Disclaimer: I own neither Inuyasha nor Kekkai Sensen and make no money from these writings.

A Little Too Not Over You

Chapter One

Things had been slow lately (for Hellsalem's Lot, anyway), so Libra was having one of their parties at their headquarters. It was always a good chance for all of the members to get together, catch up, unwind, and just have some fun. Leo had been to a few of these since joining the secret organization, and he was finally starting to get comfortable enough to feel like he belonged there. That being said, he still wasn't a big party kind of guy. It was probably why he stuck close to Klaus at these sorts of things. It was always a little quieter around the big guy.

Others in their little sitting circle were chatting about this and that, and Leo was pretty much content to people watch, taking a few pictures now and then. He was distantly listening to K.K. telling Klaus about her son's latest hobby and scanning the room with his camera for a good shot. That was when he spotted Zapp talking to a woman at the party's makeshift bar. His finger pressed the camera's button before he even thought about what he was doing.

Tilting the camera down so that he could look through the gallery and find the picture he'd just taken, Leo stared at the captured scene for a moment. Everyone at the party was a Libra member, but he hadn't met this woman yet. But what was really strange was how she and Zapp seemed to be interacting with each other.

Zapp was a notorious ladies man and womanizer. He was hotheaded. He was often rude and crass. Leo had only ever seen him fight or flirt with women. But there, with that one, he looked almost...relaxed. And it was weird. He wasn't scowling or trying to look cool. He looked like someone Leo didn't even know.

Looking back up at the scene in realtime, Leo watched as as Zapp and the woman talked before she started laughing while Zapp looked all too pleased with whatever he'd said. "Mr. Klaus," Leo said to get his boss's attention. "Who's that?"

Klaus looked in the direction Leo was indicating before he answered, "That is Kagome Higurashi."

Leaning across Klaus to look at Leo, K.K. added, "She's been part of Libra a couple of years longer than you, but she's been out in the field a lot."

"She and Mr. Zapp look like they know each other pretty well," Leo observed as they continued to talk and laugh with each other with little touches that were clearly more friendly than flirty.

"Ohhh, well about that," K.K. drawled out before taking another sip from her drink. "They actually used to date, but that was a long time ago."

"What?!" Leo shouted as he rounded his full attention to K.K.. Realizing his outburst, he quieted down before quickly amending, "What I mean is that, uh...she doesn't...um, she doesn't really look like the kind of women I see Mr. Zapp with."

"That's because she's not," K.K. laughed. "They dated for a few weeks after she first joined Libra. The idiot can actually be charming when he wants to be. Things went pretty well until she found out about his other girlfriends. Dumped him flat after that. It was a real scene, too! Right in public and everything."

Leo watched Kagome and Zapp again and still couldn't wrap his mind around it. They just didn't look or act like a couple of exes. "Seems like they got over it pretty well."

"Oh, sure, now," K.K. scoffed. "You should have seen them after they first broke up. They couldn't even be in the same room together. Kagome wouldn't look or speak to the guy, and that only pissed Zapp off since he thought she was overreacting. They were always at each other's throats until this one job they got stuck doing together. Nobody knows what happened while they were gone, but they both came back beaten bloody, black, and blue, leaning on each other just to stand up and all smiles. They've been like best friends ever since."

Leo looked skeptical at the story as he asked, "And nobody knows what happened? That seems a little strange."

"To be fair, they're a little strange," K.K. told him. "But some people probably know what happened," she indicated by tilting her head pointedly in Klaus's direction.

Sliding his eyes over to his quiet boss, Leo asked, "Mr. Klaus, do you know what happened to make Ms. Kagome and Mr. Zapp talk to each other again."

Klaus nodded as he answered, "It was in the report they turned in at the end of their mission." And that was that.

Deflating a little at the answer but still too nervous to press for more, Leo went back to watching Zapp and Kagome. They really did seem to be good friends. He couldn't help but wonder what had happened then and what exactly their relationship was like now.

Zapp was telling Kagome about what things had been like being partnered with Leo while she was off on her own jobs, and he couldn't help but grin at the way she laughed at his goofy stories.

