After a bout of pouting from Tony and Virginia, they finally managed to get a ride to where the son had gone to sell off some pigs. It had taken a bit of arguing on their part, because while the village was grateful for them exposing the Peep family and revealing the true identity of Sally's murderer they were still wary around Wolf because of his true nature. There had been a few not so subtle whispers behind her back, Wolf had made it more than obvious of his affections towards her during their stay and what with the full moon having affected him. That, and there was Pesha that also wouldn't leave her side if he had too, so as she heard often enough, tongues were wagging.

Now, she was relaxing in the wagon, it wasn't first class but it was comfortable and a whole lot batter than the idea of trekking to wherever it was the mirror was leading them this time. Leaning back against the railing, Kagome hummed as she combed Pesha's hair not at all surprised that he nodded off. The whole Wolf getting arrested, the courtroom fiasco, uncovering the Peeps conspiracy only to rush about after learning the mirror they had spent the better half of a week hunting down for was missing. It took a while to find someone that was heading in the same direction, and now Kagome herself was growing tired. With the fresh mountain air mixing with the sweet smell of the straw beneath them and the wagon gently rocked with their slow forward pace, Kagome felt her head bob a few times until her body slid to rest against the one next to her.

Wolf froze when a warm weight settled against him, lowering his book blinking wide eyes at the head of familiar raven hair resting against his upper arm. Body stiffening for a moment, he swept his gaze to the others, each fully engrossed in their own books before returning his gaze to a dozing Kagome. Slouching lower into a more comfortable position, one that allowed for him to have more contact with Kagome, he eyed the printed words in his book for a few more minutes before tossing it over the edge. With his hands now free, he turned to Kagome and pulled her tighter against his form, nuzzling his nose into her hair and inhaling her scent deep into his lungs.

Settling his chin atop her shoulder, he followed the lines of her face, how her lashes fanned out across the tops of her cheeks, little nose that turned up just the slightest amount and how chewable those pink lips of hers looked. They parted slightly as she sighed, her body shifting to burrow deeper into the warmth his own body provided, he bit back on the whimper until she finally settled. Pesha shifting himself drew his attention to the young boy that still clung to Kagome. A feeling swelled up in his chest, a feeling of wholeness that he thought he lost with the death of his parents, with being forced to live the way he had for the less better half of his life. It felt like he had his own family.

Pesha while not of either of their blood, Wolf was sure that Kagome cared and protected him as if he were. A good indication of what she would be like with their own cubs. Smiling at the thought of his own family, more importantly the act of starting one, Wolf snuggled down and prepared to follow Kagome's lead of napping.

Virginia looked over her book with brows slightly furrowed and eyes slightly narrowed, pursing her lips. The sight of all three of them snuggled up, made her rather jealous, and sure Kagome may huff and puff about it, but she bet her friend secretly enjoyed it. Blinking, she realized she was beginning to pick up on Wolf's means of expressions. Rolling her eyes, she turned towards where Tony sat with Wendell reading their own book from Wolf. It was sad that the most she's had in recent love affairs came in the form of a strip tease to a dog and then shared her bed with said dog. Sure she knew Wendell was a prince first, according to him and his princely attitude, but the fact that he was a dog at this moment had her squirming in her spot. Though she easily recalled those moments when it was just the two of them and they would talk. He would tell her stories of the kingdoms, the happily ever afters of all the rulers which had been the princesses of all the fairy tales back home. That last one left her feeling rather smug, it just went to show that women were superior to men.

Reading the words from the book still in her hands, she scoffed and tossed the book to the side. She didn't crave a man's approval or lock her heart away. She was just more protective in who she gave it too. Was there anything wrong with that? She didn't think so. Leaning back against the railing, she watched as the mountains rolled by slowly as the cart bounced along some old worn trail. Allowing her head to drop, she let out a groan at the soft crack that echoed in her ears. The air was so much cleaner here, the sky just a little bluer as compared to New York, but she was physically missing the comforts of home. And while she did wait on tables, her feet had never been this sore in her life!

When a warm weight settled in her lap, she raised her head just enough to see what it was, blinking rather lazily to see that Wendell was now more or less laying across her thighs. "I'm not your personal pillow you know."

