“Kagome! Kagome, where are you sweetheart?”
An old woman wandered slowly through her home, making her way into her living room. There her eyes alighted on a small black cat laying in a ray of sunlight, and she smiled wistfully. “There you are, you naughty thing,” she chuckled, picking up the sleepy animal.
“Mrow?”
The elderly woman gently stroked her slightly shaking hand over the cat’s head, tickling her behind the ears. “Your lunch is ready, precious,” she told the cat, who had made her way up to curl around her neck, sleekly furred cheek rubbing against her own wrinkled one.
“And I heard a little rumour that we’ve a new neighbour,” she teased the cat, who began insistently kneading at her shoulder and bumping her head.
“Oh, very well,” the old lady mock sighed, meandering over the room’s sliding glass door - on the other side she could see her neatly groomed back yard, with flower beds on either side against the wooden fences, and a large oak tree towards the back. “But be back in a few minutes!”
Purring happily the cat nuzzled her master before bounding out the open door, her tail eagerly raised.
“Inuyasha!” she shouted, bounding through the trimmed grass. “Inuyasha, Kaede just told me that we have a new neighbour!”
“FEH!” a rough bark answered her from over the fence to her left. “So what! He ain’t nothin’ special!”
“Oh?” she asked, pausing in her mad sprint to the backyard directly in front of her, where she could smell a new dog. Turning, she gracefully leapt onto the fence hiding Inuyasha from her sight, peering down at the white dog. “Why would you say that?”
“Cuz he ain’t!” Inuyasha barked, turning slightly to glare up at her.
Kagome frowned, stretching her front legs out so she could lay across the top of the fence. She didn’t understand Inuyasha’s resentment for their new neighbour. Inuyasha was a funny dog, quick to anger and a little unapproachable, but even this was new for him - the new dog had barely been there a day and already Inuyasha seemed to hate him!
Inuyasha huffed at her silence, his ears lowering slightly as he seemed to pout. “He’s from the same kennel as me.”
“Wow, really?” Kagome gasped, her eyes widening. “Is he a mixed-breed like you?”
Her friend stiffened, and the cat frowned, unsure how she’d offended him. “No, he’s a pure breed,” he sneered, and Kagome hesitated, looking between him and the other bordering backyard.
“Go on,” he muttered, throwing himself down onto his side. “I can tell that you wanna go see him.”
“Inuyasha, I don’t understand,” she murmured, leaping down to stand beside him. She bumped her nose into his chin insistently. “If you know him, why are you so upset?”
His side rose and fell as he sighed heavily, lifting himself slightly to lay on his legs. “We have the same sire,” he told her reluctantly. “I was in the last litter he had, and Sesshoumaru’s always been upset that our sire’s last litter was mutts.”
Kagome scowled, swiping at him with her claws. Inuyasha flinched back, surprise on his face. “Kagome, what the hell!”
“You aren’t a mutt,” she said firmly. “I don’t want to hear you call yourself that again.”
“Feh, whatever, it doesn’t change why we don’t get along,” he growled, standing and prowling away. “Or why he hates me.”
“So you don’t hate him,” Kagome questioned, needing to hear it.
“Don’t know him well enough to hate him,” he answered sulkily.
She prowled forward, curling under his body and around his legs comfortingly. “Maybe if you get to know each other, you’ll find you like each other.”
Inuyasha snorted, tossing his head. “Fat chance of that.”
Kagome pulled back slightly so he could see her face as she pouted.
He sighed, closing his eyes and dropping his muzzle. “Fine, whatever, cat.”
She grinned, bumping his chin with her forehead lightly before turning and leaping back up onto the fence. “I’m gonna go say hi now. I’ll see you later, Inuyasha.”
Inuyasha only snorted, closing his eyes as he laid down again.
---oOoOoOo---
Kagome stalked around the top of the fencing, making her way to the backyard that housed her newest neighbourhood. She felt excited, even after what Inuyasha had said - she’d always loved making new friends.
She’d even made friends with the pair of robins that had built their nest in the oak tree in her backyard. The hen, Sango, was preparing to lay eggs. Every morning Kagome climbed up the great oak and inspected the nest, anxious to see the eggs laid. Perhaps even more anxious than Sango’s mate, Miroku, who hovered annoyingly and constantly tried to feed her.
Pouncing playfully along the fence, she walked past the oak tree to the middle of the yard, getting her first look at the new dog.
Like Inuyasha, he was a large dog, big and tall in the chest, with white fur and a long, fluffy tail. Unlike her friend, who had ears much like hers, this dog had floppy, soft-haired ears that looked, to her, so cute!
“Well, you’re a big’un!” she said aloud, drawing the dog’s attention.
He scowled, a growl hovering around the corners of his mouth. “What do you want, feline?”
“Feline, wow,” she giggled, laying down along the fence. “Inuyasha just calls me a cat, though usually he uses my name.”
The dog was silent, merely glaring up at her.
“It’s Kagome,” she offered, grinning.
He growled lightly now, taking a few heavy, menacing steps towards the wooden barrier. “What do you want?”
“Just to meet you,” Kagome confessed, tail curling teasingly. “Say hi - you know, general, neighbourly things. Maybe learn your name.” Inuyasha had said his brother’s name, but that didn’t count. She wanted a proper introduction, from the dog in question.
The great dog huffed, turning around with a flick of his tail to lay down, facing away from her.
Kagome’s fur stood slightly with her outrage, and she jumped up angrily, spurned and insulted by his manners. “You don’t need to be so rude! I was just trying to be friendly! Jeez, you’re worse than Inuyasha! At least he doesn’t ignore me!”
Sesshoumaru’s hackles rose, and his head turned, lips pulled back to expose his deadly fangs. “Never compare this one to the mixed-breed!”
“You’re not so special, buddy!” she hissed, back arching. “I don’t know what it’s like where you’re from, but around here, your pedigree doesn’t determine who you are, you do! And you, sir, are a jerk!”
He seemed taken aback, eyes wide enough to show the whites around his golden irises, and Kagome sniffed, her tail standing up in her pride. Her chin lifted, and she said, “You would do well to learn that.”
About to respond, Sesshoumaru was interrupted as a little girl tumbled into the yard, a beatific smile gracing her features. “Sesshoumaru!” she shrieked, pouncing on him. The dog stood his ground as her petite body impacted with his, thin arms wrapping around his thick neck.
Kagome jumped slightly, surprised at the way the dog withstood the girl’s attentions. And he was clearly only keeping still because she was there, because Kagome could see Sesshoumaru’s tail wiggling frantically against the ground.
She giggled, drawing the girl’s attention. “Sesshoumaru!” the child said gleefully, eyes lit with delight. “Have you met Kagome? She’s Mrs. Tanaka’s cat! Isn’t she pretty, with her black silky fur and blue eyes?”
Kagome practically preened, stretching her head forward and lightly licking one paw, drawing the wet appendage over her ear.
Sesshoumaru huffed, looking away in a rather sulky manner, in Kagome’s opinion, but she didn’t mind, because as the girl prattled on and lightly tussled with him, he not only wasn’t mean, as he had been to Kagome, he played with her, forgetting the cat’s existence for a short span of time in order to please his master.
When the girl had gone back inside at a call from her mother Kagome smiled, her eyes soft on a now slightly abashed Sesshoumaru.
“Maybe you aren’t so bad after all, dog.”
As if being caught acting playful and nice had loosened him up, Sesshoumaru snorted, smirking slightly as he turned away. “Perhaps, cat.”