InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Beast ❯ Breakthroughs ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Too tired to attempt a witty comment to accompany this.

A/N: Wheee...I'm ready to conk out, but even though I honestly have no clue if it's Saturday or Friday (I thought it was Saturday, but Cartoon Cartoon Friday things are on instead of the Peach Man Inuyasha episode I hurried home to tape...?), y'all's reviews have made me very very happy and earned another chapter...after I go downstairs and ascertain what day it is!

...Okay, it is Friday. Whoo. Godfrey, I need sleep. Well, let's see what we can do here...

Beast

Chapter 6

When morning rolled around, the first order of business was to shoo Shippou away to locate Kouga while Sango and Kagome bathed; Kagome was highly grateful she'd found Kirara with her mistress before they went to sleep last night and had been able to send her back to the shrine for a few more things. The little fire-cat was highly intelligent and brought all the correct necessities back just as they woke up.

Partly to avoid explaining just what they were talking about to Shippou and partly because Kagome had been too confused to think properly, much less relate what had happened, she'd quietly insisted Sango wait till morning, and the slayer readily agreed, worried by her friend's odd detachment. Knowing that there was a lot going on under that blank façade didn't help when she had no clue what had distressed her so much in the first place. I'd bet three thousand koku to a broken pin that Inuyasha's behind it again...

The bath also had a more practical purpose: annoying as it was, Kagome had to let Sango know that her scent wasn't a problem any more for now, as predicted, and they only had to keep track of the next days for her to drink the suppressant tea. "At least he can't use that as an excuse to ignore me any more," she mumbled, dunking her head under the water for a moment and reaching for the shampoo Kirara had 'borrowed' for her.

"So what was it that made you so upset last night?" Sango asked quietly, helping Kagome lean out of the tub to wash her hair out with two ever- present buckets.

Kagome knotted her wet hair atop her head and noted idly how weird it was to be smelling her own familiar strawberry shampoo in the castle. If she closed her eyes, she could pretend she was back at home. "Well, Inuyasha was really quiet at first..."

And she told her the whole story, without interruption, save for a "He didn't!" when she heard how he'd reacted to her grabbing his hand.

Kagome was a little embarrassed by her own stupidity now that she was describing it, and Sango's frown deepened as she listened. Her reaction only strengthened Kagome's resolve to omit certain of her own observations about Inuyasha: she didn't need Sango thinking she was a slut in addition to the way she'd acted like an idiot.

"You never should have followed him, or asked him such a thing when he was angry," she said severely as Kagome finished with Miroku 'stopping' Inuyasha. "I meant it when I said he wouldn't hurt you, but you were pushing him, and he has lost control before."

"Really? When?" Kagome was bitterly unsurprised by Sango's head shake. "Wow, can't tell me. Why did I see that one coming?"

"I mean it, Kagome! Do you think I could ever live with myself if anything happened to you because I didn't warn you enough?" Sango snapped.

Kagome dropped her eyes. "I'm sorry, Sango-chan. I know it was stupid. I was just mad and didn't think." The hormones didn't help either, but I don't think she needs to know that...stupid hormones! Stupid, stupid...!

Sango sighed. "I know. I'm also sorry. It's just..." She shut her eyes. "Ask Kouga about it. He's likely to be more than happy to tell you just what happened. Do not let Inuyasha know you're asking, though."

"Of course." Kagome started to rise, remembered her most practical reason for bathing, and groaned. "I am definitely wearing my own clothes for a few days."

And of course Sango wanted to know what she was doing when Kagome took out more odd-looking modern implements, and the explanation (she was not going to demonstrate!) effectively took both their minds off their tiff. All was forgotten as they went back to the room to change and found Shippou waiting.

"He's on the balcony on the third floor," the kit reported through a shoji, back turned and leaning against the rice paper. "They said he likes to just sit there and stare a lot. Even the ladies who kinda like Inuyasha say they feel sorry for Kouga."

"Why's that?" Kagome asked, bundling up. The castle was colder than ever today, and the wind was screaming, its voice plain even from inside the castle. Dinner tonight is going to be hell.

"He's a prince, remember, Kagome-chan?" Sango pointed out. "And he's a wolf. He's been away from his pack and his duties for centuries because of the curse. Till it's broken, everyone within the castle now has to remain close to it."