He rolled a bit to look up at her, wuffing slightly as he made himself more comfortable. "No, but you do smell much better than your father."

Her head dropped back, while it was a somewhat awkward angle, it was oddly comfortable. It took a few moments for her to realize that she was absently petting him, but no matter how she mentally scolded herself, she couldn't seem to stop herself doing so. It was soothing in it's own right, so she figured, why the hell not.

"What has you so deep in thought?" the question sounded rather loudly in the comfortable silence.

"How I miss the comforts of home. And that I might just be reaching the point where I'd kill for a nice hot bath." screw a shower, her feet were killing her and a bath sounded glorious right about now instead of the hay she was currently resting in. "Or my bed. I think my butt has gone numb at this point."

Wendell snorted, but understood her train of thought. While his up most desire was to regain his body, he too missed his soft down beds and silk covers, marbled baths with the subtle scents from the oils and soaps. Or proper meals of rich meats and steamed vegetables and the finest of wines. Although, his head shifted in a more comfortable spot to feel the slight scraping of Virginia's nails at a particular spot just behind his ear, a soft whine echoed around them

"I do believe your dog is showing, Prince Wendell." the soft snickers had Wendell freezing, and put an end to the soft repeated thumping and crunching sound. It was then that he realized that he had been the cause, his tail had been wagging.

"Not a word." his command was met with soft snickering.

"Of course not, you majesty." her soft laughter went unnoticed to the others, Tony seemed to be enjoying his time alone and the driver was more concentrated on keeping the wagon steady.

Wendell shifted, his nose pressing softly against her hip, which allowed her scrapping nails to reach behind his other ear. A double win, even petting and he was able to take in her soft scent. If there was something that being trapped as a dog gave him, heightened senses, and Virginia's scent was the one he'd been drawn to when she unfortunately ran over him. Out of everyone one in this odd group, Virginia was the most grounded and similar to his own character... And oh! Her fingers were simply magical, it helped him relax and quickly drifting off into a nap himself.

When the wagon jostled to a complete halt, Kagome felt herself pouting at the thought of getting up and leaving her current comfortable spot. It was with great regret that Kagome pushed herself up into a sitting position and immediately began to tame her hair and remove whatever straw was still in her hair. Wolf had jumped up enthusiastically, perching on the railing of the wagon and excitedly explained where they now were.

"Ah, we're in Kissing Town! The most romantic town in all the 9 Kingdoms." with a flourish, he jumped out of the wagon to immediately help Kagome out of it as well. "In Kissing Town, everyone falls in love with their fated one!"

A light dusting of rose colored her cheeks when he gripped her waist with both hands and lifted her up and out of the wagon, completely ignoring and bypassing the hands she had held out for him to help keep her balance when she had planned to jump down herself. The bright smile he wore was near blinding, and somewhat pure in it's innocent that she couldn't help but offer an amused smile in return. Dusting herself off of any lingering bits of straw, smiling more warmly when Wolf then eagerly helped Pesha off the wagon, who then quickly glued himself to her side. As the others cleaned themselves down and thanked the driver and then all of them took in the town they were now in.

Lips pursing, Kagome could honestly say that she found the town cheesy. It was definitely märchen in style, like it literally popped out of a storybook, only all the pink, red and white that were strung between the buildings and the heart shaped balloons that were tied down every so often. It reminded her of a very polite form of the red light district back home, all cutesy and fuzzy.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't really see the appeal of... Kissing Town." Kagome absently plucked a few straws from Pesha's hair and clothing, not noticing how Wolf spun to stare her down with what once could call an insulted look.

"Kissing Town... not romantic?" a whimper escaped him, his hopes dashing at the idea of using Kissing Town to win his fair little lamb chop.

An amused snort left Kagome as she shook her head. "Nope. I mean, sure, it has it's charm... But I find it as romantic as one of those silly singing cards."

Virginia wrinkled her nose at the reminder. Sure the cards were sweet, at first but they lost their charm quickly enough. Letting out a sudden laugh, she shared a look with Kagome. "If you think singing cards are ridiculous, imagine a singing ring!" she laughed outright at the instant reaction from Kagome. Her nose scrunched up, lips dipping down and pursing as if she had just eaten something both sour and bitter.

