InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Easy as 1, 2, 3... ❯ All Work and no Play... ( Chapter 20 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, and that really isn't him chasing my cat around the house! It's just a figment of my imagination.

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Easy as 1, 2, 3…

Chapter Twenty

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"The things I do for that wench and her family!" Inuyasha muttered to himself. Each word was punctuated by the sound of a hammer as the irritated hanyou pounded a nail into the roof of the shrine. He had been suckered into fixing it by Kagome's mother, who had given him a guilt trip when he tried to go after Kagome that morning. Inuyasha was now completely convinced that Mrs. Higurashi was out to get him.

Moving on to the next nail, he continued his small bout of ranting. "How am I gonna get Kagome alone to talk if I'm busy being her mother's work horse? You'd think I was a lowly horse demon and not the son of a great demon!' A deep frown marred his face. 'Who does she think she is, telling me what to do? I should just forget this and go look for Kagome."

"Oh, Inuyasha dear!"Mrs. Higurashi called from the ground below. "When you're done with that, I need you to sweep outside today since Kagome seems to have vanished!"

"But that's her job!" He complained, just like a little kid being forced to do his sibling's chores. "Why can't you make her do it when she gets back?"

Mrs. Higurashi rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose you could give Buyo a bath instead. He got into the trash again this morning and smells awful! I was going to have Kagome do it, but you can if you would like."

For a moment Inuyasha was actually tempted, but his vivid imagination took over. He could see it now, trying to catch the cat to give him the bath, and Kagome showing up just in time to accuse him of chasing the cat like a real dog would! Then she would kick his butt out of the house, and he would be teased about it for the rest of his long life. NOT an option!

"I'll sweep." He announced gruffly.

"Oh, good!" Mrs. Higurashi clapped and smiled at him. "I'll call you when it's time for lunch, so work hard!" Kagome's mother walked back to the house and left him alone to wallow in his misery.

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Miroku finished the long climb up the shrine steps, just in time to see Inuyasha throw something off the roof where he was working and heard him curse loudly. The amused bodyguard had to hide a smile as he approached the angry dog demon.

"I see Lady Kagome finally found a use for you!" He called up to Inuyasha. "I guess this means you won't be coming home for a while!"

At first Inuyasha was surprised to hear his friend's voice, but that quickly turned to annoyance. "What are you doing here? Did my lying bastard of a brother tell you where to find me?" He looked down and gave Miroku a glare that that would have sent a cold chill of fear down a normal person's spine.

Miroku sighed and shook his head in disbelief. "Do you honestly think anyone had to tell me where to find you? Even the cook knows you so well that she told me to tell Kagome hello before I left. EVERYONE knows where you went!"

Inuyasha groaned loudly, knowing without a doubt that Miroku was probably telling the truth. And after he'd taken the time to bribe Sesshoumaru to keep him quiet!

The dark-haired man smiled up at his friend in amusement. "When I was told to come here by your mother, I was truly hoping to catch you in a compromising position. Even though this isn't exactly what I had in mind, it's much more shocking! The great Inuyasha, doing real work! Wait until I tell your brother!"

Inuyasha growled and lifted his hammer up in a threatening manner, causing Miroku to back up a bit and watch the other man warily. "You do and I promise you'll regret it!"

Deciding he'd better quickly explain his presence, Miroku held one hand up in a placating gesture. "Calm down! Don't you want to know why I'm here?"

"Make it quick!"

Miroku held up a small black duffel bag that he had been holding in his other hand, and pointed to it. "Your mother sent you clothes and clean underwear!" He almost laughed out loud at Inuyasha's dumbfounded look. "She decided you weren't stupid enough to actually kidnap Lady Kagome again, so she concluded you would probably be staying a while and would need this, so she sent me with it."

Inuyasha wasn't sure if he was relieved to have the clean clothes, or annoyed that people could read him so easily. In the end he settled on his usual "Keh!" and went back to work without another word to Miroku.

Unhappy at not getting a more interesting reaction out of Inuyasha, Miroku decided to try another tactic. Very few people were brave enough to try and provoke the temperamental dog demon intentionally, but Miroku did it quite often for fun!

"Your father sent along something for you as well." Miroku stopped to pull an item from the bag. "I believe they are identical to the boxers Lady Rumiko bought him for his birthday. (HA! Probably the same pair, just trying to get rid of them) He said the smiley faces would at least get Lady Kagome's attention and perhaps turn her on, since she likes sleeping in cute little kitty cat pajamas." He smirked, waiting for the reaction that was sure to come.

Inuyasha's left eyebrow had developed a tic during Miroku's little speech, and his hand slowly tightened on his hammer as he willed himself not to kill the man below him. Hurt him, yes, but not kill him. Even if he DID deserve it for commenting about Kagome's choice of clothes like that…

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"Hello Lady Kagome, how are you?" Miroku called from the shrine steps, him heading down while she was heading up. One hand was holding an ice pack to a large lump on his head, and the other waved at her cheerfully. Slung over one of his shoulders was a piece of white cloth with little yellow smiley faces printed on it.

'Do I even want to know what he did to deserve that?' Kagome wondered to herself, suppressing a groan. 'Please God, tell me he didn't actually grope my mother! And are those actually BOXERS hanging on his shoulder?'