"Wow." Kagome hadn't thought of that, and felt ashamed of herself. She didn't know if Inuyasha had earned the curse somehow, but Kouga definitely hadn't deserved centuries of exile from his people. "Didn't he have retainers here or something to keep him company?"

"Not in the castle at the time." Sango was selecting her words with care again, and Kagome promptly decided that they were going to go talk to Kouga right now.

Sure enough, the wolf demon was out on an even higher balcony this time, and Kagome bravely stepped out into the piercing wind. "Kouga-sama?"

Still in only his armor and skins, with way too much flesh showing for possible comfort in this weather, Kouga nonetheless sauntered over to her with unaffected carelessness. "Hey, it's you. What brings you up here again, eh?"

Shivering nonstop in her four layers, Kagome glared at him. "How can you not be cold?!"

Kouga laughed harshly. "This is nothing, wench. Better to stand a little chill than stay inside with the stink of dog."

It was too damn cold to beat around the bush. "Would you do me a favor and tell me a few things? Nobody else who knows anything can."

"What about the dog-turd? You and him seem pretty cozy." Kouga turned his back and strolled over to the rail.

"We're as cozy as a dog and a cat with their tails tied together," Kagome shouted back over the wind, willing her lips not to freeze shut. Inspiration tapped on the back of her mind. "If you don't want to tell me, that'd be fine with him. He doesn't want me to know, so I'd better just go inside now."

She didn't need to turn around: he was already blocking her path. "Really, now? Well, I can't promise anything, wench, but-"

"It's Kagome," she said quickly, offering a polite smile. Sucker. "I just want to know...well, first off, who was it that I look like?"

"Oh, her." Kouga snorted and permitted Kagome to step inside the doorway's shelter. She didn't like the proximity, which he was obviously enjoying, but having a source of answers right here was more than enough to make up for it.

"And who was she?" Kagome asked patiently, willing herself not to swear at him when he showed no sign of elaborating.

"She was a priestess, and a cold bitch." Kouga shuddered broadly, looking away from her. "Powerful. Could've taken dog-turd down in a second, if she wanted. I think she did for a while, but she'd sworn allegiance to his mom, and her damned duties were all that mattered."

"How did she die, then?" Even the cold faded into the background as her interest sharpened, devouring the wolf's words.

"Couldn't say. Didn't see it," he said lazily, but she smelled something more. Seething, she decided to get a few more basics out of the way before trying that one again.

"So how many centuries have you been here?" she asked. That'd been bugging her.

"Dunno." Kouga scratched his head. "This's the third time we've woken up, and this time we woke up only 'bout 7 years after we went to sleep again."

"How long between each time you go to sleep and wake up? How long are you awake each time?" Why didn't I bring a pen?!

"Uhhh...it's supposed to be 250 years even. So I guess we got slapped with dog-turd's curse 'bout 507 years ago now. And both of the last times we were awake, we hung around maybe ten days before the dumbass got impatient and put us back to sleep."

"Impatient for what?"

"For some wench to wander in and break the spell for him." He eyed her speculatively.

"So how do I break the curse?" Here it was, the possible answer to all her problems: she helped him with whatever it was, and voila, her new friends were free and she could go home.

Kouga stared at her, then burst out laughing. "You haven't figured it out yet?!" He shook his head, fangs bared as he grinned. "You poor dumb wench. Lemme guess, has he been asking you anything he never usually would? Say, asking you a lot?"

"Every night, yeah," she said slowly. What the hell was he getting at?

"That," he announced very deliberately, "is because the only way to break the curse and let us all go is for him to get a woman, any woman, to agree to marry him."

".............Oh."

That made sense. Actually, she was kinda mad at herself for not figuring it out sooner.

Well, maybe not. After all, "I HAVE to agree to marry him?!"

Kouga clamped his hands over his pointed ears. "If you're gonna howl at me, wench, I'm not answering any more of your questions!"

"Sorry," she said hastily, but he shook his head and leapt back to the railing.

"No worries," he shouted cheerfully, balancing on his tiptoes again. "Tell you what, Kagome! If you can find out the priestess's name without my help, I'll tell you anything you want to know, as much as you like and as soon as possible. Deal?"

