Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters. And I do not intent to gain any kind of retribution for this work of fanfiction.

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Roommates

Chapter 3. Good Intentions

Inuyasha stared at the shelf in front of him. Glaring at it would be more accurate. He tried to take a long breath as he wondered why he had to do all this shitty work.

Kagome had, very eloquently, told him why they needed to clean and even if he understood the necessity of it... it was something he really didn't want to do. Still, he had promised Kagome he would do it, and since today he didn't have afternoon classes and he didn't work, it was the perfect opportunity to do it without his roommate around.

He looked at the note with the instructions in his hands. No doubt Kagome paid attention to detail because the list of steps had more than forty items if he counted the 'Don't you even think about...' items. She had even labeled the bottles with 'floor', 'bathtub', 'sink' and even put numbers on the bottles that were part of a process.

The hanyou was half amused by how much she was trying to make this easier for him, the other half kept telling him that the woman thought he was incapable, too stupid, to do something that other people did regularly. In a swift motion, he ripped the post-its on the bottles. "I can do this shit on my own!" he shouted as he threw the note into the trash.

Leaving the note in the laundry room, Inuyasha took the things that he knew were for the bathroom and brought them there.

She had told him to clean the sink, the toilet, bathtub, and the walls around it. She had also told him to pour the liquids with care, put on some rubber gloves and scrub before rinsing. Inuyasha had a great idea! Instead of wasting too much time dealing with one thing at a time he would do everything at the same time and have the afternoon free to do nothing at all.

With a fang showing smile, the hanyou opened the cleaner that Kagome had told him was for the sink and poured a generous amount in it. Without stopping he put the bottle down and took the disinfectant for the toilet. He wasn't sure if it was only for the inside or not so he decided that more was better and he poured another large amount to the inside and outside of the toilet. His nose started itching so he hurried. Then he opened the water and used the mobile head and poured water on the bath walls and bathtub. As soon as everything was wet he took the last bottle and sprayed the bubbly liquid on the walls and the tub.

He scratched his nose as he saw the blue stained bathroom. He was nailing it. He remembered Kagome said that the toiled may need some time with the cleaning before scrubbing to make it easier. So he closed the door and walked back to do the floor, patting himself in the back for being a genius at cleaning his home.

The vacuuming was a piece of cake. The mopping on the other hand... it easily was the most difficult of his tasks for the day. She used these flimsy, too-sweet-smelling tissues that wrapped around the mop with its stupid clicky clips. The tissues were too thin, he kept trying to secure them to the mop, ripping them every time he tried, after the third time-ish he got it... five minutes later the floor was sparkling clean and he was putting the tissues in the garbage. And the only thing left was the scrubby-rinsy business and he was done!

The mix of the sweet floor smell and the acrid one coming from the bathroom made him sneeze as he got the brushes and scrubs from the laundry room, sneezing a couple of times. But nothing had ever prepared him for what he found when he opened the door.

It happened all so fast that his head couldn't keep up with his body. As soon as he opened the door his eyes got watery and his throat started to burn as soon as he breathed in along with the unstoppable cough that came along with it.

"Wha-" he was interrupted by a wheezing cough "the-" coughing again, "fuck." He started to cough nonstop, only being able to draw a breath in after a couple of coughs, just to start the cycle again.

The dizziness started at the same time his arm shot for the showerhead and tried to start the water. He cursed when his hands couldn't find the knobs. He was out of breath from the coughing. He couldn't see anything with his eyes watering from the fumes and he was losing his balance. The last thing he thought before everything went black was that she was going to find him in his boxers again.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Kagome walked to her apartment as fast as she could. Her classes had been 'meh' because they were mostly reviews of topics from classes from the last semester. Work ended hours before because a school canceled and her boss let her go home early.

It was a great thing because she was really nervous about Inuyasha doing the cleaning alone. She didn't doubt the man was going to try his best and that was exactly what worried her the most.

She had seen him try his best when they were doing the laundry. Trying to wash one of his shirts by hand... how it ended up in one piece baffled her. Inuyasha had literally pounded it, then rubbed it against the sink violently and after the rinsing he had shook it so fast that it was still surprising it had not ripped into pieces. After he had finished with that shirt, Kagome took her clothes and told him she was going to do it, that he didn't have to worry about it.

Of course, by the time she was done with it, Inuyasha had been complaining about how freaking slow she was with it and how probably the clothes weren't even clean because she was too afraid of doing something to them.