But instead of voicing any of her suspicions out loud, Kagome just smiled at him warily and kept a safe distance from his hands, expressing her concern over his heath.

"What did you do this time?"

Yep, she sounded really concerned for his well being.

Miroku gave her a hurt expression. "Why Lady Kagome, I'm shocked that you would think such a thing of me! All that happened was that I was talking to Inuyasha, and he-"

"NO!" Kagome broke in. "I know your perverted mind! If it involves him then I'm probably involved as well, so I don't want to know or I might be tempted to hurt you too."

Miroku laughed nervously at her much too accurate reasoning and hastily bid her farewell before heading to his car, which was parked at the bottom of the shrine steps. Kagome sighed in relief and jogged up the stairs without looking back.

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Reaching the top of the stairs after a pretty long walk up, Kagome looked around for Inuyasha. Her mother had most likely put him to work just like Kagome hoped she would. If anything could run the stubborn hanyou off, someone trying to boss him around and make him work hard would do the trick!

The poor girl had to stop and blink, convinced she must have been seeing things! Far off to her right, Kagome saw Inuyasha sweeping in front of the shrine building, looking completely at home! Well, sort of, if you didn't count the annoyed expression on his face.

'He actually stuck around and put up with my mother and maybe even my grandfather telling him what to do? Even I run off every chance I get, so what would cause him to stay here and put up with it?'

Kagome stood still and watched him as he swept the stone path, the very ill-humored look still plastered on his face. She giggled when Sota ran across the already clean section of the path and he threatened the small boy with the broom.

'He's starting to act like Grandpa or something. It's kind of scary, but funny too! Just as long as he doesn't start chasing people with demon wards.' Kagome's eyes narrowed when she spotted some movement behind Inuyasha. 'Hey, wait a minute…is that Grandpa?'

Inuyasha's white, fuzzy ears flickered backwards, a sure sign that he heard the old man trying to sneak around behind him. But he didn't stop sweeping and just ignored Kagome's grandfather, even when the small man yelled and plastered a demon ward to Inuyasha's back. Kagome had to work hard to stifle her laughter before Inuyasha heard her.

With a flick of his claws, Inuyasha reached around and plucked the little piece of paper off his back as if it were nothing more than a flea or some other small, unimportant insect. Not bothering to even look at it, he crumpled it up and tossed it in the pile of swept-up debris.

Kagome smiled as she watched her grandfather rant and rave behind Inuyasha, while the hanyou just growled and ignored him. It was obvious he'd love to do something about what was annoying him, but he also looked determined not to let it bother him.

'It's like he's going out of his way to be nice to my family, but why?' A small, hurt frown appeared on her face. 'Is having a miko that important to him? If that's the case then he can go crawl back under whatever rock he came from!'

Her furious thoughts suddenly stopped when she noticed Inuyasha was alone now, and he wasn't acting nearly as grumpy as he had been a moment ago. There was a slight smile on his face, and he seemed to be lost in his thoughts.

Kagome blushed, finding that look on his face to be more than a little attractive. 'Maybe it isn't just because he wants a miko. Is it possible he's thinking about me when he looks like that?' She bit her lip. 'And would it really be so risky to let myself hope a little again? Maybe he isn't going to break my heart after all. I should talk to him…'

Steeling her determination, Kagome moved away from the shrine steps and headed towards Inuyasha. She made it about halfway to him when he finally snapped out of his thoughts and focused on her.

'Kagome's back, and she doesn't look upset anymore!' A strong feeling of hope started to build in his chest. 'Maybe she'll talk to me now. I hope no one interrupts us this time or I swear I'll rip them to shreds, Kagome's family or not!'

When she was standing a few feet away from him, he cleared his throat nervously. "Do you, ah, wanna talk now?"

Kagome's blue eyes watched him seriously, trying to decide exactly what she should do. 'Do I talk to him now, or wait a little longer? I'm not sure I'm ready yet…'

Inuyasha waited patiently for her answer with an anxious, hopeful gaze.

"No."

His heart sunk, and he stared at her with the hurt written plainly across his face. "Kagome, why won't you-"

"I said I'm not ready to talk, but that doesn't mean I won't later." She offered him a small smile. "Just give me some time Inuyasha, because I really need to think about this."

He sighed in resignation, and gave her a weak smile in return. 'At least she seems to be giving me a chance. I guess I've got to remember that I may have been waiting for this for a long time, but she's only seventeen. Most girls her age just date for fun and aren't looking to get married for a while yet.'

Turning to go back to his sweeping, he completely missed her sudden movement when she shot forward and planted a small, quick kiss on his cheek.

"Wha-" He stared at her, stunned. "What was that for?"

She gave him a wide-eyed, innocent look. "For not killing my grandfather a little while ago of course. I would have."

He grinned like an idiot when she turned and headed back to her house, happier than he'd been in days. 'It's amazing what a kiss from the girl you love can do. Accckkk, what am I thinking, getting all sappy! I need to get back to work!'

But no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't wipe that goofy smile from his face.

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I hope you guys liked the chapter! Things are getting somewhere now at least! ^_^