Kagome quickly shook her head. "Oh no, no singing rings please. That seems almost as bad as those gaudy large pieces of jewelery I've seen older women wear, only worse." she threw wide eyes at Virginia as if something truly horrifying had just occurred to her. "A card can be turned off, but a singing ring? I mean, with everything running on magic here, there would be no on or off switch! It could just simply go on forever..."

Virginia laughed outright at the truly frightened expression Kagome was wearing. "Oh god, Kagome. I sometimes wonder how your imagination works." playfully flinching when her comment earned her a mock punch in the arm. "Okay, okay. Seriously though, singing rings aside... Then again, for it to sing means it would have to be alive in a way right? It would make those private moments more interesting!" he laughed again at the scandalous expression that Kagome now wore and the quickly reddening cheeks.

Wolf watched their interaction with a surprising amount of concentration that Tony felt his eyes narrow more in surprise than anything, it was odd to see the excitable male so... focused. Deciding it was time to have everyone focus on the reason they were there to begin with, he clapped his hands and rubbed them as he smiled and searched the nearby surroundings. "Well, let's find our mirror!"

Kagome grumbled as Virginia continued to tease Kagome, whom was doing a very good job at trying to ignore Pesha's curious looks or slight tugging on her hand or sleeve. Kagome chalked it up more to the way Virginia and herself were talking, modern slang from New York which even she still had problems with, or at least she hoped it was so. As far as she had played mother, she never had to have the 'Talk' with any child so far, and she was so far happy with her track record.

The group moved to the side, scouring for any signs of a wagon, their mirror or both when a little girl that was either dressed up as a cherub or actually was one skipped up to them. Golden glitter left behind as it seemed to fall around her in a magical glow, even tinkling lightly as she smiled up at them. "Hello, I've been looking for you all day! I can see love and fortune coming your way."

Stopping, they all turned to her after her words pulled in their attention. Virginia and Kagome smiled at the adorable picture the girl made, dressed up in a somewhat Greek styled summer dress, golden wings twitching behind her as she held a golden bow and arrow. Pesha curiously sniffed the air, silently sneezing when a piece of golden dust got to close while Wolf and Wendell remained silent.

"Oh... It's slice of fruit cake time again-!" Tony let out a soft whoosh of air when Virginia slapped against his chest with a soft word of warning.

The girl drew herself up before speaking surely in clear words."Great romance, great wealth before this very night is out."

Tony nodded his head as he leaned down to get closer to her level. "Ah, and which one of us is making the money?"

"Your aura is, cloudy." her head tilting to the side softly. "Just give me a couple of coins."

Pursing his lips, Tony corrected his stance with a soft snort. "Ah couple of coins, the whole cloudy aura bit-! Virginia, what are you doing? Such a soft touch." with a shrug, he ignored the look his daughter gave him, though raised a brow when Wolf agreed with him.

"Yes, soft touch. Though no where near as sensuous or creamy as Kagome's." blinking at the sudden face full of Tony's jacket, Wolf shook his head to rid himself of the stench that clung to the old thing the other man had been using since their escape from the prison.

Putting the coins away in a little golden pouch, the girl pointed on to the side and spoke up. "Now, if you look over there, you'll might find what you've been looking for. Good Bye!" without waiting for a response, she gave a quick wave and skipped off, leaving gold glitter to tail behind her.

"I don't- What, it's the pig farmers wagon!" Tony jumped and hurried towards the wagon as the others followed after him.

Virginia lingered, looking after the direction the girl had taken, brows furrowed in obvious confusion. "What... But, how did she know?"

Tony was questioning the man for the whereabouts of the mirror, only getting stuttering replies in return. "Well, I didn't know it was your mirror, now did I."

Ignoring the excuse, Tony leaned in closer and used his hands as a show to indicate the importance of knowing the location of the mirror. "Where is it?"

"You wouldn't want it now, it was covered in pig swill." the moment the words left his mouth, Virginia decided to step in.

Gripping on tightly to the lapels of the man's jacket, she pulled him in closer and pushed herself to get right in his face. Her expression was fierce, her tone impatient. "Where is it!"