The key hit the lock at the same time she felt something was wrong, something smelled pungent. She opened the door and her eyes got watery. She looked around and there were no signs of her roommate.

She opened the door and walked towards his room. "Inuyasha?"

Kagome stopped cold when she saw a silver blob on the floor of their bathroom. "Inuyasha!"

She ran to the man, calling his name and getting no reaction from him. Kneeling beside him, she moved his bangs to the side and saw his face was strangely tense for someone that seemed completely out.

The next thing she did was to start the water to wash the chemicals away as she thought about how she was going to move the huge-half naked- man from the bathroom floor.

The only thing she was able to come up with was just pull his arms and drag him to the living room. Soon she discovered that it was so much easier said than done. Even his arms were heavier than she expected.

Taking his wrists in her hands she pulled with all the strength she could. Smiling when his body started moving.

"Come on big boy!" she said between her teeth, feeling the droplets of sweat form. "Let's get you to the living room!"

His body was finally out of the bathroom, but now she had a new problem. Besides the fact that it seemed she would take a whole day to get him there, with each time she pulled him his hair kept getting stuck beneath his body and was pulling his head back.

In the most careful way she could, Kagome pushed him to the side and twisted his hair to throw it over his chest. Pushing away the inappropriate thoughts of how it was surprisingly soft and thick.

"Get your head together, Kagome! Let's get dogboy away from his mess."

After another five minutes that felt like two hours for her now sore back, Kagome managed to drag him to the living room. Leaving him right between the couch and the coffee table.

Trying to move him to the couch was stupid, so she pushed it back to give him more space. She left him there with the open window and went to check the bathroom.

After changing her clothes, she started to wash the bathroom finding it really easy to clean as the different liquids had stayed way longer than she usually waited. She thanked whoever had designed the drain in the middle of the room. After the bubbles and the blue liquids were gone, and the smell didn't make her eyes water anymore, Kagome took a super-fast shower to wash off any residue on her skin.

Kagome went to check on her roommate. That by all accounts still was out like a light. She took the leftover bread her boss had given her today and she walked to the man again.

Sitting on the couch to watch T.V. with him sprawled on the floor didn't feel right. Neither did leaving him alone to study in her room. Sighing, Kagome followed her instinct and sat beside him, moving close enough to rest his head on her lap.

Kagome reached for the remote and surfed through the channels. She remembered how they had done something like that few days ago-with Inuyasha awake that time-until he had gotten a call and went to his room to talk. She remembered she had not asked whether he had a girlfriend, and he had not volunteered that information.

The remote laid forgotten beside her as the sleeping man in front of her drew her undivided attention.

As she thought about how she knew virtually nothing about him that had not been told to her by Miroku, her hands started to brush his long silver hair. Enjoying the way it slid silkily through her fingers. Now that he was not scoffing or smirking cynically the man looked so young and innocent. Without his golden eyes trained on her he lost most of the intensity and contained aggression. The way that both his eyes and lips tilted upward at the corners made him look almost like he was holding back a smile

Her eyes traveled down his body, appreciating the tone of his skin. It was several tones darker than her, but she had never seen someone whose skin had a natural golden undertone. It was difficult to express. Not really yellow but almost shimmering golden.

"Stop your lousy romantic novel, Kagome... What's next? Something stupid like galloping abs?" she muttered softly at the same time she took his hands in hers.

Not because she was doing something inappropriate to his body. It was just that she had admired his hands since he had moved in, she convinced herself. They felt rougher than hers and were way bigger, way way, bigger and angular, and adding those talons of his... Kagome hesitated before softly pressing a finger against it. They felt dull, not capable of cutting through things as she had seen him do easily.

Kagome left his hand over his belly and told herself that she needed to stop that. He was most likely feeling ill and she was being all touchy-touchy with an unconscious man. She kept telling that to herself, then her blue eyes found his ears.

It was weird seeing them not moving around. Even when she had found them sleeping on the couch, they were still flicking from time to time.

"It really got you good, dogboy." Her voice was empathetic as her hands started to stroke the back of one ear. "So soft," she couldn't stop from saying.

She took her time exploring them, watching them flick cutely when she got too close to the inside of them.

"I really love these, you know?"

"I can feel that..."

