sorry, a small chapter, mostly dialogue and some more background. The next one is better, I promise!!

still Inu POV

Chapter 2

Sango Taijya walked into the room still cursing under her breath. Not that that was in any way out of the ordinary....

"Inuyasha, maybe you can clear things up for me...Tell me again why the fuck I'm here?"

"Because you have a filthy mouth and no one else will hire you." I said not even looking up at her. She stepped beside me to help with the dishes.

"Seriously, what's wrong with the whole damn family today? Did someone die? Miroku hasn't even touched me."

I snickered at that. Miroku NOT groping or flirting with Sango in any way? My little outburst must've had more effect than I had thought. The guy was a pervert and has yet to learn to keep his hands to himself. Mushin was much the same when he was Miroku's age. `Let us all pray Shippo at least doesn't follow in his dad's footsteps.'

"No no one died. I got pissed and yelled at them."

"Why? Did he grope you?"

"No, if he'd done that, we'd be cleaning more than dishes right now." She chuckled lightly. I always felt more at ease around Sango. Still I hoped she wouldn't pry any further.

"So what did happen?"

`oh well...'

"I um...just talked to a girl today..." She froze and I could see her staring at me incredulously out of the corner of my eye. I mentally groaned, but then the trait I love best about her kicked in and she continued scrubbing.

In her classic disinterested tone, she asked.

"Oh yeah? So what's the big deal?"

This was Sango's way of getting information. She would play all "I don't really care, but if you wanna talk about it, by all means...". It never failed on me, even though I knew when she was pulling it. At least she genuinely tried not to embarrass me.

"Well you know me and that harem of women I keep in the back storeroom...."

"Ooo, Someone's sarcastic a little earlier than usual!" She mused.

"Yeah...It's just... you know how they get. They acted like a plague of locusts was more likely than me talking to a chick. It's not bad enough that I'm 21 and I can't find a girl who isn't offended by me within the first two minutes. But when they have to bombard me with questions and stupid quips when I happen to casually meet someone."

"Hmmmm..."

I glanced at her. She had kind of a frown, as if she were thinking of how to word what she would say next.

"Hmmmm, what? What are you thinking?"

"Well. Inu, sweetheart, you know I adore ya and all. But well.. you can't really blame them for being so surprised."

"WHAT?" I asked dropping a pan into the steel sink. She winced at the loud clang of metal against metal.

"Jeez, calm down ok?"

"Calm down?! You're supposed to be on my side! You're always on my side! Why not now?"

"Because you're a fucking smart ass! Look, I like the way you are, and I personally wouldn't change you for the world. Unfortunately, you and I aren't going to fall in love anytime soon. " She physically shuddered to add emphasis. "So you need to understand that the way you talk and the way you act-well you're not exactly the charmer all the other girls are looking for. I mean, Shit Inu! Girls don't like it when you make fun of them! We....well they're very sensitive, and if you ever wanna get laid you're gonna have to tone down the attitude."

"I'm not looking to get laid Sango," I muttered.

"Well what the hell is wrong with ya?" she joked. I didn't laugh. She sighed and spoke a little more seriously.

"Look, Inu. I know it's hard on you. Your life hasn't exactly been easy. To be honest, it still isn't. I understand all the pressure you're constantly under. And all of that has made you very strong, yes, but it's also made you very hard-hearted. And it's also made you very alone."

"Look I'm not depress-"

"I didn't say you were. I'm just saying I know what it's like not having anybody. You have friends Inuyasha. That you can always be sure of. But friends just aren't enough. We all need somebody to love, and need somebody to love us. It's in our nature, and we can fight it but we can't deny it."

We finally finished and I handed her a towel to dry her hands, wiping my own when she was done.

"So I'm an asshole, ok? Then there's gotta be a real bitch out there somewhere looking for a guy like me. It's only logical."

"Love isn't logical. It doesn't follow any kind of rules. It just exists and we have to deal with it at our own pace, in our own way."

"Someday you'll have your own talk show."

I grabbed an armful of fresh tablecloths and walked out to the dining area. She followed behind with a box of napkins and silverware. We started place setting the tables. After a moment of comfortable silence.

"So tell me what happened today. If you want to, I mean." Ah, classic Sango.

"I was at the bus stop and this girl just came walking up and started staring at me. So I stared back-"

"As is the polite thing to do in such a situation." she quipped.

"Right, that's what I thought. So I noticed she didn't have an umbrella and the rain was really just starting to come down, so I offered to share mine with her."

"As actually IS the polite thing to do in such a situation."

"Then I told her she looked like a drowned rat."

She rolled her eyes.

"Figures. So what'd she say to that?"

"I was waiting for her to stomp off or kick me in the shins or something. But she just said something back about me being `a real catch'."

She nodded for me to continue.

"So you know, I had to say something back. Then she just interrupted me and told me her name."

She stopped setting the table to look at me. She blinked surprised. She had the same look I'm sure I had had

"Exactly what I did." I said laughing. .

"Wow. that was unexpected. Now did she actually look like a drowned rat?"

I laughed and shook my head.

"No....no quite the opposite. She was really...wow." My voice kinda trailed off as I pictured her again. Every time I thought about it, I would realize just how beautiful this Kagome really was. Sango gave me a quick nudge to the ribs to get me talking again. I let my bangs hide the slight blush on my face for my lapse in attention.

I gave her a quick run through of what happened after that. She raised her eyebrows at every other word. The smile on her face alone told me that she was impressed.

"So where's your umbrella now?" Miroku asked from behind us. I jumped and Sango dropped the box of utensils.

"Shit, don't do that!" She yelled. I stayed quiet and went back to work, hoping they would argue and forget about his question. But no such luck.

"Well I couldn't help but over hear and I thought to myself `Self? Didn't Inuyasha walk in here soaking wet, sans aforementioned Umbrella of Love?'"

Noticing my silence, Sango turned to me and raised her eyebrow again.

"Well?" I set the last table and turned to face them sighing in defeat. They weren't going to give it up.

"Well she didn't have one in the first place, and I mean that campus is fucking huge, so I thought I'd just let her borrow it for the day. I mean she said she'd be back at the stop tomorrow at the same time. It's not that big of a deal." They nodded and exchanged looks with each other. Miroku looked down at his hands as he smoothed his apron.

"Inuyasha?"

"What?"

"That red umbrella.. Isn't that your fathers?"

tbc..

AN: Not a cliffy, but not a great place to end the chapter, I know. To explain, you have to understand that Shiori, Inu's mom, is extremely depressed ala her husband's disappearance. The umbrella being his father's plays into that. Imagine how she would react if he never got his father's possession back...hope that helps a little. It's explained better in a soon to come chapter. How did Miroku know it was that particular umbrellla...I don't know...ask him!