Title: Fruit Salad
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho and Inuyasha belong to their rightful owners. This story is the product of a lack of KuwabaraKagome fanfiction. Flames will not be tolerated.

WARNING: In continuation of Fruit Salad. This is a series of one-shots and the chapters may not connect evenly. Flames will not be tolerated and are rude so don't do them, please. Be nice and considerate. This is and will always be a series of one-shot Kuwabara/Kagome pairings.

Fruit Pie

Kazuma felt extreme guilt lacing through him the more time he spent with Kagome. He loved her so much, but then he thought of the work he had to do and the fact that she had no clue about any of it.

"Kazu," she twirled in front of him in a very pretty yellow sundress and tan sandals. Everyone was bugging him to tell Kagome the truth lately. Even Hiei told him to just tell the truth. And really, who was Hiei to talk anyway? The guy was trying to transform a crossdressing little boy into a real little boy who wore boy clothes and everything.

Plus, Hiei was a sugar-loving diabetic who was always grouchy! It was surprising how the little boy Dyske took care of Hiei in the absence of Kurama. They were all getting older and Kurama was getting rather serious in his relationship with a woman named Kotoko Something-or-other.

So what did Hiei know about relationships anyway? He had never been in any relationship, ever! All Hiei had now was Dyske who sternly refused to let Hiei come into contact with anything that could jeopardize his health. And for some reason, Hiei listened!

But why did everyone keep pressuring Kazuma to tell the truth? Kurama said it was because the longer Kazuma waited, the worse it will be when she finally learns the truth. But she was the best thing that ever happened to Kazuma, ever. Did he want to lose her over the issue of the Spirit World and the job he did daily?

What if he just quit the Spirit World? He constantly thought about doing it, but at the same time he worried if he did that, something would happen and Kagome would be attacked or something.

It was almost a past he couldn't escape.

"Kazu?" Kazuma jerked back to reality and felt his face burning. "You faded out on me for a minute there, Kazuma." Kagome placed a loving hand on his arm and his guilt magnified. He was just being so deceptive… "Are you feeling okay? We don't have to go to the carnival."

Kazuma looked at her for a moment and shoved a smile on his face. "I'm okay. I guess the incident on the news last night must be bothering me more than I thought…" He was getting quick at recovery lies, but to him that was dishonest bad news. If only… if only he weren't so sure she would freak out and leave him if she knew…

Kagome smiled at her boyfriend and touched his face with a warm hand. Today, there was something forced about that smile. She had worried last night that he wouldn't want to go to the carnival after the news, and her worry appeared to be real. On the news, one of the Ferris Wheels had malfunctioned and stopped moving. No one had been hurt, but the carnival had closed early for maintenance purposes.

"It'll be okay," Kagome said with surety. "It's a man-made machine. We know the risk we're taking simply by building these things. Nothing is perfect. Let's go to the carnival and have a good time."

Her words, 'nothing is perfect' struck him like a bolt of lightning. It was double edged, but he knew she didn't mean it toward him. Still, he felt worse about hiding his secret now. He thought, maybe he'd drop a few hints today to see how she would react… just maybe if she reacted well enough, he could tell her during the evening fireworks?

"Come on, sweetie," she said, kissing his cheek. She grabbed up a pink wrapped box and tucked it under her arm before approaching the door. "We'll be late meeting the others if you don't hurry!" she teased him with a short wink and a grin.

She hoped to ease some of his discomfort. She got the feeling that today would be a very eventful day, but nothing gave her any reason to think those events would be bad ones, and she intended to enjoy this day with Kazuma.

She watched as the man she loved let out a small chuckle before he followed her out of their apartment. In a few moments, they were walking toward the carnival. "Hiei's gonna be mad if you give that to Dyske." Kazuma pointed out, eying the pink box. He knew what was in it.

"Oh, I don't doubt that," Kagome laughed. "But he'll get over it, because Dyske will be so cute!" Her nose wrinkled in good cheer and Kazuma laughed outright. He really enjoyed watching Kagome and Dyske and it made him even happier to watch how the anger built in Hiei's eyes at seeing the two interact. His friend's discomfort was his happiness.