Kagome almost jumped when she heard his gravelly voice whisper.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Inuyasha had woken up with a throbbing headache. He didn't understand what was happening to him and his senses weren't as sharp as they usually were.

He was sure of two things. He was not on his bed and someone was touching him.

His first impulse was to jump away from wherever he was, but the queasy feeling in his belly told him that moving fast was not an option. He sniffed discreetly, trying to recollect more information.

The scent he found calmed him instantly. Kagome. The woman was touching his ears and for some unknown reason she had his head on her lap.

Inuyasha had never liked when people touched that part of him. It was never pleasant, not even when she touched him. But this woman was not touching him, she was massaging his ears. In weird circular motions that the longer she kept doing it the harder it was for him not to nuzzle her, and that would be extremely embarrassing.

Then he heard her say that she liked them and couldn't stop himself from commenting about it. The hanyou must have thought about how she would react to his words, not only in the surprised gasp and squeal she made, but the rest of her body.

Maybe his fangs wouldn't have scraped the inside of his mouth if he had thought about the jump she would make after being startled. And those short, blunt but undeniably hard nails that were trailing the end of one of his ears and with her surprise she had pinched hard

"Hey, my ear!" he yelped at the same time he opened his eyes and looked at her.

She was red as a tomato, and she became more flustered as she seemed to understand what he said.

"I hurt you? I'm sorry!" She looked at the ears she had been stroking and caressed it again. "I'm really sorry? Does it hurt? Of course it does!" her hands stopped and she gasped again. "I'm touching you again..."

Inuyasha made a dismissing noise in his throat and closed his eyes and flicked the pained ear. "S'not a bad feeling. Helps with the headache..." he mumbled.

"You have a headache?" she asked in a soft voice and his answer was another throaty noise.

"I guess that is to be expected because you breathed those fumes...for don't know how long"

Inuyasha remained motionless when he felt her hands return to his ear, rubbing in those small circles.

"Those fucking things seriously stink!" he opened one eye to give her an accusing glare. "You didn't say anything about fumes!"

Kagome scoffed but didn't stop her fingers. "I did tell you!"

"Ya didn't!" he argued closing his eyes with his brows low.

"I did! I wrote it in the list I left you!"

The hanyou scoffed again. "Of course you did! Everything was in that book you left me... you wanted me to read it all?"

"It wasn't that long, you're exaggerating!"

Without answering Inuyasha huffed and reached for his back pocket. Dramatically unfolded the three pages with writing on both sides.

"Exaggerating my ass! Look at this thing!" he complained.

"Come on!" she slapped his shoulder. "Even after reading that book-" she imitated his tone "-you did THAT."

"You think I read that shit?"

When Kagome's strokes stopped, Inuyasha knew he had gone too far and he started to blurt, "It was too much! I thought it was cool but it was too much! Maybe if it was shorter, but come on, Kagome! It had more than 70 points WITH notes."

His eyes found hers and he started to sweat. She didn't look angry. She looked sad, something in her expression expressed disappointment.

Inuyasha found himself feeling guilty for making her feel bad.

"Next time just make it shorter," he declared firmly, closing his eyes and crossing his arms on his chest. Making it stupidly obvious he wasn't going nowhere.

As he waited for her reaction, Inuyasha was incredibly thankful for the fact that she was only human and there was no way she could find out what was happening inside his head.

When Kagome's fingers went back to his head-on her own, not because he had been flicking his ears in turns until she massaged them again, of course- he finally started to relax again.

Silence installed between them. It was a curious type of silence, being at the same time comfortably warm and full with things he wanted to say but didn't know how.

"You want bread?" Kagome said in a soft, slightly hesitant tone.

Inuyasha opened his eyes again, focusing on her face at the same time his stomach made a noise. With a small chuckle Kagome handed him the package.

It took him longer to find the opening of the wrapper than to wolf down the rest of the bread.

"This bread is fucking good!" He said before licking the plastic.

"It's really good, yeah."

After he finished cleaning the package, his eyes found the window. The light from outside told him it was late afternoon. He had planned to finish the bathroom's business around noon. He was at least several hours late.

"I should fix the shit in the bathroom, right?"

Kagome brushed a strand of his silver hair as she answered, "I already cleaned it."

Inuyasha jumped off her lap and sat beside her with a confused frown. "You did?"