"How am I supposed to-" But he was gone. She bit off a curse and headed back inside, where Sango took one look at her and hurried her off to their room to warm up.

Sniffling all the while, Kagome decided to be practical and mentally ticked off the things she'd learned: she looked like a creepy dead priestess, that priestess had meant a lot to Inuyasha even though she'd apparently hated him for a while - had she ever returned his feelings? - everyone here had been asleep for about 507 years minus about a month, and...

"Sango?"

The slayer paused to look at Kagome.

"Would the curse be broken if...one of the servants just said she'd marry Inuyasha instead?"

The blanket she'd been lifting dropped from Sango's suddenly limp hands. "So I was right, was I?" she murmured, more to herself than for Kagome's benefit, and sighed. She shook her head. "No, Kagome-chan, I only knew the caster of the curse a little, but that nature was very clear, and such a simple solution would never be sufficient. He could merely order one of them to accept him and then the curse would be undone."

"What would be wrong with that?!"

Sango pressed her lips together. "There'd be no point. It'd be like exchanging gold for dirt: he would need only extend his hand to get it. I think the curse was built to try and see if he could find a woman who would accept him, maybe even love him, as he is now."

Kagome's jaw dropped. "Like that? With his personality?"

"There's more to the story, you know, Ka-"

"Exactly! And if it weren't for Kouga being here, I'd never have more than a guess at whether he deserved to get stuck like this or not! The curse doesn't let anyone tell me his side of the story, and he's too stubborn to fill me in, and whoever did it probably knew that! That's just evil!"

"For whom?" Sango inquired, a smile twitching the corners of her mouth despite her sympathy.

"For all of us! Even Inuyasha!" Kagome flung off the blankets and began to pace. "The next time I see Kouga, he's giving me more answers or-"

"Good morning, Kagome-sama, Sango-sama," Miroku said from the next room, stepping in and bowing to each of them. "Kouga is not here, Kagome-sama. I doubt he'll be back for some time, either. He seems to enjoy the woods."

"Aaaarrrgh!" Kagome snarled back and flopped onto the bed.

"I take it Kouga was able to tell you a few things about our curse," Miroku said mildly, inspecting the few remaining items stacked on top of the TV, still in its box.

"Yeah! Like how everything rides on some girl being dumb enough to want to marry Inuyasha! And everyone here who knows him is either terrified of him or not interested, so that just leaves me!"

"And what would be so terrible about marrying Inuyasha?" Miroku was noncommittal. "Surely you must see that his bark is much worse than his bite, and one learns how to quiet even the loudest barking." He coughed discreetly. "Besides, last night led me to believe-"

"Look, he's rude, he's dense and he hates me! Why would I ever want to marry him?!" Kagome was too wound up to be reasonable, and she knew it, but who cared?

"I cannot tell you any details, Kagome-sama," Miroku said firmly, turning to look at her sternly. "But allow me to say that Inuyasha has not had an easy life. He would sooner die than admit it, but he's been very lonely, and the curse has only exacerbated it. I would never ask you to do anything against your will, but, please..." He dropped to his knees and took one of her hands earnestly. "Please give him a chance, a fair chance."

"Of course I will. I'm not that dumb." Kagome tried to pull her hand free, wondering why he hadn't tried this when he was talking about Sango almost the same way. Or was it the same...? "You can let go now."

"Ah, yes, of course." His grip didn't loosen. "Now that my faith in your fairness has been restored, may I ask you a simple question?"

The wind's howl outside rose to a hideous screech, and Sango grabbed the nearest item from the top of the TV. "I swear, houshi-sama, if you even dare-!"

"With my own Lord's guest?" Miroku's face slid into a portrait of dejected innocence. "Perish the thought, my dearest Sango-sama. I merely wanted to know if Inuyasha told her how long she'd be a guest here."

"Three months, bouzu." Everyone's heads whipped around towards the next room, a small storeroom with most of Kagome's trunks filling the space.

Kagome yanked her hand free and dashed to the shoji, flung it open, and stared at trunks and empty space. "How...how long was he there?! And how did he do that?"

"My. I actually received an answer." Miroku sighed, then barely ducked Sango's swipe at his skull.

"You knew he was there!" Kagome raged, willing Sango not to miss next time.

"Don't damage Kagome-sama's possessions!" Miroku protested, ignoring Kagome. "I didn't know he was there, I swear it!"