"Oh, by the way!" Kagome said, "There's a pie eating contest at the carnival today, so we should be careful to avoid it or Hiei might get ideas."

Kazuma scratched the back of his head. "Really, it's been almost a year since he was told not to eat sugary substances," now that he thought about time-frames…it had been almost a year and a half since he met Kagome… "You'd think he'd have learned by now."

"He can't control himself," Kagome pointed out.

Kazuma agreed, "I know, but still… I kind of feel bad for him, since our boss keeps a jar of candy on his desk."

"A lot of people keep candies on their desk. Leffie at work," Kagome was still working as a photographer for a major modeling company (which meant photography was equal to being paid to see mostly naked men and women all day long, oh how he loathed her job but could not tell her…) "keeps a jar of peppermints on her desk. Every time someone takes a peppermint from the jar, it moo's."

"Koenma put the jar there only after Kurama told him Hiei was a diabetic. He kind of smirked and said 'Really?' before having his assistant Botan run to the store."

"Wow…" Kagome ran a finger along the edge of the wrapped box. "Nefarious boss." Kazuma nodded in agreement. "I suddenly like my boss more." He couldn't hold back a laugh at that. Her boss at the modeling company was a stiff, grungy old fat bastard who milked his employees for overtime and paid them less than they were worth. The only reason most people stayed there rather than finding a new job was because of the promise that the bosses' kind son would take over.

"Kagome-sama!" called the little boy Dyske as the two of them rounded the corner and saw the approaching carnival gate. Dyske stood with Hiei, Kurama and his fiancée Kotoko, and Yusuke and his fiancée Keiko. Today Dyske looked like a little boy, dressed in baggy jean shorts, black sandals with Velcro straps, and a black tee-shirt. His hair was still wet as if he'd just taken a shower. Hiei wore his customary black on black, but at least he'd left his cloak at home.

Yusuke wore a green shirt and blue jean shorts and Keiko wore a green sundress with a soft purple, sheer over-shirt and tan sandals. Kotoko wore a pink sundress with a white sash and white sandals, and Kurama wore a red shirt and black slacks. Kagome greeted them all while Kazuma pulled Kurama aside to warn him about the pie eating contest.

Dyske's eyes fell on the pink box and he bounced up and down in excitement. Kagome had promised him a present the next time she saw him. She laughed and handed him the present. He tore the paper off and threw away the box cover. Kagome, Kotoko, and Keiko were left scrambling for little bits of paper before it could blow away.

By the time they had all the paper in the garbage, Dyske was squealing with sheer joy. "Kagome-sama, it's the most beautiful thing I ever seen!" He hugged the frilly pink dress to his chest happily while glancing around at the others. Kotoko and Keiko were smiling behind their hands. Kurama's eyes twinkled and his lips twitched upward. Kazuma and Yusuke were bellowing in uncontained humor. Hiei looked ready for murder.

Kagome grabbed Dyske's hand and led him into the park. "Come on, then. Let's find a bathroom and see how it fits!"

"My mommy always had me fitted for pretty kimonos and brushed my hair and loved me and taught me to be graceful and gracious and giving! She taught me to love nature and everything!" Dyske said cheerfully. "Daddy didn't like me looking pretty! Daddy was mean and called me weak!"

That did sound like Sesshoumaru, and now that Kagome thought of it, if something had forced Sango to have Sesshoumaru's child, Sango probably wouldn't neglect the child but she would probably do whatever she could to make sure Sesshoumaru was miserable. And Sesshoumaru seemed the honorable type who would do what was right no matter how disgusted he was at being forced to follow his father's footsteps.

"Your daddy was a snooty old bumpkin," Kagome told Dyske as the others followed. Most of them seemed surprised that Kagome said anything about Dyske's father. Most of the time she avoided that subject and no one really knew how Kagome knew Dyske, but they did know she knew him somehow. "You shouldn't take his words to heart, Dyske."

"I know!" Dyske chirped, carrying his precious dress over one arm. "Mommy told me that too. I think mommy and daddy didn't like each other."