They all stood there shocked, no one moving or saying anything for quite some time, even the pig farmer needed a few moments before he was able to speak up. When he did, he stuttered and floundered a bit before finally spitting it out. "I, don't rightly know." he began to walk towards the back of his wagon, seemingly not at all put off that Virginia was still clinging to him. "Fellow gave me five coppers for it this morning."

Once his words registered in everyone's mind, Virginia's hold on him slipped as Tony took on a more energetic character. "Five cops... Some fellow?"

"I don't know. Some fellow with a wheel barrel full of bricky-brack! He must have come from the antiques market." with a vague point in the direction of where said market most like was to be found, the farmer closed and secured the back of wagon.

They looked in the direction the farmer pointed out, all with various emotions with this new found information. As if sensing her troubled state, Pesha wrapped both hands around one of her own. Looking down at the boy, she smiled and squeezed his hands in return earning a soft smile from him.

"Best hurry then, though it will leave no time for romancing!" with that, the farmer cracked the horses to go, and the others took that to start looking for the mirror.

After rushing through the streets of Kissing Town, looking now for both the antiques market and mirror, Kagome spoke up ."Well, we would have a better chance of finding it if we split up."

As if her words were magical themselves, Wolf latched onto her, reminding her much of a child that was loudly stating which team they wanted to be on. Kagome in turn raised a brow as she looked up at him, he simply smiled down at her excitedly. Shrugging her shoulders, she turned back to the others and waited expectantly to hear their take on the idea.

"You do have a point." Virginia turned to her father, shrugging. The sooner they found that mirror, the sooner they could get back home and away from this crazy magical world.

"Good point. We meet back here in about... half an hour if nothing?" Tony searched their faces only to nod and silently making it so without hearing their thought on that part. Watching as Kagome nodded her head and took off in one direction, Wolf skipping happily next to her, jumping from one side to the other.

Tony shook his head, though he knew he had no real say in that. Kagome wasn't his daughter and she was an adult, the most he could do was say a few words of advice. Other than that, he really could do nothing more unless asked. Turning to Wendell, he nodded his head in a different direction, already a few steps ahead. He stopped however when Wendell sat next to Virginia and expectantly looked up at her. Frowning slightly, Tony pursed his lips as he stared from Wendell up to silently question Virginia. When she shrugged her shoulders, he waved a hand. "Oh all right, you better watcher after her or you'll really regret it!"

Once Tony turned around the corner, Virginia looked down at Wendell. "You usually stick to him like a burr. What gives?"

"The last time I stayed with Anthony I ended up playing sheep dog. Before that I was turned to gold and before that trapped in prison where the Warden planned to poison me. If it's all the same to you, I would rather no end up in a whole new adventure that is bound to happen while going along with your father." he sneezed slightly when a woman walked past and her skirts kicked up the dust from the street.

"I see. Well then, let's get going." walking down the street behind her, she took to silently observing her surroundings as she searched for the mirror. It continued on as such for a few minutes, absently seeing young couples skipped and danced through the streets, romantic music sounded through the air softly while a few threw flower petals into the air in their obvious joy.

Chancing a look at the prince turned dog at her side, Virginia bit her lower lip before spitting out the question that burned her tongue. "Is it always like this?"

When he looked up, his physical form panting as his slightly accented voice rang through her head. "Like what?"

"This... town, the village, the people, you! It's like common sense was tossed out the window and left a world only a kid could understand." she waved her hands about, huffing slightly when she was done with her explanation, though it sounded more like a rant. She panted slightly as she waited for a reply, she felt her cheeks warm when Wendell simply stopped to stare up at her.

"Well, I can see where you are coming from, your world is vastly different than mine. Though you have to remember, magic is still a very integral part of our lives here, and as you can see, it does not necassarily mean it makes our lives any easier." a soft growl escaped him as he turned to stare at his own body, Virginia nodded her head in understanding. "To be honest, I can not say if what happened in the village is something that commonly happens, and I can only hope not. Especially not in my Kingdom."