"With your training?!" Sango had halted at his first words, but raised the folded laptop again. "Why, you-"

"He can manipulate the castle's air itself to cloak him if need be!" Miroku lowered his hands and frowned at Sango. "I was honestly curious as to how long we would all have, nothing more. Your doubt in me is most disheartening."

"Not as disheartening as your tendency to lie and grab," she muttered, throwing the laptop onto the bed next to Kagome.

Miroku's frown became a scowl. "Now, that goes too far! Have you ever-"

"Hey, guys, look at this," Kagome said loudly, hoping to diffuse their argument. She opened the laptop and fished through its box for the loaded battery. The slayer and monk sent each other last glares before settling down to watch her curiously.

"This is called a computer, and a special, easily portable kind called a laptop," Kagome explained as she booted it up, laughing at their amazement. "It uses a different kind of Western magic than the car. See, it starts on its own once you tell it to by pressing this button, here..." And she explained all the various uses for it: the great worldwide mail system called the Internet, the various games one could play, and its practical uses, like word processing.

The keyboard itself required explanation, first for its use and then why it was unreadable: "This one uses a different writing system, called the Roman alphabet, with 26 letters. My brother is an English major, so Dad got him one of these, with their letters, instead of our language."

"What's the point of it, then?" Sango asked, and they all turned as Shippou and Kohaku came in.

Kagome returned Kohaku's greeting and repeated the explanation for all their benefits, to clarify for the two adults as well. "And to answer you, Sango-chan, watch this." The four gathered closer as she settled the laptop on her knees, opened Word, used the touchpad to flick the little arrow around and do something near the top, and began typing. But instead of the strange squiggles she was hitting - Kagome had just said that hitting each one would summon it onto the screen and thus create words - hiragana began forming slowly, and they all gasped.

"'Hello, everyone,'" Miroku read aloud. "I don't understand, Kagome-sama. How was that possible?"

"You can change it so that you can type in Japanese even with these keys," Kagome said proudly. "Isn't that cool?"

"Kagome-chan, that's amazing! Could you teach us how to use it?" Sango asked excitedly.

"Well, the battery won't last forever, but I'm sure it wouldn't take you too long to learn. Dunno how...it...would..."

They looked at her in concern. She had trailed off and her face had gone pale. "What is it?" Shippou asked, leaning in close and waving a little hand in her face.

Suddenly she shrieked and jabbed the off button, scaring everyone badly. "Don't do that!" Shippou whined, clutching his ears.

"I'm sorry, Shippou-chan," Kagome apologized, sweeping him into a huge hug. "But this is wonderful! Ohhhh, I owe Yusaku a million backrubs when I get home!"

This hardly clarified anything, but soon she calmed down long enough to explain.

"You guys are forbidden from saying anything aloud, or from writing it, correct?" Miroku, Kohaku and Sango nodded in unison. "But the curse doesn't prevent you from hitting little buttons with foreign characters on them, does it?"

"We don't know how to use this, Kagome-chan," Sango objected. "Just creating the words by any means might be forbidden."

"I don't think whoever put the curse down would have bothered to use that much power. I mean, in your time, besides writing and speaking, how else could you tell me about something that complicated and abstract? Grunting? Charades? And you don't know any signing or foreign languages."

"So how shall we go about this, Kagome-sama?" Kohaku asked.

Kagome bit her lip. "Can all three of you read and write?" They nodded in unison. "Good. Who's the best at it?"

"As a monk, I've had the most training in the art," Miroku remarked, glancing at Sango and nodding at her grudging acceptance.

"Okay. Someone hand me a piece of paper and something to write with." Kagome accepted a sheet of scrap paper from Sango and grabbed a ballpoint pen from her bag. "This might take you a while, but these combinations of Roman alphabet letters can be used to form our hiragana and kanji...we'll just use the hiragana if we can. I'll see if I can adjust it. Otherwise, using kanji on it takes forever."

She drew a sample hiragana character. "This is a, and to put it on the screen, I switch the languages on the computer and you then type this." She wrote a Roman letter A next to the character. "And for ka..." She drew the hiragana, then wrote KA. "Press this button, then the A." She tapped the K and A keys to demonstrate. "Do you get it?"