"Oh, don't you worry about that," Kagome said. "Look! There's the bathroom. Why don't you try it on?" Dyske skipped toward the Ye-Olde-Port-e-potty and Kagome joined Kotoko and Keiko to wait. Kurama was discretely informing Yusuke of the pie eating contest. Within seconds, Kotoko and Keiko were cheering Kagome's bravery.

"I'd never want to be pitted against Hiei, and you're always doing stuff like this." Kotoko laughed slightly.

Keiko nodded. "Yeah, Kagome! You've got a lot of guts. And such a brilliant pink too. Hiei must be fuming."

Kagome laughed in embarrassment. "I didn't do it to bother Hiei. I know Dyske loves pink and frills and a dress so I sewed it together using scraps from the dress I made to wear to Keiko's wedding next month."

Dyske came flying out of the bathroom, black Velcro sandals slapping the pavement happily. "I'm so pretty!" he said happily. He spun around for the girls to see. The dress only went as far as his knees and was sleeveless. Loaded with frills, his bottom looked like a bell.

"Yes, you are!" Kagome and the girls praised him while Hiei started wandering off, almost acting in a manner of 'I do not know these people'.

Yusuke asked, "What'd ya do with your other clothes?"

"Threw them away!" Dyske said. "I didn't need them anymore."

Hiei said, "You will pay me in full by tomorrow for the cost of the clothes, Higurashi."

Kagome looked at Hiei in surprise. He had stopped walking away. He was glaring at her in severe anger. His voice was leveled off dangerously. "Oh…okay…" she agreed.

"Five hundred dollars." He said.

Kazuma let a strangled shriek out, "Five hundred?"

Hiei calmly started walking away again. "I'm tacking on emotional trauma charges." He stated.

Dyske skipped after Hiei. "Mr. Hiei! Don't I look pretty?"

"Maybe if you were a girl." Hiei said coldly.

"But I'm not a girl," Dyske said in confusion.

"Then I guess you're not pretty," Hiei snapped. In less time than it took to blink, Hiei had gone and left Dyske with them.

Kazuma shouted, "I don't care if he does land at that pie eating contest! It'd serve him right, the bastard!"

Kagome sighed. "Well, let's not let him ruin the day. I've waited far too long for this day to come and no short, grouchy diabetic is going to wreck it for me." She, the girls, and Dyske then led the remaining three men further into the carnival where they played carnival games, won teddy bear prizes, and had a great time riding the Strawberry Whirly-Twirl. They assumed Hiei had left the park because they never saw him again for the rest of the evening.

--

Hiei hadn't left the park entirely. He was frustrated and didn't want to go home yet. If he went home, any one of them would be able to find him. And so he made his way through the crowds determining to just keep his Jagan searching for their aura and keeping a safe distance from them.

After an hour of simply wandering around a boring old building looking at carnival exhibits that children had done, he moved on to the animal exhibits. The rabbits pressed themselves to the back of the cage when he peered in, the cows and horses pranced, and the pigs oinked noisily and scuttled around their pens. The chickens and roosters were the only ones unperturbed by his appearance.

Once he got bored of looking at the animals, he put those buildings behind him and moved to the vendors. He thought maybe some ice cream would put him in a better mood, but then remembered the last time he'd snuck a handful of sweets, just a few weeks ago. He'd ended up in the hospital for three days.

He sighed then and left the ice cream line. How did it work? The 'condition' he had seemed so troublesome and hindering. He loved sweets so much and he was so close to them…he was surrounded by them right as he walked.

Cotton candy vendor…

Ice cream vendor…

A cow barn—being a barn that sold all sorts of products made of cow milk…

A general food stand…

A pie vendor…

A big sign saying 'Pie Eating Contest – Sign up here'…

He backtracked and stared with wide eyes at the sign. He could do it. He walked up to the pie vendor and read the sign. First prize, 100. Second prize, 50. Third prize, three free fruit pies, winner's choice.

It would be so easy to get third place… three free fruit pies… Wait…if he got first place he could buy even more fruit pies… And if he killed the other contestants, he could win without eating so much that he would end up in the hospital again.

