I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi

Too Hot to Try

InuYasha lay back on the grass, shaded by a nearby tree, watching the clouds roll by, drowsy, but not quite ready for a nap. It would probably rain by sundown, but for the moment, the day was hot and humid and beautiful all at once. It was too warm for his jacket, and he had pulled it off, and had even tied his hair back trying to get some relief. A butterfly drifted by, out of the garden, and investigated a patch of wild flowers not too far from his ear. It got too close, and his ear flicked in response.

Nearby, Kagome sat in the shade with her sewing in her lap, mending something bright blue and red. Nearby, the washtub had something soaking in it, and several garments were hanging up to dry on their rods.

InuYasha had been working himself, earlier, cutting firewood and mending the window in the sleeping room, and he had started the day going fishing before the heat built up too high. He needed to check on the roof over the bathing room, and he really ought to go down to the village and check on Miroku, but he was just too warm to want to do anything else for a while.

He rolled over on his side, propping his head up with one arm.

"It's too hot to work. Why don't you come over here and lay down?" he said, patting the ground.

She smiled at him. "I can't. I really need to get this done." Kagome pulled her needle through the fabric.

"Why?" he asked. "You're working too hard for such a hot day."

Suddenly, there was a crash as a silver-haired boy came crashing through some shrubs and into the clearing. He had weeds in his hair, and a rip on the knee of his hakama and a smear of mud from cheek to the top of one triangular puppy ear.

"That's the reason why," Kagome said.

"Mama! Daddy! Look what I found!" He jumped on his father's lap.

"What is it, little guy?" InuYasha asked as he sat up and pulled a leaf out of his son's hair.

"Frog!" he said, opening his hands up. Suddenly the frog bounded away, and Atae tried to, also, but his father held him firmly around the waist.

"But he's getting away!" the little boy cried.

"That's okay," InuYasha said. "You can't eat him."

"No?" Atae asked.

"Well, maybe, but they have nasty skin," the older hanyou said.

"Be glad he wasn't a kappa," Kagome said, putting down her sewing and walking over to the two of them. "We'd have had to give him all our cucumbers just to make things right."

"But I like cucumbers," Atae said.

His mother took him by the hand. "So don't catch any Kappa," she replied. "As for you, young man, time for a bath."

"Do I hafta?" Atae asked, making puppy dog eyes at his mother.

"Do what she says, son," InuYasha said.

Kagome led the unpleased child off into the house. For a moment, InuYasha contemplated what it might take to get Kagome alone in the bathing room. But laying back down and watching the clouds roll by, he decided it was just too hot to try.

A/N A Kappa is a waterside youkai. Kappas keep water in an indentation in the top of their heads, and have a great fondness for cucumbers.