"I think so," Miroku said slowly, and Sango nodded. The monk looked thoughtful. "How would you write Sango-sama's name?"

Sango flushed and tried to ignore him, watching as Kagome drew sa, n, and go on the paper, then wrote SA, N, and GO. "Try hitting those on the keyboard."

Miroku slowly but accurately tapped the letters out, looking at the piece of paper. "This would produce the word in our language on the screen?"

"Yep!" Kagome was so proud of herself that she huggled Shippou closer and grabbed another sucker for him from the bag. "Let's get some lunch, and then you can practice some more, Miroku-sama."

Miroku scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I do have duties to attend to, Kagome-sama, that may delay my learning to write on this wondr-"

Kagome was up and looming over him, eyes dark with menace and aura blackening the air. "I said, you can practice some more."

Shippou landed on his feet and scuttled under the bed as Miroku smiled shakily and agreed. Times like these, it was the only wise thing to do.

Whatever Miroku had told Inuyasha, it was sufficient this time to get him the rest of the day free; whatever it was had also improved the half- breed's mood so much that as dinner time approached, the weather had settled to merely snowing, and Kagome couldn't resist Shippou's urgent requests to go out for just a little while.

"Is your arm okay?" he asked from her shoulder as they headed out with Sango, Kohaku and Miroku in tow.

"It's fine, Shippou-chan," she reassured him. "It didn't even hurt when I used to throw stuff yesterday." He giggled and hugged her around the neck, and she took the opportunity to plant a quick kiss on his cheek.

"Ewwww," he protested, half-heartedly wiping it off on his sleeve. "That was uncalled for!"

"Precisely." Kagome winked at him. "Now, who should we make today?"

The two of them finally decided to recreate yesterday's epic snow war in miniature and set to work shaping four-inch snow figures into humanlike blobs. Kohaku joined them after a moment's hesitation, while his sister was persuaded at length to pose with Hiraikoutsu so Miroku could recreate her.

"They seem to be having fun," the monk observed, watching Shippou pretend to be a giant and set the terrified snow people to flight. Kagome was laughing and clapping, while Kohaku smiled a bit uncertainly.

"It's good to see him out and about," Sango agreed, shifting as her muscles began to ache. "Even during the fight yesterday, he didn't seem to be enjoying himself. He must be taking forever to wake up fully."

Miroku said nothing, but continued work on the snow Sango.

"Don't you have to go to dinner soon?" Kohaku suddenly asked Kagome, as they made more people to satisfy Shippou's tyrannical urges.

"Not yet," Kagome said after a glance at the sky. "Sango always knows when it's time."

"Do you enjoy eating with him?" The question brought her head up. Kohaku looked very serious, and maybe a little afraid.

"No. His temper's too short and we always end up fighting." Kagome resumed her work. "But he's not as bad as he seems." Just not so 'not as bad' that I'd ever marry him. There's our problem right there.

"He scares me," the boy said finally, and Kagome couldn't think of a suitable answer.

"Wow," Kagome said respectfully, coming over with Shippou to inspect Miroku's creation a few minutes later. Kohaku had just excused himself and gone inside with a headache. "It looks just like her."

"Why, thank you." Miroku preened as Sango finally lowered the boomerang and also gaped at the remarkably accurate snow sculpture of herself. "It did turn out almost as well as its subject, did it not?" As they watched, his hand reached out to idly stroke the snowy rear-and they sighed as the real Sango promptly whacked the monk into his creation, demolishing it.

Sango whirled around. "Come on, Kagome-chan, not much time left for you to get ready for dinner."

Sango's promise to force the monk to practice more with the keyboard reminded Kagome of her imminent Getting Answers, and she practically hummed all through her quick bath and outfitting in a warm black wool kimono, though she wore a pair of shorts underneath it for added warmth.

"Been having fun today with the wimpy wolf?" was the first thing out of his mouth tonight.

Ah. Back to normal, as promised. "Nope," Kagome replied cheerfully, in too good a mood for his pettiness to spoil it. "I talked to him for maybe five minutes, and then my face froze off."

"If only." He caught himself and risked a careful glance at her, but she only stuck her tongue out and kept eating.

Whatever that smell in her hair was, he liked it...sweet but subtle, ignorable, not in-your-face like the other one. All those thoughts had safely subsided, and she was simply a pretty but annoying girl once more.