Something of his desire must have shown on his face because he heard a chuckle from the pie vendor. "We've got twelve contestants, and four of them are sumo sized." Hiei looked at the pie vendor and attempted to smooth his features into his usual stone gaze. But he wanted those pies so much. "I don't think you'd manage winning, but each contestant that signs up does get all the pies they eat up on the stand for free."

Hiei couldn't stop the sigh before it escaped. He looked back at the sign and shook his head. "I wish I could. Unfortunately it seems my body doesn't like sugar anymore and even more unfortunate is that I doubt it would be acceptable to kill the other contestants to win."

"Ah," the pie vendor nodded knowingly. "You must be a diabetic, huh?" Hiei found himself nodding before he could stop and realize that it was no business of the pie vendor's. "Well, I do have a diabetic pie. It costs a bit more per slice, but here." He disappeared for a moment and came back to the window with a small plate and fork. On top of the plate was a thin slice of pie. He laughed a little bit. "Unfortunately it costs more, and you get less… but this slice has no sugar in it and it tastes just like regular pie… I'd call it Fake Pie if I thought people would buy it with a name like that."

Hiei thought for a moment, wondering if the slice would taste any good at all. He decided to take a risk. He pulled out his wallet and the pie vendor shook his head. "It's on me." The pie vendor sighed. "I simply understand you, that's all. I'm a baker, and a diabetic. Do you know what it's like to go to work every day and have sweets staring at you, teasing you like it knows what-for?"

Hiei laughed ruefully. "I suddenly don't feel so bad about my employer…" at the pie vendor's questioning glance, he explained, "My boss heard I was a diabetic and immediately had his petty little Grim Reaper go get a jar of candies to keep on his desk."

The pie vendor snorted in amusement. "You actually call someone the Grim Reaper?"

Hiei nodded. "That's what she is." The pie vendor laughed.

"Well," the pie vendor stated matter-of-factly, "if you ever get tired of your boss, come to Fruit Pie Bakery on Ninth Street. I'll teach you the secret of cooking." He pushed the pie slice toward Hiei and Hiei took it.

For the first time ever, Hiei thanked a human he did not know. "Thanks." He made his way to a nearby picnic table, feeling much better than he had felt earlier that morning. He sat down and sniffed the pie tentatively, curious if it really would taste normal without any sugar. It looked like apple pie, but apples had natural sugars didn't they?

He took the plastic fork and a tentative bite out of the pie. His first impression was amazement and he glanced back at the pie vendor. The old man laughed and gave him a thumbs-up sign, calling out, "It's all about creating fake to taste real!"

Hiei looked at the pie again, more carefully. He could not distinguish any difference between a real apple pie and the one he was eating. He took another bite of it, trying to taste differences. There was the slight notice of the sugar substitute but it was only noticeable if it was actually looked for.

And he wasn't feeling at all like he was eating real sweets, since real sweets made him sick these days. He found himself smiling a very real smile and in a very pleasant mood as he sat there, savoring the piece of fake apple pie.

Not even a young woman and her daughter invading his personal space by asking to share his table could destroy his mood now and he even let them sit down, watching them as he ate with a foolish grin on his face. He would definitely have to keep the Fruit Pie Bakery on Ninth Street in mind for future reference.

The young woman wore a dark sundress that contrasted with her fair skin. He didn't think she was Japanese when he first saw her, and when she talked he heard a distinct French accent. She was fair-haired, and had bright green eyes. Her body was thin and obviously curvaceous. Her hair was a jumble of curls pinned to the back of her head, though the curls were threatening to pop out of their hold. She had long fingers and had painted her nails the same navy color as her dress. He guessed her toe nails were also probably painted navy and she would have darker shoes on as well.

When she had been standing to ask if she and her daughter could sit at his table, she'd seemed so incredibly tall, but now that she was sitting, he guessed accurately that she used tall shoes to increase her height. She was a very attractive woman, indeed, but he was far too happy over pie to notice the long, curved lashes or her slender, bare arms or the way her lips were naturally pursed.