"Yeah." Virginia trailed off, frowning at the memories of how Kagome fought for Wolf's freedom, or when Pesha had stumbled upon them near death after escaping the Woodsman. "But still, a lot still doesn't make sense. Wolf! Wolf is a pretty good example."

A snort escaped Wendell. "He's a wolf, well, half wolf. No use in trying to understand a beast. Look at what's happened so far in trying to."

"Hey, Kagome was right you know. What most people believe about wolves is nothing more than what came from fairy tales." pausing in her searching, even nearly missing a step, Virginia groan to herself. "That has no meaning here, in a world built around fairy tales. What I mean to say is, what we thought we knew, about a lot of things, isn't true. At least not in our world."

"That's the problem, we're not in your world, we're in mine. Wolves in ancient times were more beasts than anything else, truly eating many a babe and most of the livestock from any number of villages." he paused and sniffed the air for a moment when something seemed to have caught his interest, Virginia pausing to see if it was a lead.

"Yeah, well, times have changed. Those villagers were more than ready to see blood. Scary to see a bunch of rather peaceful appearing farmers to suddenly turn so blood thirsty. Whose to say that wolves haven't change either." Virginia offered, somewhat hopefully. She blinked when something suddenly clicked in her mind. "Wait. He's, half, wolf? How does that even work out?"

Wendell snorted at the scrunched up look on her face, making it blatantly obvious where her mind ended up wandering and more than likely forgetting that magic very much existed in this world. "Well, for your expression, not quite how you think. There are wolves out there, the more powerful ones, that can take on a human form. Obviously from there you know how things went."

"Ah-ha!" she spun about and faced Wendell, pointing a finger down at him. "Well, wolf her or not, there had to have been affection between the two of them. Meaning your views of wolves as a whole is obviously skewed. Otherwise Wolf wouldn't be here today."

Grumbling under his breath, not realizing that he was lowly growling and that Virginia was grinning smugly down at him, he relented that she did speak the truth. If only in his mind, though form the look that Virginia was still giving him, she obviously knew that. "So you, may be right there. And with how the villagers had reacted as well. It's quite disturbing to see what goes on in my kingdom when my subjects do no realize that I am present."

"Just think of it as something you can work on. When you get your body back and are crowned King, you can work on making your kingdom all the better. Nothing is perfect, and it takes time and the will to change for the better." her strides took on a slight skip in them, hands folded behind her back as she sang her last words to Wendell. "You, yourself, have changed since we've crossed paths. And I can honestly say for the better!"

Perking at her words, Wendell paused to watch her continue walking in search for the mirror. Shaking his head to rid himself of his shock, he ran to catch up with her, jumping a bit to stop her forward motion. "What do you mean, for the better?"

"Despite everything you've been through, you've been helping us whenever trouble comes up. You're starting to care, even if your grumble and complain about it. A leader needs to care for his people and be willing to help them, despite how he thinks it might lower his standing or pride." Virginia recalled the words Kagome shared with her, of her own adventures in the past. "A leader puts others before themselves, that is why they were chosen to become leader in the first place."

Wendell was stunned at the wisdom in her words, much more so than he had expected. Her world was so vastly different, that people worried more about themselves than others. From the start though, after accidentally running over him when he suddenly appeared from through the magic mirror, she had gone out of her way to care for him. Even risking her position as where she worked by keeping him safe inside the restaurant. And when she had learned that the trolls had taken to hunting him down, she took him else where to keep him safe. While she may be more guarded with her heart, it was more than obvious that she cared for others.

"I found it! I found it, come on, I found it!" a faint echoing of Tony's voice broke through their searching, forcing them to stop and search for the man in question.

Quickly enough, Tony turned a corner they had passed a minute or two earlier, tripping over a bucket that had been placed out farther than was necessarily needed and causing him to crash into a larger woman and the two of them to spin about as he tried to keep from actually falling. "Sorry!"

Virginia and Wendell waited patiently, knowing he was sooner or later going to reach them. When he was finally able to keep his balance, Tony once again apologized to the woman before running up to them, a bright smile on his face after skidding to a stop in front of them. Instead of sharing his news, good news if the excited smile on his face was anything to go by, he leaned down to rest his hands atop his knees and pant. "I... I found... it!"