"Been having fun eavesdropping on people?" Kagome said casually, and was rewarded with a full-facial twitch.

"Not really. There's not much to listen to around here." Inuyasha shrugged, and Kagome mentally marked down another point for herself.

"So what happens if the curse isn't broken?" she asked conversationally after a few minutes of silence.

Inuyasha froze. "Beg pardon?"

"You can have it. Now, what happens?"

"Why do you want to know?" he snapped.

"Because I happen to be slightly involved here, and I think I have a slight right to know," Kagome said calmly, enjoying the return of her self-control.

"Stupid wench. You're not supposed to know," Inuyasha said irritably. "So quit following the wimpy wolf and bugging my servants."

Kagome laughed. "Now they're your servants and I'm to leave them alone?" He remained sullenly quiet at her teasing. "Seriously, why shouldn't I know? You're all hoping I'm going to break the curse, aren't you?"

"Who told you about that?!"

She raised an eyebrow. "Kouga did. I was honest. I told him you didn't want me to know, and for some reason he just couldn't get it out fast enough." Being stupid again...where's the self-control now?

Inuyasha's fist made a large hole in the floor. "Do you realize you could possibly fuck the whole thing up just by knowing too much?! Did it ever occur to you that that's what some of the damn rules are in place for?"

"Why would it matter how much I know?" she asked reasonably, but he caught just a whiff of anger. Good! Time for a taste of her own medicine...

"You do like to think you have some pride, don't you?"

Kagome blinked. "Yes, actually, I do."

"Then would you accept anyone who agreed to marry you out of pity, no matter how bad your condition?"

Oh. That makes sense. "So you're saying if I know too much, I'll say yes only because I'll feel so bad for you?"

"And would you accept anyone who agreed to marry you out of fear? Greed for your wealth? Guilt for a wrong they'd committed against you? Envy of your position? Lust?"

"All right, I get it! If you look too good or too bad, I'll accept for the wrong reason and the curse won't be broken. As if you're asking me for a good reason...stupid curse." Kagome frowned. "But what'll happen that's so bad that I'd agree to spend the rest of my life with you, just to keep it from happening?"

Inuyasha growled at her. Somehow, the sound was ceasing to annoy her. Now it only made her more curious.

"All right, fine. So all you'll tell me is that I'd have to mean it, eh?"

"Yeah," he said, short and bitter.

"Damn. Someone sure covered all their bases." She scrunched up her nose. "But it's not very fair to expect any woman, even under the best of circumstances, to blindly accept a guy not knowing what'll happen afterwards."

He let out a bark of humorless laughter. "Since when has this seemed fair to you?"

"Point taken." Kagome chuckled as something occurred to her. "What a modern curse."

"What was that?"

But Inuyasha's frown didn't daunt her at all. "Before all this, as a lord, you would've looked for a wife with good political, social or economic connections, right?" He nodded impatiently. "So technically, by your standards, the best punishment would be to force you to marry the lowest girl you could find, but instead you have to find one who loves you as you are. That sounds like what someone from this time would pick, 'cause arranged marriages happen still, but they're usually frowned upon." At his confused expression, she shrugged and simply said, "More people marry for love."

"Strange." Inuyasha took a sip of sake and regarded her irritably. "Wives are for bettering and continuing the family. If I found someone I liked who couldn't do that, well, that's what concubines are for."

"Concubines aren't legal anymore." She tried bravely to hide a smile at his shock. "And marital fidelity is highly prized in both spouses. We believe marriages thrive when the husband and wife work together, not for or against one another." Well, that was highly idealized and sanitized, even by Western standards, but compared to what Inuyasha had been raised to believe was normal and acceptable...

"That's absolutely ridiculous," Inuyasha said flatly. "If a woman sits on her ass and decides to wait till she's in love to marry, what happens when her father dies or can't take care of her?"

"Women are educated and permitted to work as men do." No need to bring up gender problems in the workplace: pay discrepancies, sexism, discrimination, and all that nice stuff.

"If that's true, then who takes the women's places in the home? Children?" Inuyasha clearly believed she was either lying or insane.

"Women do both, sometimes. Not all women work. Some do stay home with their children. But children spend most of their time in school, and education is expensive, so their mothers often have to work to help their husbands, when they even have them."