Her daughter was much the same way, looking to be about six or seven years old, except where her mother was very feminine, the daughter seemed to be rather tomboyish. She dressed in black slack-shorts, and a white short-sleeve button up polo. The mother's hair looked to be very long, but the daughter's hair barely went to the tips of her ears and was straight instead of curled.

"Francine," the woman sighed, her French accent blatantly aware.

"Frankie," the child said immediately. "Papa calls me Frankie, why can't you?"

The woman started speaking French, her cheeks flushing slightly. She glanced at Hiei in almost embarrassment and Hiei didn't point out that he could very much understand French…not to mention he was very fluent in it. It came after living over five hundred years. "Because I named you Francine. Come, eat." She opened a small lunch sack and took out baggies of cut carrots, broccoli, and radishes.

"I don't want that," Francine said, brushing away the vegetables. Her green eyes searched around them, "I want nachos! And a chili dog! And cotton candy! And ice cream!" her eyes then fell on the pie vendor's stand. Currently the pie vendor was serving two people pie and milk. "I want pie, and I want it now!"

"Honey," the woman started to say no.

Francine stood up on the bench and screamed at the top of her lungs. "My mama is a stupid woman who won't give me pie!" She spoke in Japanese so that everyone around would understand. Then she jumped up onto the table and started kicking things off like a spoiled child. Hiei hadn't expected the child's rampage to extend to him, but it did and his pie landed on his shirt.

Needless to say, he wanted to strangle the child. 'What did the spirit world psychiatrist say to do in situations like this?' he wondered. 'Oh, yeah…count to ten before beating said subject of offense… or was it count to ten instead of beating said subject of offense? The former sounds better…'

"Oh, my, I'm so sorry, sir!" the woman said in Japanese, grabbing her child. "Francine, you apologize this instant."

"An apology isn't going to bring my pie back," Hiei said, looking at the last few bits of pie mashed well and good into his shirt. He pulled the over-shirt off, leaving only his gray tee-shirt beneath that. He held the shirt out to the child, glaring at the child with a crimson stare. "Here's that pie you wanted, girl."

Francine's jaw dropped as she looked at him. Her mother apologized again and Hiei walked around the table, dropping the sullied shirt in Francine's lap. "The only one you should be bothering is yourself." He told the child. "Not me. Not your mother. Not the rest of these people here. If you can't get something yourself, you shouldn't have it." He turned to walk away, his very soul screaming 'blood for vengeance'.

But the child looked petrified enough just seeing his eyes. Plus, he wasn't too keen on another ten years forced servitude to Koenma for killing. His last sentence was over and he was still working for Koenma, but since he was working willingly now, he at least didn't have a new mission daily and only had to go on the huge ones when the four of them were required.

Koenma should really give him a bonus for not killing that girl…

He pushed his way through the crowd to the lake at the end of the carnival grounds. He parked his bottom on a swing on the shore of the small lake to watch the fireworks, even though it would be two hours until it was dark enough to start them. The entire carnival surrounded and spiked out from the lake, with the lake at the very center of the grounds.

There were five main gates into the carnival grounds. He was closest to the north-most gate. His senses told him that the others were closest to the southern gate. He was in the perfect position to watch them prepare the boats with the fireworks. It was almost tempting to read out with fire and set them all off, but he had to refrain.

He grinned, holding the sturdy chains of the swing and leaning to watch the humans scrabble around to the orders of a bulky man. One small child, probably only ten or so, was helping the adults and doing everything he was told while tripping the whole way. When the bulky man told the child to get "the final package", the boy went and struggled with a heavy box, taking it to the boat. He tripped and most of the fireworks fell into the shallow water.

The boy was reprimanded and the fireworks were taken out of the water, dripping water. "You got ten thousand dollars? Huh? We paid ten thousand for these ones alone! It's the finale, oh now what do we do?"

Hiei pulled himself off the swing and walked down to the pier. Hiei had been waiting to see these fireworks all year. It was his main reason to coming to this carnival because they always had really interesting fireworks patterns. He'd found out about the carnival five years ago and had gone every year on the final day of the carnival to see the fireworks.

