These characters do not belong to me.

Choosing a Partner

Chapter 17

By Kenzie Kennedy

Inuyasha grinned as she left. Now he could get to work on his train.

"Inuyasha?" Rimiko called. "Is that you?"

"Yes," he answered and followed her voice.

"I had a question for you." She said when he arrived. "What are you going to put your train on?"

"The floor," Inuyasha answered as if it were obvious.

Rimiko shook her head. "No, that won’t do. There’s a big piece of plywood out in the garage. You’ll need a table to set it on. The shop probably has some books on the subject." She paused. "Wait a minute," she said softly. "Come with me." Rimiko walked off towards the library.

Entering, she went to the computer and waited for it to start up. As soon as it was ready, she connected to the internet and did a search. She smiled at Inuyasha and asked him to sit down beside her.

Rimiko had found an interesting site called World’s Greatest Hobby that was about model trains. They browsed the site until they found the link that said Getting Started. The first item on the list was to read. Rimiko frowned. She didn’t think there were any books about model trains in the library. She read down through the list of things to do and marked a few of them in her mind. Five was definitely something to address. She placed a finger on the screen and tapped it. "Get it off the floor," she said. "So we’ll build you a table."

"Like that?" Inuyasha asked. He pointed to the picture with one claw.

Rimiko nodded. "Or have you seen one like that in the hobby shop?"

Inuyasha tilted his head. "I think so," he said uncertainly.

Rimiko shrugged. "If not, we’ll build one." Another item was improve the atmosphere. The basement was well lit. Get a tool kit and find a layout in a book to build. That sounded simple enough. She’d send Inuyasha to the book store and the hobby shop-

No, that wouldn’t work. Inuyasha didn’t have any credit cards or a bank account. Something she’d have to fix. She pursed her lips. There wasn’t anything she had to do right this minute. She could take a few hours off to go shopping with Inuyasha.

Rimiko got out of the chair after shutting down the computer. "Well? Aren’t we going?" she asked.

"Going where?" Inuyasha asked.

"You need to get a few books and a table for your train, don’t you?" Rimiko asked patiently.

"I can have them?" Inuyasha blinked at her.

Rimiko nodded smiling. "When Sango decided she wanted to be a computer programmer, I went out and bought her the best system she could find. When Kagome found she had the power to be a miko, I bought her books on the subject and invited a neighboring miko to visit and talk with my daughter. Sota and Kohaku are a little young yet to want such big presents, but they do fine with video games and bicycles. When Miroku decides what he wants, I’ll make sure he has it. You want a train. Let’s go."

Inuyasha got up and followed the older woman out of the room.

***

A couple hours later, they returned with Inuyasha carrying a huge table under one arm and Rimiko had two bags full of books. Not all of them were Inuyasha’s, though. She had bought one or two for herself.

"What’s this?" Sango asked, munching on an apple.

"Inuyasha’s going to build a model train layout," Rimiko said pleasantly.

Sango’s eyes widened. "Really? What kind?" Inuyasha shrugged and looked away. Not to be dissuaded, she kept at it. "The ones with the mountains going through the wilderness or a town?"

"I don’t know." Inuyasha grumbled.

Sango shrugged. "I’d like to see it when you’re finished." She turned to Rimiko. "Kagome fixed lunch."

Rimiko winced. "I thought I’d be only an hour."

"Please teach her something else besides ramen," Sango asked pleadingly.

Rimiko went to clean up the kitchen, Sango went to the library, and Inuyasha carried his table down to the basement.

***

Sango sprawled out on one of the loveseats in the library reading a favorite book. She loved the library. It was one of the biggest rooms in the house. When you came in from the front door of the house, there was a small hallway that branched off into the sections of the house. The staircase was directly in front of you with the kitchen and dining room to the right. If you sidestepped the staircase and went through an archway, you’d find the rest of the house. Down one hallway were the boys’ rooms and Rimiko slept in another hallway. It was shaped like an L with the boys down the long part and Rimiko in the short end. Right around the corner before the bedrooms was the door into the library.

Upstairs it was like a U shape. Kagome slept at one end and Sango slept at the other. There were two spare bedrooms upstairs that belonged to Miroku and Inuyasha at this point. One bathroom was upstairs and one was downstairs. With five people in the house and now another two making it seven they needed them.

The library was a huge block of space. Bookshelves lined the walls filled with encyclopedias, reference books, manga, children’s stories, fiction, non-fiction, etc. There was a long table that you could sit at to do homework that required you to spread out. A computer lounged at a small table. There were two loveseats and a few chairs spread around.

Sango glanced up as the door opened. Miroku walked in and sat down at the computer. He had it up and was apparently searching for something specific. Sango, being a computer person, couldn’t help asking, "Is there something you’re looking for?"