"Keh. What an idiotic waste of energy." Inuyasha sipped more sake. "It's much easier for everyone with our way. Women should take care of their households and let the men take care of them."

"But women shouldn't be forced to depend on men. That's the difference." How did this turn into a women's lib conversation?

"There's nothing wrong with the weak depending on the strong." Inuyasha only knew he'd pissed her off by the flare in her scent. Her expression was otherwise calm. Dammit, what'd I say now?

"Women are physically weaker, in general, yes, but that doesn't make us helpless twits who can't live without men to take care of us." Kagome finished her meal in a few angry bites. "In this world, you don't prove your capability by hacking people apart. Intelligence, sense and education make much more difference, and that's why women are not weaker than men, and we do not need to crawl to you every time we have a problem."

"Excuse the hell out of me," he muttered.

Kagome shrugged. "Well, how would you feel if someone automatically called you a weakling because of what you were born as?"

Inuyasha glared at her, clenched his clawed hands with the points lying against his wrist, and then smiled. It was bitter, mocking and painful, but it was a smile. "You're good at jabbing sore points, you know that, wench?"

"I do now." Kagome leaned forward. "Enlighten me further."

"Hell, why not? You're out of here in three months. Plenty of time for stories." Inuyasha gulped down the last of his sake, and Kagome figured that was probably a key factor in the fact that they'd managed to have a borderline discussion: no screaming or death threats yet. Amazing.

"Y'see these?" He jerked a thumb at his ears. "When I was a runt, the servants used to call me Puppy. I didn't care...hell, I had the ears, Dad was the biggest and strongest dog demon in the whole world, so if they called me that, what of it?"

"Go on," she said softly as he paused.

Inuyasha continued as if she hadn't spoken. "So one day I'm messing around in one of the back gardens...suckers used to be huge...and a servant comes out looking for me for my mom, and she calls me with that stupid name. I come running like the little dumbass I am, and my asshole of an older brother comes up and backhands me into the wall so hard I can't move for two days. If I'd been human, I'd have been paralyzed or killed."

"What was his problem?" Kagome demanded, enraged at the thought of anyone hurting a child like that. If I ever meet his brother...wait, older? Then why's he the l-

"He didn't kill the servant 'cause she belonged to Mom and that would've pissed Dad off, but when the servant told Dad and he asked Sesshoumaru why he'd hit me, the bastard said that if I was going to answer to humans' pet names and still dare breathe the same air as our father, I'd better do so on the ground like the mongrel I was. And am."

"That-!" Rage brought tears to her eyes, but not at Inuyasha for once. Mere profanity seemed inadequate. "I hope your dad beat the shit out of him!"

Inuyasha quirked an eyebrow at her. "You're as dumb as I was. Dad agreed. Just said he wanted Fluffy to take it to him next time and not damage his wife's son any more."

"Damage?!" Inuyasha winced at the octave her voice rose to. "You're not a toy! No child who gets his spine cracked by his own big brother is just damaged!"

"He didn't mean it that way. Dad, that is." Inuyasha shrugged. "He talked about everything that way. And he did yell at the bastard in front of the whole court. Pretty humiliating on behalf of a little half-breed puke no one liked 'cept as a pet." He scowled at her. "I do remember that crap you said about other people's lives, okay? Just wanted to show you you're not the only one who's had people treat them-what are you doing?!"

Tears now leaked steadily out of her eyes, and she was glaring at him full- force. Gods damn it all son of a bitch how the fuck do I always end up making her cry?!?

"Quit it with the pity," he snapped. "You know I hate that sh-"

"I'll quit it if you will!" she snapped louder. "I'm not crying in front of you because you got treated like dirt as a kid!"

"The hell you aren't!"

"Fine, I am a little! But I'm mainly just pissed!"

"What now?!"

Kagome took one of her patented deeeeep breaths, then let it out. "I told you already," she near-whispered. "If I keep hearing you talking about yourself like you're some piece of living waste and you're a worthless half- breed monster and blah blah blah and on and on like you actually believe it, I'm gonna..."

"Gonna what?" Inuyasha leaned forward, too, dangerously close.

