clock" thing that sat on Yasuhiro's night stand it was almost six in the morning and that worried Kaede. From her estimate, that was about the time that Kagome woke up and she voiced her fears about being caught together. It wasn't that she was ashamed per say, it was just that she didn't exactly want to reveal anything about their little reunion. Yasuhiro agreed and decided to have Kaede go ahead and wake Kagome up since she needed to get ready for school anyways.

So after one last kiss, full of unspoken promises for future times like this one, Kaede found herself where she was now, stepping away from the staircase and heading toward the living room where she found a site that startled her.

"Didn't Kagome wear those strange sleeping clothes of hers to bed?"Kaede wondered as she came closer to Kagome to get a better look at what she was wearing. Why in the world was she wearing miko robes?

Figuring she should get Kagome up for school, Kaede moved closer to the couch where the young priestess was sleeping and reached out a hand to wake Kagome up when she was suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.

"Kikyo, I swear to God if that is you I am going to get an arrow, seal you to a wall, and dye your hair bright purple."

Kaede pulled her hand back quickly. What in the world was Kagome talking about? More than that what did Kikyo have to do with it?

"Child, exactly what are ye talking about?"

"Mmmmm…" Kagome mumbled as she pried her face away from the corner of the couch and turned to face whoever was talking to her. "Oh it's you Kaede, I was afraid Kikyo had come back again."

"Did something happen last night between ye and my sister?"

"You don't even know the half of it."

*Three Hours Earlier*

"Five more minutes mom."

"I can assure you I am not your mother, now get up before I move you forcibly." A cold feminine voice commanded that made Kagome jump, only she wasn't very happy when she spun around to find Kikyo staring down at her for a brief second before some sort of material was thrown in her face. Kagome picked it up and realized from feel alone that the mysterious fabric was that of a miko robe but she was instantly maddened when she saw the time from the glow of the DVD player.

"Kikyo, exactly why are you getting me up at two-thirty in the morning?"

"It is time to purify the shrine grounds. I feel a very dark aura hanging around the shrine, one that your grandfather apparently hasn't been able to detect due to his lack of power."

"She's just figuring this out about Gramps now? And what does she mean by 'dark aura'? I'm supposedly more powerful than she is and I don't feel anything. I better just go along with it. It can't possibly take that long to purify the shrine right?"

"Are you going to get up or not?" Kikyo sneered.

"Alright, alright I'm up."

*Present Time*

"To make a long story short, it took four hours to purify everything because apparently I wasn't doing it right and I kept having to redo everything, which means according to the clock I've only had about forty minutes of sleep. Plus that broom was smarts too." Kagome explained as she rubbed the back of her head.

"What does a broom have to do with anything?" Kaede asked as she followed Kagome into the kitchen.

It took a few minutes before Kagome could answer due to the fact that she had to find everything to get breakfast started cooking. "Apparently it is common practice with Kikyo to hit other miko's with broomsticks when they don't purify something correctly or fall asleep, surprises me that I don't have a concussion. Mind getting me the eggs out of the fridge please?"

Without even thinking to act as if she had never been to this era, Kaede went and retrieved the eggs and set them on the counter, after which she quickly examined the back of Kagome's head. Where she had rubbed it earlier didn't look that bad, to the untrained eye that is. If you moved the young miko's hair over and truly looked at her head you could see how red the spot had become, almost to the point of where it looked raw. Kaede figured her sister must have hit the girl many times, or at least extremely hard, after all, in her younger days Kikyo was known to have a temper.

"What would you like for breakfast Kaede?"

A sigh escaped the old woman at Kagome's question. Must this girl always put others before herself? She should be more worried about her head not want her house guest wanted for breakfast.

"Rice will be fine child. But shouldn't you let me cook? You look awfully tired and from what you've told me you had a long night."

Giggling flowed from Kagome as she looked at Kaede with amusement. "Well in this time, rice isn't normally a breakfast food, would you like to try something new like pancakes or bacon?"