"Yes. Could you help me?" Miroku asked pleased that Sango had spoken to him.

Sango got up from the loveseat and walked over. As soon as she was within reach, Miroku patted her on the rear.

She scowled, took the offending hand, and dropped it. "Was there really something you wanted?" Miroku shook his head. Sango went back to her book but she couldn’t concentrate. She finally got up and walked back to her room.

***

Kagome spent the rest of the day in her room trying to break through to her real power. Somehow it just wasn’t happening. She could feel what Kaede said was there, she just couldn’t get to it.

Sango knocked on the door. "Kagome?"

Kagome gave up and called, "Come in."

Sango walked in and looked at Kagome’s pale face. "Is something wrong?" Sango asked.

Kagome sighed. "Yeah. I can’t go outside until I can protect myself. I can’t protect myself until I’m at full power. I can’t be at full power because I can’t figure it out!"

Sango tsk’d sympathetically. "Why don’t you come to dinner? Maybe it’ll make you feel better."

"I don’t think eating is going to make me suddenly have the full powers of a miko." Kagome said wryly. "But it’s worth a try."

***

After dinner, Inuyasha fled to the basement. He had the table up with his train on it. He sat in an old swivel chair turning pages in one of his books.

"Find one?"

Inuyasha looked up to see Kagome coming toward him. "What are you doing down here?"

"Well, it’s all cleaned up and I thought I’d see how you were doing," Kagome said practically. She pulled over a folding chair and sat in it.

"I’m fine. Go away." He turned back to his book.

"Can I see one?" Kagome asked, pointing to the stack on the table.

"No."

Kagome frowned. This was hard trying to talk to Inuyasha! "Will you talk to me?"

"No."

"Ha! You just did."

Inuyasha snorted and turned a page. Kagome leaned forward trying to get a glimpse of the picture. Inuyasha tucked the book closer to him. Kagome sighed. She put up the folding chair and went back upstairs.

As soon as he could no longer hear her footsteps, he sighed in relief. Why was the girl trying so hard? It was hard going against everything he’d been taught and be rude to a female.

But if he didn’t, he might get to like her. That was a definite problem. Everyone he liked eventually went away. Slaves were sold and his mother…

Inuyasha turned determinedly back to his book.

***

Rimiko wandered into the kitchen the next morning to make breakfast. Inuyasha was waiting for her. "This one," he said, pointing to the book.

She walked over and looked at it. It was a picture of a piece of country she didn’t know. The picture was full of houses, streets, people… "It looks complicated," she offered.

Inuyasha stared at her. She sighed and smiled at him. "But you figure out what you need and we’ll go get it."

He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "The book said I’d need these to make it work."

Rimiko laughed. "All right. After breakfast, we’ll go to the store."

***

Inuyasha hauled his stuff downstairs. It was a good thing he was so strong because it was incredibly heavy. The store owner had told him a little about what to start on first. Tools and plaster and stuff to make the foundation with. The houses and little decorative things came later.

"Wow! What’s all this stuff?"

Inuyasha’s ears flattened back. The girl again. "Go away," he barked. "I’m busy."

"Well, then let me help you." Kagome started toward him.

"Go back upstairs!" he shouted.

Kagome froze. She stared at him for a few seconds then turned and ran.

Inuyasha went back to his bags. He didn’t have time to waste on a stupid girl. Why wasn’t she getting the message?

********************************

Okay. The last scene that the last chapter ended on. ArtemisMoon didn't get it either until I explained myself. Kagome said something about if Inuyasha wanted to kill her there were easier ways. He asked what and she told him chocolate. Death by Chocolate. *looks around at confused faces* Well, I thought it was funny…

For all the people who want more Miroku and Sango fluff, I really can't remember if there is that much in here. But in the story I’m working on at the moment, there's lots of stuff.

Lady Athena: I believe Inuyasha's going to have a human night. A bad human night actually.

Like anyother: Miroku will be a great artist. There's an extremely funny scene about what he chooses to draw coming up.

Ucchan: Yesterday was the first day in about a week that I didn't have a problem uploading the chapter. Ryan and I think it's so…sweet for you to end your reviews with sugar.

Wolfen-Man: The sword really hasn't been featured because you have to consider its use. It is used to defend Kagome in this story. She hasn't been outside lately.

Kishi: It's certainly going over my record reviews. Passion Isn't Really Happiness has a grand total of 525. This one's creeping up on it really fast. I think this is better written than The Bet, too.

TeenSpyGirl: *muffled laughter* Inuyasha in a little conductor uniform…

Tari Of Nargothrond: Oh, all right. How does being one of the not-cat demons sound to you? There's a lot of them killed.

RahimaDragaz: I have no idea about why it's not letting you log in. I’m having problems getting the chapter to post. Try it today and if that doesn't work, see the Help people. No, I don't hate guys.