The conversation might have ended in a very deadly fashion if Kagome's attention hadn't been drawn to his ears. One was rigid, but the other wouldn't stop twitching. Her anger drained away like water through a sieve as she watched its fuzzy tip move restlessly. Flick. Flick flick. Damn, it was cute! No one could stay mad with one of those in reach...!

"I'm gonna be stupid," she said cheerfully, and without further warning reached up and gently tweaked one ear in each hand.

Inuyasha's whole body stiffened in response. "D-" His head decided not to obey him and jerk away; instead, she traced each one lightly, and he actually found his eyes closing, whole torso leaning into her touch. Gradually his brain took over and he scooted back out of her reach, mustering the worst look he could, considering the urge to lay his head down on the table was still going strong. "If you ever touch me without my permission again, I'll do something very bad, and then I'll do something worse. Got it, bitch?"

Sucking the insides of her cheeks to withhold an attack of the giggles, Kagome put on a penitent face and bowed low. "You're right. I shouldn't have grabbed those adorable ears, because they do belong to you, and not me. It was improper, and I apologize."

"Good." He was going to have to scratch them like crazy in a minute to get the feel of her fingers off. It was very distracting. He didn't even call her on the extra remark. "Go to bed, wench."

"You're forgetting something again," she called sweetly as he made a beeline for his room.

A steady line of mumbled curses tracked Inuyasha back to the little dining room. "Will you marry me and not ever touch my ears again?"

Kagome sighed and wagged a finger at him. "That's cheating. Regarding your ears, I can promise nothing."

"Look, wench, I don't know what other kinds of sick fetishes you have, and I don't care as long as you keep off me! Now answer the damn question!"

"I just did," she replied, and Inuyasha clapped his hands over his ears to keep her from watching them wriggle in irritation. She was never going to shut up about this!

"Y'know," she said with a lazy yawn, "I would'a backed off if you hadn't liked it. You were about to fall asleep, so don't get pissy on me. You're wasting your time."

Damn damn damn! Gods curse this nosy wench and her wandering hands and his stupid damn ears! "Look, I don't have all night. Will you marry me or not?"

"Of course I won't marry you," she murmured with another yawn. "Just your ears."

He froze in the doorstep. "You can't make it conditional! It's yes or no!"

"Oh, that's no fair! What if I cut them off?"

"Look, bitch-!"

"M'kay, fine, I absolutely will not marry you." She yawned. "G'night, Inuyasha and his ears."

A last snarl of "Piss off!" and he was gone, leaving her free to stagger off to her room, giggling like an inebriated schoolgirl the whole way, ignoring gaping servants as usual and wondering idly what they were saying about crazy Kagome-sama down in the laundry tonight.

As she approached her room, looking forward to filling Sango and Shippou in as usual, Kagome suddenly hesitated. Tomorrow, barring absolute disaster and then probably someone's death at her hand, she was going to find out what had happened so long ago.

Kagome knew herself very well, and wasn't ashamed of her behavior tonight: as she'd said, she wouldn't have teased him if she hadn't caught him enjoying it so much. But she also knew that there was no way in hell that the things she was going to find out could be so bad that she'd want to share her love and her life and everything in between with Inuyasha just to get him off the hook. She'd always been properly appreciative of romance, but was more often so practical that her friends had been in near despair over her pickiness. Pity dates were out of the question: the idea of a pity marriage was barely even funny.

Plus, she had her family to think of. If she moved in here or whatever would happen after the curse broke, what were the odds of Inuyasha tolerating five freeloaders, one of whom he already despised and two of whom no one but family would ever put up with?

Kagome stopped. And pinched herself hard. Your marrying Inuyasha is not even a vague possibility. Quit rationalizing and giving the idea credit!

Feeling slightly better and waaay too awake for this hour (she had spent much longer than usual at dinner tonight), Kagome firmly turned her thoughts towards what to ask tomorrow. She had forgotten several questions already with Kouga and Inuyasha; it was time to get to work.

A/N: Let's hear it for second winds and unexpected angles manifesting and lengthening things ridiculously... X'D Ah, well, we're in no hurry. Right? Of course. I'll try to get one of these out again tomorrow night-ish...I'm tempted to write the next one NOW, but if I don't sleep, I'm going to start forgetting my friends' names, how to drive, etc., and that would be bad. Very bad. Therefore I am now heading off to upload and sleep. :D Sleeeeep...