Kagome stared at his face trying to decide if the emotion behind the surprise was good or not. She didn't know the man enough to be sure that the wide eyes with lowered brows meant he was just surprised or he was angry. The only way to know was by giving him the opportunity to talk.

"Yes. After I pulled you here," she answered and winked at him playfully, "which was definitely more difficult than scrubbing the bathroom."

Inuyasha huffed kneeling beside her. "I can take care of my own fuck up! You didn't have to do that!"

Kagome's eyebrows went lower at the same time the man's volume and attitude went higher.

"Hey! I was just trying to stop us from suffocating here!" she had turned her torso in his direction as she spoke without raising her voice. "I mean, not wanting to end up in a hospital, how do I dare!"

Kagome saw the moment his shoulders slumped and his ears went lower, even if his tone didn't change as he talked. His eyes darted to the side and the rest of his body told her he didn't want to fight... at least she hoped.

"Keh! Whatever!" he spat before mumbling, "I still could've done it myself! I'm not a fucking pup."

Kagome's arm stretched out to reach his thigh but stopped midway thinking how it could be misinterpreted as if she was trying to baby him. "Hey! I know you could, it was just a thing of who could do it faster..."

Seeing how his ears perked and he gave her a quick side glance, Kagome got a little bolder.

"I mean you were out like a light... but if you have that much of a problem with not doing your share of chores... you can help with mine."

Inuyasha made some kind of approving sound in the back of his throat before turning to her and speaking in a challenging tone "I can do that shit!"

He shot to his feet looking around. "What do I do now?"

Kagome raised her hands and wiggled her fingers. "For starters, help me up."

And he did. He ignored her hands and reached down to take her shoulders and pulled her up with an ease that had her giggling and holding his arms not to stagger back.

"Ohh that was fast!"

He gave her a very smug smile with one of his fangs peeking out. He took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest, looking very pleased with himself.

"Now what?"

"Now..." she opened her lips to tell him that laundry needed to be done but remembered they hadn't had lunch yet. "We could grab something to eat."

Kagome had never seen him be in disagreement with getting food and this was not the exception. He nodded and walked to the door.

"Come on! Let's get food! I'll buy."

Kagome tried to keep her poker face on as he looked at her, first with a slight frown when she didn't move and then with narrowed eyes. Slowly his cheeks flushed under her stare.

"Bu-but this is because you did that! It's not a date or shit like that!"

Kagome guessed that it was important for him to make it clear because of his girlfriend. It was important for them, as roommates, to keep the boundaries clear and being friendly without a romantic undertone. But even like that it was fun to tease.

Kagome took her hand to her chest and declared with monotonous voice. "Understood. Not a date or shit like that, just a thank you lunch. Very clear. No room for confusion. You and me not dating. Got it."

"Good," he mumbled with a confused face.

The woman walked to the door, where she had thrown her purse when she came home. Picking it up she said, "Alright, hurry up. I'm getting hungry and I want to start our so-not-a-date soon."

"Whachu talking about? I'm ready."

Kagome pointed at herself. She was wearing a simple shirt and yoga pants. "I think that for a date this is good enough... But I feel a little overdressed to have a just-lunch with you, dogboy..." the sentence was left open as she pointed to the only article of clothing he was wearing: black boxers.

"Fuck! Wait here!" He mumbled more things on his way to his room, one of the things he said sounded suspiciously close to 'smart ass'.

She only repeated "I'll wait here."

-.-.-.-.-

Soon they were on their way to the best ramen shop he knew that didn't involve walking half an hour. It was not his usual go-to shop but the food was decent. Unfortunately, the owners were not.

"The owners are rude fuckers. Just ignore them and enjoy the food. They might be assholes but their ramen is really good."

Kagome nodded. "Understood. Keep calm, do not engage in fights with the rude owners and enjoy the food on this not-date," she said with a smile before looking back to the front.

It was making him uneasy how she kept repeating the this-is-not-a-date remark. He didn't know if he was supposed to be grateful or offended by the gleeful way she talked about it. The words had come out of his mouth that time because her amused eyes made him nervous and not knowing what was going on in her head and why she was almost laughing at him made him think it was a good thing to say.

Now he knew he was an idiot. She had been laughing at him because of his boxers.

"Hey! Don't worry about it. I'm sure we're gonna enjoy the food!" she nudged his side with another smile.

Before he knew it, she was talking, telling him the correct way to clean the bathroom, and he started defending his idea. It was not a bad one, just the execution sucked.