And if the fireworks were going to be ruined, that would be no good at all. "Well, we could just bunch a few candles together and call it the finale…" the bulky man said dubiously.

Hiei said, "You could replace the gunpowder in them."

The bulky man looked up at Hiei, shielding the sun from his eyes with his hand. "We don't have the time to do that. We need to be set up in a half hour."

"Well, I could make them launch and fly if you want." Really, what happened to the 'real' Hiei, he wondered. Did that pie make him tolerant or something? He shouldn't be offering up his services. No, it also couldn't have been the pie, since he was talking to the pie vendor in a pleasant manner as well.

"How?" the bulky man asked suspiciously.

Hiei shrugged. "I'm rather good with fire, I suppose."

The bulky man didn't seem to have any more complaints. "If you can, good. If not, we'll have a contingency plan set up for a finale. Jeckt, you go sit on the swings or something useful." Hiei watched as the boy pouted and walked away.

--

The group ate dinner at a small food vendor and sat to chat about the day with each other cheerfully. Kagome paid for Dyske to get a hamburger and fries and the boy ate it so daintily it was a curiosity whether or not he was a boy in the first place.

The hamburgers they all got were good as far as carnival food went, and Yusuke complained about the lack of beer being sold, stating that every good carnival had alcohol except their carnival. Keiko told Yusuke he didn't need alcohol; he was loopy enough without it.

They finished eating and left the food barn. Outside the food barn, something curious happened. Dyske squealed, "Uncle!" and took off running before anyone could stop him. Kuwabara had totally forgotten about his plan to drop hints to Kagome about his true life, but what happened next made him glad he had not said a word.

A man approached with Dyske clinging to his back and jabbering hurriedly. He had long silver hair held back in a high tail, a red bandana on his head, and pale skin. Golden eyes glimmered in the light from the food barn as he responded to each one of Dyske's questions. His arms were folded around Dyske's knees, supporting the child on his back. The man's red tee-shirt contrasted dark against the pink frills of Dyske's dress, and his white khaki's had more pockets than Kagome ever thought one pair of pants could have.

When Kagome had stopped, the others did as well, asking if something was wrong. She put a hand to her mouth, touching the tips of her fingers to her lower lip. She tried to keep the word from passing her lips, but it bubbled out of her throat and she was helpless to stop it. "Inuyasha…"

Inuyasha smiled at her but it didn't make her stomach melt like it used to. "Hey Kagome." Inuyasha smirked at her and stopped a few feet in front of their group. "I know this is sudden and all that," well, that wasn't how she would put it exactly… she hadn't even known he was alive still, "but we gotta talk."

Kagome pursed her lips. It seemed each of their group was holding their breath for her response. "What would we have to talk about?" she asked him. "It's over. It's been over." She did mean the fight with Naraku was over and the jewel was safe, therefore her obligation to the past was done with, but from an outsider's standpoint, it didn't sound that way.

"It was over," Inuyasha turned his head to look at the child out of the corner of his eyes. "Dyske, your bastard dad's waitin' to see you."

"But I don't want to see daddy, Uncle Inuyasha," Dyske whined. "I want mommy."

"I can't give you that," Inuyasha told Dyske. He looked back at Kagome. "Please? Come with me, just for an hour. It's all I need. Then if you still want to cut all ties after that, you can."

Kazuma held his breath. To him, it sounded very like he could lose Kagome. And not to mention this guy was a lot better looking than him. He listened to Kagome's next words with the world beginning to spin in circles.

"It must be bad if you need me." She sighed and turned to the others. "I'll meet you at the south shore of the lake before the fireworks start. Okay?"

Kazuma nodded and knew the others were sending piteous glances at him. "Yeah… later…" Kazuma agreed and began to trudge miserably to the lake. Kagome turned to hurry after Inuyasha who had already started away with Dyske. No words were said on the way to the lake.