Wiping a tear from her eye as she got her laughter and breathing under control, Kagome sighed and said, "He sounds like a good kid."

"A good pain in the ass, more like," Zapp corrected with a smirk as he took a long drink from his glass.

Kagome gave him a knowing look and shook her head. "Please. You like him. I can tell."

Snorting at the comment but not disagreeing, Zapp told her, "I liked going on jobs with you better. We should see if there's something for the two of us to do."

"Why?" Kagome asked. "Got something so big you need to get off your chest that we need to beat each other senseless again?"

"Hey!" He snapped but couldn't keep the smile off his face as he pointed at her. "You did most of the beating, lady. I hit you once. On accident."

"I've never believed that," Kagome laughed. "That punch was too well placed to have been an accident."

"Yeah, well…" Zapp looked off to the side before mumbling into his glass, "You can't prove it."

Bursting into laughter again, Kagome covered Zapp's hand with her own and gave it a firm squeeze. "I guess it doesn't matter now," she giggled. "It all worked out in the end."

As Kagome started talking about one of her latest jobs, Zapp got lost in his own thoughts (though he was very careful to at least look like he was paying attention so that he wouldn't face her wrath). They really had come a long way together.

Sure, he thought she was hot at first (still did, actually), but he wasn't much interested beyond getting her pants off. Then she'd found out about the other girls he was seeing and all hell had broken loose. Really. It had been awful. Apparently, she had a history or something about it and wasn't about to be very forgiving. She probably would have purified him if she could have. Too bad for her he was human. And it wasn't that she didn't try, either. He hadn't been able to use his blood fighting style for a month. It had been a rough month.

They didn't talk to each other for at least a year, and they'd both thrown fits when assigned to the same job. But they'd sucked it up and gone and taken care of it like the professionals they were. Things only went to hell again after the job was finished.

He couldn't even remember what he said now, but Zapp had definitely set her off and she took a swing at him. Things had devolved from there into an all out brawl between the two of them. Lots of shouting and swearing and punching until they were both sore and beaten and hoarse. But they'd managed to get a lot of their grievances with one another out in the open and then talk it out as they were both laid out on the ground afterwards. For whatever reason, things had been peachy ever since.

After all of that, Zapp was able to get to know Kagome as a person for her personality rather than for her body. And it turned out that he liked her. Really liked her. She was funny and fun to be around. She had a quick wit and a sharp tongue and wasn't afraid to give back what she got when he decided to tease or pick fights. She was the first woman he'd ever really been friends with, and at some point he stopped thinking of her as a woman. She was just Kagome, someone he worked with during the day and hung out with at night.

At least...that's what he tried to tell himself.

"Hello, Kagome. It's good to see you back in the office," Steven said as he approached them.

Steven. Zapp kept himself from scowling at the other man, but he certainly wasn't smiling anymore. He never really had a problem with Steven before. He was an alright guy. Good to have around in a fight or if you had a problem you couldn't take care of on your own. But Steven had been rubbing him the wrong way lately.

Zapp watched Kagome and Steven talk and exchange a few pleasantries, doing his best to wait until the other man left and he had Kagome's attention to himself once more. As much as he might like Steven, he didn't like the way Kagome smiled at the guy. He didn't like the way she laughed at his stupid jokes. He didn't like the way she seemed so comfortable around him. And he didn't like the way Stevens hand was touching her lower back.

With gritted teeth, Zapp tightened his grip on his glass in an attempt to keep from reaching out and separating the two. Unfortunately, his grip got a little too tight and it wasn't long before the glass shattered in his palm. "Shit!"

"Zapp!" Kagome gasped as she turned back to him at his loud swear. "What happened?! Here, let's put something on that and find a sink to clean you up." Reaching for a cloth lying on the bar, Kagome pressed it firmly into his hand and took him by the wrist to lead him away.

Despite the burning pain in his palm, Zapp was a little happy that Kagome had left Steven so readily to help him. After all, Kagome was his friend.

Kagome was his friend.

Right?