He opened the door of the restaurant and breathed in the delicious aroma of the ramen. The idiots really knew how to cook.

"Hey mutt, we don't serve scraps here, check in the alley!"

"Fuck you, Manten." he said with a bored voice as he waited for Kagome to follow him inside.

Together they walked to a table in the back. From the corner of his eyes he could see Kagome looking around the shop.

"Wachu think?" he asked when her eyes finally reached him again.

"It's cozy... I like it." The smile that accompanied her words made him feel at ease.

It was not like he really cared about what she thought about the place. He didn't even care about if she wanted to be there or not. He really didn't care! It was a good place to eat ramen even if she didn't think so.

Manten, the younger brother, walked towards them with a wicked smile on his ugly face. The man was still in his teens but his youth was only fuel for his stupidity.

"So, you got a girlfriend, dog." The man let out a barking and breathy laugh. "I always thought the one with the rat tail was your boyfriend."

Inuyasha just said, "He ain't that lucky. And she is just a friend. So fuck off, Manten. Just take the order."

The man muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "Fuck you, half breed," but he continued with a much louder, "I knew that she didn't look stupid enough to go out with you...What are you going to order?"

The youkai turned to Kagome, who was just staring at him with a frown. "I'd like you to be polite to your customers-"

Inuyasha's ears perked up and his eyes went wide as she said her request and became even more surprised as Manten visibly stopped moving as she spoke.

"-you are making me uncomfortable," she continued with that velvet-covered-iron voice she had.

Manten blushed under her stare, with his eyes averted and mumbling something that Inuyasha couldn't quite follow. Instead of turning to Inuyasha again or pressuring Kagome to make an order, Manten turned his huge body away and walked inside the kitchen.

Inuyasha had to contain a chuckle as he heard Manten asking his brother to take over his work because he couldn't deal with the woman outside. And he heard Hiten's refusal; it took them a couple of minutes before a visibly pissed off Hiten came through the kitchen door.

"What did you do to my little brother?" he asked looking directly to Inuyasha.

The hanyou was ready to tell him to piss off when Kagome spoke with that 'you will listen to me right now' tone she had.

"I just told him he was being rude and he was making me uncomfortable, Hiten. You really need to teach him manners."

Two things shocked Inuyasha at that moment: Kagome knew the asshole's name and said asshole seemed to be slightly ashamed.

"I know your mom didn't raise you like that. It's a shame that you let your brother be rude, and worse, being rude to your customers..."

Hiten, who had always had a caustic retort for everyone, stayed quiet. Not even offering an excuse for his brother's behavior.

A shout came from the kitchen, "You tell her, Brother! She ain't even pretty enough to get away with insulting me!"

Hiten's face change in a second, contorting in anger. He turned to the kitchen and a thin light came out of his hand flashing to the kitchen, from which a pained scream came.

Before Hiten could offer some kind of explanation for his behavior Kagome smiled at him, and with her chirpy voice she said, "I want to try your most delicious dish. Surprise me!"

Hiten nodded, turned to Inuyasha and asked if he wanted the usual, to which the hanyou only had the presence of mind to nod.

When Kagome turned that smile to him and looked at him expectantly, Inuyasha realized that he had slowly leaned away from the table until his back was in full contact with the back of his chair. He cleared his throat and made a big show as he stretched his back and arm to make it look more natural as he went back to his usual elbows-on-the -table posture.

As if she hadn't just reprimanded the owners of the place, Kagome looked around as she said, "I really want to taste their food!"

"I hope they don't put anything weird in it," he grumbled, only half-joking.

The fact that he could hear the brothers talking in the kitchen and Manten kept whining about his brother listening to a stupid woman as Hiten remained silent made him curious about the relationship between the elder brother and Kagome. Quickly he started to make his math in his head. Hiten was easily five years older than him, and he was older than Kagome... or at least he thought he was.

Without thinking it through he asked, "Oi, how old are you?"

Kagome raised her eyes from the menu that she had been inspecting with her brows arched. "Wh- oh! My age?" She smiled as if she found his question amusing. "Why? You want me to start using honorifics with you?"

Kagome closed her eyes and waved a finger in front of her face. "Quoting you, I have to say 'I ain't doing that shit'. you're my roommate and we are equals."

Inuyasha pushed the waving finger away as he huffed. "I don't want that kind of shit! Just asked a question. Answer the damned question, woman!"