"Pancakes? Now where have I heard that word before? Oh yes, Hiro made me those after I spent my first night here. During what he called our 'honeymoon' if I remember right. It would be nice to have them again, they were quite good."

Agreeing to try this "new food", Kaede assisted Kagome with making their morning meal and in no time the house was filled with the scents of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and even cinnamon rolls. Slowly but surely everyone made their way downstairs to the kitchen to receive their breakfast, that is, everyone but Souta. But Kagome didn't have time to worry about him; she had to get Suki to calm down first.

"Suki no want eggs! Suki want wamen!" The young child cried.

"Now Suki you know you're not allowed to have ramen for breakfast. Eat your eggs for Gramps please." Yasuhiro tried to reason with the child.

"But Ya-ya have wamen for breakfast so Suki want wamen!"

Kagome smiled at Suki as she put a plate of eggs before her. "You have to remember baby, Inuyasha is almost two hundred years older than you, seven hundred if you include the time difference, but I'll make you a deal. If you are a good girl for Gramps today and Inuyasha is here when I get home from school, you and he can have all of the ramen you want, but only if he is here ok?"

A huge smile spread itself across Suki's face as she heartily dug into her eggs. She was certainly looking forward to seeing her Ya-ya later.

"Shouldn't your brother be getting ready for school as well?" Touga inquired.

"Guess you're right. Tinkerbell, will you go wake Souta up please?"

Within moments Souta was in the kitchen rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The boy came up to stand beside Kagome, whom was cooking bacon at the stove, and reached into one of the upper cabinets to retrieve the cereal, that he would have normally needed a chair to reach. When Kagome turned to look at him through her tired eyes, thinking she didn't just see what she thought she saw, she finally noticed what was different about her brother.

"You're taller than me now." She realized.

The boy didn't answer for a few minutes because he was stuffing his face full of food, but when his bowl was empty, he pat his sister one the back before heading upstairs to change for school.

"Seriously sis, you must be really out of it to have finally realized that little fact now instead of yesterday. I've been having growth spurts for quite a while now dork."

"Oh whatever, you know I don't pay attention to stuff when I'm sleepy!" She yelled after him as she two made her way upstairs only she was headed towards the bathroom.

The rest of the guests ate their food in comfortable silence, all enjoying the new and tasteful delicacies Kagome had prepared for them. Souta had even made his way back down for yet another helping, he was a growing boy after all, but they were all startled when a scream came from the bathroom.

It only took seconds for the ruffled miko to make an appearance in the doorway of the kitchen, dressed in her uniform and a towel wrapped around her head. Kagome ignored the questioning stares from the others as she zeroed in on her "little" brother.

"Alright, what did you do?"

"I only wanted to see what you would look like with a different hair color sis. You can't possibly be mad when you always encourage me to experiment with things. Besides that, at least now I can tell you two apart." He replied innocently. Boy, it was really getting hard not to laugh.

"What is he talking about Kagome?" Izayoi spoke.

The miko pulled the towel from her head to show that her hair was no longer the natural bluish-black, but that it was now a dirty blonde color, which she did feel suited her a bit.

"Child…"

"Oh no I'm gonna be late!" Kagome yelped as she saw the time and raced to her room to retrieve her bag. Upon exiting, Souta was waiting just outside her door.

"You do know that the school decided to start up casual Friday's again right?"

"And you wait to tell me this until now?" Kagome moaned.

Ten minutes later she was standing at the front door in a pair of boot-cut jeans, a "Peace & Love" t-shirt, jean jacket, and a pair of high heels in her hand.

Before leaving she ran back into the kitchen and kissed Gramps, Suki, and Kaede on the cheek, bidding them goodbye, and gave Inuyasha's parents a semi-hug. She also double checked to make sure that the stew she prepared for lunch was in the slow cooker and ready for eating later.

"Bye everyone, hope you have a great day!"

"I am prepared to leave a well." Kikyo said directly behind Kagome, spooking her.

"You're what?"