Inuyasha led Kagome to the closest exit and out of the carnival. They walked only two blocks after that before they were in front of a large hotel. Inuyasha entered and Kagome followed. They took the elevator up one floor and no longer did the place look like a hotel. Demons were everywhere, cubicles were set up, both humans and demons were hurrying back and forth on the floor with papers flying left and right.

As they neared an office door at the end, Dyske started crying softly against his uncle's shoulder. "I don't wanna see daddy… he's gonna be mean to me again…" he cried.

Inuyasha entered the office and set Dyske on a desk. "Sit at my desk, 'kay buddy?" he asked the boy almost affectionately. Dyske sniffled and sat down in the desk chair. Kagome was then led to another door and Inuyasha knocked before entering.

Jaken squabbled off something or other before he was dismissed by a man in a chair that currently looked out on the lake. Due to the man being turned around to the window, Kagome couldn't see who it was but she had a pretty good idea. "Sesshoumaru-sama, what is it you want?"

Sesshoumaru stood from the chair, leaning on the window with both hands intact. "Myonagi is alive." Sesshoumaru stated coldly.

Kagome was confused and looked at Inuyasha. "Myonagi cast some black magic a long time ago, shortly after you returned through the well and the well sealed. We couldn't get to you then, so we had to seal Myonagi in ice in the mountains. Unfortunately, Dyske got in the way of the seal back then, so he was also frozen."

"And this is my problem, how?" Kagome asked.

Kagome heard the clicking of shoes on tiles and turned to view behind her. A woman who looked like she'd just been enjoying the festival came in, her once-pinned blond curls falling about her in an array of madness.

"I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama, Inuyasha-sama. I came as soon as I could, but I was at the carnival with Francine and had to take her to her father's before I could come here." She flushed slightly in embarrassment. "Francine is quite stubborn when she wants to be." Kagome noticed the French lilt to her voice.

Inuyasha scratched the back of his head. "Don't worry about it, Gen." he said. He looked at Kagome and said, "Kagome, this is Genevieve Ronun, Gen, this is Kagome Higurashi. Gen's working for Sesshoumaru. We just got here too, Gen."

Kagome looked at her watch with a raised eyebrow. "Inuyasha, you said one hour… it's been fifty-eight minutes." He gave her an exasperated look. "I'm counting travel time." She explained.

"But even counting travel time it's only been," Inuyasha started.

Kagome explained, "I have to also count the amount of time it will take to get me back to the carnival. Fifty-nine minutes."

Sesshoumaru turned to look at Kagome with his piercing golden eyes. "There is also a group of supposed 'Spirit Detectives' working for my ultimate rival. I need help with two things: the destruction of Myonagi, and stopping the spirit detectives from killing my agents."

"If I say no?" Kagome asked.

Inuyasha suggested, "I wouldn't…"

"I'm human… way too old to be doing this sort of thing. I have a boyfriend, a job, and friends and I'm back in school. I won't mess that up for you." Kagome frowned.

Sesshoumaru said, "The job is simple," almost as if she'd already accepted. "You go where we ask, take pictures, and get out with the pictures intact. There is very minimal risk of fighting involved."

"'Very minimal' has a remarkable amount of frequency to it," Kagome drawled. "You want me to be a spy for you!"

"Yep. Please, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked. He took her hand and said, "I wish you would do this." She felt a tugging inside her as the 'genie' part of her reacted to the wish and her own desire for a little more adventure that she always tried to quash.

"Okay, fine," she said grudgingly. "I'm going back to the carnival now." She looked around and there was a piece of paper and a pen on the desk. She grabbed the pen and wrote a Post Office box number on it. "That's my post office box, send more details to it about this stuff. I also require a very large paycheck." She needed to go back now, before Kazuma died of fright losing her.

--

When Kazuma saw Kagome return to him, his heart burst in happiness. She must have chosen him! She was several minutes late but still…

That night, the fireworks were spectacular, and Kazuma could only find one explanation for that. It was because he and Kagome were together that the fireworks were so wonderful, and questioned it no further. He smiled briefly at the woman cuddled up to his side before turning back to the blasts in the sky and "oooh"ing with the rest of the cloud.

End.