Kagome raised two fingers in one hand and made an 'o' with her other one. "I'm twenty years old," she said with her smile still in place.

Inuyasha went back to his math work. She was two years younger than him, that meant at least seven years younger than Hiten. That meant they were not ex-some-kind-of-romantic-shit, right?

He opened his mouth to ask about that when she clicked her tongue. She was regarding him with a frown and a smile at the same time. And he had no idea what that meant. "Well~?" she asked with a voice slightly higher than usual.

"Well, what?"

She huffed, "How old are you?"

Inuyasha felt his cheeks tingle. "I'm twenty-two."

He reclined back on his chair and crossed his arms over his chest waiting for her questions about why he was still taking fifth semester classes it he was supposed to be already finished with it. But the questions never came. She had stared at him with that weird expression that made him think she knew what he was trying not to tell her. The silence that followed was something weird for Inuyasha. Usually he was the one that refused to talk to the others or the one that ended conversations via grumbling or growling.

The silences went on as Inuyasha tried to find a way to ask her about her relationship with Hiten without making it weird.

Inuyasha was going to try a simple 'How you know the asshole?' question when Miroku's voice sounded in his head.

"A good way to let a woman know you want to bed her is to ask her about herself, maybe about other guys... that way she knows you want her."

He wanted to curse. He was not trying to... to do that with Kagome. She was his roommate and she was his friend. It was only curiosity because of the weird reactions the brothers had to her! It was not because he felt attracted to her!

He was going to ask her in a way that she didn't think was flirting!

Kagome stared at her roommate for a few seconds before she kept admiring the small shop. She had realized how uncomfortable he had felt during her conversation with Hiten and Manten and had expected him to ask as soon as they left, but instead he had started to glare at her in intervals, mumbling something she couldn't understand when his eyes weren't on her.

Mentally shrugging, Kagome decided he would talk when he wanted to talk and she focused on the delicious scents coming from the kitchen.

"So!" he started, making her jump with the tone that was almost a shout. "You know-"

His words were interrupted by the brothers coming from the kitchen.

"The food is here!" she announced when they placed it in the table.

"For the mutt, the usual non-spicy, double noodle serving pork ramen. For Kagome, the seafood miso ramen."

Kagome smelled the food and hummed. "It smells delicious, thank you."

With a nod, the brothers went back to the kitchen without another word. She knew what was going to happen next, and she narrated inside her head.

First, the smell-smell routine. Head close to the plate and taking small and rapid sniffs, inspecting the scents. Kagome wondered if his sense of smell was better than a dog's but had never asked him because any mention of his youkai half made him angry. The second thing was the chopstick work. He would stab the plate a couple of times, then make a couple of circular motion to end up picking a big chunk of food and lift it to his face. Then in a very quick motion he would take most of what was in the air in one mouthful. Sometimes chewing a couple of times, sometimes just biting and swallowing.

After he gulped down the first mouthful and made a contentment noise, Kagome knew he had liked it. Without wasting another moment, she started with her own routine.

She was not even halfway through her ramen when she started to feel eyes on her, which was weird because once her hanyou friend had food in front of him, everything else faded into the background. Kagome looked up and found his golden eyes focused on her.

The first thing she did was point at her ramen and ask if he wanted some. His "nah" hit her as weird, he never refused any kind of food, ever.

"What's wrong?" she asked with her brows arched.

"Nuthin," he said quickly.

Shrugging again, she kept eating her food. A few moments later his voice distracted her again.

"So... you know Hiten's family."

Even if it was not formulated as a question, something in his tone made her think he was expecting an answer and Kagome nodded without looking at him, too busy fishing a crab leg from the broth. "Yep, I know them."

"So..." he started again with the same strangely neutral voice, " you knew his mom."

Kagome swallowed another mouthful of ramen and nodded. "I knew her for a long time before she passed away."

For some reason Inuyasha looked angry, and Kagome wondered what could have made him angry in the last five minutes. When he started to speak again he was glaring at her.

"And how did you meet her?"

Kagome studied him. His brows were furrowed and his ears were turned in a way that reminded her of a dog in a threatening position. Did he think that it was dangerous for her to be friends with the brothers? Was he angry because she said something to Manten?

Tilting her head, she explained, "She was my fourth-grade teacher."

