Hulk and His Priestess

Chapter 6 A Favor For a Favor

Kagome had already left for work by the time Bruce woke up. He gets up, does his morning routine, gets dressed and goes downstairs. Emiko has breakfast already waiting for him, Bruce blushes, but thanks her.

"Thank you, Mrs. Higurashi."

"You're welcome, Bruce, and please call me Emiko."

Bruce sits down with Emiko and enjoys his breakfast.

"I hope you don't mind have a perfect stranger in your house."

"Not at all, Bruce, I trust Kagome. She is an excellent judge of character, if she didn't think you were trustworthy, you wouldn't be here. Besides Kagome told me that you need help and it would go against everything she is not to help you."

"Has she always been like this?"

"Since she was 15 years old, Kagome has always had it in her to help others. It's just who she is."

"How old is Kagome?"

"She's 25 years old."

"Has she helped a lot of people?"

"Oh my, yes, I'm actually surprised she didn't become a doctor, instead of a businesswoman. But then again she does work for a company that does work for a medical company, at least part of it is."

Bruce is intrigued by the kind of work that Kagome does, he finds that pretty much anything that has to do with Kagome intrigues him and the Other Guy. He just doesn't understand why.

After breakfast and a nice conversation with Emiko, Bruce excuses himself and heads out into the forest to do his meditation. He takes with him the yoga mat and a bottle of water. Spreading the mat down out down by the river, Bruce takes a seat and begins his meditation. He really doesn't think he'll accomplish much without Kagome's help, but he's willing to give it a try.

Bruce meditated the whole morning, trying to see if he could get in touch with the Other Guy, but it was hard. Without Kagome as a medium between the two, he wasn't having much success. He decides to call it a day and head back to the house. When he gets there he sees that Emiko is in the storage room struggling to put away some items, Bruce rushes over to help.

"Emiko, let me give you hand."

"Oh no, Bruce, that's alright, I got it."

"Nonsense, I'm happy to help."

Bruce easily lifts the boxes and asks where she wants to put them, Emiko instructs him to put them on the top shelf in the storage shed. Once he was done, Emiko invites Bruce into the house for lunch. They have a nice lunch while Emiko tells embarrassing stories about Kagome when she was little, causing Bruce to laugh.

Meanwhile, at work, Kagome's ears are ringing and she sneezes.

'Someone must be talking about me.' She thinks but then continues on with her work.

At the shrine, Bruce tells Emiko that he would like to help out around the Shrine, she tells him it isn't necessary.

"I know it isn't, but it will make feel less of a burden to you and Kagome if I can help out," Bruce explains.

Emiko considers it for a moment and decides that it's fine with her. She gives him a few odd jobs to do around the shrine, basically just to keep him busy until Kagome returns.

At 4:00 Kagome returns home. She had finished her work early and decided that she would take the rest of the day off. She also put in for some vacation time with Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru thought it was odd, considering that the whole time she has worked for him she has never asked for time off. And because of that fact she had accumulated a month's worth of vacation time.