It took a few moments, but when his words finally filtered through Virginia's mind, her eyes widened a her lips slowly turned up in an excited smile that matched her father's near identically. "You found it?"

"Yes. Come on, we need to find Kagome, Wolf and Pesha. It's being auctioned off tomorrow." he leaned forward to grab Virginia's hand though he turned expectantly to Wendell.

"Oh I do really hate you right now, Anthony." though he continued to grumble, Wendell led them back to where they had all been together last only to follow the scent left behind by Wolf, Kagome and Pesha. While he would have rather followed Kagome's scent, it was far cleaner, sadly it was Wolf's stronger scent that he followed.

Wendell had to roll his eyes when said scent led them out of town, he was more than sure it was Wolf's doing rather than Kagome's. Heading up towards the vineyards, Wendell mentally sneered at all the couples, as well as the stalls that cropped up selling trinkets meant to entice those visiting Kissing Town. It was all so... very commoner like. When they finally crested the hill, Pesha was absently observing a nearby stall rather than at Kagome's side, said young woman was listening to something Wolf was whispering to her as he pointed towards the glass coffin still rested since Snow White's time.

"Oh really? Come on!" Tony muttered when he himself spotted them after he had managed to catch his breath.

Virginia herself was resting, more a ruse to observe Kagome than to actually catch her breath. Pursing her lips, she could help but smile slightly at the sight of Wolf and Kagome together, even more so when leaned down in an obvious move to kiss her. Leaning forward in anticipation, Virginia almost fell forward when her Dad's call towards them seemed to break whatever atmosphere the two had, groaning in disappointment when Kagome jumped back in surprise.

"Oh they were so close!" her words came out in a hiss, grouching quietly.

Wendell turned up to look at her. "Do you seriously want her to be paired with him?" the mere idea was preposterous in his mind, wanting someone you cared for paired with a wolf, if even half wolf, was more something your wished on those that were highly annoying.

"Look at them!" Virginia waved her arms near frantically towards the couple. Kagome was blushing lightly and appeared a little flustered though she had the tiniest of smiles. "I haven't seen her this happy since... ever! Besides, they make a cute couple."

"A disastrous one if you ask me." the comment was more grumbled under his breath as they watched Kagome called Pesha back to her side.

"Well I didn't. And if you haven't noticed, Wolf has calmed down since meeting Kagome. If we thought he was excitable when we first started, then I don't want to know what he was like before."

Sniffing when Tony and the others rushed passed them, forcing Virginia and himself to run after them, Wendell had to agree with her statement. Wolf did appear to have calmed down, at least since from the beginning of this quest, perhaps Kagome did ground him. Though that would have to wait until later, this running around for a magic mirror was really mental and time consuming.

The group near practically crashed through into the auction house, following Tony to where he had found the mirror. When the reached the specific spot, Tony began to grow frantic, almost panicking when said mirror was not where he had found it. He went so far as to begin searching behind other items that were up to bid until one of the workers appeared and Tony near begged about the mirror.

"Oh yes, what a find." the grin on the man's face spoke more or less of his excitement. He motioned them to follow him, leading them to a side room where others were working on restoring the mirror by removing the much and age and polishing the surface to a silver shine. It was Tony alone that quickly approached the mirror and picked up the tag attached to it.

"Five... Five thousand!" the cry echoed through the room and Virginia stiffened when it finally echoed into her ears.

Soon, after Tony's loud complaints, they were escorted out of the auction house and left to wander until the plopped down onto a bench near the town's square. The news shocked those that were from the world on the other side of the mirror, while Wendell, Pesha and Wolf simply watched on in silence.

"Five thousand... how will we come up with that sort of money for tomorrow morning?" Virginia's question echoed the very thoughts of Tony Kagome. How indeed? At this point, it was beginning to look like they may never return home

AN: Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry for the delay! Having some really frustrating work related issues. Not to go into detail, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. The next one is well under way.

A quick reminder that I have a Tumblr account where anyone can reach me: Feel free to ask any questions there, whether it be fanfiction related or not. I post most, if not all, fanfiction related news there.

Other than that, I hope you all enjoyed this! Read, enjoy, and review! - BunnyWK