Inuyasha scoffed, "That doesn't explain how you know Hiten and Manten, stupid!"

His tone rubbed her in a wrong way and she answered with a loud exasperated tone, "You didn't ask how I knew them! Stupid!"

His eyes widened and he remained immobile for a moment before a bright pink covered his cheeks and his eyes drifted to the side.

"If you had ASKED," she started with a slightly softer tone, "I would have told you that she was the reason why I wanted to study to be a teacher, so I went back when I was in high school to ask for advice... but she was already sick and I started to visit her at home, where I met Hiten, Manten and their little sister Souten. Happy?"

Inuyasha had stopped moving, with his ears draped on his head and his eyes staring at his empty bowl. And as she suspected, his expression promptly transformed into a scowl and he shared an eloquent "keh!"

He remained quiet as she finished her food, with his eyes looking at everything around but her. Kagome wasn't sure if he was embarrassed or just sulking. But if she had learned something in the few weeks they had been living together, it was that if you wanted him to say something the best strategy was to stay silent until he said something.

He kept his words to the minimum as he paid for the food and they walked out of the restaurant, even when she thanked him for the food. Besides a short, "Yeah, whatever. I owed you," there was nothing.

They were a couple of blocks away from their apartment, walking side by side, when Inuyasha nudged her shoulder. He had his arms crossed over his chest and his face looked up with his ears twitching nervously. He nudged her again with his shoulder.

"What?" she asked with a chuckle.

"You wanna grab ice cream."

Again, it was not said as a question but his eyes drifted to her face for a moment and his twitchy ears perked and pointed at her.

Kagome blinked at him a little confused. "I like ice cream, but you don't owe me food anymore."

He turned to her with a glare, but his voice was surprisingly soft. "Fuck that! You want ice cream or not?"

She raised her hands in surrender, "Alright, we're getting ice cream."

"Come on, I know a place," he said with a smile. "I'm gonna get us some ice cream".

Kagome smiled at his back. Every day she found another reason to smile when she was around him. Yesterday was the way he would use his leg to scratch his ears while playing video games. Today it was the roundabout way he apologized.

As she watched him wolf down his third ice cream cone, she knew that being his friend was always going to be some kind of adventure.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The obnoxious sound of a fist repeatedly hitting his door woke him up. It was the only school day he didn't have to wake up early and he never, ever, set an alarm because of it.

With a series of "fucks" and "inconsiderate people" he walked to the door, noticing Kagome's room was open and she had already left for school. He growled low when he reached the door. Before opening it, an idea flashed in his head. The stupid pervert was still not allowed to visit, so maybe this was his payback.

"I swear, Miroku, if this is one of your stupid ways to fuck up my day-" He unlocked the door and turned the knob "-I'll fucking-" he swung the door open, "Gut... you-u-u..." his voice fade to silence and he froze.

"That certainly doesn't sound like fun for this Miroku," a gentle voice commented.

Inuyasha knew he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but just by looking at the small woman in front of him, he knew who she was.

Her face resembled Kagome, the soft smile was almost identical too. But it was the bright, grey eyes that screamed this woman was Kagome's mother.

"May I come in, dear? These are a little heavy," she raised the grocery bags and without thinking Inuyasha reached for them.

The woman happily handed them over and the next thing he knew was that the woman's hands were on his ears. SHE WAS MASSAGING HIS EARS!

Inuyasha could feel his face getting hotter but he wasn't sure if it was because he was outraged or because he was actually enjoying it. Did her family have some kind of special power when it came to massaging ears?

"I'm sorry, dear, but you have the cutest ears I have ever seen!" she gave him a little pat in his arm and walked inside.

Inuyasha's bewilderment only grew when the woman walked directly to the kitchen and said, "You look like you haven't had breakfast. I'm going to make some for you, come and sit down, dear."

As he walked to the closest chair to her, Inuyasha didn't know why he could only picture a man swimming into the ocean pulled into the deep by invisible currents, but strange enough he was not afraid.

To be continued...

N/A:

Hello!

I know it has been too long, more than a year since I updated this story and I'm very sorry! I'm trying to work faster and not taking this long to publish the next chapter.

This chapter is where we see Inuyasha trying to be the best version of himself in a very Inuyasha-way. And we see Kagome's mom do what she did the firs time she I hope this chapter was worth the wait.

Thank you so much for reading, also thank you for liking and leaving a review.

Love,

Nanna